THE CARBONIFEROUS SYSTEM. 85 
geologists was formed by the State of Ohio, and while the geology of this 
State remained comparatively unknown, the different parties in the dis- 
cussion could not be brought on to common ground for the adjustment of 
their differences. The reorganization of the Geological Survey of Ohio 
was, therefore, regarded with some interest by the geologists of the coun- 
try as likely to throw new light upon this vexed question, and such as 
would lead to its final settlement. When, therefore, the directorship of 
the survey was intrusted to me, the work of tracing the geographical 
extent and investigating the structures and fossils of this group was one 
of the first that claimed my attention. 
A careful study was made of the southern prolongation of the Waverly 
by Prof. Andrews and his assistants; a study which was continued north 
of the National Road and carried to the eastern line of the State, and 
thence far into Pennsylvania and New York, by myself and those imme- 
diately associated with me. We found the Waverly far more rich in fos- 
sils than had been before supposed, and obtained from it, perhaps, a 
larger number of species than has been furnished by any other of our 
formations. Of these some were new to science, while others had been 
described from collections made in our State by different geologists in 
years past, or had been obtained in other States from strata now for the 
first time identified with this by such a community of fossil forms as 
these common species proved. 
The first result of our study of the Waverly was to show that all its 
rich fauna is of a decidedly Carboniferous type; second, that it includes a 
number of species characteristic of the Lower Carboniferous rocks of Ken- 
tucky, Tennessee, Illinois, lowa, and Michigan ; third, that it furnishes, 
at nearly all of its fossiliferous localities certain species which are also 
common in the Coal Measures above; fourth, that our collections made 
include no Chemung or Portage species; fifth, that 1t 1s continuous with 
the “ Vespertine” and “Umbral” rocks (Lower Carboniferous) of Pennsyl- 
vania, with the “Sub-Carboniferous sandstones and shales” of Kentucky, 
and with the “silicious member of the Lower Carboniferous group” of 
Safford, in Tennessee. Hence we are compelled to regard it as a mem- 
ber of the Carboniferous system, and as distinct from the rocks of New 
York, with which it has been so generally supposed to be identical. 
In the prosecution of this investigation, after we had carefully traced 
the different members of the Waverly group to the line of Pennsylvania, 
one of my assistants, Mr. A. Sherwood, went to his former home, in Tioga 
county, Pennsylvania, and took up a line of observation at this point. 
The geological structure of this region is as follows: The Chemung group 
forms the bottoms of the valleys. On this rests the Catskill group, 300 
