Pg. 263-264. Alfred shale. At Alfred Station, New York, consists of 2 beds: a layer of shale, about 5 feet thick, very fine-grained, containing a large and diverse fauna of "Chemung" age, overlain by 40 feet of barren siliceous shale, formerly used by nearby ceramic plants. Alfred shale is overlain by 6 feet of heavy calcareous sandstone, which G.H. Chadwick (personal commun.) considers to be top of Rushford sandstone of Canadaway group. Search was made at outcrops where the sandstone and shale should have been found, but all attempts to trace these beds there [into Rushford sandstones?] have been unsuccessful. Possibly these rocks have changed in their lithological and paleontological characters or are only lentils have not wide distribution. The fauna is limited to about 6 inches of the lower fine-grained shale. Age is Late Devonian.

Source: US geologic names lexicon (USGS Bull. 896, p. 30).