CATSKILL GROUP. 195 



Termination of the strata. The conglomerates and coarse grits above the Catskill Moun- 

 tain House, have been referred to the Coal series, and this is probably right. In Chau- 

 tauque county, bids of conglomerate, apparently occupying the same position, are referred 

 also to the same period. 



Strata at Gilboa. An interesting locality of the Catskill division exists at Gilboa. A 

 good section is exposed by the Manorkill, a creek which Hows from the east, and falls into 

 the Schoharie creek near the village. The lowest rocks on the creek are, 



1. Four feet of green fragile lumpy shale. 



2. One foot brown hard compact sandstone, blotched with green. 



3. Two feet red slate, alternating with one or two feet of green shale. 



4. Ten feet of gray sindstone. 



5. Three feet of black shale. 



6. An undefined mass of gray sandstone succeeds, which contains land vegetables, and. at the Manor- 



kill falls, one mile above the village, also contains numerous fossils, among which are several 

 Cypricardia. two species of Solen, and what appears to be the Terebratula lepida. 



The rocks are coarse grits at the falls, with some layers of green tough shale, in which 

 are contained most of the Cypricardia. The tough lumpy character of this shale is a great 

 inconvenience to the collector of fossils. Above the Manorkill falls, the red marl or slate is 

 many feet thick. This is succeeded by the greenish and coarse sandstone shales alternating 

 for five or six hundred feet, and appearing in high and steep escarpments on the mountain 

 half a mile north of the kill : the rock contains a few Cypricardia. The whole series is 

 fossiliferous ; more so, we think, than what appears upon a cursory examination, princi- 

 pally on account of the coarseness of the grits and the unfavorable state of the stratifica- 

 tion. The beds at and immediately above the bank of the creek near the village are destitute 

 of animal remains, or at least we did not succeed in finding any. Now the stratum which 

 contains vegetables at other places, contains also Cypricardia. In this stratum, many 

 fragments of stems and long leaves are preserved, but crushed, and so broken that they 

 are worthless as cabinet specimens ; yet the stratum itself is a good guide for the rock. 

 It is the same as that described in Mr. Vanuxem's report, in which he first discovered the 

 fossils at Mount Upton on the Unadilla. The discovery of this stratum (or strata, for there 

 are several) at Gilboa, at the base of adjacent mountains, identifies two distant series, and 

 proves their equivalency and age. 



Continuation of the strata to Prattsville. The coarse grits continue to Prattsville ; and 

 though often concealed by debris along the banks of the Schoharie creek, vet a glance at 

 the cliffs of the adjacent hills will be sufficient to settle the fact that the strata of Gilboa 

 continue uninterruptedly to Prattsville ; and as but little progress is made towards the 

 south, or in the direction of the dip, we may feel satisfied that we gain but little in height. 

 This is important to be borne in mind, for it has been said that the rocks of Gilboa belong 

 to the Hamilton group, and as fossils closely resembling those of this formation were 

 discovered six or seven hundred feet at least above the locality on the Manorkill, where 



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