•Il6 NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM 



cement co., and here a stratum nearly 6 feet thick is quarried and 

 converted into cement. As the quarries are opened south of the 

 second escarpment (inface of the Onondaga cuesta 1 ), the surface 

 rock of Onondaga limestone and the Manhus limestone have to be 

 stripped off before the cement rock is reached. 



The characters of the several strata have been briefly enumerated 

 in the section derived from the gas well core. The upper beds, 

 which are alone accessible in this region, may generally be seen in 

 the escarpment, specially where it is crossed by streams, as at Will- 

 iamsville, or where quarries have been opened. The rock is fine 

 grained, often showing a marked banding or lamination, and breaks 

 with a conchoidal fracture, producing rounded surfaces. 



In this rock we find entombed the remains of those remarkable 

 Crustacea, the Eurypterids, whose bizarre form, remotely fish-like, 

 has excited more interest than any other fossil found in this region. 

 These Crustacea have made the Waterlime of Buffalo famous, and 

 the Buffalo society of natural sciences, whose collections embrace a 

 magnificent series of these fossils, has fittingly adopted it as chief 

 among its insignia. 



Besides these Crustacea several other organisms have been found 

 in the Waterlime strata of north Buffalo. Among these are a num- 

 ber of undescribed brachiopods, including at least one species of 

 L i n g u 1 a . 



Manlius limestone 



The waterlime of north Buffalo is succeeded by a stratum of im- 

 pure limestone from 7 to 8 feet in thickness and known locally by 

 the name of " bullhead " rock. The line of demarkation between the 

 two formations is not a very pronounced one, for the inferior rock 

 grades upward into the superior one. The rock is a dolomitic lime- 

 stone of a very compact semicrystalline character, with a high per- 

 cent of argillaceous material, and not infrequently a strong petrol- 

 eum odor. It is mottled, having frequently the appearance of a 

 limestone breccia, and consists of purplish gray, angular or rec- 

 tangular pieces and similar light colored and more yellowish ones. 

 The latter appear to be more argillaceous than the former. There 



1 See chapter 1. 



