INTRODUCTORY REMARKS. x 1,1 1 1 



PARALLELISM OF THE SUBDIVISIONS OF THE UPPEK MISSOURI CRETACEOUS 

 SEC HON WU'H THOSE OP THE SAME IN EUROPE. 



* Before proceeding to the consideration of the relations of our Upper 

 Missouri Cretaceous subdivisions to those of foreign countries, il is proper to 

 give a brief review of (he previously-expressed views of others on this point, 

 as well as on the parallelism of the equivalent beds in New Jersey, and 

 farther southward in this country, with the recognized subdivisions of the 

 Cretaceous of Europe. 



The Cretaceous strata of New Jersey were first referred. to that epoch 

 by the lamented Lardner Vanuxem, one of the State geologists of New 

 York. He did not, however, attempt to trace out the correlation of particular 

 beds of the New Jersey series with those of the Old World. Dr. Morton, 

 however, to whom we are indebted for figures and descriptions of a consid- 

 erable number of the New Jersey Cretaceous fossils, seems to have regarded 

 these rocks and their equivalents in the Southern States as, in a general way, 

 representing the White Chalk of Europe.f Later, however, he regarded 

 the upper calcareous bed of Timber Creek, New Jersey, only, as being 

 contemporaneous with the European White Chalk ; while the beds below, 

 in New Jersey, South Carolina, Mississippi, Arkansas, and Upper ■Missouri, 

 he thought represented all the Cretaceous below the White Chalk. J 



Sir Charles Lyell expressed the opinion that the fossils of the New 

 Jersey Cretaceous beds "on the whole agree most nearly with those of the 

 upper European series from Maestricht beds to the Gault inclusive". § 



Prof. Henry D. Rogers, with his usual sagacity in such matters, remarked, 

 in his able Report on the Geology of New Jersey, that he did not regard the 

 Green-sands of that State, "in the strict sense of the words, as the equivalents 

 of the Green-sand formation, so called, of Europe". || 



In his Cours Elementaire de Pale'ontologie, Alcide d'Orbigny refers the 

 New Jersey Cretaceous beds, as well as those of Nebraska (— Upper Mis- 

 souri), Arkansas, Texas, and Alabama, all to his Senonien, the equivalent 

 of the White Chalk and Maestricht beds of the Old World. H 



Pictet, in his Trade de Pale'ontologie, also refers most, if not all, of the 

 New Jersey Cretaceous fossils to the era of the White Chalk of Europe. 



* These remarks were substantially presented in a paper published by the author, jointly with 

 Dr. Haydou, in the Proceed. Acad. Nat. Sci. for Dee., 1861, 428, etc. 



t See Synop., *:i, 1834. ! Jour. Acad. Nat. Sci., VIII, old ser., -'17, 1841. vn Manual, d24. 



|| Report Geol. Now Jersey, 178, 1845. H Cours fileui., II, 671-672, 1852. 



