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NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM 



Chapter 5 



CHARACTERISTIC SECTIONS IN THE SCHOHARIE REGION 



The following sections are given to bring out the detail of the 

 stratigraphy of the Schoharie region. 



Several of the sections have previously been published, among 

 these the detailed section of the Hamilton and Upper Devonic 

 strata made by Prosser. This indefatigable worker in the Pale- 

 ozoic stratigraphy of eastern United States has put all students of 

 that subject under lasting obligations by his extensive and de- 

 tailed investigations of the succession of strata and the distri- 

 bution of species in these regions. 



Prosser's sections are freely reproduced in this chapter with 

 such slight modifications as were desirable to bring them into 

 harmony of arrangement with the general plan of this work 1 . 



1 Section of the old Brown quarry of Schoharie - 



This abandoned quarry is in the hollow between the cemetery 

 and the road leading east from Schoharie postoffice. The quarry 

 wall described is just to the north of the road and wholly below it. 



Near the Brown quarry. 1.4 mile southeast of the Schoharie post- 

 office, the Salina (Brayman) shales are exposed by the roadside. 

 In the quarry there is exposed the basal member of the Cobleskill, 

 38 inches thick. This layer is hard and compact and except where 

 weathered, fossils can be obtained from it only with difficulty. 

 This layer is followed by one 16 inches thick, locally known as the 

 marble layer on account of the beautiful polish which it takes. 

 The marble layer is followed by thin layers 1 to 3 inches thick, 

 having a somewhat sandy texture and quite fossiliferous. 



The faunas from the different layers vary somewhat. In the 

 thin layers at the top C a m a r otoe c h i a ? I a m e 1 1 a t a is 

 very abundant and an undetermined species of Beyrichia occurs 

 in large 4 numbers. Chaetetes sp. and Tentacmlites 

 sp. mulct, are also found in the thin layers. From the basal layer 

 a single specimen of Leptaena rhomboidalis has been 

 obtained. This species was also found at Clarke's cave west of 

 Schoharie. It is however very rave in the Cobleskill of Schoharie 

 county. 2 



1 Prof. Prosser lias most courteously revised all his sections for this work 

 so as to embody the results of his latest studies. 



2 Hartnagel, C. A. X. Y. State Mus. Bui. CO. 1903. p. 1120-21. 



