78 NEAV YORK STATE MUSEUM 



textbooks, thougli they form the basis of much of the geologic 

 work of the day. For this reason it is belieyed that a somewhat 

 extensive discussion of them will be welcomed not only by the 

 lay reader, but also by the student of geology. 



Various list^ of the fossils characterizing the successive 

 Helderhergian divisions have been published, notably for 

 Countryman Kill near New Salem, for Becraft mountain, for the 

 region about Rondout and for the Port Jervis region. It has 

 not been deemed necessary to describe all the fossils found in the 

 Helderberg or higher strata of the Schoharie region, because in 

 the descriptions of these fossils in the volumes of the Palaeont 

 talogy of Neio York, account is taken of the species from Scho- 

 harie. A brief mention together with notation of the essential 

 characters of the more important species of each formation, was 

 considered sufficient, specially as the illustrations accompanying 

 this notice will in most cases suffice for purposes of identifica- 

 tion. In chapter 7, lists are given of the species recorded from 

 the Schoharie district. 



The detailed sections of Chapters 5 and 6, together with the dis- 

 cussion of the uppermost Siluric fauna, are addressed to the 

 student of the Paleozoic formations, but the other chapters are 

 primarily intended as a popular exposition of the geology of the 

 Schoharie district. 



Schoharie is reached from Albany, Schenectady or Bingham- 

 ton by the Delaware and Hudson Railroad, which connects with 

 the Schoharie Valley Railroad at Schoharie Junction. The town 

 is situated on the east bank of the Schoharie river, on its flood 

 plain, though low terraces of morainal material are found within 

 its limits. On one of these morainal terraces is situated the 

 old Lower Fort of the Schoharie valley, Avhich played a not unim- 

 portant role in the early wars of the colony. Behind the town 

 on the slopes of East hill is a terrace formed by the Coeymans 

 limestone, with the Manlius beds at the base. Lasell park, 

 reached most easily by a path through the cemetery behind the 

 courthouse, forms a portion of this terrace, and from it one has 

 a comprehensive view of the valley and the hills fringing it on 



