20 
IOWA ACADEMY OF SCIENCES. 
is seen near the top of the hill southeast of the bridge over 
Turkey creek in section 23, Newport township; and another 
body of the same stone occurs in rather puzzling relations to 
the Megistocrinus beds in section 23, Big Grove township, 
southwest of Solon. At the last named locality Rynchonella, 
or Pugnax, is the prevailing fossil. The very fossiliferous 
limestone seen near the base of the quarry south of Shueyville 
is of a very different character and belongs to a different 
horizon.* 
Taxonomic Relations . — As already intimated, the taxonomic 
relations of the state quarry stone are not very clear. At first 
it seemed that it might possibly represent local deposits made 
contemporaneously with the Cedar valley beds, but later 
investigations indicate that it is younger than the Cedar 
valley and was laid down on a deeply eroded surface. 
In support of this view it may be noted that at the mouth 
of the ravine below the south quarries in section 5 of 
Penn township, the state quarry stone rests on the Megi- 
stocrinus beds of the Cedar valley stage. In following up 
the ravine the quarry stone rises higher and higher in the 
bluffs and soon disappears, while the members of the normal 
Cedar valley section appear successively in the bottom of the 
creek. The contact of the two formations cannot, however, be 
definitely traced. On Rapid creek, in section 20 of Graham 
township, the relations are nearly the same. The state quarry 
stone occurs only a short distance above the Megistocrinus 
beds. At Solon the equivalent of the quarry stone occurs on 
the west side of a small ravine, while on the east side of the 
ravine, ouly four or five rods distant, the typical Megistocrinus 
beds, wholly different in character and with an entirely differ- 
ent fauna, occur at the same level. The quarry beds at the 
last named locality are composed largely of shells of Pugnax 
(Rynchonella). They extend westward along the north side of 
the valley of a small creek for about one- eighth of a mile and 
then suddenly disappear, their place in the low bluff being 
taken by the norma,! Megistocrinus beds of the Cedar valley 
section. 
In the bluffs above the bridge over Turkey creek, at the point 
already noted, in section 23 of Newport township, these beds 
occur above the white limestone at the top of the Cedar valley 
formation. No Devonian beds of any kind have so far been 
*McGee: Tenth Census Kept. Vol. X, Quarries and Building Stone, p. 262. 
