34 C. L. HERRICK — THE CUYAHOGA AND WAVERLY. 



tinct lithologically that, as Professor Orton says, " there is not a stratum in 

 our geological column that can be followed across the state in more easily 

 demonstrated identity than this." 



Another statement of that author requires riiodification in view of our dis- 

 cover;^ (published about the same time) of abundant evidences of life in the 

 shale. This statement is the following : 



" In the lower beds of the Bedford shale fossils are, in northern Ohio, at a few 

 points, abundant. They are of pronounced Sub-Carboniferous character, comprising 

 Syringothyyis typa^ Heniipronites crenisti'ia, Chonetes logani, Orthis michelhii, Spir- 

 iferi7ia solidorostris, and others of like association. None of these fossils have been 

 reported south of the lake shore." * 



In 1888 we found at Central College, near Columbus, in the lower part of 

 the Bedford shale, an abundant fauna of evident Devonian habit, including 

 about twenty species, at least half being closely allied to or identical with 

 Hamilton species and with no admixture of strictly Waverly species. At 

 the same place we traced such species as Strophomena rhornboidalis and 

 Atrypa reticularis to a point above the Berea grit. Subsequently the same 

 association of fossils was found in the middle Bedford of Chagrin falls, Cuya- 

 hoga valley, and elsewhere. Even in the typical locality at Bedford Macro- 

 don hamiltonce, Microdon bellistriatus, Leda dlversa, Palceaneilo constricta and 

 Chonetes scitula are found 40 feet below the Berea grit. It is true that the 

 forms identified by Newberry, and upon which the Carboniferous age of the 

 Bedford has been maintained, do occur associated with Macrodon hamiltonce; 

 but,*so far as observed (and I think I have seen most of the specimens), they 

 are thus associated in the bands of flags intercalated with the shale and not 

 in the shale itself. However that may be, out of the list quoted, Syringothyris 

 typa and Spiriferina solidirostris are the only species which could carry con- 

 viction ; the others are either too widely distributed or too closely allied with 

 Devonian types to be positively identified from crushed and imperfect speci- 

 mens. As to the Syringothyris, after careful examination I incline to think 

 it distinct from the species characteristic of the middle Waverly, while it is 

 very rarely found in the shales 100 feet above the Berea. The generic as- 

 semblage also counts for nothing, for Professor James Hall has shown that 

 Syringothyris is certainly not a Carboniferous genus but arises in the De- 

 vonian. Again, such well-known Devonian forms as Strophomena rhom- 

 hoidalis and Atrypa reticularis rise to the summit of the Cuyahoga shale. 



The lithological character of the Bedford deposits changes as it passes east- 

 ward and assimilates with that of the Erie, so that where the Cleveland shale 

 loses its distinctive features the two merge insensibly. 



While we paay dissent from Professor Orton's classification of the Ohio 

 shales in some respects, enough has been said to prove that if we are to look 



* Rep. Geol. Survey of Ohio, vol. VI, 1885, p. 34. 



