422 NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM 



the canal. Amsterdam is among the locaUties at which the rock 

 was noticed.^ 



In the second report Mr Vanuxem mentions the fossil F u c o i d- 

 es demissa (Stylastrites of Eaton) as characterizing the 

 Birdseye and names among the localities of the rock "Amsterdam 

 on both sides of the river near Evakill, Marcellus quarry [Rock- 

 ton] between the kill and Chucteronde creek [Chuctanunda of the 

 present report] ;"2 and again, " this rock contains fragments of the 

 Calciferous at Marcellus quarry near Amsterdam " (p. 283). 



In V^anuxem's final report a full account of this rock is given 

 with a woodcut exhibiting the fossil Fucoides demissa 

 (=P hytopsis tubulosa, Hall). He says " the Birdseye 

 limestone of the Mohawk is readily distinguished from the othtr 

 rocks by its light dove-color, which by long exposure to the weather 

 becomes of a light ash gray or white. It is usually in thick layers 

 which are straight, having very little interposed matter between 

 them, with vertical joints which are so straight and even as to 

 give to the rock where quarried the appearance of a wall. In its 

 grain it is very compact, fracture smooth, and from being brit- 

 tle^ is an easy rock to work."^ Among the localities mentioned for 

 the Birdseye are a " small quarry back of Amsterdam " where " the 

 layers are few in number and of no great thickness " and " in two 

 insulated hills between the [Marcellus] quarry and Chucteronde 

 creek " (p. 41). 



Emmons in his final report of 1842 figured the fossil Fucoides 

 demissa considering it as an animal of the class of Polypes, 

 and also figured and described a peculiar anastomosis sometimes 

 seen on the surfaces of layers of Birdseye.'* In his volume on agri- 

 culture he states that the Orthoceras multicameratum 

 is equally characteristic with Fucoides demissa.^ 



In Barton's paper on the Geology of the Mohawk valley (1893) 

 the Birdseye is described as a white-weathering rock contain- 

 ing fucoid stems and represented about Amsterdam by " from 3 

 to 5 feet of very compact, gray to black, thin bedded limestone 



^Loc. cit. Assembly doc. no. 161, p. 162, 163. 

 ^Loc. cit. Assembly doc. no. 200, p. 259. 

 ^Geology of New York, pt 3, p. 38. 

 *GeoIogy of New York, pt 2, p. 109, 110. 

 ^Agriculture of New York, 1:122. 



