V4 The American Geologist; August, 1903 
Hun mi shales and called them collectively the Ohio shale. This seems 
to me unwarranted, as these strata are essentially distinct in their fos- 
sils and the upper and lower members of the trinity are separated on 
the eastern border of the state by an interval of at least 1,000 feet." 
Dr. Newberry then briefly sums up the evidence in favor 
•of his own view, for the details of which the reader is referred 
to the monograph cited. We will here only remark on this 
controversy that it is probably too soon to assert that the opin- 
ion of either of these distinguished geologists is entitled to full 
■acceptance and the other to complete rejection. That the clear 
lithological distinction between the Cleveland and the Erie, 
which can be seen in Cuyahoga county, extends over the whole 
.state is exceedingly unlikely, and that the conspicuous palaeon- 
tological break which marks their junction in the same region 
can be extensively followed is at present quite uncertain. It 
may accordingly, en the wide view, best suit the purpose of the 
stratigrapher to group the three beds together, especially as so 
large a portion of his data is derived, not from outcrops, but 
from drillings. On the other hand, the palaeontologist cannot 
afford to ignore the break above alluded to, and must retain, 
at least locally, the separation of the strata until such time as 
corresponding fossils shall be found in the adjacent beds of the 
underlying Erie or middle mass of the shale. He may logically 
argue that so great a change in life implies no inconsiderable 
change in the conditions of life. The Erie shale forms a huge 
barrier across which no one of the fishes of the lower Huron is 
yet known to have passed into the upper Cleveland ; and when 
we reflect that its western portion is cptite thin, its presence 
seems to imply events whose results the palaeontologist finds 
expressed in the total change of fauna. 
It is unfortunate that the number of species from the lower 
shale is at present very small. And, until lately, this was equal- 
ly true of the upper — the Cleveland. But as may be seen from 
the tables,* investigations recently carried on have vastly en- 
larged our knowledge of the latter, without revealing any trace 
of the lower fauna, which is as yet unknown in Ohio above 
the Huron shale. We are consequently disposed to agree with 
the author of the monograph in maintaining, locally, if not 
more widely, the essential distinction of the shales, while admit- 
ting the practical difficulty of separating them in the field. 
* See Tables of fossils in a latter portion of tliis paper. 
