^98 C. SCHUCHERT MEDINA AND CATARACT FORMATIONS 



and he now refers it to a "Subordinate Series, embraced in the third 

 Regular series (Lower Secondary)." Here again the gray band is placed 

 as before, and he cites the same localities, with the addition of the N"i- 

 agara River. The most interesting addition here, however, is that Eaton 

 mentions Lingula mytiloides {=L. acuminata) and Encrinus giganteus 

 (described as new) as the fossils characterizing the "Saliferous." The 

 latter turns out to be nothing other than the widely known Arthrophycus 

 harlani Conrad, though no one would readily come to this conclusion 

 from Eaton's figure 8 on plate 1. It is defined thus: ''E. giganteus (red 

 coralline) branching, red or grey : often compressed, whirls uniform and 

 generally obscure: branches of great length; mostly lying in the direc- 

 tion of the layers, or nearly so. Found in saliferous rocks at Oak Or- 

 chard, Mineral Hill in Blenheim, and a mile south of Mt. House [Cats- 

 kills]" (page 37). The two last named localities must refer to something 

 else and are not typical, for on page 83 he states : "I find the encrinus 

 giganteus in all of them; though the whorls are often indistinct or not 

 manifest. They are most perfect at Oak Orchard Creek." This conclu- 

 sion is confirmed on page 120. Eaton is, of course, in error in regarding 

 these burrows as casts of the stems of crinoids. 



T. A. Conrad. — AVe now pass over an interval of five years before an- 

 other mention is made af the Medina formation. In 1836 the Geological 

 Survey of the State of Xew York was authorized and organized, and in 

 the following year was printed the first report. T. A. Conrad, who was 

 appointed State Geologist of the Third District, reported on the Medina 

 as follows : 



"Red or Variegated Sandstone of Xiagara Biver. AVe have chosen this 

 name because it is descriptive of the only sandstone developed in the 

 course of the Niagara River. . . . This widely distributed series of 

 red and gray sandstones and shales has been termed ^saliferous rock' by 

 Eaton, but it is by no means proved that it contains salt. . . . This 

 formation is very interesting, in consequence of the peculiar and uniform 

 nature of its organic remains." Those that he notes, however, are from 

 Oak Orchard Creek at Medina. "The most striking feature in these 

 sandstones and shales, is the vast abundance of fucoid, or marine plants, 

 particularly that species termed Fucoides Brongniartia by Dr. Harlan. 

 These penetrate ever)^ portion of the shale which constitutes the upper 

 portion of the mass. . . . Testaceous remains are seldom found where 

 fucoids are numerous, but immediately beneath the strata containing 

 them, fresh water [an error which he recognizes and corrects in the Fifth 

 Report, 1841, page 41] and marine shells abound in a limited space." 

 They occur in ."three narrow approximate veins filled with CycJostoma, 



