1896. NOTES AND COMMENTS. 297 



Permian were represented there at all. Dr. Newberry, at all events, 

 •considered that the so-called Permian could not be separated from 

 the Coal-measures. A careful and detailed paper by Professor 

 Charles S. Prosser, of Union College, Schenectady (Journal of Geology, 

 vol. iii., pp. 682-705, and 764-800; 1895), shows on incontrovertible 

 fossil evidence that true Permian rocks do occur in Central Kansas. 

 Waagen, in correlating the Upper Palaeozoic strata of the Salt- 

 Range {Palisontologia Indica, ser. xiii., vol. iv., pt. ii., p. 238), drew the 

 ■dividing line between the Carboniferous and Permian systems of 

 North America at the top of the "Upper Productive Coal-measures." 

 Mr. Prosser considers that this line was placed too low, since the 

 Wabaunsee formation of Kansas, which occurs above it, contains a 

 fauna practically identical with that of the Upper Coal-measures. 

 To that series he would refer both Wabaunsee and Cottonwood 

 formations. The Neosho and Chase formations are transitional, but 

 would be included by most European geologists in the Permian, 

 while the Marion formation, which in Kansas is succeeded by 

 Cretaceous beds, contains none but characteristically Permian fossils. 

 The paper, owing to its minute detail and abundance of unfamiliar 

 names, will not prove exhilarating reading for European geologists ; 

 but it will be of value to those of them whom necessity or inclination 

 lead to make closer acquaintance with American stratigraphy. 



Gneiss, Gold, Galena, and Garnets. 



In an extract of 85 pages from the Sixteenth Animal Repovt of 

 the Director of the U.S. Geological Survey, Part II., Mineral 

 Resources of the United States, 1894, ^"^^ ^- ^' Becker gives a 

 general reconnaissance of the gold-fields of the Southern Appalachians. 

 The area contains three productive belts, the Georgian, the South 

 Mountain, and the Carolinian. Of the two first, the rocks are chiefly 

 Archasan gneisses and schists, sometimes intersected by granite 

 dykes. The conditions in the Garolinian belt are more complex. 

 Here the rocks are metamorphosed sediments (chiefly clay-slates) 

 containing irregular patches of volcanic rocks with intruded basic 

 dykes. 



To the banded gneisses of the Georgian belt the author ascribes 

 an eruptive origin, and considers that, as in the banded Tertiary 

 gabbros of Scotland described by Geikie and Teall, the banding 

 arises from the intrusion of heterogeneous magmas. The auriferous 

 veins are in cracks running approximately parallel to the schistosity. 

 The fact that galena is a common associate of the gold rather 

 negatives the idea that the ore was brought by an alkaline solvent. 

 The original source of the gold is still to seek, but in many cases 

 there is evidence to show that the igneous dykes are connected with 

 the deposition of ore. An interesting point is that the garnets in 

 some of the garnetiferous schists are auriferous. As these garnets 



