PALEOZOIC FORMATIONS OF MARYLAND 4 19 



VIII^^" of Pennsjdvania, which they represent. The higher rocks 

 are drab and bluish argillaceous to arenaceous shales and thin 

 sandstones, which usually weather to an olive or yellowish-gray 

 tint. At certain localities they are very fossiliferous, contain- 

 ing numerous specimens of Spirifer grayiulostis, S. nmcronattis, 

 Athyris spiriferoides, Tropidoleptus carinatiis, Chonetes coronata, 

 Phacops rana and other characteristic species of the Hamilton 

 formation of New York, the fauna amounting to about 150 

 species. The formation, which varies in thickness from 1600 to 

 1650 feet, is named from the exposures near Romney, in north- 

 eastern West Virginia, and represents the Marcellus shale and 

 Hamilton beds of New York, and No. WWb and c of Pennsvl- 

 vania. 



In 1842 Emmons proposed the name Erie group for all the 

 New York rocks between the base of the Marcellus shales and 

 the top of the Chemung.' Mr. Darton, in 1892, proposed and 

 defined the Romney shales, named from exposures in the vicinity 

 of Romney, Hampshire county, in northeastern West Virginia,^ 

 which are now known to be equivalent to the Marcellus shales 

 and Hamilton beds of New York. Messrs. Clarke and Schu- 

 chert, in 1899, used the term Erian in their revised classification 

 of the New York series for the group composed of the Marcellus 

 shales and Hamilton beds, and stated that it represented the 

 "Erie Division " revived with a restricted meaning. ^ 



It appears that the Romney formation is equivalent to the 

 Erian group of New York ; but the writer is undecided as to 

 which name the laws of nomenclature entitle to recognition in 

 Maryland. 



Jetunngs formation. — The eastern area crosses the eastern 

 part of the county from the northeast to the southwest ; the 

 second area lies to the west of Green Ridge, and in its northern 

 half covers a large district to the north and east of the Romney 

 formation ; the third covers the lower part of Evitt's Creek 

 valley between the two arms of the V-shaped Romney area, and 



'Geology, New York, Pt. II, pp. 100, 429. 



^Am. Geologist, Vol. X, pp. 17, 18. 3 Science, N. S., Vol. X, pp. 876, 877. 



