The Devonian Section of Central New York 

 Along the Unadilla River.'' 



By Charles S. Pkosser. 



[Communicated for the report of the State Geologist ] 



The Unadilla Fection of the New York middle and upper Devonian f 

 is located about midway between the meridians of 75° and 75° 30' W. 

 Long, from Greenwich, or between 1° 30' and 2° E. Long, from 

 Washington. 



The section commences in Paris tosinship, Oreida county, and fol- 

 lows the Unadilla yalley southward through portions of Madison, Che- 

 nango and Otsego counties to New Berlin, Chenango county. At this 

 village the Unadilla valley is left and the hills which form the water- 

 shed between the Unadilla and Susquehanna rivers are crossed to 

 Oneonta and Otego in Otsego county. The termination of the section 

 is south of the Susquehanna river on the high hills of Delaware 

 county. 



The Corniferous limestone which gives a somewhat marked physical 

 character to the region, so that its general easterly and westerly direc- 

 tion is readily followed, is made the geologic base of this general 

 section. The rock is massive and not easily affected by weathering, a 

 fact shown by the bold escarpments of the hills whose summits and 

 slopes are often covered with angular fragments of the limestone. 



Numerous articles have been written describing the effect of the 

 Corniferous and other similar limestones upon the overlying soil. 

 Some authors hold the opinion that the fertility of the soil is largely 

 due to the underlying limestone; while another view is "that soils are 

 so far removed from their parent rock, that the one upon which they 



* The greater portion of this paper was originally presented to the Faculty of Cornell Uni- 

 versity as a thesis for the degree of M. S. 



tin a paper on "The Classification of the Upper Devonian/' by Dr H. S. Williams, this 

 section received the number X on the chart of the " Meridional sections of the Upper Devonian 

 deposits of New York, Pennsylvania and Ohio.'" Proc. Am. Assoc. Adv. Sci., vol, xxxiv, see 

 page2v.5: also Fifth Ann. Kept U. S. Geol. Survey, p. 52; and Smithsonian Ann. Rept., 1883^ 

 p. 79. 



