522 TRANS. OP THE ACAD. OF SCIENCE. 



non-conformability, both those of other authors and those he 

 has added. 



Let us compare his conditions with the facts in the case. 



There are "two sets of strata resting one upon another" 

 and "dipping at different angles" "in consequence of the 

 older beds being tilted,"* and it has already been shown that 

 this " icant of conformity " is " accompanied by differences 

 in the groups of fossils above and below the line of non- 

 conformity" A " considerable change of physical condi- 

 tions as well as the lapse of long periods of time" are 

 shown by the palasontological and lithological changes already 

 mentioned. Therefore, the Dr. must admit that there is a 

 want of conformability, although he and Mr. Meek did not 

 see it, when they made the "careful examination of those lo- 

 calities." And although they say there is no physical break 

 here, it still appears to me there is such a break as the absence 

 of eleven distinct strata 80 feet in thickness has made, and 

 such an one as Mr. Sedgwickf describes in Great Britain, and 

 which, he says, was the principal reason for separating their 

 Permian from the Carboniferous rocks. 



And still Messrs. Meek and Hayden positively affirm that 

 " all the evidence sustains the opinions expressed by Messrs. 

 Meek and Hayden, in 1859, that " there is in Kansas an un- 

 broken series from the bottom of the Coal Measures to the 

 top of the Permian"; and that no one without a knowledge of 

 the classification of the Old World, would separate the Per- 

 mian from the Coal Measures. 



But Messrs. Meek and Hayden themselves testify]: that 

 there is not a single fossil common to the upper and lower 

 portions of this unbroken series. Does that " evidence " sus- 

 tain the opinion of Messrs. Meek and Hayden that the upper 

 and lower beds belong to the same formation? 



Messrs. Meek and Hayden also testily that the lithological 

 character§ ot the upper strata is strikingly different from those 

 below, and are such as would incline them to suspect the 

 rocks containing them to be Permian. And, in fact, every 

 witness testifies to the remarkable difference in the lithologi- 

 cal characters. Maj.Hawn and myself have stated that there 

 is a line of non-conformability, and that the limestones below 

 are blue, brown and ferruginous, while those above are white 

 and buff and magnesian ; that there are coal beds immedi- 



* Meek and Hayden prove this tilt to the West. Acad. Nat. Sci. Phil., 

 January, 1859. 



t Geo. Trans., 2d Series, vol. 4, p. 397. 



\ Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci. Phil., Jan. 1859, pp. 20 & 21. 



§ Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci. Phil., Jan. 1859, pp. 20 & 21. 



