USA > New York > Monroe County > Rochester > Settlement in the West : sketches of Rochester with incidental notices of western New-York > Part 7
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3. ARGILLACEOUS SLATE-MARLY SLATE .- This is a soft, friable, green, argillaceous slate, breaking into small frag- ments with the least force. It begins directly above the gray sandstone, and rests upon it ; but it alternates with the other rocks, or occurs in thin layers between their strata. It rapidly disintegrates into a clayey soil on exposure to the elements. It sometimes effervesces slightly with acids. It is so easily reduced to earth that it seems to approach an argillaceous marl. As it alternates with the other rocks, it is sometimes much harder, and disintegrates with greater difficulty. There are two thick strata of this slate in the banks of the Genesee. The first and lowest rests upon the gray sandstone, and forms a beautiful green band at and below the Lower Falls and Steamboat-Landing. As it lies under the bed of iron ore, it was called by Professor Eaton ferriferous slate. At the Steamboat-Landing this stratum is about twenty feet thick : then it alternates with the lower layers of his ferriferous sandrock for three or four feet to the argillaceous iron ore, and continues to alternate in the same way above the ore, only each stratum becoming thin- ner for several feet. Its whole thickness from the gray- band to the iron ore is, in the banks of the Genesee, twenty- three feet. Petrifactions are not found in it till reaching the ferriferous sandrock, where are shells which leave their im- pressions in the slate.
The second thick stratum of this slate begins sixteen feet above the iron ore, and is twenty-four feet thick. It is a part of the lower stratum of calciferous slate, or, rather, was not distinguished from it. The colour is a lighter green than that of the layer first mentioned, but it is precisely the same rock, and is often mistaken for the ferriferous slate below by those not familiar with the position of the several strata. A little more than half way up this layer of argil- laceous slate, and thirty-one feet above the iron ore, are two
70
SKETCHES OF ROCHESTER, ETC.
layers of petrifactions three or four inches thick each, and near each other, composed almost wholly of small pearly and beautiful terrebratulites. Sometimes are found near these two other very thin layers of the same shells. Among these petrifactions occur sparingly productus and trilobites. This layer of argillaceous slate forms a light green band in the steep banks above and below the Lower Falls. In it the trilobite is occasionally found, but of so fragile a texture as easily to fall in pieces. This slate forms the divisions be- tween the layers of calciferous slate above for at least a hundred feet. It is too widely diffused in the other rocks to be limited to one place, and is one of the alternating series of the mountain limestone. At the upper step of the Lower Falls, that part of this slate called the ferriferous passes under the incumbent rocks, forming about half of that precipice of twenty-five feet.
4. THE ARGILLACEOUS IRON ORE is a stratum about a foot thick in the banks of the Genesee, lying in the lower part of the ferriferous sandrock, and only separated from the body of green argillite below by some alternating layers of it and the sandrock. The ore has a fine reddish colour like bright Spanish brown; hard like a rock, rather compact, tough, containing lenticular forms, and sometimes nodular masses, as if the ore had been partially fused ; often oolitic in its appearance. - On exposure to the air it becomes darker, and is more frangible ; its powder has the same fine red as when it is first removed from its bed. This layer is very extensive, as it comes to the surface a few miles west of Utica (one hundred and fifty miles cast of Rochester), where it supplies the furnaces of that part of the country, and is often a thicker stratum. It is found, too, in the same connexion several miles west of the Genesee. It is exten- sively smelted also in Wayne county, where it is three feet thick, and in other sections. It yields about thirty to thirty- three per cent. of iron. It effervesces with acids, and con- tains more than the sufficient quantity of lime for smelting. It might easily and profitably be manufactured into Spanishı brown for paint, if there is any considerable demand for that article.
This ore lies near the surface at the Landing at Rochester, and descends under the rocks at the Lower Falls, upper step : here it has been blasted through in two places in sinking the foundations of mills. The relations of the ore are here,
71
GEOLOGICAL SKETCHES.
thirty feet below the surface, exactly the same as at the Rochester steamboat-landing.
Abundance of small petrifactions are in the ore. Many portions seem to be composed almost wholly of small petri- factions. Encrinites, pentacrinites, and shells abound in it.
This ore has been transported through the Welland Canal to Ohio for smelting to a small extent. It is a very valu- able deposite for this part of the state, and may be wrought to an indefinite amount.
