35 



length about seven hundred feet. The liighest beds exposed 

 are the gray Naples (Cashaqua) shales, which, as usual, 

 contain many concretions. The shale has cruiubled under 

 the action of the atmosphere until the whole upper portion 

 of the cliff is soil-covered and overgrown with vegetation. 

 The Genesee shales appear much less prominently in this 

 section than in any of the preceding, nevertheless the char- 

 acteristic jointed .structure of the upper shales appears half 

 way up the bank. The Stjdiolina limestone projects from 

 the bank, and as usual, forms a prominent line of demarca- 

 tion between the Middle and Upper Devonian strata of this 

 region. The IVIoscow shales, seventeen feet thick, form a 

 vertical cliff in some portions of the section. In the main, 

 however, they are more or less covered up by the talus 

 which has accumulated on the shelf formed by the projecting 

 Encrinal limestone. This latter stratum has a thickness of 

 twenty-two inches in this section, and exhibits the same 

 coating of oxidized iron sulphide on the under side, Avhich 

 characterizes its other exposiu'cs. The many fallen blocks 

 at the base of the cliff, as well as the dangerously far-pro- 

 jecting portions of the bed in the clifi, testify to the continued 

 activit}^ of the stream in the wearing away of the softer 

 shales beneath. (Plate XI, fig. b). These blocks are col- 

 lected from this section and used for jiurposes of construc- 

 tion. Fossils are not so numerous in the bed at this 

 section, as the\^ are at Section 5, nevertheless some very fine 

 specimens of Actinopteria decussata Hall have been 

 obtained from it. Corals are common, especially the 

 honeycomb — Favosites hamiltonix Hall. The average 

 northward rise of the limestone in this section is one foot in 

 fort^'-seven, giving an approximate southward dip of five 

 degrees. This allows nine feet of the Hamilton shales to be 

 exposed at the lower end of the section, while at the up])er 

 end the exposure is only three feet. 



Here is the first good opportunity to examine the Hamil- 

 ton .shales in their relation to the overlying limestone, and it 



