REPORT OF THE STATE PALEONTOLOGIST 1902 1195 



hillside on the north side of Delaware avenue between Gross's 

 residence and Gross's quarry; and in the vicinity of Whiteport 

 on the Walkill Valley Railroad, about 5 miles south of Kings- 

 ton. Two sections can be seen at Whiteport: one near the rail- 

 way station shows the Port Ewen beds underlying the Oriskany 

 sandstone; the other section in the bluff on the east side of the 

 track about 1 mile south of Whiteport station, shows the Port 

 Ewen beds, 180 feet thick, outcropping at the top of the bluff 

 between the Becraft and Oriskany. 



The fresh rock of this formation can best be obtained in the 

 prospect tunnel of the White lime quarry, which with a length 

 of 152 feet has penetrated a thickness of 107 feet of the Port 

 Ewen beds without reaching the chert near the top of the forma- 

 tion. It is hard dark gray, evenly fine grained siliceo-argillace- 

 ous limestone of very uneven fracture, containing a considerable 

 amount of finely disseminated iron pyrites, which hastens the 

 decomposition of the rock. One of the most characteristic fea- 

 tures of this formation and one which renders it easily recog- 

 nizable from a distance, and which is best observed in the rail- 

 way cuts and on the hillside near the tunnel at the Wilbur 

 bridge, is the presence throughout the greater part of the forma- 

 tion of well marked concretionary nodules of purer limestone, 

 which lie in lines parallel to the bedding planes of the rock. 

 The fresh rock of the nodules is slightly lighter in color and it 

 weathers by solution of its lime content much more rapidly than 

 does the general mass of the formation. The residual material 

 is a yellowish brown sandy mud rock or " rotten stone " which 

 is easily carried off during rain storms, so that lines of cavities 

 are formed in the exposed edges of the formation. These pock- 

 ets of rotten stone often contain well preserved silicified fossils. 

 With exception of the lowermost portion of the formation, 

 which, through a thickness of 10 or 12 feet just above the Becraft, 

 consists of lighter colored, more fossiliferous, purer limestone, 

 the general mass of the Port Ewen beds is not prolific of organic 

 remains. They can not be obtained at all from the fresh rock 

 (except in the basal layers), but careful search of the weathered 

 surfaces and specially of the rotten stone pockets, will yield 

 a considerable amount of satisfactory material in the form of 



