January 15, 1897.] 



SCIENCE. 



93 



making a series of rocks several thousand 

 feet in thickness, while the southern repre- 

 sentations of the Paleozoic series in Ten- 

 nessee and Alabama is a single formation 

 composed of a single kind of sediment, the 

 Black Shale, and holding, when pure, only 

 one fauna of verj^ few species. It occupies 

 the whole interval between the Silurian 

 and Carboniferous strata. In order to ac- 

 count for the differences the principles of 

 (a) difference of origin for rock: (viz. (1) 

 organic and (2) fragmental), and (b) the 

 sorting power of moving waters were found 

 applicable to most of the cases, but not to 

 account for the origin of the black shales 

 or of the Oriskan j'. 



For the explanation of the Black Shale 

 an origin of the sediments was found in the 

 decay of Lower Silurian limestones compos- 

 ing the surface of the Cincinnati plateau, 

 which occupied the center of the great in- 

 terior continental basin. The distribution 

 of these black shale muds was accounted 

 for by oceanic currents. Their absence from 

 central Tennessee and neighboring tracts 

 was referred to the scouring of the shallows 

 and to lack of sedimentation ; the absence 

 of other faunas to the fatal effects of the fine 

 mud upon marine life. The time of begin- 

 ning of tlie sediments was placed at the 

 close of the crisis which brought in the 

 Oriskany sediment ; the black color was ex- 

 plained by Sargasso- sea vegetation. The 

 Oriskany formation and its distribution 

 from a center in eastern New York, along 

 the northern shores of the intercontinental 

 basin and along the eastern shores, decreas- 

 ing in force with extension southward, and 

 its absence west of the Cincinnati plateau, 

 were explained as the result of sinking of 

 the northeast rim of the basin in the Lake 

 Champlain region sufficient to open com- 

 munication through the St. Lawrence val- 

 ley, past Montreal, with the eastern sea, 

 and allowing of extensive wash by tidal 

 flows through the estuary or channel, thus 



bringing into the basin great quantities of 

 coarse sand and the new Oriskany fauna. 



In the discussion that followed Mr. Hayes 

 called attention to the thickening of the 

 black shale at its extreme extension south- 

 ward in Alabama, thus confirming the prob- 

 ability that there was land elevation in 

 that direction during Devonian time. 



A Complete Oil Well Record in the McDonald 

 Field betiveen the Pittsburg Coal and the Fifth 

 Oil Sand. I. C. White. 

 The speaker stated that a new well had 

 been sunk at Pittsburg from the Pittsburg 

 coal seam, 5,800 feet to or below the Carbo- 

 niferous. Samples had been preserved every 

 five feet, and the well is to go 500-600 feet 

 deeper, making it the deepest well in 

 America and second only to one in Ger- 

 many. 



Structure of the Newark Formation of Western 

 New Jersey. Henry B. Ktjmmel, Chi- 

 cago, 111. 



The sedimentary rocks of the Newark 

 formation in western New Jersey are divis- 

 ible into three subdivisions to which the 

 geographical names Stockton, Lockatong 

 and Brunswick have been given provision- 

 ally. The Stockton beds are the lowest 

 and consist of arkose conglomerates and 

 sandstones, freestones and red shales, in- 

 terbedded and many times repeated. The 

 arkose beds are characteristic of this subdi- 

 vision. The Lockatong beds are next and 

 consist of hard, black and dark green argil- 

 lites and shales with some red flagstones. 

 The black argillites are characteristic of 

 this division. The Brunswick beds consist 

 in the main of soft red shales with a few 

 sandy layers. Along the northwest bound- 

 ary all three divisions lose their type char- 

 acter and grade along the strike into coarse 

 sandstones or massive conglomerates. Two 

 profound faults traverse the formation 

 and repeat the series twice. Faults of a 

 few feet are not uncommon. Although the 