5. FERRIFEROUS SANDROCK-Eaton .- This extends from the iron ore upward about ten feet. The composition seems to be limestone and fine grains of quartz, making it a flinty rather than a sandy limestone. It is close-grained, com- pact, tough, forming excellent stones for building. It lies in strata of a few inches in thickness to that of a foot or more, separated by thin and hard or soft green argillite, and has been extensively quarried. It often contains much silicious slate, and forms a very hard rock, greatly annoy- ing those who are blasting it. One layer especially, from one to two feet thick, is chiefly silicious, and contains chal- cedony and cornelian in masses or mamillary forms. Sili- cious sinter is also in the cavities. In some parts of this, cacholong is diffused in all directions in veins. Loose pieces of this cacholong and silicious slate are found among the debris at Rochester, and have been borne with frag- ments of the red sandstone, in some great change of the wa- ters, some miles up the river. The source of these pieces was discovered in blasting through this rock at the upper step of the Lower Falls. It is a very well characterized rock. The surface of it lies just below the level of the railroad at the steamboat-landing, and the rock is seen in the bank to the top of the upper step of the Lower Falls, where it is the bed of the river, and where the Genesee falls over it. A. part of this rock has a deep green colour, as if it was tinged by oxyd of copper. In blasting through it near the top of the upper step of the Lower Falls, pyritous copper, green carbonate of copper, and native copper were found, in small quantities indeed, in many specimens.
Some petrifactions are found in this rock near the green argillite, and also in some of the strata above it. They are not so numerous, however, as in some other rocks.
On this rock, about three feet above the iron ore, stood on the brink of the precipitous bank the abutment of the single-
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SKETCHES OF ROCHESTER, ETC.
arched bridge which was thrown across the Genesee in 1819, and which remained one day more than the year for which it was warranted to stand. (See account thereof in this volume.)
This rock occurs also many feet above this position in layers alternating with the calciferous slate. Like the green argillite, it is not confined to one place. Indeed, the slate, and the sandrock, and the limestone appear to alternate irregularly for more than a hundred feet in depth. - Such a fact shows that the rocks-are to be taken geologically in ex- tensive series, and that the character of the series is to be the subject of attention as a whole.
The several particular strata of the rocks already men- tioned, and which Professor Eaton designated by specific names, are seen in both banks of the Genesee from the steamboat-landing up the river. 'They form beautiful bands or stripes in the bank of as many different colours. The red sandstone and the gray pass out of sight at the Lower Falls. Above the last lies the ferriferous slate, next the red ar- gillaceous iron ore, and then the ferriferous sandrock-all of which are hidden from the sight at the upper step of those falls, in dipping under the calciferous slate.
6. CALCIFEROUS SLATE, OR SECOND GRAYWACKE-Eaton. -This rock is a thick and diversified stratum, and contains in it layers of very different rocks, which become, in as- cending, more bituminous. It reposes on the stratum of fer- riferous sandrock. At and below the steamboat-landing it is thin, and a portion has a slaty structure. It is the rock on which the collector's office stands. The argillite is found everywhere between the layers. At the lower part, and just twelve feet above the iron ore, it contains a layer from twelve to sixteen inches thick of petrifactions. Except some terrebratulites and cyathophyllites scattered through it, the layer is almost wholly a mass of pentemerus. At the Lower Falls (upper step), where the rocks have been blasted through even the argillaceous ore into the green argillite, this layer of petrifactions is here also twelve feet above the ore, and many beautiful masses of these petrifactions have been raised to the surface. Petrifactions of other shells are found in some of the strata a few feet above this ore. They seem to be terrebratulites. Indeed, petrifactions are com- mon through all the strata. Green argillite in thin layers, but harder and of a firmer texture, not so easily disintegra-
73
GEOLOGICAL SKETCHES.
ting, occurs between the lower strata of the calciferous slate. Here, too, occurs fine-grained graywacke, similar to that quarried at Troy, on the Hudson, but of a finer grain than that on the top of the falls, slightly effervescing with acids. Professor Eaton called all this stratum "Second Gray- wacke." At the top of the upper step of the Lower Falls, the calciferous slate forms the banks of the river, more than one hundred feet high, to the Middle Falls of 96 feet, and for a considerable distance above them. The stratum must be more than 150 feet thick.
