History of Jefferson County, New York, with illustrations and biographical sketches of some of its prominent men and pioneers, Part 3

Author: Durant, Samuel W; Peirce, H. B. (Henry B.)
Publication date: 1878
Publisher: Philadelphia : L.H. Everts & Co.
Number of Pages: 862

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CAVERNS IN THE BLACK RIVER LIMESTONE.

It is this formation that contains the caverns of Water- town, Pamelia, and Brownville, concerning which many fabulous aeeounts have been told. We have endeavored to obtain authentic information on this subject by a personal examination.

In Pamelia, opposite the village of Watertown, and in the immediate vicinity of the cascade, is a cavern that has attained quite a notoriety, and will amply repay the eurious visitor who may undertake to explore it. It was discovered in the spring of 1822, and for a short time was exhibited for pay. The opening is in a natural depression, and by a sloping passage leads to a chamber about twenty feet below the surface, from which avenues lead in various diree- tions, frequently communicating with each other, and form- ing a labyrinth of much intricacy. When first observed, it was beautifully adorned with curtains and drapery of lime, deposited from the ceaseless dripping of water charged with that mineral. In some of the remote chambers and avenues, these deposits, of dazzling whiteness, still exist in great profusion, but the wanton depredations of visitors have done much towards destroying those that occurred in the more frequented part of the cavern. In numerous instances huge tables of rock have fallen from the roof, allowing a passage both above and below them. The pendent masses are usually flat, with their sides waved and edges serrated, and the surface below them is often beautifully formed into basins and cells, usually filled with limpid water. Occa- sionally the masses from above, meeting those from below, form pillars of great size. Slight dams of tufa are of frequent occurrence, forming shallow pools of water and lime-sediment. Altogether, from its convenience of access, safety, and beauty, this place is well worthy of attention.

# Palæontology of New York, i. 38.

+ Report of Professor Emmons on the Geology of the 2d District, p. 382.

# Phytopsis cellulosum.

HISTORY OF JEFFERSON COUNTY, NEW YORK.

Conflicting accounts existing in relation to the extent of this cavern, the author, in company with a friend, explored it, with a view of aseertaining this point, and was only able to penetrate about seventy fathoms from the chamber at the foot of the outlet. The temperature of the water in June was 43º, and in winter it never freezes. It probably varies but little with external changes.

On the north bank of Black river, opposite Factory village, in Watertown, are several eaves of limited extent, which offer no calcareous inerustations of interest. The principal of these opens at its two ends upon the river bank. They are chiefly interesting from the evidence they furnish of having been formed by water running along the natural seams in the rocks.

On the south bank of the river, in Watertown village, and under the termination of Jackson street, is the en- tranee of a cave, which was first explored in the summer of 1838, and is said to have been traced nearly five hun- dred fcet. It affords calcareous eoneretions of a peculiar variety, externally resembling pisolite, and formed by the agglutination of spheroidal granules of earbonate of lime. It is known as the ice cave, from the oecurrenee of iee in the summer months, which almost obstruets its passages. Towards autumn the roeks above' become warmed, and the iee melts, nor does the freezing process beeome established till near spring. From the slow transmission of heat the seasons thus become reversed in this cavern. A current of cold air issues from over this mass of subterranean iee, which, when the air is warm and damp, becomes a dense fog. When the temperature in the shade was 92°, that at the mouth of this eave has been notieed to be 32º.

In the town of Watertown, near the bank of the river, and about a mile from the village of Brownville, there oeeurs in a wood a sunken place, around and in the viein- ity of which are numerous avenues, leading under ground, and communicating with cach other by innumerable passages. Almost every natural seam in the rock has been widened into a spaee large enough to admit of the passage of a man, and sometimes opening into wide and lofty halls, of which several are found radiating from a central point. The form of these subterranean vaults is that of the Gothie arch, springing from the floor, and forming an acute angle above. The extreme distanee that this cave can be traecd is less than thirty rods. It affords no calcareous deposits of interest, and its only peculiarity consists in the numer- ous projeeting masses of flint on the walls, which have re- sisted the decomposing action to which the rock has yielded. The floor of the eave is generally covered with mud or water.

