

DESCKIPTI01S OF THE FORMATIONS. F 2 . 77 



lived and died where their fossils are found. The shells 

 are perfect, both valves are together, and the internal spiral 



structure is often well shown. Yet their very small size 

 shows that the conditions of life were not altogether con- 

 genial. 



The Kin(j s Mill shales. 



Overlying the King's Mill sandstone is a series of red sand- 

 stones and shales, green shales and thin limestones, some 

 of the latter being crowded with fossils mostly in a bad 

 stale of preservation in consequence of compression and 

 distortion. Near the middle of the series lie the upper fish 

 beds — two thin layers of scales of the same species as those 

 below the sandstone. Spirifera disjuncta, very small, is 

 the only fossil readily identified, the rest being lamelli- 

 branchiate shells, of two or three apparently undescribed. 

 species. The limestone bands are crammed with two or 

 three species of small crustaceans (BeyriclmO also appar- 

 ently new. 



The Dellmlle sandstone. 



The fossiliferous series near the base of the Catskill stops 

 at the base of a thick, heavy bed. of green sandstone, which 

 is a conspicuous object in several places along Sherman's 

 creek and has served in several places as a barrier confining 

 the stream to its channel. A full account of it will be 

 found in the report on Wheatfield township ; but it is proper 

 here to say that it is a double mass of green sandstone, 

 mostly in thin beds, and yielding no fossils except a few in- 

 distinct stems. Near the middle of this sandstone is a 

 layer of vegetable matter about an inch thick, consisting 

 almost entirely oi fossil j)lai it stems, but in so confused and. 

 crushed a condition that I have never succeeded in extri- 

 cating a single recognizable specimen. 



This Dellville sandstone I have taken as the base of the 

 proper Catskill in Perry county. It forms a convenient 

 and conspicuous plane of division in the southern part of 

 the county and is probably continuous over the whole dis- 

 trict. 



May not the Dellville sandstone owe its green color to 



