54 F 7 . REPORT OF PROGRESS. E. W. CLAYPOLE. 



These Red and Variegated marls of the Onondaga group 

 occupy a very large area of Perry county, especially in the 

 west, where they are exposed by the erosion of the over- 

 lying beds. The Red shale area is fringed along its whole, 

 or nearly its whole, outcrop by the A^ariegated shales, which 

 run out into long tongues as shown on the geological map. 

 The whole of the long strip running from Loysville east- 

 ward, with the exception of a small part near Loysville, 

 consists of the Onondaga variegated shales. Both these 

 and the underlying Red shales form a warm fertile soil 

 when disintegrated, and for this reason the w r est of Perry 

 county is a better farming district than the east. 



Onondaga Bloomfteld sandstone. 



Near the top of the second division of the Onondaga 

 variegated shales occurs a thin bed of soft friable sand- 

 stone, breaking up into rectangular, brick-shaped fragments. 

 Like the shales it is of varying colors, dull reddish and 

 greenish, and is about ten feet thick. Being harder than 

 the beds adjoining it, its presence is usually indicated by a 

 well-marked low ridge running along its outcrop. This 

 may be well traced in Centre township. It passes under 

 New Bloomfield, and a good section of it may be found on 

 the road to Newport, half a mile east of the town. Other 

 sections are visible at various places along the voile}' road. 



This sandstone is one of the beds containing Leperditia 

 alta in great abundance, both at New Bloomfield and at 

 Landisburg. It also possesses great interest and importance 

 from having yielded the fossils of which an account will be 

 found in another place. 



This is no doubt the bed which Prof. Rogers describes in 

 Geol. Penn., 1858, (p. 329.) ''In the upper part of this mass, 

 the Scalent gray marl, near the bottom of the Scalent 

 limestone, there is a bed of argillaceous sandstone in layers 

 of various colors, dull red, gray, white, and greenish. This 

 rock which breaks up into small rectangular fragments has 

 a total thickness of only 8 or 10 feet, and yet owing to its 

 superior hardness to the underlying marls it generally forms 

 a decided feature to the surface, occupying a low ridge by 



