CONCLUSION 365 



Clinton, upper Clinton, and Eochester) are closely paralleled by the four 

 Silurian divisions of the Anticosti series (13, plate 4, omitting Gama- 

 chian), and that the term Anticostian is indeed the best available series 

 name for the Eontaric as here defined. 



The chart (figure 5) will serve to express the present summation of 

 the problem of the New York "Clinton'^ and its associate strata. The 

 section is based on the thicknesses given in a preceding list of horizons. 

 The columns on the left show the main steps in the nomenclatural history 

 and those on the right the w^riter's conception. Under the caption "Al- 

 lowable (?) usage^' is a possible compromise or transitional terminology 

 entailing the least displacement of familiar terms, though such a Pro- 

 crustean solution is not wholly unobjectionable. 



Conclusion 



The New York "Clinton" holds but the thin overlapping edges of the 

 more wide-spread members of the strata which in Pennsylvania are re- 

 puted to be nearly half a mile thick.-^ Between these rhythmic waves of 

 submergence must be many disconformities in the strata, especially in 

 the basal ones, which (when marine) should be thin and non-persistent 

 as compared with the higher. 



Though thus fragmentary, the New York record is perhaps the more 

 valuable for purpose of classification, since it isolates and emphasizes suc- 

 cessive faunules that in areas of continuous sedimentation may so blend 

 or overlap as to obscure their systematic value. 



The section at Clinton was a most unfortunate one on which to base a 

 name for a group, as its elements have long remained undifferentiated, 

 are largely lacking in discriminative criteria, and are far from typical for 

 nearly every component. 



The faunal characterization of the group had to be made from other 

 localities lying beyond a wide drift-covered interval, beneath wdiose veil 

 the lithology and fossils change so completely that the original correla- 

 tion was scarcely more than a "good guess," fortunately now justified by 

 the well records. 



But the "Clinton group" as generally interpreted proves to consist of 

 two incongruous portions, belonging one with the Eochester, the other 

 with the Cataract-Medina. Hence, since the name "Clinton" can not with- 

 out much inconvenience be extended to embrace these last, and so to cover 

 the whole Eontaric (Anticostian), nor can it well be restricted to either 

 of its two components, as was done with the name Silurian, it would ap- 



21 Professor Schuchert comments that a lot of this is Sallnan. 



