Handbook of Paleontology 267 



was more active forming more muds and sands to be 

 washed into the sea., so the later deposits were shales and 

 sandstones. In southeastern New York the so-called 

 "Hudson River" shales and sandstones overlie the Wap- 

 pinger terrane and in the northern part of the State 

 Canajoharie, Utica and Lorraine shales and sandstones 

 overlie the Chazy, Black River and Trenton limestones. 

 The Ordovician strata in New York have an aggregate 

 thickness of about 5000 feet, mostly deposited in a shal- 

 low sea, even the limestones. The complete thickness is 

 not found in any one place, nor are all the formations 

 present in unbroken succession, since oscillations of land 

 and sea have in some areas and then in others caused in- 

 terruptions in sedimentation. 



The Ordovician formations of New York (figures 32- 

 34) were first studied by Ebenezer Emmons, Geologist 

 of the Second New York District and he grouped them 

 together as the Champlain System from the extensive 

 exposures bordering the lake, but his Champlain system 

 also included Canadian and probably also some Ozarkian. 

 In Vermont and in the Taconic range of mountains form- 

 ing the New York-Massachusetts boundary line the rocks 

 are very strongly folded and metamorphosed and very 

 difficult to distinguish. Most American geologists of 

 Emmons' time referred this whole series to the Ordovi- 

 cian. Emmons regarded them as belonging to an older 

 system which he called the Taconic ; and he was in part 

 correct, though it is now known that besides the older 

 rocks there are infolded and faulted strata of Canadian 

 and Ordovician age. The discussion that arose over the 

 age of these folded and metamorphosed rocks has been 

 termed the "Taconic Controversy." The classification of 

 the New York formations follows, dashes marking the 



