28 NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM 



that has been carried on for a number of years and siimmarized 

 in a series of annual bulletins. ' Owing to the press of other duties, 

 as well as the difficulties in securing prompt publication, the summary- 

 was not available as early as heretofore. The principal features 

 of the year's record only will be referred to here. It was a period 

 of extraordinary conditions, marked by unprecedented activity in 

 certain departments of industry and by violent reactions and curtail- 

 ment of output in others. The aggregate value of the mineral 

 production upon the basis of the crude or first marketable forms 

 of the materials, amounted to $51,943,796, a gain of $5,995,849 over 

 the total for the preceding year, and the largest value returned up 

 to the present time. Not all the increase may be attributed to 

 actual increments in the quantities of the materials produced; 

 since prices for the more essential commodities also advanced. The 

 production of iron ore was 1,356,011 long tons, valued at $7,381,333; 

 that of zinc ore 47,961 tons, valued at $1,059,186;- and that of 

 pyrite 57,075 tons valued at $354,000. These represented the more 

 important metallic minerals. Among the nonmetallic products were : 

 salt, 15,457,636 barrels ($5,371,713); Portland cement, 5,408,726 

 barrels ($7,050,656); gypsum, 606,268 tons ($2,036,820); petroleum, 

 879,685 barrels ($2,850,378); natural gas, 8,371,747,000 cubic feet 

 ($2,499,303); talc, 74,671 ($881,462); building brick, 660,183,000 

 ($5,118,966); pottery, valued at $4,076,817; other clay products, 

 valued at $2,232,616; quarry products, valued at $6,283,556; 

 molding sand, valued at $808,550; other kinds of sand, valued at 

 $2,237,897; and many minor products including apatite, natural 

 cement, crude clays, diatomaceous earth, emery,- feldspar, garnet, 

 marl, millstones, metallic paints, mineral waters, quartz, sand-lime 

 brick, slate, representing altogether a value of $1,430,293. 



PALEONTOLOGY 



In the expansion of the monographic treatment of the early 

 geological formations and their fossil contents, work has been com- 

 pleted on the faunas of the Utica, Frankfort and Lorraine formations. 



The life zones that have been distinguished (three in the Utica 

 and eight in the Lorraine) were mentioned in the last report. The 

 closer study of the faunas has shown that our development of the 

 Cincinnatian division contains about 250 species, one-third of which 

 are forms known before from New York, another third known before 

 from Ohio, Canada etc. and the remainder are new to science. 

 Comparison of the different life zones with those of the adjoining 



