No 50.] 421 
numerous excavations for coal have been made, and in each one alike 
fruitless. 
It is unnecessary to give a detailed description of all the shales suc- 
ceeding the last, as their lithological characters are nearly similar till 
we come to the upper black shale. Those shales heretofore described 
under several different names, and all containing their peculiar and cha- 
racteristic fossils may be found along the outlet of Conesus lake in the 
ravines btween that and Geneseo ; on Jacock's run and another small 
brook farther south. 
At one place near Wads worth's mills on the farm of Mr. Moore, the 
Moscow shale was excavated in large quantities and ground, in the be- 
lief that it was gypsum. This delusion however lasted but for a year 
or two, and it is now abandoned. Containing much calcareous matter 
it is a good material for enriching sandy soils ; and there are many pla- 
ces where the decaying cliffs of this shale have produced, with the 
creek alluvium a very fertile soil. The shale, alone, on decomposing 
forms a clayey soil and packs too much on drying. 
On Jacock's run the Ludlowville and Moscow shales can both be 
seen, separated by the thin mass of crinoidal hmestone. Here as else- 
where in the district, the Moscow shale is known by its fossils, the 
Calymene and Cryphseus, while the Ludlowville shale contains Atrypa 
concentrica, and large numbers of Cyathophylli and other corallines. 
These fossils are very characteristic of the two shales, still in some lo- 
calities the Cyathophylli and smaller corallines occur in the Moscow 
shales, but are not characteristic of this mass. 
At York the Ludlowville shale is exposed on a small stream near the 
village ; the fossils are chiefly Cyathophyllites and Favosites, both in 
great perfection and beauty ; among the former there is a specimen plac- 
ed in the State collection, consisting of twenty-six individuals of the 
species turbinatum, all closely grouped together. The shale is suc- 
ceeded at this placQ by the Crinoidal limestone which contains, besides 
great numbers of encrinal columiis a species of Avicula, resembling the 
A. reticulata of Murchison. This shell is a very constant fossil of the 
crinoidal limestone, and may be found in most localities. In the same 
ravine, several hundred feet lower, may be seen the hard calcareous 
shale, or shaley limestone, mentioned in the report of 1839, as occur- 
ring at Tyler's on Seneca Lake and at Orleans in Ontario county. At 
several other localities these shales may be seen, but being of little 
economical importance, no more will be said of them at present. 
