INVESTIGATORS OF THE MEDINA 297 



Paet II 



HISTORY OF THE MEDINA FORMATION 



Amos Eaton. — ^^This pioneer geologist of New York, who was the first 

 to write of the rocks now under discussion, states in 1824^^ that he was 

 the first "who attempted a particular classification of x\merican rocks/^ 

 and justifies his ability to do this with the statement that he had then 

 taught over two thousand pupils in geology, and "had travelled more 

 than three thousand miles on foot, and two thousand by water and car- 

 riage conveyance, in search of geological facts," before he came under 

 the patronage of Hon. Stephen van Rensselaer. "I have added more 

 than five thousand miles of land and canal travelling, in pursuit of the 

 same object, during the last four years," he states as further proof of his 

 ability. 



In this old book we see applied to the Medina formation for the first 

 time the names "Saliferous Rock," "Grey Band (or Grey Feke)," and 

 "Millstone Grit." The term "Grey Band" is still in use, though recently 

 Grabau (in Kindle) has proposed to replace it by Thorold sandstone. 

 The Saliferous Rock, Eaton states, "is an aggregate of minute rounded 

 grains of quartzose sand, or of minute argillaceous and quartzose grains, 

 formed into red or greenish sandstone, or soft red or greenish brittle clay 

 slate." The gray band "is a hard fine-grained grey rock, which is so com- 

 pact that it may be considered as homogeneous. It is a thin but continu- 

 ous stratum, everywhere overlaying the red saliferous rock ; and might be 

 called grey saliferous rock." Among the localities cited are Genesee Falls, 

 Oak Orchard Creek, 4 miles west of Rochester to Lockport, and Lewiston ; 

 a number of other places are given where red rocks are exposed, but these 

 clearly belong in the Salina formation, and from the occurrence of salt 

 in these localities came the term Saliferous, a name somewhat though not 

 entirely misapplied to the Medina. At Oak Orchard Creek are noted an 

 abundance of stylastrites, "with very distinct transverse or torulose 

 ridges." ^* These are now known as Arthrophycus alleghaniense. 



The same formations and names appear in Eaton's Geological Text- 

 BoohJ^^ where they are classified as of the "Lower Secondary, or Third 

 Series." In the second edition of this text-book^'' Eaton is in doubt as 

 to the proper disposition of the Saliferous in the geological column (he 

 had included in it Queenston, Medina, and Salina, hence his trouble), 



23 Geol. and Agric. Surv. Erie Canal, N. Y., 1824, p. 9. 



2* Op. cit, pp. 12, 35-36, 102-116. 



25 1830, pp. 39-40. 



28 1832, pp. 65, 82-83, 94, 96, 120. 



