SUPPLEMENTAL REPORT—HOCKING VALLEY. 821 
sandstone rocks, and that it is not one of the interstratified limestones 
of the Coal Measures, with a position more than a hundred feet above the 
base of those Measures. 
But there is proof that this series of limestones belongs positively to 
the Lower Carboniferous division of the great Carboniferous System. As 
many of the fossils of this limestone as could be conveniently gathered 
at Maxville and Newtonville were sent in 1870 to the late Prof. Meek, 
the accomplished palzontologist of the Ohio Survey, who had previously 
had much experience in determining the animal fossils of the Coal 
Measures and of the Lower Carboniferous limestones of the West. The 
result of this determination was published in the American Journal of 
Science, February, 1871. In his letter to me at the time, Professor Meek 
wrote as follows: “From these fossils it is clearly evident that the lime- 
stone from which they were obtained belongs, as you had supposed, to the 
horizon of the Lower Carboniferous limestone series of the Western 
States.” In no case did he find any fossils peculiar to the Coal Meas- 
ures. Only ten species were well enough preserved to be determined | 
specifically, and of these, eight were of Chester types, and two of St. Louis 
types, both of the Lower Carboniferous. Professor Meek adds: “ From 
these facts I can scarcely doubt that we have in these local masses of 
limestone a representation of the Chester group of the Lower Carbonif- 
erous limestone series; though it is possible that there may also be some 
representation of the St. Louis limestone of the same series at some of the 
outcrops. a8 a as The discovery of these beds is, I believe, the 
first indication we have had of the existence of any member of the Lower 
Carboniferous limestone series of the West in Ohio.” Many other fossils 
have been obtained from the horizon of the Maxville limestone since 
Professor Meek wrote the above; but not one of them, so far as If know, 
has been found to be of a species characteristic of the Coal Measures. 
In addition to the argument derived from the fossils of these beds, it 
may be stated that the limestones themselves, although presenting some 
differences of lithological structure at different points, are every where | 
unlike any of the limestones found above them in the Coal Measures. 
In the report for 1869 it was suggested that these areas of Maxville 
limestone may represent local basins in which the limestone was depos 
ited. This may have been wrong, for it is quite possible that in the 
original deposition the areas were connected and the formation contin- 
uous. After deposition, large areas of it might have been removed with 
much of the Waverly kefore the beds of the Coal Measure rocks were 
laid down. This would leave valleys between the remnants of the Max- 
ville limestone series. The subject of the erosion of the Waverly and 
