G-eological Survey of the State of Ohio. 351 



lias, oolite, &c. The fioo latter are rocks which have been very 

 partially, or more probably not deposited at all, over the coal meas- 

 ures of Ohio." Thus asserting, by implication at least, that the 

 new red sandstone exists in Ohio. In the 29th Vol. of this Jour- 

 nal, if we recollect right, the writer suggests that we may have 

 an equivalent of the sandstone of the Connecticut valley, in the 

 valley of the Ohio. This, he founds on the coincidence of the 

 two rocks in lithological character. We have seen no forma- 

 tion in Ohio, which we have thought equivalent to the new red 

 sandstone, and we have had an opportunity of studying both for- 

 mations attentively. While the sandstone of the Connecticut val- 

 ley agrees in many important particulars,* with that containing the 

 zechstein of Germany, and the new red sandstone of England, it 

 differs, so far as our observations extend, from any formation in 

 Ohio, in its lithological characters, in its associated minerals and in 

 its organic remains. The prevailing colorf of the former is a deep 

 red, sometimes variegated — that of the latter, white — but occasion- 

 ally tinged. The same difference is observable in the respective 

 shales of the two formations. Copper is a common mineral in the 

 new red sandstone of the Connecticut valley. In Ohio, we have 

 detected it but in a single instance, and that in a small quantity. 

 In the former, bituminous marlite is common — in the latter, we 

 find nothing which approaches it. In the former, satin spar often 

 forms a thin lamina with the shale ; — in the latter, never. The 

 same diversity exists with regard to the organic remains. The 

 rocks, which crop out on the eastern part of Ohio, we regard as 

 the most modern, with the exception of the recent and tertiary 

 formations. Here the dip is E. S. E., nor is there an anticlinal axis 

 between this and the western border of the State. Yet in these 

 rocks occur the Producta and the Spirifer — fossils characteristic 

 of an older formation than the new red sandstone. The new red 

 sandstone is characterized by a scarcity of organic remains. In 

 Ohio, they are profusely scattered throughout all the rocks. In 

 Ohio, no mammifers, and indeed, no vertebrata have been found. J 



* Hitchcock's Geol. Mass. p. 212. 



t Color is a character of little value among rocks, especially in the sand- 

 stones. — Eds. 



t Ichthyolites are said to have been fouud in the buhr of Ohio, but this needs 

 confirmation. They are the only vertebrata as yet found below the new red sand- 

 stone. There can be no doubt, from the imbedded fossils, that the buhr of Ohio 

 is a member of the coal series. 