About six feet above the bottom of the calciferous slate be- gins the stratum of green argillite, about twenty-four feet thick, already mentioned, composed almost wholly of shells -small and beautiful. Some feet above these are several strata, one or two feet thick, of limestone, closely resembling the ferriferous sandrock. Then comes a looser calciferous slate, and then a blue slaty limestone, forty feet thick, in which especially the trilobites have been found, as Asaphus caudatus, with and without tails, like the figures of this spe- cies in Buckland's Geology, and often destitute of the head, and another species less common. The trilobites have been found also in the layers of small shells just mentioned ; and in the argillaceous slate under them, one specimen of Caly- mene Blumenbachii? Productus and orthoceratites occur also with the trilobites. The lower part of this stratum is decidedly calciferous-a limestone often of slaty structure lying in layers only a few inches thick. As you ascend towards the Middle Falls, it becomes nearly an argillite, strongly bituminous, resembling the more compact varieties of bituminous shale, and effervescing some with acids : as you come near the falls, it is perhaps fifty feet thick, and contains masses of gypsum, subcrystalline. As you ascend higher in the bank, you find more perfect calciferous slate, till near the top it becomes decidedly graywacke limestone ; tough, liard, fine-grained, with geodes of gypsum and quartz ; and forms the bed over which the waters of the Middle Falls (96 feet) are precipitated.
The Falls of Niagara are 266 feet above Lake Ontario, and these Middle Falls of Rochester are 232 feet above the lake level.
The bituminous shale below the Middle Falls is slowly breaking away and undermining this part of the graywacke limestone above. This stone is quarried to great extent at
7
74
SKETCHES OF ROCHESTER, ETC.
the falls and above the canal aqueduct, for building stone. The bed of the river has been lowered several feet where the new aqueduct for the enlarged canal is now construct- ing. (The descent at this point is called the First Fall -water from which supplies many large mills, &c.) In splitting this rock last July, in a layer some feet below the recent bed of the river, and from which layer the incum- bent stone had just been removed, a large cavity nearly filled with pebbles was found. There were, perhaps, nearly six quarts of pebbles, of quartz, hornstone, limestone, sandstone, graywacke, mica slate, &c. The cavity seems to have been worn smooth by the attrition of the pebbles, like the cavities in many rocks, and then to have been filled up by the com- mon pebbles of the banks. The workmen declare that the cavity was entirely covered by the solid rock ; so that the limestone must have been deposited from the water, and closed up the cavity. That the cavity was worn and filled long after the rock was formed, is evident from its appear- ance : besides, some fragments of recent shells were found with the pebbles. Some of the pebbles are two inches long, many an inch, and some very small. One fragment of the shells, part of a unio, is more than an inch long.
The surface of this rock at the Rapids and at the falls, and many other places, is found to be polished, as will be more particularly noticed hereafter. On the western bank, in view of the Middle Falls, stand some of the mills and factories which captivate the attention of those who love the sound of untiring machinery, and which offer so beautiful a view in the fine drawings of the Falls by Mr. Young (of which engravings are included in this volume.)
Below the Middle Falls are several springs of hydrosul- phuretted water issuing from the shale ; and occasionally in- crustations of gypsum cover the walls. A few rods below these falls, and about 70 feet perhaps above the river, is a spring of Epsom salt, which effloresces (as Professor Eaton remarks) upon the rocks. Fine specimens of the salt are easily obtained in dry weather in small crystals. The multitude of these springs in this part of the country seem to have their origin in this rock.
In the graywacke limestone on the top of the Middle Falls are found the remains of vegetables, seaweed, or fucoi- des. A more delicate variety is found in the rocks at the upper step of the Lower Falls. In the fragments at the bot- tom of the Middle Falls are corallines, fucoides, and petrifac-
75
GEOLOGICAL SKETCHES.
tions in the form of a cross, whose sides contain an angle of about one sixth of a circle. Similar remains appear in the red sandstone as well as in this stratum. The graywacke limestone extends from the Middle Falls of the river to the head of the Rapids.
At Mile-End, the residence of Derick Sibley, a mile west of the river on Buffalo-street, is an extensive quarry of the calciferous slate. Its layers are very uneven. I have seen a beautiful nerita which was found at this place.
About the falls the banks abound with beautiful flowers. Adhering to the rocks below the falls is the rare pengui- cula vulgaris, Lin. On the banks are Houstonia ciliolata, Tor., penetemon pubescens, diervilla Canadensis, Muh., shepherdia Canadensis, Nutt., &c.
Along the banks in many places are large masses of cal- careous tufa. Occasionally it breaks off and falls below- the fragments are abundant. This mineral is constantly forming now by the deposition of limestone from the water filtering through the rocks. It is sometimes deposited on the mosses on the rocks. The vegetable decays and disap- pears, leaving the tufa in the form of the moss. Indeed, the people often call the mineral "petrified moss." The cal- ciferous slate contains many cavities or geodes of minerals, and seems verging towards the following stratum.
