SUPPLEMENTAL REPORT — HOCKING VALLEY. 821 



sandstone rocks, and that it is not one of the interstratified limestones 

 of the Coal Measures, with a position more than a hundred feet above the 

 base of those Measures. 



But there is proof that this series of limestones belongs positively to 

 the Lower Carboniferous division of the great Carboniferous System. As 

 many of the fossils of this limestone as could be conveniently gathered 

 at Maxville and ZSTewtonville were sent in 1870 to the late Prof. Meek, 

 the accomplished palseontologist of the Ohio Survey, who had previously 

 had much experience in determining the animal fossils of the Coal 

 Measures and of the Lower Carboniferous limestones of the West. The 

 result of this determination was published in the American Journal of 

 Science, February, 1871. In his letter to me at the time, Professor Meek 

 wrote as follows : " From these fossils it is clearly evident that the lime- 

 stone from which they were obtained belongs, as you had supposed, to the 

 horizon of the Lower Carboniferous limestone series of the Western 

 States." In no case did he find any fossils peculiar to the Coal Meas- 

 ures. Only ten species were well enough preserved to be determined 

 specifically, and of these, eight were of Chester types, and two of St. Louis 

 types, both of the Lower Carboniferous. Professor Meek adds : " From 

 these facts I can scarcely doubt that we have in these local masses of 

 limestone a representation of the Chester group of the Lower Carbonif- 

 erous limestone series ; though it is possible that there may also be some 

 representation of the St. Louis limestone of the same series at some of the 

 outcrops. * * * The discovery of these beds is, I believe, the 

 first indication we have had of the existence* of any member of the Lower 

 Carboniferous limestone series of the West in Ohio." Many other fossils 

 have been obtained from the horizon of the Maxville limestone since 

 Professor Meek wrote the above; but not one of them, so far as I know, 

 has been found to be of a species characteristic of the Coal Measures. 



In addition to the argument derived from the fossils of these beds, it 

 may be stated that the limestones themselves, although presenting some 

 differences of lithological structure at different points, are every where 

 unlike any of the limestones found above them in the Coal Measures. 



In the report for 1869 it was suggested that these areas of Maxville 

 limestone may represent local basins in which the limestone was depos 

 ited. This may have been wrong, for it is quite possible that in the 

 original deposition the areas were connected and the formation contin- 

 uous. After deposition, large areas of it might have been removed with 

 much of the Waverly before the beds of the Coal Measure rocks were 

 laid down. This would leave valleys between the remnants of the Max- 

 ville limestone series. The subject of the erosion of the Waverly and 



