The Ancient Life History of the Earth: A Comprehensive Outline of the Principles and Leading Facts of Palæontological ScienceNicholson, Henry Alleyne
Science
The Ancient Life History of the Earth: A Comprehensive Outline of the Principles and Leading Facts of Palæontological Science
Nicholson, Henry Alleyne
Paleontology
(3) _Niagara Group_.--This group consists typically of a series of
argillaceous beds ("Niagara Shale") capped by limestones ("Niagara
Limestone"); and the name of the group is derived from the fact
that it is over limestones of this age that the Niagara river
is precipitated to form the great Falls. In places the Niagara
group is wholly calcareous, and it is continued upwards into a
series of marls and sandstones, with beds of salt and masses
of gypsum (the "Salina Group"), or into a series of magnesian
limestones ("Guelph Limestones"). The Niagara group, as a whole,
corresponds unequivocally with the Wenlock group of Britain.
(4) _Lower Helderberg Group_.--The Upper Silurian period in North
America was terminated by the deposition of a series of calcareous
beds, which derive the name of "Lower Helderberg" from the Helderberg
mountains, south of Albany, and which are divided into several zones,
capable of recognition by their fossils, and known by local names
(Tentaculite Limestone, Water-lime, Lower Pentamerus Limestone,
Delthyris Shaly Limestone, and Upper Pentamerus Limestone). As
a whole, this series may be regarded as the equivalent of the
Ludlow group of Britain, though it is difficult to establish any
precise parallelism. The summit of the Lower Heiderberg group
is constituted by a coarse-grained sandstone (the "Oriskany
Sandstone"), replete with organic remains, which have to a large
extent a Silurian _facies_. Opinions differ as to whether this
sandstone is to be regarded as the highest bed of the Upper Silurian
or the base of the Devonian. We thus see that in America, as
in Britain, no other line than an artificial one can be drawn
between the Upper Silurian and the overlying Devonian.
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