On the west bank of Pereh river, near the village of Limcriek, is a eavern, which, after passing twenty-four yards, opens into an external passage, from whence, de- scending to a level about thirty feet below the surfaec, it proceeds sixty-three yards farther, through a passage in some places quite lofty and flat-roofed, to a low horizontal chamber, beyond which, by creeping, one can proceed to a distance of one hundred and fifty-four yards from the en- trance to the extremity. It differs from all the others above deseribed in having no lateral passages, nor does it afford calcareous deposits.

There probably exist other caverns in the county, but analogy would lead us to the belief that they are of limited extent. So far as observed, they agree in affording evi- denee of having been worn by running water in early times, and in occurring in the same stratum. The Ormoeeras, Endoceras, and other fossils characteristic of the rock are seen exposed in relief on the walls of the eaves in many instances.

It is to be observed of the strata that intervene between the water lime and the Trenton limestone, that from their soluble nature the natural seams have generally been widened into open chasms, and that from this eause streams of water often find their way under ground in dry seasons. Although generally horizontal, the strata are occasionally disturbed by upheavals, as is seen at several places along the line of the railroad between Chaumont and Cape Vin- eent. These disturbanees are generally limited to a few rods, and often to a few yards. These roeks often afford an excellent building material, and are quarried extensively at Chaumont for locks and other publie works. The black marble of Glen's Falls is derived from strata corresponding with the upper portion of these.

The next rock above those above described is named the Trenton limestone, which mostly constitutes the rock under- lying the soil in Champion, Rutland, Watertown, Houns- field, Henderson, Ellisburg, Adams, and a part of Rod- man and Brownville. In extent, thickness, number of fossil remains, and economieal importanee it far surpasses the others, and as a material for building and the manufac- ture of lime it has few superiors. Its color is usually gray, its fracture more or less crystalline, occurring usually in strata nearly or quite horizontal, and often separated by thin layers of shale. Many of its fossils are common with the slates above.

Fossil plants of the lower orders are somewhat common, but are limited to a few species. Of eorals the number is greater ; twenty different species of zoophytes are found in this rock. Of that singular elass of animals called trilobites, of which there are at present but few living analogies, the Trenton limestone furnishes several species. This animal possessed the power of eoiling up into a ball, and of flat- tening itself out. Detached portions are of frequent occurrence ; the head, tail, and parts of the body being often found separately. Of shells, this rock affords a very great variety.

The thickness of this roek ean not be less than five hun- dred feet. Its stratification is generally nearly horizontal, and disturbanees when they oeeur are usually quite limited. In some places it contains veins of calcite, and of heavy spar, the latter, in Adams, being associated with fluor spar.

Resting upon the Trenton limestone, with which, in the bed of Sandy creek, in Rodman, it is seen in contaet, is a soft black slate, readily erumbling to fragments under the aetion of frost, and divided by vertical parallel seams into regular masses. From its occurrence in the hills north of Utiea, it has been ealled Utica slate. It has not been found applicable to any useful purpose, although experi- ments have been made to test its value as a lithic paint. Where sulphuret of iron could be proeured, the manufacture of alum might be attempted with prospeet of success.

HISTORY OF JEFFERSON COUNTY, NEW YORK.

Fossils are common, but less numerous in this rock than in those below it. Several of these are . conimon in the roeks above and below this.

Only one speeies of trilobite is found in this slate, though found both above and below it.

The graptolithus is numerous both in individuals and speeies in the shales on the Hudson river. Being often compressed, their true nature was for some time unknown,* and they were classed with plants by some writers. When preserved in ealearcous matter their true nature bceomes · more apparent, and show them to have been animals of the lower orders, with a semi-ealeareous body and a corticiform covering. Sulphur springs are of frequent oeeurrenee in this roek, and native sulphur is sometimes noticed inerust- ing the surfaecs in ravines, where waters charged with sulphuretted hydrogen have been exposed to vegetable aetion.

Covering this formation, and constituting the superficial roek of Lorraine, Worth, and part of Rodman, is a serics consisting of alternating layers of shale and slate, some of which are highly fossiliferous, and others entirely destitute of organie remains. From the remarkable development of this roek in Lorraine, it has received the name of Lorraine shales. For a similar reason it is known elsewhere as the Hudson river group, from its forming the highly-inelined shales that oeeur, of enormous thickness, in the valley of the Hudson. This roek is nearly worthless for any useful purpose, although at Pulaski and elsewhere layers are found that are adapted for building. The mineral springs of Saratoga arise from this roek. Having thus briefly enumerated the leading geological features of the county, some generalizations of the several rocky formations may be made.

