i6 
BULLETIN OF THE LABORATORIES 
ful scrutiny of the region in question, but as an excuse for the stress 
laid upon stratigraphy in this paper. Prof. Rominger again says: 
“ Prof. Winchell considers the sandstones of Marshall as the lower 
terminus of the carboniferous rock series, typically distinct by its fos- 
sils from the next subjacent shaly beds, which he connects with the 
Devonian rocks by the character of their fauna. Such a difference in 
the fauna is not perceptible; the fossils of the Marshall sandstones and 
the subjacent shales are not only generically in full harmony, but a 
great number of species are common to both.” This quotation may 
serve to justify the care with which the fossils herein noticed are limit- 
ed to their horizons; It seems sufficiently obvious that central Ohio is 
the place where the serial relations must be made out, if anywhere, for 
here the stratigraphical sequence is perfectly unaltered and the hori- 
zons well marked. We present the facts collected, confidently believ- 
ing that they form a firm foundation for the solution of the perplexing 
problem. The theoretical value of this study cannot be over-estimated. 
The false theory that “times of peace make no history,” has too 
largely affected our notions of geological history. It is by tracing the 
succession of living forms during long periods of comparatively uni- 
form conditions that the laws and course of development are to be dis- 
covered. Even this brief discussion demands an allusion to the views 
expressed by the state geologists of Ohio. In the first volume of the 
final report. Dr. Newberry adduces reasons for considering the Black 
or Huron shale as the representative of the Genesee plus part of the 
Portage. The remainder of the Portage and the whole of the Chemung 
is represented by the Erie shale, a group of greenish or grayish argil- 
laceous shales limited to the northern part of the state and of small 
vertical extent. The difficulty of eliminating at one blow from central 
Ohio the great sandstone and shale series known in New York as Che- 
mung. has, however, militated steadily against this view and most ge- 
ologists have felt constrained to seek the missing formation in some 
larger or smaller portion of the Waverly series. It is to be noted that 
Prof. Newberry at that time contended that “ the series of strata which 
begins with the mechanical sediments of the Portage has a fauna, 
which is much more carboniferous than Devonian in character. The 
commencement of the epoch of the deposition of this series of me- 
chanical sediments . . . was in fact the beginning of the carbon- 
iferous period.” 
In the second volume of the same report Dr. Newberry brings 
