Notes on the G-eology of Yates County, N. Y. 203 



Haime and Cystophyllum Americanum^ Edw. and Haime. There is also 

 a form that resembles the last in structure, but is greatly flattened and 

 attains a length of two feet. Where these corals occur the limestone 

 is so impure as to be hardly worthy of the name, being dark, loose and 

 " rotten." No brachiopods or other fossils are found with the corals. 



The third layer contains a few fossils; the fourth and fifth many. 

 It is useless to look for Rhynchonella venustula, Hall, above the lowest 

 layer. They are most frequently found within a foot of the base, ac- 

 companied by a small, circular, flattish species of Atrypa. This seems 

 to be what Mr. Vanuxem named A. lentiformis, and which has been 

 considered by more recent authors as identical with A. reticularis, L. 

 Although the two agree perfectly in markings, we have never, among 

 thousands of the latter species, found one that agreed with the former 

 in shape. Nor have we ever collected from the Tully a specimen of 

 Atrypa larger than a half-grown A. reticularis, such as are found in 

 the shales below. The A. lentiformis, Vanuxem, is always less ventricose, 

 smaller and more nearly circular. Orthis Tulliensis, Van., occurs 

 with R. venustula also, but more sparingly than the last, and we have 

 never found either above or below the Tully. Loxonema nexilis, Phill., 

 is not uncommon. Proetus marginalis, Con., has been found here. 



Mr. William Buxton found a very fine specimen at Bellona, 

 resembling Nautilus magister, Hall, but it does not enlarge so rapidly ; 

 also a fine Cyrtoceras, spJ Mr. William Coon, of Milo Centre, N. Y, 

 found the largest and most perfect Orthoceras we have ever seen from 

 Devonian rocks, in the Tully limestone at Bellona. These are the only 

 Oephalopods we have seen or known of having been found in the Tully 

 limestone in this county. 



There is a cave of considerable size in a gully near the " Old Friend 

 House " in the town of Torrey. The entrance is only large enough to 

 admit a small boy, and children have crawled in a distance of fifteen or 

 twenty feet, projecting in front of them a long pole with a torch at 

 the end, thus being enabled, to see a considerable distance and to ob- 

 serve side chambers. About a rod from the entrance there is a sudden 

 contraction of the passage-way which prevents further progress, but it 

 enlarges greatly beyond this point. Some fine stalactites have been 

 taken from beneath the limestone. 



Moscow Shale. 



This formation is finely exposed in Yates county, appearing in 

 Kashong creek in the town of Torrey, formerly the shore line of 

 Seneca lake, as far south as Shingle point, and cropping out in the 

 outlet of Lake Keuka, Near Hopeton, is an outlier which was once 