TOPOGRAPHICAL-GENERAL OBSERVATIONS.

To one aceustomed to elose and careful observation, the features of a country and the eontour of its hills afford a reliable means of opinion on the character of the subjacent rock. There pertains to eaeli of these in this eounty a pe- culiarity of profile, when exposed in the brow of hills, that is as constant and as unmistakable as any elass of phe- nomnena offered to the observation of geologists; and these distinetive features arise from the greater or less facility with which the several rocks yield to disintegrating forces. The shales and slates being easily dceomposed, and offering little resistance to the aetion of running water, present a rounded outline; running streams have here worn deep, winding gulfs, through which the channels meander, washı- ing alternately the right bank and the left, affording a sue- cession of crumbling preeipices, often of romantic beauty, and spreading over the plains, where they issue from the hills, the broken materials brought down from the ravincs. The roek is everywhere covered with soil, derived from its own disintegration, and is inelined to elay, from which eause, when level, there is a tendency to the formation of swamps, from the impermeable character of this material. The soil is generally fertile; and especially adapted to graz- ing. Wherever diluvial aetion has existed, it has worn,

with little difficulty, broad valleys, and removed immense quantities of the detritus to other places.

These shales form a ridge of highlands, extending from this eounty, through Oswego, Lewis, Oneida, and Herkimer counties, being known in Lewis as Tug hill. The margin of this elevated tract is worn into deep ravines; but when the head of these is reached, the country becomes level and sometimes swampy, with frequent beaver meadows. The streams are sluggish and miry, and the water highly dis- colored, probably from the presenec of the blaek oxide of manganese, that is of frequent occurrence in the swamps, and is found coating the bowlders exposed to running water. The junetion between the Utiea slate and Trenton limestone is generally concealed by deep deposits, brought down from the upper formation.

The change, where observed in the bed of Sandy ereek, is well defined, there being no blending of the two rocks. Along the base of the slate is usually a strip of elay, a few rods in width, but continuing for considerable distances. The thickness of these shales in the ridge of highlands extending towards Utiea, eannot be less than five hundred feet. Local disturbanees are but seldom seen, and the stratification is usually horizontal.

The limestone oceurs in terraces, with steep but not pre- eipitous margins, the whole of which is covered with a soil derived from its own decomposition, where not protected by drift. The soil is inclined to be thin, and consequently liable to be affected with drouth, but is extremely fertile, and alike adapted to grass and grain. The richest and best portions of Jefferson County, if not in the State, are under- laid by this roek. Running streams, when small, do not wear ravines, but fall down the slope of the terraees in pretty easeades, broken into foam and noisy from the nu- merous points of resistance which they meet.

The Burrville easeades have been before noticed, and are among the most romantic and pleasing which the country affords. Streams, if large, and especially if liable to be swollen into impetuous torrents, wear gulfs of short extent into the plains from which they flow; and where these rocks form the beds of streams, the latter have worn channels of sufficient depth to contain the ordinary volume of the streanı only; where the surface has been protected by a drift deposit, but not often elsewhere, it presents the marks of attrition of the drift period ; springs are of frequent oeeurrenee, oftener near the foot of the terraees, and the water is limpid, but unfit for washing, from being charged with lime.

The calciferous sandstone presents a flat country, with few valleys, and those but a few feet below the level of the adjacent plains .. The rock is covered with a very thin soil, derived from its own decomposition, but one of mueh rich- ness, from the presenec of lime. It seldom descends by a gentle slope into the valleys, but presents a shelving ledge, very peculiar to this rock, in this section of the State. Swamps, when they oeeur, are bordered with this sharp margin of rock, and have a deep soil, as if they had aneiently been lakes. When springs exist, they are eom- monly hard, from the lime which the roek contains.

The Potsdam sandstone generally presents a level surface, but more liable to upheavals, and is covered with soil en-

# Palæontology of New York, i. 265.

HISTORY OF JEFFERSON COUNTY, NEW YORK.

tirely brought from other formations, and varies in quality with sources from which it has been derived. This rock never presents a fertile slope into the valleys, but is bor- dered with abrupt precipices, at the foot of which are piled huge masses that have tumbled from the face of the ledge.

