ORISKANY SANDSTONE. 
40 S 
to place the Oriskany sandstone as the first or lower member of the 
Devonian system, thus uniting it with the rocks above rather than with 
those below. 
The Oriskany sandstone is recognized throughout the entire extent of 
the Appalachian chain, having its greatest development in that direction. 
In New-York it has been traced continuously, or with unimportant inter¬ 
ruptions, as far west as Cayuga lake, at which locality it is fossiliferous. 
It has likewise been recognized at other points in Ontario county, in small 
lenticular patches; and at one point still farther west, in some nodules 
of dark-colored non-fossiliferous sandstone which hold the position and 
preserve the character of the Oriskany sandstone in other localities. 
Some years since, this rock was noticed by Mr. Murray, of the Canada 
Geological Survey, in Canada West; and, more recently, Mr. Billings, 
the Palaeontologist of that Survey, has collected from this rock, in Cayuga 
county (Canada West), a considerable number of its characteristic fossils. 
Mr. Worthen, the State Geologist of Illinois, has observed a sandstone 
in that State holding the place of the Oriskany sandstone ; and has col¬ 
lected from this rock, on the Mississippi river, some of the characteristic 
fossils, leaving no doubt as to the identity of these distant outlying masses 
with the great continuous formation at the East. 
In Iowa, on the west of the Mississippi, the upper beds of the Onon¬ 
daga salt group are waterworn, indicating a lapse of time previous to the 
succeeding deposit, and are sometimes scattered over with coarse sand or 
gravel, presenting thin films of conglomerate ; but no continuous stratum 
has been observed. From the relative position of the two rocks, it seems 
not improbable that these films of sand and patches of conglomerate are 
due to those causes which have produced elsewhere, at the same period, 
the Oriskany sandstone. 
