﻿i8 Bulletin 19 68 



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eighteen miles south of Utica, is interesting, partly because it 

 is so laid open by deep and extensive quarries as to give nearly 

 a complete section of about 120 feet of rock, 1 15 of which can be 

 definitely measured from the Oriskany sandstone, here ten feet 

 thick, down to the bank of the abandoned Chenango canal, and 

 partly because, while highly fossiliferous at several levels, it 

 shows the condition and tendencies of the Lower Helderberg 

 limestones at a point nearly midway between Schoharie County 

 and Cayuga Lake." 



The section which this author then proceeds to give, differs 

 somewhat from the sections we have compiled at this locality for 

 the past several seasons in connection with our Summer School 

 of field geological work. Particularly do our thicknesses of beds 

 vary considerably. We used a Dumpy level and rod over gentle 

 slopes, and a steel tape wherever perpendicular escarpments were 

 measured. He does not record his method of measurement. 



Clarke remarks* in connection with his studies of the Oriskany 

 sandstone of Becraft Mt.: "The name Oriskany sandstone was 

 applied by Vanuxem to white or yellowish, often friable and 

 crumbling quartz sandstone exposed at Oriskany Falls, Onieda 

 Co. , where it has a thickness of 20 feet. All calcareous beds are 

 here wanting and the transition from the underlying Manlius 

 is abrupt" etc. In view of the detailed description of this lo- 

 cality by Williams in 1886, giving full account of the fauna now 

 known as Coeymans and perhaps other Helderbergian stages, 

 we are at a loss to know the meaning of Dr. Clarke's statements. 

 However, on p. 98 of the work just referred to, we find the fol- 

 lowing : "In east-central New York a repetition of the Manlius 

 fauna may appear, after a brief preliminary invasion of the latter 

 and displacing fauna, but in these oscillations between the re- 

 treating and invading faunas there is seldom evidence of a 

 commingling of species. ' ' 



From Schuchert's articlef on the "Manlius Formation of 

 New York" it appears that sections have recently been made by 

 Dr. Clarke in this portion of the State, though we have not seen 

 them published as 3^et ; for Schuchert in quoting from this 

 author says : "Neighboring sections, which we have recently 



*Mem. N. Y. State Museum, vol. 3, No. 3, 1900, p. 78. 

 fAmer. Geol., vol. 31, 1903, p. 170. 