The primitive rocks of the county present a constant succession of abrupt rounded ridges, scantily covered in the state of nature with timber, and, when cleared, with a thin soil, with intervening valleys of considerable fertility, that have received their soil from the wash of the hills. The nature and amount of soil varies with the rock, and is abundant and fertile where limestone and feldspar abound as its constituents, but much less so where the chief ele- ment is quartz. The fact is observable, that the south slope of the hills is more abrupt than the north, as if they had been more upheaved. The prevailing dip of the strata of gneiss is towards the north or northwest, where observed in this county.

Drift deposits occur promiscuously over rocks of every age, covering them unequally with transported materials, and, when occurring in hills, presenting that rounded and conical outline often seen in snow-drifts. Having been deposited in moving water, wherever a sheltered point or conflicting currents favored, they were subject to all the dynamic laws which modify the motions of solids moving in fluids. These deposits may be distinguished from soil underlaid by rock by the endless variety of rounded outline which they present, and are invariably covered with vege- tation.

About a third of the county, in its central part, lies in the valley of Black river, the remainder being drained by Sandy creek, Indian river, and the minor streams running into the lake and St. Lawrence. E. H. Brodhead* estimated its volume, at low water, at ninety-four thousand cubic feet per minute; that of the Oswegatchie being twenty thou- sand, and of Indian river, three thousand.+ The river de- scends four hundred and eighty feet between Carthage and the lake, giving a power equal to one hundred and thirty- five thousand three hundred and sixty horses, working eight hours a day. In this distance, at the present time (1854), the water passes over thirteen dams, at none of which the entire amount of water is used, and at most of them but a very small portion is employed. Although Indian river and several of its tributaries, and the two branches of Sandy creek, and other streams of less note afford at many points eligible sites for hydraulic purposes, yet their aggregate is far below that afforded by Black river, which, at a future time, will doubtless be improved to an extent infinitely sur- passing the most sanguine anticipations of the present age. This river has proved somewhat subject to floods, which requires the exercise of care in locating buildings upon its banks ; but from its bed being generally rock, ample means are available for the security of dams, which have been seldom or never swept off.

From the extent and number of the lakes that exist near the sources of this river and its tributaries, in the primary region of Lewis and Herkimer counties, no apprehension

need be felt that the opposite extreme of drouth will neces- sarily occur in future, for, by constructing dams and sluices at the outlets of these lakes, they may be cheaply converted into immense reservoirs to retain the spring floods resulting from the melting of winter snows, and equalize the dis- charge through the dry season ; thus serving the double purpose of preventing excessive freshets or extreme drouth.

The greatest freshet known occurred in the spring of 1807, from the melting of spring snows. In 1818, in May, 1833, in 1839, 1841, and 1843, were heavy spring floods.

LAKE ONTARIO

has many features in its geology of engaging interest. Its length is one hundred and seventy-two miles, and greatest breadth fifty-nine and a half miles. According to the chart of Captain A. Ford, U. S. N., its greatest depth is ninety-five fathoms, and its elevation above tide being but two hundred and thirty-four feet, ¿ it would still be a lake if the outlet was deepened so as to allow the tide to flow up to it. The east end of the lake is, to some extent, bordered by low sand-hills, behind which are marshes ; the south shore is moderately elevated, the north and northwest more elevated, and much of the way rocky. Its waters are sub- ject to changes of level that occupy several years, but appear to be governed by no other causes than the unequal supply from tributaries. It is a somewhat curious fact that the highest water frequently occurs in the dryest and warmest months, when the evaporation is greatest,-July, August, and September. This is accounted for from an- other fact,-that the great supply comes from the upper lakes, whose affluents, especially those of Lakes Superior and Huron, reach high latitudes, where the snow lingers long in the spring, and whose surplus waters are also held back by the enormous outspread upon the lakes. Low water is said to have occurred in 1803, 1804, 1808 to 1811, 1822 to 1828, 1844 to 1850; high water is mentioned in 1798, 1805 to 1807, 1812 to 1819, 1829 to 1831, 1837 to 1839, 1852, 1853 ; middling height in 1820, 1821, 1832 to 1836, 1840, 1841, 1851. The water at this time, October, 1877, is also very low. The change of level is about five fcet.

