Review of Recent Geological Literature. 389 
characters are clearly defined and lists of the more characteristic 
fossils given. 
Probably that part of the bulletin which will prove of most gen- 
eral interest is the article by Dr. John M. Clarke on the "Ithaca 
fauna of central New York." In the following quotation Dr. 
Clarke has very clearly stated the relations of this fauna to con- 
temporaneous faunas east and west, the misapprehension that ex- 
isted for many years regarding its stratigraphic position and its 
gradual change from essentially a Hamilton fauna in the earlier 
deposits of the Ithaca formation to one more nearly related to the 
Chemung in the later deposits of the formation: 
"Portage time and sedimentation in New York involved very 
marked geographic distinctions; at the east was, during its earliest 
stage, a marine fauna quickly followed by a lagoon deposition 
Ttnown as the Oneonta sandstone. Continuous with these beds 
through Chenango, Cortland and Tompkins counties are the true 
Ithaca beds carrying the littoral marine fauna here set forth; these 
beds being interleaved with the Oneonta deposits eastward and 
the true Portage or Naples beds westward. The latter contain an 
invading and deeper water fauna having nothing in common with 
that of the Ithaca beds. * * * * 
Till 10 or 12 years ago a singular and deplorable misapprehen- 
sion of the significance of the Ithaca fauna prevailed and was in- 
advertently countenanced in some of the volumes of the Paleon- 
tology of New York. Its fossils, lying well above the horizon of 
the Hamilton shales of central- New York were in many instances 
described as of the Hamilton fauna, and it is to the work of Prof. 
■C. S. Prosser that we owe the first rectification of these errors and 
the return to Vanuxem's original conception of the place of the 
Ithaca fauna. * * * * 
It has been well recognized and often referred to in the pub- 
lished papers of professor Prosser and the writer that this fauna 
is at first a repetitive occurrence of the Hamilton fauna beneath, 
shades of difference in the species above and below the horizon 
of the Tully limestone and Genesee shale and Sherburne sandstone 
heiag at first absent or obscure, but becoming more pronounced 
upward in the series and accompanied by the introduction of species 
alien to the fauna below. Broadly it may be said that the fauna 
starting at the base of the Ithaca sedimentation is essentially Ham- 
ilton but by degrees, by the addition of species and through muta- 
tional and profounder variation from the ancestral species, puts on 
a different aspect and gradually assumes that of the higher or Che- 
mung fauna." 
At the close of this article is given a "list of localities of Ithaca 
fossils" from Cortland, Chenango, Broome and Otsego counties, to- 
gether with a list of the species found at the various localities. 
The geologic maps of the several quadrangles so far published 
Tjy the New York State Museum are models of cartographical skill 
