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NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM 



shows its close affiliation with that of the Helderbergian, as 

 well as with those of later Devonic age. For this reason it has 

 seemed important to present in detail an account of this fauna 

 at its best development, as has been done in the memoir herewith 

 submitted. 



Fauna of the Portage beds. Investigations carried on for a 

 number of years past have shown that the organic constitutents 

 of the Portage beds are very imperfectly known. The group 

 of strata deposited in Portage time has been shown to represent at 

 least three distinct faunal provinces and presents problems in the 

 geographic distribution and dispersion and in the evolution of 

 ancient faunas unexampled in our paleozoic rocks. The western 

 Portage province, or that developed through the counties of the 

 state from Seneca to Chautauqua, has proven of exceptional in- 

 terest, as it carries a very large number of forms, heretofore un- 

 described, which bring it into close relationship with faunas of 

 like geologic age in Germany and Russia. It is probably the most 

 complete and unmodified reproduction of a European fauna yet 

 observed in the paleozoic rocks of America. In the 16th annual 

 report of the state geologist (1896) the writer published a first 

 instalment of the results of these investigations, entitled " The 

 Naples fauna (fauna with Manticoceras intumescens) 

 in Western New York," prefaced by a geologic introduction and 

 covering the Goniatitinae, (165 pages and nine plates). The 

 investigation of this problem has been continued, analyses of a 

 considerable number of other species have been prepared and a 

 substantial number of drawings illustrating the species have been 

 completed. 



Faunal colonies in the Clinton beds. In western New York, 

 through Orleans and Niagara counties, occur lenticular masses 

 of limestone from 10 to 30 feet in diameter and entirely discon- 

 nected, these in one place lying embedded in the midst of the 

 Clinton limestone, though of wholly different texture and com- 

 position therefrom; in another, resting on the top of the 

 Clinton limestone; and in still another, lying in the shales 

 above the limestone and displacing or being surrounded by the 



