224 PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL 3IU8EUM. tol. 41. 



CONCLUSIONS. 



To sum up, it is believed that the paieontologic and stratigraphic 

 data presented in the preceding pages warrant the following con- 

 clusions : 



I. The Waverlyan section in Tennessee, in its most complete 

 development, contains formations of the three series of the general 

 time scale, comprising (1) the Chattanooga black shale with its 

 initial deposit, the Hardin sandstone, and a succeeding green shale 

 with phosphatic nodules, the Maury green shale; (2) an over- 

 lying shale here named the Ridgetop, which is referred to the 

 lower part of the Kinderhook; and (3) the Osage formations con- 

 sisting of (a) crinoidal limestone and intercalated green shales equiva- 

 lent to the New Providence shale of Kentucky and the Fern Glen 

 of Missouri, and (b) the Fort Payne chert, a light blue siliceous lime- 

 stone of Keokuk age. 



II. The Chattanooga black shale is a wide-spread, overlapping 

 formation on both sides of the Nashville dome. Thxe Kinderhook 

 Ridgetop shale is apparently restricted to the northern and western 

 flanks of the dome, where, however, it is well developed and usually 

 present in sections. The New Providence has a more local distribu- 

 tion, in fact, it seems to occupy old embayments of the dome. Finally 

 the Fort Payne chert has as great a distribution as the Chattanooga 

 shale. 



III. Instead of a single fauna of Keokuk age, two distinct faunas 

 can now be recognized in the classic Whites Creek Springs crinoid 

 locality. One of these, the lower fauna, is identical with that of the 

 New Providence shale, while the other contains only Keokuk species. 



IV. The upper Cuyahoga shale. New Providence shale, and the 

 formation in Tennessee here referred to the latter, and the typical 

 Fern Glen of Missouri, contain essentially the same fauna, which, 

 on account of its intimate relation to the fauna of the lower Burling- 

 ton, causes the reference of these deposits to the Osage instead of the 

 Kinderhook. The stratigraphic relations of the New Providence 

 to the preceding Kinderhook formations are also much less con- 

 formable than to the succeeding typical Burlington limestone. 

 There is thus a good diastrophic reason for regarding it as the basal 

 member of the Osage and not as the top of the Kinderhook. 



