New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1900-10-20

sIXTFFNTH ANNUAL REPORT OF THE
mtte 81 to t6e ksg1s@2tgre April q 1877 70 TO-
Printers. 0'a'e
six valuable papers are to be found in the
sixteenth annual report of the New-York State
Geologist, that fer 1885, which issued recently
from the State Printers press. One was pre-
pared by Il P. Gushing, special assistant. in
structed to report on the boundary between
the rocks which show no evidences of ancient
life whatever and the first that Go, in the re-
sion lying north Of the Adrondacks Another
contribution by DR.. John NJ. Clarke State
Paleontologist deals with the peculiar fauna
O what are known the Naples shales; and
ct excellent supplement thereto is found in
second paper OF DR.. Clarke's, relating to that
very early form Of animal life the goniatite
The Brine Springs and Salt Wells" are treated
BY D. D. Luther, and The Fauna Of Eighteen
Me Cresk' by Amadeus ". Grabau Finally
there is the second half Of Professor Halls
memoir on paleozoic reticuIate sponges, the first
Tart OF which reviewed in The Tribune a
year ago.
There was a time in the history Of the azoic
rocks Of the Adirondacks when they were de-
pressed sufficiently 10 admit inflow Of the
sea around the great uplift at the centre.
The material Of which the Potsdam formation is
composed was then deposited. This is at least
five hundred feet in depth. and here are found
the remains Of the earliest animal organisms
Eventually there came an upheavaI that brought
lie periphery Of the mountains above the water
srce more Subsequent experiences left the line
q separation between the Potsdam and the
underlying GRANTEES and gneisses exposed to
vaW. so that an expert can now trace the
poun6ary through Clinton. Franklin and St
lawrence counties. This is the task which Mr..
Cushing has performed and he accompanies his
story with q description of the rocks them
selves.
Among the Oldest forms Of life were the am
monites, which inhabited spiral shells and OF
which something Ike i've hundred varieties are
known. Conspicuous in this family were the
gonistites in whose shells are curious joints or
sutures, that constitute pretty zigzag markings.
a subdivision Of the goniatites, called manti-
coceras, has been discovered in strata that be
long TO early stage OF the close OF the
Devouian period. The fact has been remarked
n Devonshire and several places on the Con-
tnent Of Europe. This particular kind of
gonistite was found in western New-York a
few years ago, in certain rocks that lie above
Tie Genesee slate and below the Chemung
group. The intervening portion of the
sandwich is something like six hundred
feet but The ''manticoceras intumescens'
IS confined TO only a portion Of it. The
CT tie east, and it was thought at one time that
il did not extend westward beyond this State
Dr.. Clarke says. however. that a specimen has
been discovered in Iowa, in association with
other fossils peculiar to the Naples group. It is
rot Improbable. therefore, that more Of them
VIII be reported in time
Eighteen Mile Greek, the subject OF Mr. Ora
bsus paper. empties into Lake Erie. 1t runs
through a gorge along whose TANKS one can
stones and Iimestones. The Hamilton group of
rocks lie AT z lower level than the Naples group,
and il the lower part Of ii are enough trilobtes
and naUtiIuses TO warrant giving their names
70 certain strata These and the other forms
o. life that occur there are described by Mr..
Graham.
Salt springs were known in various parts Of
This State IN Colonial days, and a number Of
them have been turned TO account commercially.
They al tapped reservoirs Of brine, doubt.
Only one Of these accumulations is now drawn
upon Systematically. however. This is at SYRIA
cuse. The suppl is practically inexhaustible.
too Already over ten million tons Of salt have
been obtained there. This, if spread out over
an area O q mile square, would have a depth
e sixteen feet and a quarter. Yet the brine
gains rather than fails in strength. Not until
1877 was the secret Of this wonderful abundance
discovered. While boring for oil near Middle
bury wyoming County, Rochester company
struck layer Of rock salt seventy feet thick al
depth exceeding 300 feet Evidences Of this
DEPOSIT have been found all the way from
Madison County TO Wyoming. In Wyoming,
Livingston and adjacent counties large num-
Der Of wells have been bored, and the brine
formed " water stored in the earth is pumped
ID and converted into salt A few years after
the discovery at Niddlebury operations were
begun in TuIly, near Syracuse, by the solvay
company. which wanted salt as raw material
for the production Of soda. Here no less than
forty-one wells have been sunk by that cor
poration. a conduit has been constructed from
little fresh water lake in Tully to the weis'
which the fluid enters by gravity. The brine is
thus formed only short time before being
pumped out The older wells in and near syria
Cuse do not tan the rock salt at al.