l6 BULLETIN OF THE LABORAIORIES 



ful scrutiny of the region in question, but as an excuse for the stress 

 laid upon stratigraphy in this paper. Prof. Rominger again says: 

 *' Prof. Winchell considers the sandstones of Marshall as the lower 

 terminus of the carboniferous rock series, typically distinct by its fos- 

 sils from the next subjacent shaly beds, which he connects with the 

 Devonian rocks by the character of their fauna. Such a difference in 

 the fauna is not perceptible; the fossils of the Marshall sandstones and 

 the subjacent shales are not only generically in full harmony, but a 

 great number of species are common to both." This quotation may 

 serve to justify the care with which the fossils herein noticed are limit- 

 ed to their horizons. It seems sufficiently obvious that central Ohio is 

 the place where the serial relations must be made out, if anywhere, for 

 here the stratigraphical sequence is perfectly unaltered and the hori- 

 zons well marked. We present the facts collected, confidendy believ- 

 ing that they form a firm foundation for the solution of the perplexing 

 problem. The theoretical value of this study cannot be over-estimated. 

 The false tlieory that "times of peace make no history," has too 

 largely affected our notions of geological history. It is by tracing the 

 succession of living forms during long periods of comparatively uni- 

 form conditions that the laws and course of development are to be dis- 

 covered. Even this brief discussion demands an allusion to the views 

 expressed by the state geologists of Ohio. In the first volume of the 

 final report. Dr. Newberry adduces reasons for considering the Black 

 or Huron shale as the representative of the Genesee plus part of the 

 Portage. The remainder of the Portage and the wJiole of the Chemung 

 is represeuted by the Erie shale, a group of greenish or grayish argil- 

 laceous shales limited to the northern part of the state and of small 

 vertical extent. The difficulty of eliminating at one blow from central 

 Ohio the great sandstone and shale series know^n in New York as Che- 

 mung, has, however, militated steadily against this view and most ge- 

 ologists have felt constrained to seek the missing formation in some 

 larger or smaller portion of the Waverly series. It is to be noted that 

 Prof Newberry at that time contended that *' the series of strata which 

 begins with the mechanical sediments of the Portage has a fauna 

 which is much more carboniferous than Devonian in character. The 

 commencement of the epoch of the deposition of this series of me- 

 chanical sediments . . . was in fact \\\q beginning of the carbon- 

 iferous period." 



In the second volume of the same report Dr. Newberry brings 



