These fossils comprise at least three different benthic communities primarily living in the inter-reef, deep waters that were stable for much of the Wenlockian epoch.

[2] Many of these fossils are found most frequently around microbioherms constructed by small encrusting organisms which protected other species from the effects of storms.

In my report on Bartholomew county, I generally called this formation Calcareous shale, which is appropriate so far as chemical composition is concerned, but the presence of another calcareous shale at the base of the Niagara group in this county, not seen in Shelby and Bartholomew, necessitates the use of a more specific term.

The Waldron shale is not uniformly found at all the places where both the Niagara and Corniferous groups outcrop.

At certain places the upper shale is highly fossiliferous, as at St. Paul, and at Hartsville, less than one mile west of the Decatur county line; at some points no fossils could be found, and very few at others.