116 KANSAS UNIVERSITY SCIENCE BULLETIN, 



HISTORICAL REVIEW. 



Prior to the work of the Texas Geological Survey and the 

 work of Cope and White, the Red Beds were referred to one 

 system or another on lithologic and stratigraphic evidence 

 alone. The first of these criteria is of very little value when 

 the rocks are as isolated from the ones with which they are 

 correlated as are the western Red Beds. Their stratigraphic 

 position is such that, until fossils were found, and the fact 

 discovered that they are largely conformable with the Per- 

 mian and Pennsylvanian below was made known, they could 

 be referred to anything from the Permian to the Tertiary. 

 All these possibilities were suggested by one author or 

 another. 



About the earliest work done on these rocks was by Dr. C. 

 G. Shuraard, a member of the expedition of Capt. R, B. 

 Marcy, in 1852.^ Shumard made no attempt to assign any age 

 to these beds, but gave sections and descriptions of them. 

 Prof. Edward Hitchcock studied Doctor Shumard's lithologic 

 specimens and notes, and suggested the difficulty in assigning 

 the proper age to them. He stated^ that 'from the 3d of 

 May to June 2, the formation passed over is, as I judge from 

 Doctor Shumard's sections and descriptions, the predominant 

 one along the upper part of the Red river. All the appended 

 sections of Doctor Shumard, except Nos. VI and XI, exhibit 

 the characters and varieties of this deposit. Red clay is the 

 most striking and abundant member ; and above this we have 

 a yellow or lighter-colored sandstone, often finely laminated. 

 As subordinate members, we have blue and yellow clay, gyp- 

 sum, non-fossiliferous limestone, conglomerate, and copper 

 ore. Overlying these strata is what Doctor Shumard calls 

 'drift,' which is surmounted by soil. Excepting the gypsum 

 and copper, no specimen of this formation was put into my 

 hands ; and only one petrifaction, which is a coral from the 

 base of No. 4, unless the fossil wood belongs to it." 



After discussing the coral supposed to come from "the 

 base of section No. IV" and a piece of fossil wood, he con- 

 cludes : "Upon the whole, I rather lean to the opinion that 



2. Exploration of the Red River of Louisiana, in the year 1852. Published in 1854. 



3, Op. cit., p. 145. 



