LIBRARY 
OF THE 
UNIVERSITY of ILLINOIS. 
THE 
AMERICAN GEOLOGIST. 
Vol. XIX. JUNE^ 1897. No. 6 
EVIDENCE OF CURRENT ACTION IN THE 
ORDOVICIAN OF NEW YORK. 
By R. Rdedemann Ph. D., Dolgeville, N. Y. 
Plate XXII. 
The remarkable parallel arrangement of the rhabdosomes 
of graptolites, spicules of sponges, fragments of bryozoans 
unci sheWs of Endoceras prote'ifoDne in the Utica shale near 
Dolgeville, N. Y., has been noticed by the writer ever since he 
has studied this terrane, but it was not given any special at- 
tention, as it was supposed to ])e due only to local and chang- 
ing movements of the water. The observation, however, that 
these fossils, through a whole series of beds of shale and in- 
tercalated limestone, pointed apparently in the same direction 
suggested the tentative measuring of the directions of the 
fossils in this series, which examination gave the result that 
all pointed nearly in the same direction, viz. E. jV. E. It was 
soon found that this direction is kept in all shales exposed in 
the neighborhood of Dolgeville. This again suggested that 
tlie phenomenon might be of more than local importance. 
The writer, therefore, made excursions to the exposures of the 
Utica shale in the Mohawk and Black River valleys. The re- 
sults of these excursions are seen in the submitted tables, 
which show that those shells which can be easily displaced by 
