Snyder. -Area, 320 square miles; population in 1880,
17,797. Its border on the west bank of the Susquehanna from Northumberland
down is (in a straight line) 18 miles. Through its center runs the
Shade mountain anticlinal of Medina sandstone No. IV gradually burying
itself under Onondaga and Clinton rocks No. V, which pass across the
river at Selinsgrove; and splitting into two crests on the Juniata
county line, between which lies a high and narrow little vale of Hudson
River slate No. III. Outcrops of No. VI limestone and No. VII sandstone
follow the south foot of the mountain past Fremont, Freeburg and Kantz
post-office. Another outcrop of VI and VII 28 miles long follows the
north foot of the mountain past McClure City, Adamsburg, Beaverton,
Paxtonville, Middleburg, and Kreamer P.O. (where it forms the hilly
north bank of Middle Creek) to the Susquehanna just above Selinsgrove
and the mouth of Penn’s Creek. The northern county line follows the
top of Jack’s mountain to its end at Centreville; and along the foot
of Jack’s mountain (composed of Clinton and Onondaga No. V) runs a
third outcrop of VI and VII 18 miles long from Bannerville on the
Mifflin county line past Troxelville to Centreville and New Berlin
on Penn’s creek. The three townships south of the first VI-VII outcrop,
and the space between the two other outcrops (i.e. the middle
of the great valley between Stone Mountain and Jack’s Mountain) are
occupied by rocks of the Hamilton, Portage, and Chemung No. VIII and
the lower beds of Catskill No. IX. The well-known Fossil iron-ore
beds of the Clinton group No. V have been opened at a great number
of points along the foot of Jack’s Mountain, along the north foot
of Shade mountain, especially at Paxtonville, Adamsburg and Middleburg,
and along the south foot of Shade mountain, at Freeport and Freemont.
The Sand-vein ore bed, the highest in the series, and resting
on the Ore sandstone, is a fossiliferous limestone; often nearly
destitute of iron, but in places rich enough to yield 20 and even
40 per cent; usually soft along the outcrop, and always hard below
drainage level; less than 2` thick along Jack’s mountain, and dipping
25º at Centreville,
38º at Ulsh’:s
Gap, 40º: at
Bennerville, south; along Shade mountain at Smithgrove 1` thick, dip
30º north;
from Middleburg to Paxtonville, too small to work, dip 45º
N.; at and west of Beaverton soft fossil ore 20" to 26". The
Danville ore beds underlying the Ore sandstone, are three fossil
limestone beds impregnated with iron close together, one or other
of them very rarely becoming 3` thick, and all softened for a variable
number of yards from the surface down the dip and in proportion to
its gentleness. The Block ore bed or Iron sandstone (1`
to 12` thick) underlies the Danville ore bed by 150`. In the 500`
of olive shales beneath it the highly-esteemed Bird’s Eye fossil
ore, 100` to 150`above the top of the Medina No. IV, has been
worked at Paxtonville, 6 to 14 inches thick, on a gentle north dip,
and soft where the covering of shale is thin.
From: A geological hand atlas of the sixty-seven
counties of Pennsylvania :embodying the results of the field work
of the survey, from 1874 to 1884. By J. P. Lesley. (Report of
progress (Geological Survey of Pennsylvania), v. X ) Harrisburg, PA
: Board of commissioners for the second geological survey, 1885.
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