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NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM 



best localities being at the house of Mr George Acker on West 

 mountain, where a reel bain, visible from Schoharie, stands 

 directly on this surface; and on East mountain above the Fox kill, 

 where the road for some distance runs on this stratum. 



The two places just mentioned furnish the best localities 

 for collecting the Oriskany fossils of this region. The fossils 

 are best obtained from the loose blocks which are found plenti- 

 fully scattered about the fields or piled up in fences. The 

 weathered rock is easily shattered by the hammer, and care must 

 be taken to get the fossils without injuring them. 



On the eastern side of West hill there appear to be from 5 to 6 

 feet of the Oriskany, but owing to the imperfect sections exposed, 

 no accurate determinations could be made. On the west side of 

 this hill, however, this formation appears to be much thinner, and 

 in some places not represented at all. This is again the case 

 farther southwest along the road leading to Howes Cave between 

 Dann's and Sunset hills but on the north slope of the latter hill 

 a good exposure is found [see section in eh. 5]. On the whole* 

 the Oriskany sandstone is not Avell exposed in the Cobleskill val- 

 ley, and it is not impossible that it is absent over part of this 

 area. On East hill the thickness appears to be not over one or 

 two feet, the highest beds being represented. 



While the lack of outcrops can not of course be accepted as 

 conclusive evidence of the absence of this formation in portions 

 of this region, yet the fact that the Oriskany is so eminently fitted 

 to produce extensive outcrops, or at least to influence the topog- 

 raphy, lends color to the supposition that where the outcrops are 

 wanting, other conditions being favorable, this formation is either 

 absent, or so thin that it can not exert its normal influence on the 

 progress of erosion. If then we accepl the facts as indicating an 

 irregularity in 1he thickness of this formal ion, we have additional 

 evidence pointing to an hiatus between the Becraft and Oriskany 

 formations of Hi is region. We may therefore assume that during 

 early Oriskany time the Schoharie as well as the northern llelder- 

 berg regions were above water and subjeci to a certain amount of 

 erosion during which the Toi l Ewen beds and in places also por- 

 tions of the upper Becraft were removed, with the exception of 

 the remnant of the former formation found on West hill. During 



