NOMENCLA TURE OF THE OHIO FORMA TIONS 5 3 I 



H. Oliphant, wherein the Sharon conglomerate is made identical with the 

 Olean.' 



Dr. I. C. White would retain the name "Sharon" for this 

 conglomerate, and has written me to this effect. He says: 



I do not think the use of "Sharon" for the conglome7-ate of that name is 

 forbidden because it had previously been given to a coa/ bed, since the things 

 are so unlike, .... I think "Sharon" conglomerate which applies only to 

 a particular bed of the "Pottsville" series, should stand, and not be replaced 

 by "Olean," since the term "Sharon" is older as applied to the stratum in 

 question.^ 



Regarding the age of the Olean and the question of its cor- 

 relation with the Sharon conglomerate Dr. David White has 

 written as follows : 



The Olean is shown to be Pottsville. It contains sufficient Upper Car- 

 boniferous plants to prove it to be Pennsylvanian ; but not enough to strictly 



define its age beyond Upper Pottsville The correlation of Sharon and 



Olean is a working assumption based in part on circumstantial evidence, 

 both formations being found in the same relation, beneath the thin sections of 

 Pottsville, on the eroded Lower Carboniferous. I have no conclusive proof 

 that they are equal and represent the same formation. And, since over part 

 of the way between Sharon and Olean the Conoquenessing seems to rest 

 directly on the Pocono, I personally favor the use of Sharon, in conformity 

 with Dr. I. C. White's usage, until satisfactory proof of the identity of 

 Olean and Sharon may be established.^ 



Therefore, since there is yet some doubt regarding the iden- 

 tity of the Olean and Sharon conglomerates, the latter name is 

 retained for the present for this member of the Pottsville forma- 

 tion in Ohio. 



II. Possibly later studies may decide that for eastern Ohio it 

 will be better to drop the name " Cuyahoga formation" and use 

 the classification of western Pennsylvania for the rocks between 

 the top of the Berea grit and the base of the Sharon conglom- 

 erate, which in ascending order are Orangeville shale, Sharps- 

 ville sandstone, Meadville shales, and Shenango sandstone, 

 all named and described by Dr. I. C. White in 1880, with the 

 exception of the Meadville shales, which was published in 1881. 

 Professor H. P. Gushing, however, writes me as follows regard- 

 ing this matter : 



' Letter of March 23, 1903. = Letter of April 2, 1903. 3 Letter of June 10, 1903. 



