136 NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM 



region. Kayser has recently expressed 1 this distinction by terming the 

 former the normal facies or that appertaining to the oceans at large, while 

 the latter is to be regarded as having the value of a local facies. The 

 former it is that is more widespread throughout the world and which we 

 have constantly growing evidence for believing has entered the interior sea 

 of America by way of northern Canada. Its incarceration in the Ameri- 

 can paleozoic mediterranean has doubtless superinduced a measure of 

 provincial characteristics in some of the minor faunas but the features we 

 find in the Guelph common to those of the Scandinavian faunas appertain 

 to the marine life of the inclosed seas of late Siluric time. 



The Coralline or Cobleskill limestone. This study of the Guelph 

 fauna and stratigraphy has thrown important light on the proper construc- 

 tion of the fauna of the Coralline limestone of eastern New York. This 

 formation was first recognized as an element in the succession by John 

 Gebhard, and by Prof. Hall was considered an eastern continuation of the 

 Niagaran limestone. We have elsewhere suggested that the objectionable 

 character of its designation may be remedied by employing for it the term 

 Cobleskill limestone, as along this creek in Schoharie county, N. Y., the 

 section of the formation is typically expressed. We do not here propose 

 entering on an extended discussion of this fauna and its stratigraphic rela- 

 tions. These matters, which we have had under consideration for some 

 years, have recently been made the subject of careful and extended investi- 

 gation by C. A. Hartnagel, of the staff of this division and we have invited 

 him to insert here the following brief statement of his preliminary con- 

 clusions so far as they bear on the relation of this fauna to the Guelph. 



The Cobleskill formation in its typical development at Schoharie and 

 Howes Cave, Schoharie co. consists of a massive layer of dark gray, some- 

 what magnesian limestone averaging 6 feet in thickness. Above this lime- 

 stone and clearly distinguished from it by a change in lithologic character, 

 lie the Rondout beds, 40 feet thick and marked by basal layer of " cement 

 rock," 6 feet thick. Above this are 45 feet of typical Manlius limestone. 

 Underlying the Cobleskill and resting upon the Lorraine beds are 30 feet 



'Geologische Formationskunde. ed. 2. 1902. p. 102. 



