84- GEOLOGY OF ERIE COUNTY 



In general the formations of Erie county are rich in fossil 

 content. The limestones at the base of the section show a varied 

 and peculiar fauna. The Hamilton beds are extremely fossilifer- 

 ous and these are favorably exposed at numerous places in the 

 county. The Genundewa limestone is the repository of an 

 immense number of fish remains and although the Portage beds 

 of the county are less fossiliferous than the earlier beds, even 

 they contain a fairly abundant assemblage of fossils. 



Owing to the presence in the Cobleskill limestone of the 

 abundant Eurypterid fauna, this formation has been given much 

 detailed study by numerous observers. The Stafford limestone 

 has been minutely examined and its fossils described by Elvira 

 Wood. Amadeus Grabau published as a bulletin of the Buffalo 

 Society of Natural Sciences a careful study of the fossils of the 

 Hamilton beds. The Genesee beds have been searched for fish 

 remains by W. L. Bryant and the resulting description will 

 doubtless soon be published. The remaining formations have 

 received no such special study. 



The Onondaga limestone is extremely fossiliferous but owing 

 perhaps to the difficulty of freeing its fossils from their matrix 

 there seems to have been no study made of those occuring in the 

 county. Although Dr. Grabau examined and described the 

 upper beds of the Cardiff shale, the remainder together with the 

 Skaneateles remains practically untouched. The fauna of the 

 Portage beds of Erie county is practically unknown. D. Dana 

 Luther described these beds but only incidently mentioned their 

 fossils. Dr. Clarke in his "Naples Fauna" describes fossils 

 from Erie county but localizes them so indefinitely that it is 

 impossible to place them accurately in their formations. 



In the tables below I have endeavored to collect the names 

 of all the fossils recorded as occuring in Erie county together 

 with the formations in which they were observed. It is based 

 upon the work of the following observers: 



Cobleskill limestone, D. Dana Luther, Geology of Buffalo 

 Quadrangle; Stafford and Marcellus shales, Elvira Wood, 

 Marcellus limestones of Lancaster; Cardiff shale to Genundewa 

 limestone, Grabau, Palaeontology of Eighteen Mile creek; 

 Portage beds, J. M. Clark, Naples Fauna in western New York; 

 the entire series, James Hall, Palaeontologj^. 



