5 2 NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM 



II 



THE ARENACEOUS DEVONIC FAUNAS OF SOMERSET, 

 PISCATAQUIS AND PENOBSCOT COUNTIES, MAINE 



It is the purpose of this chapter to set forth as adequately as our 

 present knowledge permits, the fauna of the extensive band of arenaceous 

 rocks in northern Maine which have usually been called the " Oriskany " 

 in the few references which have been made to them. This band of 

 sediments extends from central Somerset county on the we'st, northeasterly 

 across Piscataquis and into the northwestern corner of Penobscot county, 

 extending thence according to Professor C. H. Hitchcock's geological 

 map of the State, a short distance into Aroostook county. These rocks 

 were observed in the first geological survey of Maine by Dr C. T. Jackson 

 and mention made of them in his annual reports \sce particularly 3d Rep't. 

 1838. p-46, et segj\, but nothing can be derived from these reports that 

 gives any clue to the actual position of the formation in the geological 

 series. It is to Professor Hitchcock that we owe nearly all our knowl- 

 edge of the formation hitherto published and yet it is more than 45 years 

 since his official and very important report was issued. This report 

 appeared as a part of the 6th annual report of the secretary of the Maine 

 Board of Agriculture, 1861, and the description of the rocks with which we 

 are here concerned is set forth particularly on pages 243-45; 400-12 and 

 441. This report was accompanied by a geological map bearing the date 

 1862 and showing the band of Oriskany sandstone as continuous across the 

 area indicated. I shall here quote parts of this report as indicating the 

 geological structure of the region. The same geologist subsequently issued 

 a geological map of the state of Maine (1885) with brief explanatory text, 

 The fossils collected by Professor Hitchcock during the period of his 

 investigations were in part identified by Mr Billings whose determinations 

 are cited in the report referred to and also appeared in the proceedings of 

 the Portland Society of Natural History, volume i, 1869, page 106. But 

 from the statement made in the text accompanying the geological map of 



