INTRODUCTION 
3 
The collections made by Wachsmnth in the glades of Decatur County, and 
his observations on the mode of occurrence of the fossils, gave me a very strong 
impression of the possibilities of that region for the paleontologist. In 1905 
I purchased the collection of Professor Pate, containing among other material 
considerable obtained by him from the glades of Decatur and Perry counties. 
From him I secured additional authentic information regarding the local condi- 
tions and prospects for further collecting, on the basis of which I arranged with 
Niagaran Strata of West Tennessee 
Safford, 1869. 
Foerste, 1903. 
Pate and Bassler, 1908. 
Decatur 
Sponge-bearing bed 
Gant 
'Lobelville 
L Bryozoan zone 
r Concbidium zone 
Brownsport 
0 
0 
Bob Dyctyonella zone 
[^Uncinulus zone 
[ Eucalyptocr. zone 
i 
Beech RiveiP Troostocr. zone 
1 'i 
[^Coccocr. zone 
Dixon 
Dixon 
Lego 
Lego 
Variegated bed 
Waldron 
- Glenkirk 
Waldron 
Laurel 
Laurel 
Osgood 1 
l IMaddox 
Osgood 
Clinton J 
1 
Clinton 
him to make a systematic campaign in that area the following season. All the 
crinoids that had been found up to that time had been in the form of specimens 
weathered out upon the glades, and consisted mainly of the loose calices with 
which the arms or finer structures were rarely preserved. If the beds from which 
they came could be located in place, there would be a possibility, in accordance 
with our long experience in the Burlington limestone, of finding some colonies 
with the crinoids imbedded in the matrix as originally deposited. Accordingly, 
Mr. Pate, at the outset of his excursion in the summer of 1906, was instructed 
to trace the crinoids by the fragments to their layer, and then dig. 
