326 Forty-fifth Report on tee State Museum. 



point when the daily observations of the work began from the 

 actual excavations in progress. The shaft has now progressed to 

 the depth of about 750 feet, and we have full records of the strata 

 passed through since the last week in May of the present year. 

 Large collections of fossils have been made and twenty-eight boxes 

 of specimens have been sent down to the State Hall. Some of these 

 boxes have been opened and the contents examined, as noticed 

 in the accompanying communication from Prof. Clarke. The 

 final result will bring to the Museum collections a large amount 

 of material from authentic horizons, and the observations made 

 during their collection will show the vertical distribution of the 

 species, and give us important information regarding the condi- 

 tion of the seabottom and the accumulation of sediments during 

 this period. 



It has not been thought desirable to compile a section of the 

 rocks, with notes on their contained fossils, at this time, but the 

 accompanying list of species will give some information of 

 interest. This work when completed, and the fossils compared 

 with the nature and succession of the deposits, will form an 

 interesting chapter in the geological history of the State. 



LIYONIA SALT SHAFT. 

 Fauna of the Hamilton shales from the base of the Genesee, at 

 225 feet to a depth of 350 feet. Kocks soft, compact bluish shale, 

 crumbling rapidly on exposure ; with occasional very thin calca- 

 reous bands. 



Abundant and characteristic. 

 Phacops rana, 

 Cryphaeus Boothi, 

 Homalonotus Dekayi, 

 Glyptodesma erectum, 

 Ambocoelia umbonata, 

 Lingula punctata. 



Common. 



Platyostoma lineatum, 

 Aviculopecten princeps, 

 A. scabridus, 

 Actinopteria decussata, 

 Grammysia arcuata, 

 Spirifer mucronatus, 

 S. audaculus, 

 Chonetes scitula, 



Dignomia alveata, 

 Streptelasma rectum, 

 Michelinia stylopora, 

 Polypora multiplex, 

 Stictopora incisurata. 

 Occasional. 



Proetus macrocephalus, 

 Orthoceras nuntium, 

 Tentaculites bellulus, 

 Styliolina fissurella, 

 Platyceras subrectum, 

 P. symmetricum, 

 Aviculopecten scabridus, 

 A. exactus, 



Pterinopecten undosus, 

 Lyriopecten orbicularis, 



