STRAT1GRAPHIC STUDIES IN EASTERN NEW YORK 



By G. ARTHUR COOPER 

 Assistant Curator, Division of Invertebrate Paleontology, 



U. S. National Museum 



New York State's classical sequence of Devonian rocks still pre- 

 sents to the geologist many an elusive problem, among them the de- 

 termination of the marine equivalents of the great mass of red and 

 green nonfossiliferous sediments lying at the base of the Catskill 

 Mountains in eastern New York. In order to determine these equiva- 

 lents the writer undertook the preparation of several stratigraphic 

 sections in this region. Before the present investigation was started 

 the writer had traced the various layers of the Hamilton Group from 

 their type locality at Hamilton, N. Y., westward to Lake Erie and 

 eastward to Unadilla Valley. Briefly this year's task was to trace the 

 stratigraphic units established in Unadilla Valley into the red and 

 green beds of the Catskill front, in order to establish the equivalents 

 of these little-known rocks. Knowing the Unadilla Valley section 

 from past experience the writer planned to prepare columnar sections 

 in Otsego, Schoharie, and Albany counties. 



The Susquehanna Valley was the first area selected for the prepara- 

 tion of a section. The Susquehanna River rises in beautiful Otsego 

 Lake (fig. 13) at the north end of the valley. Surrounded by steep 

 hills, charming Cooperstown at the south end of the lake is the gate- 

 way to the valley which stretches far to the south. Rich in the legends 

 of the immortal Natty Bumppo of Leatherstocking fame, the wooded 

 and hilly environs of this village are sure to transport the visitor back 

 to the days of the Iroquois and pioneer strife. 



East of the Susquehanna is the valley of Schoharie Creek (fig. 15), 

 probably the most beautiful of New York's numerous meridional 

 valleys. Steep hills rising to a height of 1,500 feet above the floor 

 line the narrow valley which ascends gradually southward to the Cat- 

 skill Mountains. Thrifty Dutch settlers were attracted to the fertile 

 bottomlands, and the Schoharie, like the Susquehanna, was the scene 

 of a bitter struggle for possession between the red man and the 

 white. 



Southwest of the bold scarp of the Helderberg Mountains lies the 

 little village of Berne, underlain by black shales of the lower Hamil- 

 ton, and still farther southward at the base of the Catskills is Dur- 

 ham, surrounded by red shales and sandstones, subjects of our special 

 investigation. 



13 