GEODIFEROUS LIMEROCK .- Eaton .- This stratum only begins to show itself in the city. A thin layer of it lies near the surface at Mile-End, formerly Bull's-Head ; and it is found at the south up the river. Near the glue-factory, and half a mile east of the Genesee, the canal is cut through a portion of the geodiferous limerock, which extends eastward into Brighton, where it is more abundant and is very hard and dark, and strongly bituminous-the geodes containing calcareous spar, some fluate of lime, and porous quartz. It is here burned into excellent lime. Many of the cavities seem to contain some petrifactions, upon or around which the geodes of crystals have been formed.
This rock is of great thickness at the south and west, forming no inconsiderable portion of the ridge through which the canal passes at Lockport. In this city it seems to be a very limited rock, extending only a few miles within or out of the city. The rock has a very rough, ragged appear- ance. It lies on about the same level with the Rapids,
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SKETCHES OF ROCHESTER, ETC.
Section of the Rocks on Genesee River, from the Ontario Steamboat-Landing to the level of the Rapids.
Dip south one foot in about 87-series ascending.
No. 1 is the sandstone containing fucoides-it is 120 feet thick at the Landing, and 80 at the Lower Falls.
No. 2 is the grayband of Professor Eaton, 4 feet thick.
No. 3. Argillaceous slate or marl slate, 23 feet thick.
No. 4. Argillaceous iron ore, one foot thick, with various petrifactions.
No. 5. Silicious limestone-ferriferous sandrock of Pro- fessor Eaton-10 feet thick, with some shells.
No. 6. Calciferous slate, having near the bottom of it the stratum of pentemerus, with some cyathophyllites-the .whole six feet thick-also fucoides.
No. 7. Argillaceous slate or marl slate, 24 feet thick, with some trilobites. The layers of terrebratulites lie in it, and are shown on the section by two lines in this number.
No. 8. Silicious limestone, like No. 5.
No. 9. Blue calciferous limestone, with trilobites 40 feet thick, and productus, and terrebratulites, and orthoceratites.
No. 10. Layers of calciferous slate, thin and crumbling.
No. 11. Dark argillaceous slate, with gypsum in nodules -under the Middle Falls is about 50 feet thick-bituminous.
No. 12. The graywacke limestone is about 46 feet thick above the last to the top of the Middle Falls, and then con- tinues up the river about 50 feet thick-hard, compact, very bituminous-used to a great extent for building.
No. 13. Geodiferous limerock lies on the east and west of the city ; contains geodes of calc spar, with various petri- factions, and some fluate of lime and sulphuret of zinc, four feet.
The distance from A to B marks the height of the last step (84 feet) of the Lower Falls; from B to C gives the ascent to the upper step of those falls ; D to E shows the height of the upper step of the Lower Falls, about 25 feet; E to F shows the ascent up the river ; the distance from F to G is the height of the Middle Falls, 96 feet ; and G to H shows the ascent to the Rapids. The true proportions are not attempted to be preserved : it is evident that the several falls are much too small, and the slopes much too great. The height of the section involves the dip of the strata.
7*
DILUVIUM.
No. [fcet
Geodiferous Limestone.
13
4
50
G
Graywacke Limestone.
12
46
Dark Argillite, with no- dules of Gypsum.
11
50
Calcifereus Slate.
10
26
Blue Limestone, with Trilebites. Calcifer- ous Slate.
40
Silicious Limestone,
8
20
like No. 5.
Green Argillite, or Mar- ly Slate.
7
24
Calciferous Slate, with Pentemerus.
6
6
E
Ferrifereus Sandrock.
5
10
iron Ore.
4
I
D
C
Ferriferous Slate, Marly Slate.
or
3
23
B
Grayband.
2
4
Sandstenc.
1
80
A
384
Level of Lake Ontario.
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GEOLOGICAL SKETCHES.
Section of the Rocks on Genesee River, from the Ontario Steamboat- Landing up to the head of the Rapids, about four and a half miles.
Sand and gravel are spread abundantly over the surface of the rocks under the proper and rich soil of the country. From Lake Ontario southward, this sand lies of various depths, and raised into hills of moderate elevation, giving a waving appearance to the surface. The rise near the flour- ishing seminary of Miss Seward in the eastern part of the city has been cut through, and the layers of sand and gravel beautifully displayed in their regular and undulating lines of
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SKETCHES OF ROCHESTER, ETC.
fine and coarse gravel, as if the deposition had been made by the waving movement of a mighty deep. At a mile south of the city, the diluvium rises into an elevation of two hun- dred feet, called the Pinnacle; and at a mile and a half south- east of the city the road to Pittsford is cut through a de- pression, and exhibits the same appearance as that already mentioned.
