Prosser — Hamilton and Chemung Series, 



123 



These three sections along Pleasant brook and up the hill to the south 

 through the central part of Smyrna township are regarded by the writer as 

 very important in deciding where the line of separation between the Hamilton 

 and Chemung series should be drawn. It is nearly, if not quite, the most 

 eastern locality at which the lithologic characters of the Tully limestone and 

 Genesee shale agree closely with those of their typical localities in the more 

 western portions of New York. Above the black shale occur thin sandstones 

 and olive to bluish shales which agree well lithologically with the lower part 

 of the Sherburne formation, as shown along Cayuga lake, while on the top of 

 the high hills occur sandstones and shales containing fossils which compose 

 the lowest fauna of the Ithaca group, as developed in Chenango county. 



Sherburne. 



The next township to the east of Smyrna is Sherburne, which also 

 belongs to the northern tier of townships in Chenango county, and as the 

 Chenango river flows from north to south entirely across the western half, it 

 forms one of the townships of the Chenango river valley. To the north is 

 Hamilton township, on the east is Columbus which extends east to the 

 Unadilla river. 



The valley of the Chenango river in central New York is noted for its 

 beauty. Rather narrow in general, from one-half to two miles in width, there 

 are steep hills rising on one and usually both sides of the valley. In places 

 the hills are so steep that numerous exposures of the rocks along their sides 

 are seen, but usually the best sections are afforded by the small runs and 

 brooks that have trenched more or less deeply the hills that bound the river 

 valley. These hills extend from the northern line of Chenango county for 

 forty-five miles to the southwest until the Susquehanna is reached near Bing- 

 hamton. 



These sections occur in the Middle and Upper Devonian of southern 

 central New York. In order to bring out clearly the character and succes- 

 sion of these formations, a series of sections with their fossils will now be 

 described approximately in the order of their occurrence from Sherburne on 

 the north to the vicinity of Binghamton on the south. 



XIX A 1 . To the southeast of Smyrna, between the New York, 

 Ontario and Western and the Delaware, Lackawanna and Western railroads, 

 is a hill on whose eastern side, about two miles southwest of Sherburne 

 village, and just west of the turn in the highway approaching the village, is 

 an old quarry of shaly sandstone. The back of the quarry shows a ledge 



