134 The American Geologist. August, i897 
Prof. Williams' attempt to explain the Oriskany sandstone aUo, while 
removing one of the difficulties connected with it, a])pears to introduce 
another. Attributing the Oriskany sediments to a subsidence of land to 
the northeastward, opening communication with the ocean in that di- 
rection, he would thereby account for the purity of the Oriskany fauna 
and sediment in the northeast corner of the basin. But when we review 
the Silurian history we can scarcely doubt that this passage was con- 
tinuously open long before. The existence of Lower Helderberg lime- 
stone* and of deposits, probably Corniferous, along the whole line from 
New York to the northeast at intervals, and the close resemblance be- 
tween the Upper Silurian fauna of the two sides of the Atlantic almost 
compel us to admit the existence of free water communication with the" 
Atlantic of that day, and apparently preclude our attributing the for- 
mation of the northeastern channel to the Oriskany sub-era. 
Prof. Williams concludes by stating in words several geological and 
paleontological propositions whose truth cannot be doubted but which 
are not always kept in clear view y)y writers on these difficult problems 
of American geology. e. w. c. 
The Newark System. Beport of progress. Henry B. Kl'Mmel. 
(From the annual report of the State Geologist of New Jersey for 1896. 
Trenton.) These rocks in New Jersey are divided into three parts, the 
Stockton, the Lookatong and the Brunswick, in ascending order, not in- 
cluding the traps. These divisions are based on lithoiogical differences 
although these differences are not abruptly separable. 
The Stockton series embraces ia) coarse, more or less disintegrated 
ai-kose conglomerates: (b) yellow, micaceous feldspathic sandstone: (e) 
brown, red sandstones or freestones, and id) soft red, argillaceous shales. 
These parts are interbedded and many times repeated, but the charac- 
teristic beds are the arkose conglomerates. 
The Lockatong series, next above the Stockton, consists of hard dark 
colored shales and flagstones, sometimes carbonaceous. They are some- 
times hard, massive, black and purplish-black argiliytes which break 
sharply in any direction with a conchoidal fracture. The flagstones are 
dark gray and green. 
The Brunswick series consists essentially of shales, with a few sand- 
stone layers. They are prevailingly red, but va7-y locally to purple, 
green, yellow and black. 
These three series are quite distinct toward the southeast, but they 
lose to some extent their distinctive characters when traced toward the 
northwest border. 
The thickness of these parts is expressed, after careful calculations 
and estimates, as follows: 
Stockton 4,700 feet 
Lockatong 3.600 feet 
Brunswick 12,000 feet 
Total 20,300 feet 
The traps are both intrusive and extrusive, a fact that shows a co- 
