BUFFALO SOCIETY OF NATURAE SCIENCES 21 



Any outcrop of the Stafford along Lake Erie is deeply buried 

 under drift. Stony Point probably marks its location there. It 

 crosses Cazenovia creek an eighth of a mile below the Cazenovia 

 street bridge and has been exposed there by sewer excavations. 

 It forms a ledge across Buffum street at Seneca Indian Park where 

 it is concealed by only two feet of soil. It crops out in Buffalo 

 creek near the junction of Indian Church Road and Mineral 

 Spring Road. Its lowest beds and its contact with the underlying 

 Marcellus shale are shown in a cut made by the New York Central 

 Railway a mile north of Gardenville. At Lancaster it is exposed 

 in Cayuga and Plumbottom creeks. 



At Lancaster it comprises eight beds as follows: (Woods.) 

 H. 12 inches. 



G. 



14 



F. 



14 



E. 



18 



D. 



10 



C. 



14 



B. 



6 



A. 



12 



These beds have been the subject of a special study by Miss 

 Elvira Woods who lists 72 species of fossils. 



Cardiff Shale. 



Following the Stafford limestone upward is a deposit of dark 

 gray shale which forms the uppermost member of the Marcellus 

 beds. This was called by Vanuxem "The Upper shales of the 

 Marcellus." Because of its exposure in the village of Cardiff, 

 Onondaga county it has been designated by Dr. Clarke the 

 Cardiff shale. It extends eastward to Schoharie county. 



The Cardiff shale comprises a series of dark gray, calcareous, 

 or dense black shales including a few very thin limestone layers 

 and spheroidal concretions in rows. In fresh exposures this shale 

 is usually dense and black but it weathers after exposure to a 

 dark, ashen gray. It is extremely fissile and breaks after exposure 

 into thin, hard laminae with sharp edges. It weathers slowly in 

 cliff sections and forms sheer ragged-edged cliffs. It is cut by 

 cleavage planes at nearly right angles which cause its exposed 

 surfaces to assume the appearance of lozenge shaped parallelo- 

 grams. 



