Black Shale of Eastern Kentucky. 385 



A more detailed description of the character and occurrence 

 of the black shale in Clark and Montgomery counties can be 

 found in the Geol. Snrv. Kentucky, Report on the Geology of 

 Clark and Montgomery counties, by W. M. Linney, pp. 33, 81. 

 It has here thinned out to a little more than a hundred feet 

 and rests upon a limestone, said to be the Corniferous, which 

 itself has a thickness of only seven feet. 



The age of the Devonian black shale has generally been 

 accredited as that of the Genesee shale of Xew York," and the 



* At first, as is well known, the black shale of the central States was correlated 

 with the Marcellus shale of Xew York (Hall, 1842, this Journal, vol. xlii, pp. 57, 

 62; Hall, 1843, Trans. Ass. Am. Geol. and Nat, vol. i. 1840-1842. pp. 272, 280, 

 289; Hall, 1843, Geology of New York, pt. 4, Survey of Fourth Geol. District, p. 

 519; Rogers, 1843. this Journal, vol. xlv, pp. 161, 162: Hall, 1845, Boston Jour. 

 Nat. Hist., vol. v, No. 1, p. 10; Hall (somewhat doubtfully), 1862, Fifteen Ann. 

 Rep. New York State Cab. Nat, Hist., p. 81); but in 1847 de Yerneuil published 

 his paper on the parallelism of the Paleozoic deposits of North America with 

 those of Europe (Bull. Geol. Soc. France (2), vol iv. pt. 1, pp. 646-7 10) in which he 

 showed that the formation in question was the equivalent of the Genesee.f and 

 since that time geologists have, for the most part, sanctioned this correlation. 

 Hall published a condensed and annoted translation of this work (this Journal, 

 vol. v, 1848, pp. 176-183, 359-370, and vol. vii, 1849, pp. 45-51, pp. 218-231) in 

 which as coming from de Verneuil are found on p. 182 (footnote, vol. 5) an inti- 

 mation and on p. 370 (vol. vii) a distinct statement of the correlation of the Black 

 Slate with the Genesee, a conclusion of which in a footnote on p. 182 (vol. v) the 

 translation appears to concede the correctness. Later, however, he recedes from 

 this position, for the black shale at Rockford, Indiana, he again refers to the age 

 of the Marcellus shale (Thirteenth Ann. Rep. New York State Cab. Nat. Hist., 

 1860, pp. 95, 96, 112). Meek and Worthen (this Journal, vol. xxxii, 1861, pp. 

 167-177) show that the Goniatite bed at this locality referred to by Hall, instead of 

 being Marcellus, really belongs to the Carboniferous era They claim(p. 172) that 

 the black slate in Illinois rests upon well marked Hamilton beds and cannot there- 

 fore be equivalent to the Marcellus shale, being most probably better correlated 

 with the Genesee as held by de Verneuii. Similarly Meek has shown that the 

 black bituminous shale of Athabasca and Clear Water, which rests upon a lime- 

 stone stratum correlated by him with the Hamilton limestone, represents the 

 Genesee instead of the Marcellus shale, to which horizon it is referred by Sir 

 John Richardson and Mr. Isbister. He concludes that the dark, bituminous shale 

 or slate known as the black shale of the Western States, which is rather exten- 

 sively developed in southern Indiana, and portions of Illinois, Kentucky, Tennessee, 

 and some of the Western and Southern States, holds " exactly the same position 

 with relation to the Hamilton beds as the Clear Water and Athabasca shales " 

 and is equivalent to the Genesee shale of New York (Trans. Chicago Acad. Sci., 

 vol. i, pt. 1, 1867, p. 65 and footnote). Similarly in Ohio (Rep. Geol. Surv. Ohio, 

 vol. i; Geol. and Pal. pt. 1, Geol. 1873, p. 154) the Huron shale is shown by 

 Newberry to be underlaid by Hamilton shales. He cites the Huron shale 

 from Canada, New York, Pennsylvania, Kentucky, Tennessee, Michigan and 

 Indiana, and correlates it with the Genesee and overlying Gardeau shale of 

 New York. In " Indiana, Dep. Geol. and Nat. Resources, Twenty-first Ann, 

 Rep., 1896, p. 109," I find a chapter headed "Some notes on the Black slate or 



f Even before this Owen thought that the balance of probabilities was in favor 

 of correlating the black shale with the Genesee (this Journal, vol. iii, 1847, p. 

 72), while toward the same conclusion tend Yandall and Shumard (Contributions 

 to the Geology of Kentucky. Louisville, 1847, p. 16), who identify some Lingulas 

 and Orbiculoideas from the Black Slate of Indiana and Kentucky as Schizobolus 

 concentricus, Lingula spatulata and Orbiculoidea Lodensis, all three described from 

 the Genesee shale. 