Charlevoix, in 1721, noticed a periodical flux and reflux of the lake, recurring at intervals of a few minutes, and by him ascribed to springs at the bottom of the lake, and the shock of rivers discharging into it. This flow is probably caused by the prevalence of distant winds that at times create a swell at one end of the lake when it is calm at the other. It is further noticed that long prevailing gales from the west, from the friction upon the surface, cause the waters to rise several feet at the cast end. It was from a similar cause that a serious inundation occurred on Lake Erie, at Buffalo, in the fall of 1844.

Water-spouts have been often seen on the lake, usually in the summer or fall, and in showery, fickle weatlier. They are accompanied by black clouds and a roaring sound. When they strike the land they prove to be tornadoes, tearing up the trees and strewing their track with ruin.

# Report of Black River canal extension, Assem. Doc., 1840, No. 233, pp. 36, 40.

+ Ib., p. 36.

Į On Burr's State Map, the height of the lake is stated to be two hundred and thirty-four feet; the Canadian railroad surveys give two hundred and thirty-eight and a half feet.

HISTORY OF JEFFERSON COUNTY, NEW YORK.

The mirage is a phenomenon frequent in bright, sunny weather in summer and fall, elevating distant objects by refraction and bringing them nearer. Some remarkable instances have been noticed. The most common form of this illusion consists in raising distant objects a little into the air, the sky seeming to extend under them.

That the lake once flowed over a large portion of the county at a very recent geological period is proved by the elevated lake ridges, which extend from Oswego county through Ellisburg, Adams, Watertown, and Rutland. Mr. William Dewey, in surveying the railroad route in 1836, thus mentions them: "We found the summit of the highest ridge to be about four hundred feet (more exactly, three hundred and ninety feet) above Lake Ontario .* Its formation offers a curious subject for geological investiga- tion. It is remarkably uniform, and is supposed, in past ages, to have constituted the shores of some great inland sea, whose surface lay far above those mighty forests and fertile plains that now form some of the richest portions of our State. Frequently three or four successive ridges are plainly developed, varying in level from fifteen to twenty fcet. . . A more beautiful site for the location of a railroad could not be desired than the summit of these ridges, were not the uniformity of their course frequently broken by sharp angles, and interrupted at intervals by deep gullies, caused by the action of small streams carrying away the very light material of which they are composed. . This ridge we found to extend on the line of our survey about thirty miles from the point where we were first en- abled to avail ourselves of its advantage."

Along the brow of the first hill, in going east from Watertown, this ridge is cut through in making the plank- road, and the beach, with its piles of bowlders below it, may be traced each way from this place very easily. Along the side of the slope of limestone rock, which approaches Black river, below the village of Lockport, may be seen, plainly marked, the traces of an ancient beach, at two or three different levels. The limestone must here have formed a bold shore to the lake.

A curious occurrence of red cedar timber on a small hill in Pamelia, about three miles north of Watertown, was mentioned to the author by Mr. John Felt, who ingeniously suggested that, as the margin of the hill was a bed of smooth gravel, and as this timber occurs on islands in the lake, this spot might then have been an island.

Endless speculations might be made on the extent of this former lake and the causes that have wrought the change. The subject is too extended for our discussion; but the following questions at once arise and would need to be first settled. Rome is on a summit, from whence the waters flow by Wood creek and the Mohawk in opposite directions. It is but thirty-two feet higher than Watertown. The lake ridges are two hundred and thirty-two feet above Water- town. Queries. Did the lake then flow through the Mo- hawk valley ? Did it then cover the country down to the Noses, on the Mohawk, and the highlands of Quebec ? It is quite probable that at the time the sea extended up the St. Lawrence valley and filled all the vast basin bounded by

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History of Jefferson County, New York, with illustrations and biographical sketches of some of its prominent men and pioneers, Part 3

Author: Durant, Samuel W; Peirce, H. B. (Henry B.) Publication date: 1878 Publisher: Philadelphia : L.H. Everts & Co. Number of Pages: 862

Author: Durant, Samuel W; Peirce, H. B. (Henry B.)
Publication date: 1878
Publisher: Philadelphia : L.H. Everts & Co.
Number of Pages: 862