REPORT OF THE STATE PALEONTOLOGIST 1902 1153 



and in part accounts for the great abundance of fossils found 

 at the top of the Wilbur limestone, where it grades into the 

 cement rock above. In a like manner immense numbers of 

 ostracods are found at the top of the cement at the juncture with 

 the Cobleskill limestone. At the close of the Cobleskill there is 

 an almost complete annihilation of the fauna. The nonmarine 

 conditions of the Rondout were much more widespread in their 

 influences than those during which the lower cement bed was 

 formed, and throughout the extent of the Rondout in New York 

 but few of the Cobleskill species pass upward into this formation. 

 In some of the shaly layers at the top of the Cobleskill in Ulster 

 county very many remains of trilobites and other fossils have been 

 found, and somewhat similar conditions have been observed in 

 Schoharie county. 



In the Nearpass section the conditions so affecting the faunas 

 farther north are not so apparent, and the rock is of a more cal- 

 careous nature throughout, and some of the species found in the 

 lower part pass directly upward into the Cobleskill limestone. 



The age given to the formation below the Cobleskill in the 

 Nearpass section as determined by Weller was the same as the 

 Niagara. His determination, however, was made when the 

 Cobleskill was supposed to represent the eastern extension of the 

 Niagara. Still he showed that the Cobleskill can represent only 

 the upper portion of the Niagara, and that it is transitional 

 from the underlying limestone and shales. As we now know that 

 the Cobleskill is just above the Salina, .the fossiliferous formation 

 just below the 6 foot bed of Cobleskill in the Nearpass section 

 will be considered of Salina age. The Bossardville limestone 

 lying below these fossiliferous beds in the Nearpass section, is 

 also considered of Salina age. 



The Nearpass section as above construed, as well as the section 

 in Ulster county, does not include any formation of Niagara age. 

 The absence of the Niagara from these sections may in part be 

 accounted for as follows. Beginning with Oneida sedimentation 

 [fig. 4] we have each of the successive deposits overlapping the 

 next older till the Niagara is reached. This series of overlaps is 

 observed of the deposits in eastern New York laid down in the 



