506 BRAINARD AND SEELY — THE CALCIFEEOUS FORMATION. 



East Shoreham Section. — It was from a typical section la East Shoreham 

 that the litholo Jlcal peculiarities previously described were taken; the fauna] 

 characteristics, however, are those observed at various localities. 



This section represents one of those rare exposures in which not only the 

 strata of the Calciferous, but the whole Lower Silurian, from the Potsdam to 

 the (Jtica slate, can be seen in one continuous -'Ties. This locality was firsl 

 pointed out by II v. Augustus Wing, and was referred to by him as " the 

 Bascom ledge."* It isa greal tnonoclinal, two miles in width and three to 

 five miles in length, In which all the Lower Silurian strata arc seen, with at 

 least two hundred feet of Potsdam sandstone at the base. The strike is some- 

 what sinuous, and the dip varies from X. '•• to 38° E., hut there are no 

 abrupt changes except at the uorthern and western borders. Much of the 

 rock is covered with soil, but exposures on the hill-sides, along the water 

 courses, and in the escarpments of cliffs are sufficient to reveal the character 

 and thickness of all the members of the Calciferous formation. 



Short ham < 'rni' r Section. — Another uplift in which all the strata of the ( 'al- 

 ciferous are to be seen occurs in a tract extending from Shoreham Center 



northeast about two miles to NewelPs mills. It i >bts of an anticline with 



the Potsdam on the axes, and with the superjacent Chazy and Black River 

 formations, bearing characteristic fossils, on the western side. 



Orwell Section. -In the town oft )rwell, which lies directly south of Sim re- 

 ham, the upper members of the Calciferous are brought up in an anticline. 

 AJboul two miles northeast of the village, in the bed of a stream — the North 

 branch — the anticline is so much abraded that all the lowest strata of divis- 

 ion ( ' are seen. 



Fort Ticonderoga Section. — In the uorthwesl corner of the town of Orwell, 

 live miles southwest of shoreham village, is a hill known as Mount indepen- 

 dence. It rises nearly 200 feet above Lake Champlain and is about a mile 

 in length, the top along the north half being a Bmooth plain sloping gently 

 northward. This plateau ua- the old parade ground of the soldiers of Fort 

 Ticonderoga, which stood across the lake only half a mile to the north. In 



fact the promontory on which the fori was built is hut thee tinuation of 



Mount Independence, after an interval of 88 rods of water, and extends over 



a mile farther northwestward. 



This whole tract of historic ground consists of Calciferous strata, over 1,300 

 in thickness, dipping north at an angle of i; . The plateau on the 

 aorth end of Mount Independence is the top of division />'.- the thin-bedded 

 Bandstonee at the base of division C having probably been removed by glacial 

 action, not only here but also farther north, where Is now the basin of the 

 lake. The upper layers of />' .'ire largely quarried and \\-<A for a flux in the 

 iron furnace* On the New York side, in a steep cliff al the end of the 



Am Jour. Si: I., 3d Si i ., Vol. Mil, 1877, p. 848. 



