ON THE LOWER DEVONIC AND ONTARIO FORMATIONS 



OF MARYLAND. 



By Charles Schuchert, 



At<sis(aid t'anitor, Dlrision of Stratigrapluc PaJeontolorjij. 



Cumberland, Marvljiiul, has long been famous for its Oriskany fos- 

 sils, which were tirst l)rouo-ht to the attention of paleontoloo-ists by 

 Mr. William Andrews, and described by Hall in the third volume of 

 the Paleontolog}" of New York. The Helderbergian fossils are more 

 difficult to secure, and these ""Medals of Creation'' become more and 

 more rare as one proceeds downward in the section. It is for this 

 reason, as avcII as for the great amount of folding and sometimes of 

 crumpling to wdiich the formations have been subjected, that the per- 

 fect succession of the Ontario " and Lower Devonic rocks of Maryland 

 has so long remained in obscurity. In a general wa}' that succession 

 has been knowni for many 3'ears, but as late as 1897 the term Lewis- 

 town formation was used to cover the equivalents of the New York, 

 Niagara, Salina, and Lower Helder])erg. Mr. Robert II. (irordon 

 began to collect fossils about Cuml)erland in 1894, and through him, 

 in the autumn of 1899, m}^ own interest in this locality became so 

 great that since then we have together gone over the sections five 

 times. In the main our studies have been confined to the Helderberg- 

 ian and Oriskanian deposits, though we have investigated the lower 

 formations often enough to learn that the composite section (p. ^±2) 

 is essentially correct. In regard to the lower beds of the Ontario 

 here discussed use has been made of the work of the Maryland 

 Geological Survey, b}" R. B. Rowe and C. C. O'Harra. 



In this connection, I desire to express \\\\ indebtedness to Mr. Gor- 

 don, whose detailed knowledg'e of the formations around Cumberland, 



"The American equivalent for Upper Silurian. For definition of this and the 

 Lower Devonic terms here used see Clarke and Schuchert, Science, December 15, 

 1899, lip. 874-78. 



Proceedings U. S. National Museum, Vol. XXVI, No. 1313. 



413 



