108 NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM 
The oft repeated alternation of gypseous beds with shales or limestone 
is illustrated by the section at Buffalo', where five to six repetitions 
of gypsum and shale are exposed. Alike repetition of gypsum beds, the 
gypsum mostly in thin seams and nodular layers, is:shown in the section of 
the Livonia salt shaft,? Livingston county,N. Y. This alternation of the 
gypseous beds with the dolomites and shales indicates a constant change _ 
of conditions which is difficult of explanation in a slowly and regularly 
desiccating basin, but denotes a periodic interruption of the drying process, 
either by inflow over the bar, or, perhaps, by seasonal freshets. | 
Another feature of the Salina beds favoring the bar theory is the 
great thickness of the salt beds. .In the Retsof salt shaft at York, Living- 
ston co., [Luther. op. cit. p. 118] the drill passed successively through 22 
feet of salt, 30 feet of shale and limestone and again through 58 feet of 
1 Section by Julius Pohlman [Buffalo Soc. Nat. Sci. Bul. 5:97] from the base of the 
Eurypterus beds (Bertie waterlime) of Buffalo down to near the base of the Salina 
formation | | 
Feet 
I-25 Shale and cement rock in thin streaks 
25-30 Tolerably pure cement rock 
30-43 Shale and cement rock in thin streaks 
43-47 Pure white gypsum 
47-49 Shale 
49-61 White gypsum 
61-62 Shale 
62-66 White gypsum 
66-73 Shale and gypsum, mottled 
73-131 Drab colored shale with several layers of white gypsum, measuring 
18 feet in all 
131-133 Dark colored limestone 
133-137 Shale and limestone 
137-140 Dark colored compact shale 
140-720 Gypsum and shale, mottled and in streaks 
420-725 Limestone 
725-760 Soft red shale 
760-785 White solid quartzose sandstone, very hard 
785-1305 Soft red shale 3 
2Luther. N. Y. State Geol. Rep’t, 1893, 1: go et seq. 
