GEOLOGY AND PALEONTOLOGY OP THE SCHOHARIE VALLEY 127 



Under the description of the Brayman shales it has been pointed 

 out that the contact with the underlying sandstone has all the 

 character of a normal conformable contact, there being absolutely 

 no indicatipn in the exposures of a break in the series. Further- 

 more the sandstones are different in lithic character from those 

 commonly found in the Lorraine and have characteristics in com- 

 mon with the Brayman shales. To place the long time interval 

 between the Champlainic and Upper Siluric at this level seems 

 wholly unwarranted ; indeed, the nature of the contact forbids it. 

 We must look lower down for this Siluro-Champlainic contact, 

 and consider the sandstones immediately in contact with the 

 Brayman shales as the equivalent of the Binnewater sandstones 

 in the cement region. That the contact between these sandstones 

 and the Hudson river (Lorraine) beds has not been found need 

 create no surprise when it is remembered that the upper Lorraine 

 beds are also sandstones and that therefore the contact would not 

 be a pronounced one ; and furthermore, that there is nowhere in 

 this region a good continuous exposure where this contact could 

 easily be traced. 



Northeastward from Schoharie the basal beds progressively 

 thin Siwaj. At the Albany county line both the basal sandstones 

 (Binnewater) ancl the Brayman shales have disappeared, being 

 overlapped by the Cobleskill. At Altamont the Cobleskill is also 

 absent, together with the greater part of the Rondout, only about 

 2 feet of the latter occurring between the Manlius and the Lor- 

 raine. NorthAvard from the cement region of Ulster county a 

 similar dying away ot lower and overlapping of higher beds 

 occurs. At Catskill the Cobleskill rests on the Lorraine, while at 

 Becraft the Manlius, or at any rate the upper Rondout beds, rest 

 on the Lorraine. At New Salem (H- feet of the Rondout occur, 

 separated by a transition basal sandstone of 10 inches which ])rob- 

 ably represents the arenaceous clastic accumulations on the old 

 erosion surface of Hudson river rocks.^ At Indian Ladder the 



'Pro'sser & Rowe. Stratigraphy of the Eastern Helderbergs. N. Y. 

 State Geol. 17th An. Rep't, p.S38. See also Schuchert. Am. Geol. 21:173. 



