Report of the State Geologisi. 179 



any mistakes and misinterpretations of the past by a determi- 

 nation of the fossils of the several formations, and to substantiate 

 the sequence of the formations as proposed in the New York 

 reports by such evidence. 



During the earlier examinations of the western portion of the 

 State with the knowledged then possessed, it was naturally 

 inferred that the conglomerates lying upon the hill summits and 

 high grounds of Alleghany, Cattaraugus and Chautauqua counties 

 were of Carboniferous age, and it was only after studying the 

 few fossils found in these strata that they were proved to be 

 of the age of the subjacent Chemung rocks and it was therefore 

 necessary to relegate them to a lower horizon. Therefore the 

 Carboniferous rocks as indicated on the original geological map 

 of the state, except in the case of a small area to the south of the 

 Olean, have been proved to be of the age of the underlying 

 Chemung rocks. 



One of the most notable and interesting questions in discussion 

 at the close of the survev, had reference to the Oneonta sand- 

 stone and its relations to the Chemung and Catskill groups. In 

 the later discussions upon the subject by the IS^ew York State 

 geologists, and in their final meeting to adjust the nomenclature 

 no satisfactory solution of the difficulties surrounding this subject 

 was reached. 



The Oneonta and Montrose sandstones of the annual reports 

 of Mr. Yanuxem were in hi.; final report merged in the " Catskill 

 group,'' and the most characteristic fossil which lies at the base 

 of the Oneonta was designated as Cy2?ricardites Catshillensis. 



Mr. Mather, in his final report, used the term Catskill Division 

 to include the Montrose and Oneonta sandstones of the annual 

 geological reports and Nos. IX, X, XI and XII of the Pennsyl- 

 vania geological reports, and gives in great detail an account of 

 the lithological character of the series of strata constituting the 

 the successive terraces of the eastern mountain slope of the 

 Catskills."" 



* upper members of the Catskill mountain series of Geological Reports for 1840 and 1841. 

 Montrose sandstone, and Oneonta sandstone of Geological Reports of Nexo York. Old red 

 sandstone, jn-obably, of Europe. Xos. 9, 10, 11 and 12 of ths Pennsylvania Geological Reports. 

 Old red sandstone, No. 9 Mr. Conrad's arrangement. (Geological Report of New York, 1839 

 p. 62.) Final Report First Geological District, page 299. 1843. 



