64 



NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM 



shade out of the immediate reach of terrestrial drainage and which 

 during deposition escaped such coastal movements as would bring it 

 near the surface of the waters. It is needless to add that the depo- 

 sition of such fine calcareous muds in tidal flats must have been on 



protected coves and 

 embayments. Be- 



cause, then, the lime- 

 stones of the Perce 

 massive are so highly 

 tinted while none of 

 the great series in the 

 Forillon carries such 

 colors, we have no 

 reason herein for 

 regarding the two as 

 not continuous ; on 

 the contrary inter- 

 nal evidence demon- 

 strates their effective 

 continuity while that just cited would indicate that the Perce strata 

 were deposited in the shallow bays of an ever uneasy coast line.' 



The nature of the fossils in these limestones does not exclude 

 the conception of continuous deposition in shallows, but these organic 

 remains occur in distinct and rather widely separated bands which in 

 themselves may indicate the maximum depression and imply a slow 

 but constant vertical oscillation in the area of deposit through no great 

 amplitude. 



'In another place (N. Y. State Mus. Mem. 6, p. 200) we have brought together the 

 evidence which indicates that black shale deposits are depositions in very deep water, 

 quite the reverse of the current view which has held them to be deposition from quiet 

 shallows. We are called upon to revise and invert prevalent ideas of the bathymetry of 

 the limestones and bituminous shales and I am disposed to believe that no very substantial 

 antagonism to the later conceptions will be presented by paleontology. 



Venation in the limestones of Perce rock 



