New York State Museum 



MARCELLUS (STAFFORD) LIMESTONES OF LANCASTER, 



ERIE CO. N. Y. 



(Communicated for the report of the state paleontologist) 

 BY ELVIRA WOOD 



PI. 9 



INTRODUCTION 



The existence of a bed of limestone within the Marcellus 

 formation of western New York was early recorded by Prof. 

 James Hall 1 ; and to this limestone John M. Clarke 2 has given 

 the name Stafford limestone, because of its exceptional develop- 

 ment at Stafford, Genesee co. 



Prof. I. P. Bishop 3 describes the occurrence of limestone beds 

 at Lancaster, Erie county which he correlates with the Staf- 

 ford limestone of Clarke, but with a mention of only one fossil, 

 an Orthoceras, in the upper beds. No account of the fossils of 

 this locality has been published, and it is with the fauna and 

 its characteristics that the following paper is chiefly concerned. 



SUCCESSION OF THE MARCELLUS BEDS AT LANCASTER 



The Marcellus limestones of Lancaster N. Y. are best exposed 

 in the bed of Plumbottom creek above its junction with Cayuga 

 creek. The general direction of these streams is shown in the 

 accompanying map of a part of the town of Lancaster. 



The dark gray Marcellus shales are first seen in the bed of 

 Plumbottom creek about half way between Foundry and Court 

 streets. Ascending the stream toward the east the bed rock 

 changes in character to a compact limestone lighter in color 

 than the shale, and highly fossiliferous. The limestone is sep- 

 arable into beds varying in lithologic character and in fossil 

 contents, and is well exposed in the bed and banks of the creek 

 to the dam above Court street, and in the quarry of George 



i Geol. N. Y. 4th geol. district 1843. p. 177-83. 



2 List of the species constituting the known fauna and flora of the Marcellus epoch in New York . 

 N. Y. state geol. 8th an. rep't. 1888. p. 60. 



3 Structural and economic geology of Erie county. N. Y. state geol. 15th an. rept. 1898. 1:305. 



