DEVONIAN AND CARBONIFEROUS IN NEW YORK 529 



the position at which the boundary line between the Devonian and the Carbonif- 

 erous shall be drawn becomes, in some measure at least, a matter of convention. 



It might appear best for some reasons to draw this line at the base of the Wolf 

 Creek, where Carboniferous forms first appear, and consider both the Cattaraugus 

 red beds and the Oswayo and Knapp formations as Lower Carboniferous. 



Because of the thickness of these red beds and their reasonably certain strati- 

 graphic equivalence with the red beds of the Catskill to the east, and because of 

 the unconformity believed to exist between the Cattaraugus and the Oswayo, the 

 writer prefers to draw a provisional boundary between the Devonian and the Car- 

 boniferous at this point. 



All of the facts bearing on this difficult Devono-Carboniferous boundary problem 

 will not be at hand until paleontologic researches from both the Devonian and 

 Carboniferous starting points have been finished and detailed stratigraphic work 

 has been carried eastward, southward, and westward to connect with better known 

 and more clearly differentiated areas in these directions. Hence this boundary is 

 to be recognized and accepted as distinctly provisional only, and is subject to such 

 change as later investigations of the stratigraphy and paleontology of the adjacent 

 regions may warrant. 



The Clean has been agreed on as Carboniferous, but there has been considerable 

 difference of opinion as to just w^hat portion of the Carboniferous it represents, 

 although the weight of opinion has been in favor of its age being Pottsville. Very 

 recent field studies by Messrs M. R. Campbell * and David White are regarded by 

 them as definitely establishing its Pottsville age. It is still doubtful, however, as 

 to what part of the Pottsville it represents. It may be the equivalent of either the 

 Connoquenessing or of the Sharon, wdth the probabilities somewhat in favor of 

 the former. If it be equivalent to the Sharon, the few feet of overlying shale rep- 

 resent the Sharon shale and the thin coal bloom the upper Marshburg coal. If 

 it be the Connoquenessing, the overlying shale and coal belong to the Alton or 

 Merrcer Coal group. Detailed work to the south and west will be necessary to 

 settle this point. 



Results of a Reconnaissance into Pennsylvania 



WOLF CREEK COXGLOMERATE 



A reconnaissance was made southward into McKean county, Pennsylvania, and 

 then westward on both sides of the state line nearly to the western edge of Warren 

 county, Pennsylvania. 



South of Ceres the W^olf Creek conglomerate is well developed along Kings run, 

 being in places fully 20 feet thick, but weathering into pieces a few inches to a few 

 feet thick. It dips under stream level a short distance north of Glenn post-office. 

 West of this point on the road to Eldred it appears at the upper fork of Newel creek 

 and is again seen on the road just south of the upper fork of Barden brook, whence 

 it may be traced to Eldred, where it outcrops 180 feet above railway level. It is 

 represented in the Dennis well at Bradford by part or all of the 35 feet of sandstone 

 with base at 1,680 feet above tide. West of Bradford it is not satisfactorily . 

 identified. It probably loses its character even as a sandstone and soon entirely 

 disappears westward. 



SALAMASCA COSGLOMERATE 



No traces of the Salamanca conglomerate were found south of Ceres or near 

 Eldred. In the Dennis well at Bradford it is represented by the 23 feet of sand- 



* Personal letters from Mr M. R. Campbell, April 18 and 27, 1903. 



