Handbook of Paleontology 383 



and resistant. In the northern Helderberg area the lower 

 eight or ten feet of the grit in places was found to be 

 highly silicious or flinty and filled with the Taonurus- 

 markings, indicating a close relation with the Oriskany 

 sandstone of which it is considered a facies. The 

 middle beds are more argillaceous and the uppermost 

 beds again more strongly silicious, passing gradually into 

 the Schoharie grit above. The more cherty character of 

 the grit has been found in a greater thickness in the lower 

 beds in the Catskill area (Chadwick) and in the Esopus 

 creek these beds are very flinty. Where involved in 

 folding the Esopus shales have their greatest thickness 

 in southeastern New York. At Becraft mountain and 

 at Rondout there are about 300 feet, including the Scho- 

 harie, and at Port Jervis about 700 feet. In the north- 

 ern Helderberg area there is a thickness of 100 to 120 

 feet and in the Schoharie area 80 to 90 feet. As stated 

 above the beds are practically barren. Fossils have been 

 reported from the Esopus creek area and a few fossils, 

 mostly brachiopods, have been found in lower silicious 

 beds of the Catskill area (Chadwick). 



The Schoharie grit (Vanuxem '40) receives its name 

 from the type locality in Schoharie county (at Scho- 

 harie). It is a formation of somewhat local development, 

 occurring also in Albany and Otsego counties and in the 

 Hudson valley but apparently not everywhere continuous. 

 It is characterized by a great wealth of fossils, quite in 

 contrast to the Esopus shales. The formation is char- 

 acteristically developed in the Schoharie valley where it 

 is an impure silicious limestone, dark bluish gray in color 

 when fresh and weathering to a dark buff or brown 

 porous sandstone. Some parts of the rock are shaly and 

 rather sparingly fossiliferous. In the Schoharie area 



