Handbook of Paleontology 341 



years and includes, besides the eurypterids, marine fos- 

 sils consisting of seaweeds, corals, graptolites, cystoids, 

 bryozoans, brachiopods, pelecypods, gastropods, cephalo- 

 pods and crustaceans (Ruedemann '25). It is not a 

 typical marine fauna, however, and many of the forms 

 studied were represented by only a few examples. The 

 scarcity of marine shells is believed to be due to early 

 dissolution in the dolomitic mud. The character of the 

 fauna, with a number of strange forms, and the relation 

 of the waterlime to the overlying "Bullhead" (Akron 

 dolomite) are an indication of the true situation. The 

 x\kron dolomite is the western continuation of the Cobles- 

 kill limestone or coral facies and the close connection be- 

 tween the Bertie waterlime and this suggests that the 

 Bertie was deposited in a lagoon behind coral reefs (far- 

 ther to the south in Bertie time), and that a sinking of 

 the land resulted in an invasion of the sea and a fresh- 

 ening of the waters in which the barren Camillus shale 

 was deposited (Ruedemann). All the fossils of the 

 Bertie, including the eurypterids, have been found in the 

 uppermost Bertie beds as one approaches the purely ma- 

 rine conditions of the Cobleskill. 



The Brayman shale (Grabau '06) was named from 

 its occurrence at Braymanville in Schoharie county. It 

 is a green and gray, pyritiferous shale which lies beneath 

 the Cobleskill in Schoharie county and continues into Al- 

 bany county. The maximum thickness in the Schoharie 

 area is -10 feet, less than three feet are found in the In- 

 dian Ladder region of Albany county and a short dis- 

 tance below this, at Xew Salem, the thickness has 

 dwindled to ten inches. Farther south again (Feura 

 Bush and Bethlehem quarries) it thickens to nine feet or 