The Erratic Groupe lies in and upon the diluvium. It consists of rolled masses and boulders of granite, gneiss, mica slate, hornblende rock, sienite, quartz, primitive serpen- tine, evidently transported from some region at the north, spread abundantly over the plains, accumulated on the north side of elevations, and affording full proof of the mighty power of a sweeping flood. One can hardly fail to imagine, as he stands among those ruins, that he hears the roar of the upturned ocean, while he sees the grinding effects which have been produced. In these boulders are found garnet, sulphuret of iron, schorl, &c. Many of these boulders are from two to four feet through : the largest that we have noticed is beside the railroad, a mile from Main-street, which is eight and a half feet long, eight feet broad, and three feet deep-a mass of granite, but chiefly feldspar.
From seven to ten miles east of Rochester, the diluvium is heaped up into banks and rounded elevations from 50 to 150 feet high along the Irondequoit Creek. All the strata are here cut through by the stream, but mostly covered over by the diluvium. It was on the bank of this stream, near Ful- lam's Basin, in the town of Perrinton, that the thigh bone, one large tusk, and two teeth of the fossil elephant, masto- don, were found in the diluvium, over which stood the aged trees of the ancient forest. A part of these remains are now to be seen in the Rochester Museum kept by Mr. Bishop. The discovery was made by Mr. Wm. Mann, while digging up a stump. The teeth were deposited about four feet below the surface of the earth. These were in a tolerably good state of preservation : the roots began to crumble a little on exposure, but the enamel of the teeth was in almost a per- fect state.
In August, 1837, the remains of another mammoth were uncovered in excavating the Genesee Valley Canal, where it crosses Sophia-street, on Cornhill, in Rochester. The tusk, eight or ten feet long, and at least eight inches in di- ameter, was picked to pieces by the labourers, who supposed
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GEOLOGICAL SKETCHES.
it was a white log of wood. The termination is preserved, a foot or more in length ; a rib and a part of a leg are in bet- ter preservation. A portion of the scull was also found. The skeleton was about four feet below the surface, and in and upon a dense blue hardpan ; the whole rested upon polished limestone. Other fragments of the bones of the an- imal have been dug up near the same place.
Beds of sand for the formation of mortar are abundant in the dilnvium.
Clay for the manufacture of brick lies along the south part of the city, and extends eastward into Brighton ; it is still more abundant in the vale on the southeast side of the Pin- nacle, along the road to Pittsford. At a mile south of the city, a bed of clay is manufactured into brick to a great extent. It occurs under a foot of rich loamy soil, which is still in part covered with the original forest, and is only twelve to twenty inches thick. Immediately under it is a bed of fine white sand, as convenient as necessary for use in brickma- king. It seems to extend under several hundred acres. Brick-clay abounds in Rochester and its vicinity.
DEPOSITES OF SAND.
The deposites of fine sand, nearly pure silex, suitable in many places for the manufacture of glass, and extensively wrought in several towns in the middle of the state into this important material, is an interesting geological fact. That already mentioned in this city is only a poor specimen, and very limited, too, when compared with many others. The sand is covered by the natural soil, and then by a mixture of sand and clay, and is often only three or four feet below the surface, which is yet, in many parts, covered with dense forest. It appears to have been deposited by some great flow of the waters, and not to have been the result of a dis- integration of quartz rock like that (for example) which is found in Cheshire, Berkshire county, Mass. It seems to be only one more proof of that Great Deluge, of which the evi- dences are so abundant and complete, over a great extent of our country and of the world at large.
POLISHED ROCK-INTERESTING FACT.
The surface of the rocks at Rochester is in many places polished, as if they had been worn and rubbed down by the
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SKETCHES OF ROCHESTER, ETC.
friction of sand and stones borne over them. The surface of the geodiferous rock, through which the Erie Canal was cut about a quarter of a mile east of the Genesee, was found polished-thence north it has been found polished in several places to a point twenty rods below the Middle Falls. On the west side of the river, near the Bethel Church, the Erie Canal is on polished rock. At the depôt of the Tonawanda (or Rochester and Batavia) railroad, and at three miles west of the city, the railroad was cut through polished stone for eighty to one hundred rods. The same has been found in several intervening places. At the Rapids a large surface polished has been laid bare this year (1837) in excavating the Genesee Valley Canal. In some places the polish has only begun-the hollows are passed over : in most it is very perfect. Lines or furrows are marked on the polished sur- face from northeast to southwest, as if great stones had been moved on it. On the east side of the river at Roches- ter, these lines are more nearly east and west. The polish has so manifestly been carried from one elevation to an- other, or over the hollows, that it removes all doubt of the
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