380 The American Geologist. Jane, 1895 
Such enterprises as sinking deep wells and shafts are, as 
every geologist has learned, usually executed without much 
demonstration, perhaps because of the possibility of disap- 
pointment which they carry with them. The geologist often 
hears of them only by accident, and then too late to secure 
accurate information, so that the average well or shaft record 
is of very little value in determining thicknesses of successive 
strata. But it appears from Prof. Hall's introductory chap- 
ter to this report that a personal invitation was extended to 
him by the otficers of this salt company, to keep a geologist on 
the o-round during the progress of these excavations, which 
otherwise would not have become widely known except to 
those financially interested in them. Nearly two years were 
occupied in sinking this shaft, although there was apparently 
some delay in getting the geological watcher on the ground, 
as Mr. Luther's actually recorded entries began 320 feet below 
the surface. It is stated, however, that the succession above 
this was accurately made out from natural secti(ms in the 
vicinit)^ aided by the debris taken from the shaft. The re- 
port is lucid, concise, free of padding, and well illustrated. 
The section is, of course, important in its bearing upon the 
geology of the salt in western New York, and must be of no 
little value to those practically interested in the result of this 
extensive industry in that region; but its highest service is 
the determination of an unimpeachable record of stratigraphic 
and oi-ganic succession. The rock series traversed is from the 
lower part of the upper Devonian (lower Portage) to the salt 
beds, near the middle of the' Salina group, and some of its 
more striking peculiarities may be briefly stated. The last 
327 feet of the section are unfossiliferous hydraulic limestones, 
gypsums and marls. Just above them, or rather, in their 
upper part, is a well developed Tentaculite limestone fauna, 
extending through a vertical thickness of 35 feet, which alone 
represents the entire Lower Helderbcrg formation so distinct- 
ly differentiated in its typical and more eastern exposures. 
Overlying this is a conglomerate of blocks of hydraulic lime- 
stone cemented by a silicious sand. The hydraulic blocks 
appear to have been derived from the underlying strata, and 
are without fossils, while the cement contains species occur- 
ring elsewhere in the Oriskany sandstone and the Schoharie 
