BEEDE: UPPER PERMIAN RED BEDS. H? 



these strata may belong to the Cretaceous formation, though 

 it is singular, if such be the case, that the fossil remains are 

 so scarce, since, as we shall see, they occur abundantly in an- 

 other portion of the field in which the Cretaceous rocks 

 abound." 



Prof. Jules Marcou was the first man to refer these rocks 

 to the Permian, though he first referred them to the Triassic. 

 He states:* "Immediately after crossing Delaware Mount 

 we met with horizontal beds of red and blue clay 

 that belong to another geological epoch ; this new formation 

 corresponding to that which European geologists have agreed 

 to call ihe Trias." Four years later he thought that a portion 

 of these beds was Permian, and states: "I have always 

 strongly suspected that the New Red Sandstone between 

 Delaware Mount and Beaverton was of Permian age. Having 

 found no fossils, and being the first geologist to enter these 

 regions, I was not able when in the field to declare exactly 

 the age of those strata. All that I knew was that after hav- 

 ing left the Carboniferous limestone of Delaware Mount I en- 

 tered upon another and younger formation, and it was only 

 after having passed Beaverton that I saw clearly that I was 

 upon the New Red Sandstone. Since the discovery of Permian 

 in Kansas I am still more inclined to the belief that the strata 

 between Delaware Mount and Beaverton are Permian. Thus, 

 you see, I include the Permian in the New Red Sandstone."^ 

 In a paper on the notes furnished him by Capt. John Pope 

 on a survey from El Paso to Preston he says: "The upper 

 part and the head waters of the Rio Brazos are situated on 

 the rocks of the Trias." "I have since used the more gen- 

 eral expression New Red Sandstone formation to designate 

 all the strata in America between the Carboniferous forma- 

 tion and the Jurassic rocks." These statements would seem 

 to indicate that he considered the lower portion of the Red 

 Beds as Permian and those higher up as Triassic. These 

 correlations were based upon lithological and stratigraphical 

 grounds, as stated by Cummins.** 



4. Report of Explorations for a Railroad Route near the Thirty-fifth Parallel of Lati- 

 tude, 1854. 



5. American Geology, Zurich, 1858. From Cummius. 



6. Sec. Ann. Rep. Geol. Snrv. Tex., p. 399, 1891. 



