UPPER PALEOZOIC (dEVONIC). 
227 
by the New York geologists, and the outcrops of the system 
about Lake Erie, mainly in New York and Canada, were 
adopted as the typical expression of the system. 
The completeness and fine representation of sections and of 
both faunas and floras in this typical American series, make it a 
more satisfactory representative of the Devonian system than the 
original area in Devonshire and Cornwall. 
Although the two names "Erie Division " and "Erian" are 
much alike, they are not used alike. In the New York sy.stem 
as formulated by Lardner Vanuxem in the final report on the 
Geology of New York, 3d division, 1842, pp. 13 and 16, the 
"Erie Division" included the Marcellus, Hamilton, TuUy, Gen- 
esee, Portage and Chemung stages. All below the Marcellus 
down to the Niagara, was called " Helderberg series " or "divi- 
sion." The Catskill vs^as placed in a separate" Catskill division." 
The Erian {Dawson, 1871). 
New York 
AND 
Canada West. 
GASPfi. 
Southern 
New 
Brunswick. 
Maine. 
Upper 
Devonian 
or 
Erian. 
Chemung 
Group. 
Upper 
Sandstone, 
Langdon, etc. 
Mispec Group, 
Shales, 
Sandstones, 
Conglomerates. 
Perry 
Sandstone. 
Middle 
Devonian 
or 
Erian. 
H.imilton 
Group. 
Middle 
Sandstone, 
Bois Brul6, 
Cape Oiseau, 
etc. 
Little R. Group, 
Including 
Cordaite shales 
and 
Dadoxylon 
Sandstone. 
Lower 
Devonian 
or 
Erian. 
Corn ife reus 
and 
Oriskany 
Groups. 
Lower 
Sandstone, 
Gasp6 Basin, 
Little Gasp6, 
etc. 
Lower 
Conglomerates. 
The "Erian," as proposed by Dawson, 1871, includes also the 
Carboniferous and the Oriskany formations of Vanuxem's Hel- 
derberg division ; but it agrees with the Erie division of Van- 
uxem, and differs from the accepted application of the Devonian 
system in New York in excluding the " Upper Catskill group" 
or " Catskill sandstones." Dawson's Erian is not strictly a 
synonym for the Erie division of the New York Geology, nor 
for the Devonian system, as it is generally adopted in American 
Geology ; and as it was proposed as a substitute for the term 
