beede: upper permian red beds. 129 



to the underlying Double Mountain beds of this section, they 

 say: "Underlying the conglomerate last mentioned (Dockum 

 beds) , but separated by a bold unconformity, we find five feet 

 of sandy clay dipping toward the northwest. It is underlaid 

 by a red or terra-cotta sandstone, somewhat mixed with clay 

 toward the top and bedded in layers which vary in thickness 

 from one foot to an inch or less. There are two seams of 

 impure limestone embedded in the sand, but although a care- 

 ful search was made for fossils none were found. 



"The red or terra-cotta sandstone rests directly upon the 

 upper gypsum beds, which consist of an upper layer of 

 gypsum underlaid by yellow and red sandy clays or shales 

 which are much cross-bedded. Gypsum also occurs through- 

 out the clays." 



This is followed by a brief description of the remaining 

 gypsum beds. No fossils were found in the Triassic or 

 Permian beds at this place. 



In the Second Annual Report of the Texas Survey^* N. F. 

 Drake describes the area and stratigraphy of the Dockum 

 beds overlying the Permian in western Texas. In this pa- 

 per he graphically describes the unconformity between the 

 Triassic and Permian beds, and brings out the fact that the 

 Dockum beds are fresh-water deposits, as instanced by the 

 Unio invertebrate fauna and the shallow-water vertebrate 

 fauna described by Cope in the article following Drake's. 



The foregoing quotations are sufficiently complete to re- 

 quire but little comment here. They demonstrate the thor- 

 oughness with which the Texas survey worked out the 

 geology of these deposits, and, as will be shown later, they 

 correspond well with the more recent work to the northward. 



In 1892 Tarr published an article on the Texas Permian ^^ 

 in which he discusses the general syncline in which the south 

 ern part of the Red Beds lie. His conclusion is that the Red 

 Beds were laid down in an inland sea. He says that "the 

 Permian conditions are, therefore, foreshadowed in the Car. 

 boniferous, and probably, also, the conditions which cul 

 minated in Permian times in the completely enclosed dead 



24, Pages 227-247, 1892. 



25. Amer. Jour. Sci., XLIII, pp. 9-12. 1892. 



2-Univ. Sci. Bull.. Vol. IV, No. 3. 



