June 19, 1914] 



SCIENCE 



917 



fossils have ever been found in the Queenston 

 division in Western New York, but the dis- 

 covery of fossils in these beds in Canada has 

 led geologists who are familiar with the evi- 

 dence to agree that they belong in the Ordo- 

 vician system.^^ The fossils which have been 

 found in the Queenston near Collingwood, 

 Ontario/^ place the Richmond age of the 

 Queenston beyond question. The fauna of 

 the upper Medina, however, as has long been 

 known, places it in the Silurian. It is re- 

 ported by Williams^' that evidence in the 

 shape of mud cracks at the top of the Queens- 

 ton indicate a stratigraphic break between the 

 Queenston shale and the succeeding sandstone 

 which is the Whirlpool member^" of the 

 Medina. The Medina sandstone of Hall in 

 either the group or formation sense therefore 

 holds the anomalous position of including ter- 

 ranes which are not only unlike in physical 

 characters, but which belong in different geo- 

 logical systems and are, moreover, separated by 

 a disconformity. If beds can be properly kept 

 in either the same formation or group which 

 are so wholly unlike as the Queenston shale and 

 the Medina sandstone of Grabau and which 

 belong in distinct geological systems, then 

 the terms formation and group have no value 

 or definite meaning whatsoever in geology. It 

 is a case where the growth of knowledge has 

 made it impossible logically to hold to the 

 earlier usage of Hall. In the light of present 

 knowledge a restriction of the term so that it 

 will not overlap systemic boundaries appears 

 to be the only feasible method of employing it. 

 Grabau's emendation of Hall's usage accords 

 with the pronounced lithologic features which 

 distinguish the upper 100 feet of the Niagara 

 section from the beds below, and also with the 

 later knowledge concerning the systemic rela- 

 13 Grabau, A. W., Science, Vol. 22, 1905, p. 529 ; 

 Bull. 92, N. Y. State Mus.; Science, Vol. 27, 1908, 

 p. 622. XJlrieh, E. O., Bull. Geol. Soc. Am., Vol. 22, 



1911, pi. 27. 



1* Foerste, Aug. F., Ohio Naturalist, Vol. 13, 



1912, p. 47. 



15 Paper read before the Geological Society of 

 America, January, 1914. 



16 Name proposed by A. W. Grabau, Jour. Geol, 

 Vol. 17, 1909, p. 238. 



tions of these beds. This application of the 

 term Medina, which includes the Whirlpool 

 sandstone as its basal member and the Thorold 

 quartzite as its uppermost member, is the 

 usage which the writer believes should and 

 will prevail. The new name Albion which was 

 introduced by the writer in the Niagara Folio^'^ 

 is synonymous with Medina as emended by 

 Grabau. The latter term is therefore entirely 

 superfluous and should be dropi>ed from the 

 literature. 



Professor Ghas. Schuchert's recent important 

 discovery, that much of the " Clinton " of the 

 old reports of the Canadian Geological Survey 

 lies entirely below the base of the New York 

 Clinton, must be taken into account in any 

 revision of the Niagara section. Beds in this 

 section which have shown a fauna too meager 

 to encourage special study heretofore, and a 

 lithologic differentiation too slight to appear 

 to merit discrimination as separate members 

 or minor lithologic units have taken on new 

 significance and importance through the work 

 of Schuchert, Parks and Williams in the 

 region west and northwest of the Niagara 

 section. One of these beds contains in the 

 Ontario peninsula a rich and partly unde- 

 scribed fauna which has been referred to by 

 Schuchert^^ and Parks^^' as the Cataract 

 fauna. The examination by the writer of a 

 number of sections holding this fauna in con- 

 nection with a review of the Niagara section 

 has convinced him that all of the terranes 

 associated with the Cataract fauna are repre- 

 sented in the Medina of the Niagara section. 

 These have been given individual or member 

 names in recognition of their physical and 

 faunal contrasts by Dr. M. Y. Williams.^o 



17 TMs name was suggested to the writer by the 

 U. S. Geological Survey Committee on geologic 

 names, but since in a Federal bureau suggest and 

 command are convertible terms the writer may rea- 

 sonably disclaim any responsibility for its use as 

 well as for the usage of Medina there employed. 



18 Paper read before Geological Society of 

 America, January, 1913. 



19 " Excursions in Southwest Ontario," Guide 

 Book No. 4, pp. 127, 134. 



20 Paper read before meeting of the Geological 

 Society of America, January, 1914. 



