i6 



NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM 



stones composed usually of shells of the brachiopod, L i o r h y n - 

 chus limitare. 



The densely black color and highly bituminous character of the 

 Marcellus and Cardiff shales in central and western New York led 

 to their frequent exploitation in pioneer days, in the mistaken 

 belief that they were the surface outcrops of beds of coal. In recent 

 years, as one result of their penetration in hundreds of deep borings 

 they are known to searchers for natural gas as the " gas-bearing 

 rocks." 



Fossils are abundant in the lower Cardiff shales which contain 

 many species found in the Stafford limestone that separates the 

 Cardiff from the Marcellus shale in Ontario county and westward 

 to Lake Erie. The more common of these are : 



Phacops rana Green P. itys Hall 



Cryphaeus boothi Green P. capillaria Conrad 



Homalonotus dekayi Green P. sulcomarginata Conrad 



Orthoceras subulatum Hall Camarotoechia sappho Hall 



Styliolina fissurella Hall Spirifer audaculus Conrad 



Pletirotomaria rugulata Hall S. fimbriatus Conrad 



The upper shales are much less fossiliferous than the lower but 

 the following forms are fairly common : 



Strophalosia truncata Hall Liorhynchus limitare Vanuxem 



Productella spinulicosta Hall Orbiculoidea minuta Hall 



Chonetes mucronatus Hall Pterochaenia fragilis Hall 



C. scitnlus Hall Tornoceras discoideum Conrad 



The Cardiff shales are exposed along the Lehigh Valley Railroad 

 on the east side of Seneca lake near the foot, along Kendig creek at 

 and above the forks and along the stream on the east side of the 

 Romulus road 2 miles south of Waterloo. Other small outcrops 

 occur in the southeastern part of the town of Fayette. 



Skaneateles shale 



This name was first applied to the beds that succeed the Cardiff 

 shale at the foot of Skaneateles lake by Vanuxem in the Report of 

 the Third District for 1839, page 380. In the final report, 1843, lt 1S 

 included in the " Hamilton group " which he says " includes all of 

 the masses between the upper shales of Marcellus and the Tully 

 limestone." 



Hall, in the Report on the Fourth District, page 177, says " there 



