Handbook of Paleontology 379 



Leptaena rhomb oidalis, Stropheodonta (Leptostrophia) 

 becki, Rhipidomella oblata, Meristella laevis and M. prin- 

 ceps, Anastrophia verneuili, Eatonia medialis and E. pe- 

 culiaris, Dalmanella planoconvexa, Schuchertella wool- 

 worthana familiar to us from the lower beds, occur 

 here ; also the trilobites Phacops logani, Dalmanites 

 (Odontochile) pleuroptyx, the pteropod Tentaculites 

 elongatus, the coral Pleurodictyum lenticulare, the 

 sponge Hindia inornata. The fauna is predominantly- 

 New Scotland, though the transitional character of the 

 Port Ewen to the Oriskany is indicated by the presence 

 of a few Oriskany species such as Meristella lata and 

 Spirifer murchisoni. The presence of the latter has led 

 to the placing of the Port Ewen with the Oriskany but 

 these beds seem more properly to belong in the Helder- 

 bergian where they were placed at first. 



The Oriskany sandstone receives its name from the 

 type locality at Oriskany Falls, Oneida county, where it 

 consists of a nearly pure, white fossiliferous quartz sand 

 rock, 20 feet in thickness. This sandstone represents 

 shore deposits of the transgressing sea in Oriskany time. 

 The early Oriskany sea was restricted to the eastern part 

 of the present Helderberg area. When the westward trans- 

 gression of this sea occurred the subsiding land surface 

 was more or less irregular due to elevation and erosion at 

 the end of Helderbergian time. In the east the lower 

 Oriskany beds rest upon the Port Ewen, the upper mem- 

 ber of the Helderbergian. In the northern Helderbergs 

 the Oriskany rests upon Becraft, in the Schoharie area 

 on the Alsen, at Litchfield in Herkimer county on the 

 Coeymans, in central New York on the Manlius and in 

 western New York and Canada on the Cobleskill. From 

 Manlius (Onondaga county) on westward the so-called 



