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HISTORY OF ERIE COUNTY 23
highest land in the state. The true theory of the formation of these
springs is simply this: The Helderberg limestone, like many others, is
soluble in atmospheric water containing carbonic acid. It forms the
slope of the watershed, and the drainage through it has dissolved out
a connecting system of channels which are really subterranean rivers.
Castalia Springs are formed at the mouths of one of these. Similar
springs and underground streams are met with in all limestone countries.
The table land of Central Kentucky affords innumerable examples of
them. This plateau is underlain by a thick mass of unusually soluble
limestone. The surface water dissolves it away so easily that it dissolves
every crack it penetrates, and has formed a connected system of underground
channels by which all the drainage of the country is effected.
The celebrated Mammoth Cave is only one of these channels. Along
the margin of this plateau there are a great number of fountains like
Castalia Springs, which mark the mouths of the subterranean streams
that have been described. Such fountains are also common in other
countries, and the classical Clitumnus bursts out at the foot of a limestone
mountain, forming a fountain precisely like that of Castalia.
GEOLOGICAL STRUCTURE
This section of the rocks underlying Erie County is, in descending
order as folloAVS:
First, Berea grit 60 feet
Second, Bedford shale 75 feet
Third, Cleveland shale 50 to 60 feet
Fourth, Erie shale 50 ( ?) feet
Fifth, Huron shale 300 feet
Sixth, Hamilton limestone 20 feet
Seventh, Corniferous limestone 100 ( ?) feet
Eighth, Oriskany limestone 0-5 feet
Ninth, Water lime group 100 ( ?) feet
Tenth, Onongada salt group 30 to 40 feet
In the oil well, bored at the mouth of the Vermillion River, the
Niagara limestone, the Clinton group, and Medina sandstone were penetrated,
but they nowhere come to the surface, within the limits of the
county. Of the foregoing strata, the first, the sandstone quarried at
Amherst and Brownhelm, the outcrop crosses the east line of the county,
Avithin less than a half mile of lake shore; thence it SAveeps round to the
south and west, passing through Berlinville, and a little east of NorAvalk,
in Huron County. Within the area lying south and east of this line, the
Berea grit underlies most of the surface, but it is very generally covered
by the drift materials; and it is only Avhere its more compact and massive
portions have resisted the action of erosive agents, and these have been
left in relief, that it projects above the surface. The hills in which the
Amherst and BroAvnhelm quarries are located, and the elevation knoAvn
as Berlin Heights, are all masses of this character. They were once bluffs
upon the shore of the lake, and everyAvhere shoAV marks of the action of