272 



IDENTITY OF THE WESTERN FORMATIONS 



A section at this place gave tiie foUownng rocks, in a descend- 

 ing order. 



{> 



Coarse grained, friable, porous sandstone, sometimes reddish 

 75 ft. ^ 2, Finer grained sandstone, passing gradually into that above and below. 

 Shaly sandstone with shale below. 



4. 2 to 6 feet, coal of fine quality. 



5. feet, fine grained sandstone. 



6. 100 feet, conglomerate and sandstone. 



7. 100 feet, shales and sandstones of Chemung group. 



8. Fine grained sandstone of Portage group. 



At Akron, the rocks of the Chemung group appear beneath the 

 conglomerate, which is there in its lower part a coarse gray 

 sandstone. The same fossils as before noticed, occur on a 

 small sti'cam by the side of the canal, below this village. 



Passing south from Akron, I came to beds of coal, succeeded 

 by a dark colored shaly limestone, which abounds in fossils. 

 Among these were two or three species of DeWtj/ris, several of 

 Atri/pa, a Prodtictiis, and crinoidal joints in great numbers. A 

 limestone holding this position among the coal beds is a very 

 interesting circumstance, when taken in consideration with the 

 absence of any limestone representing the Carboniferous of 

 Europe. One species of the Delthi/ris, also, is very similar, if 

 not identical with Sowerby's figure of Spirifera nttenuata, and 

 the other fossils have all the aspect of those figured by Sowerby 

 and Phillips from the carboniferous limestone of England. A 

 similar rock appears in the southern part of the State, where I 

 obtained some of the same fossils as at Greentown. It also 

 appears in several places in the vicinity of Canton. 



Passing to the south and west along the road to Columbus, 

 we soon leave the coal formation and come upon the groups 

 below. These present few imfwrtant features, except a gradual 

 thinning in that direction, and the almost entire absence of fossils. 

 The Chemving becomes scarcely distinguishable from the Port- 

 age group, and both are known in the Ohio Reports as the \Va- 

 verley sandstone series. From beneath these, pass out all that 

 remains of the Hamilton group and Marcellus shales, the whole 

 known as the black bituminous shales of the Ohio Reports, and 

 possessing, as a whole, the character of the INIarcellus shale of 



