REPORT OF THE STATE PALEONTOLOGIST 1902 1017 



The soft layers contain the common Portage fossils in small 

 numbers, and crinoids and Aulopora also occur. 



A layer of sandstone 2 feet thick, about 40 feet above the 

 bottom of the cascades, contains fossil sponges. 



The horizon is very nearly the same as that in which 

 sponges occur at Varysburg. At the top of the falls a layer 

 of compact blue sandstone 5 feet thick is overlain by 4 feet of 

 shales, that are succeeded by another layer of sandstone like 

 the one below and 10 feet thick. The strata next above are 

 covered, but black shale is exposed slightly a short distance 

 up the stream. 



These sandstones are in the horizon of the Portage sand- 

 stones of the Genesee river section. They are near the surface 

 over a large area in the town of Sheldon and outcrop in many 

 places. They also outcrop frequently on the west side of the 

 valley south of Johnsons Falls for 5 or 6 miles, to Java Village, 

 where 8 feet of the upper bed are exposed on the upper side 

 of the bridge over a small stream that comes in from the east 

 through a deep ravine. 



The sandstone is here succeeded by 15 feet of black shale, 

 next above which there are 145 feet of soft blue and olive Wis- 

 coy shales with thin bands of black slates and a few thin flags. 



In the lower part of this section the rock is quite calcareous, 

 and there are many concretions and concretionary layers. 

 The upper part is more sandy. Buchiola speciosa and 

 Palaeotrochus are common, and other Portage species occur in 

 the lower soft shales. 



A layer of calcareous sandstone, 1 foot, 8 inches thick, forms 

 the crest of a cascade 15 feet high and is 160 feet above the sand- 

 stone at the mouth of the glen. 



It contains many small fragments of brachiopods, very few 

 of which are large enough for identification of species. 



This stratum is in every way like the fossiliferous layer 

 at the top of the Tonawanda creek section, the outcrop of which 

 is 5 miles east of this point, and it is without doubt the same. 



It is succeeded by 10 feet of softer, flaggy and shaly sand- 

 stone and 35 feet of hard blue shales in which there are a few 

 even flags. 



