EARLY DEVONIC HISTORY OF NEW YORK AND EASTERN NORTH AMERICA 53 



1885 it would seem that all the material brought together from this forma- 

 tion by the Maine geologist was lost in the fire which destroyed the rooms 

 of the Portland Society of Natural History in 1866. In 1899 a series of 

 collections was made for the United States Geological Survey by Mr Gilbert 

 van Ingen from the region west of Moosehead lake, that is, the westernmost 

 portion of the area here considered. The results of van Ingen's collections 

 and notes were briefly summarized by Professor H. S. Williams [U. S. Geol. 

 Sur. Bui. 165, 1900, p.88-92] wherein are given sections at several localities, 

 Parlin Pond, Jackman Farm, Bean Brook, Long Pond, Little Brassua lake, 

 Stony Brook, Big Brassua lake, Brassua stream. The stratigraphy of some 

 of these sections is indicated with as much detail as seemed practicable at 

 most of the localities along this range of rocks and the sections or localities 

 are in several instances accompanied by brief lists of fossils. We have been 

 unable to acquire access to these collections and we shall therefore not 

 attempt to comment upon the identifications of the species of the fossils 

 there provisionally made. Professor Williams has discussed these sections 

 under the term "Moose River sandstone" and it would seem entirely 

 proper from the present state of our knowledge to apply this term to all 

 the sections discussed in the present paper, that is to say, to practically the 

 entire area of these rocks as indicated by Professor Hitchcock under the 

 term "Oriskany sandstone." The fauna of these sandstones is a facies of 

 the Eodevonic and represents the Oriskany [Williams, p. 2 2]. 



Except then for the outlines of its geology and paleontology this very 

 inviting region has remained almost a virgin field, and it was with the 

 desire of enlarging our data as to the distribution of the early Devonic 

 faunas in Eastern America that I arranged in 1905 with Mr O. O. Nylander 

 to bring together with records of stratigraphic position as precise as pos- 

 sible, the fossils of these much folded rocks. Mr Nylander has done his 

 work well though he did not attempt to cover the entire geographic area 

 indicated on Hitchcock's map as pertaining to this formation. Outcrops 

 especially favorable for the acquisition of the fossils were closely studied 

 and the series of fossils obtained is large, quite sufficient to indicate the 



