WOODWOKTIi: GEOLOGICAL EXPEDITION TO BRAZIL AND CHILE. 45 



above the base of the series are without doubt referable to the Per- 

 mian. The Permian strata are known along a narrow belt from 

 southern IVIinas Geraes southward through the states of Sao Paulo 

 and Santa Catharina; they extend into Rio Grande do Sul where the 

 beds turn westward on the southern border of the basin-shaped area 

 of late Palaeozoic and early Mesozoic sediments which form the 

 central geological province of South America. Except where the 

 Devonian beds intervene these strata rest with marked uncon- 

 formity upon the Pre-Devonian rocks. According to Dr. Derby ^ 

 the Permian consists of the following beds : — 



Rocinha limestones. 

 Estrada Nova shales. 



Iraty shales. 

 Palermo shales. 

 Coal measures. 



Tillite beds. 

 Basal beds. 



3 meters. Stereosternum bed. 

 150 meters. Gray, mottled shales with flints; 

 known in Santa Catharina. 

 70 meters. Black shales with Mesosaurus. 

 90 meters. With fossil wood. 

 150 meters. Sandstones and shales with 2 

 beds of coal. Glossopteris 

 flora. 



Sandstones with boulders and pebbles. 



Dr. I. C. White in his admirable Report^ on the coal fields of south 

 Brazil groups the Permian beds in the following section : — 



Passa Dois series. 

 223 meters 



Tuberao series. 

 180 meters 



Rocinha limestone. 3 M. 



Estrada Nova shales with chert 150 



Iraty black shale (with Mesosaurus) ^ 70 



Palermo shales 90 

 Rio Bonito sandstones and shales with 



coal and Glossopteris flora 158 



Orleans conglomerate 5 

 Yellow sandstones and shales to granite 



floor 27 

 Total thickness 403 meters or 1,322 feet. 



Dr. White appears to regard the various formations of the Permian 

 as more or less persistently parallel throughout Sao Paulo, Parana, 



1 Verbally communicated at Ponta Grossa in 190S. 



2 Dr. I. C. White, Relatorio final apresentado a S. Ex. o Sr. Dr. Lauro Severiano 

 Miiller. ComissTio de Estudias das Minas de Carvao de Pedra do Brazil. Rio de 

 Janeiro, 1908, p. 33. 



' Dr. White includes Stereosternum in this bed; but this is an error: it is found 

 in the Rocinha limestone. 



