THE USE OF BEDFORD AS A FORMATIONAL NAME 



In a paper about to be published by Professor Charles S. 

 Prosser it will be stated that the "Bedford shale was named by 

 Newberry in 1870 1 from outcrops east of Cleveland at which 

 place, he later states, the best exposures occur." It will be fur- 

 ther stated that the term " Bedford rock" as used by Owen 2 for 

 a portion of the Sub-Carboniferous limestone of Indiana was evi- 

 dently not intended as a formation name. 



In the citation of Owen's use of the term Bedford rock lies 

 the basis for the present use of the name Bedford for the 

 Indiana formation. In the later reports of the Indiana Geo- 

 logical Survey, down to the Twenty-first Annual Report, the 

 name Bedford is not applied to these rocks ; but in the Fifteenth 

 Annual Report the name Salem rock 3 is used, though not as a 

 formation name, and again in the Seventeenth Report, Salem is 

 said to afford the "best exposure for study [of the oolitic lime- 

 stone] from the geologist's point of view." 4 In the Fifteenth 

 Report {/oc. cit.) a section of the Salem Stone and Lime Com- 

 pany's quarry one half mile west of Salem is given as follows : 



Soil and rubbish - - - 3 feet 



Dark blue, bituminous limestone (bastard) 6 " 



Gray oolitic quarry stone - - 30 " 

 Blue crystalline limestone - 6 " 



Total - 45- feet 



The oolitic character of the rock is said to be especially well 

 shown in this section. 



Since the term Bedford as the name of a formation is pre- 

 occupied, having been applied to the " Bedford shale " of 



1 Geol. Surv. Ohio, Part I, Rept. Progress in 1869, 1870, p. 21. 



'Geol. Recon. Indiana, 1862, p. 137. 



3 Ind. Geol. and Nat. Hist., Fifteenth Ann. Rept., p. 143. 



4 Indiana, Dept. of Geol. and Nat. Resources, Seventeenth Ann. Rept., p. 47. 



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