SWALLOW— MEEK' S NOTES ON GEOLOGY OP KANSAS. 513 



doubtful, a mere probability of a probability that these rocks 

 will prove to be Permian, and the letter itself is quite as non- 

 committal. 



And it was not until after Dr. Shumard and Maj. Hawn 

 and myself had published several papers proving these rocks 

 Permian, and not until after the meeting of the American 

 Association at Baltimore, that Dr. Hayden in his paper* of 

 June 22d, ventured to refer to this publication as designed " to 

 announce a conclusion." If it was a conclusio?i, it certainly 

 decided nothing, and exjjressed no positive opinion respecting 

 the age of the rocks. 



At the Baltimore meeting, Mr. Meek wanted some credit 

 for the discovery, although he still doubted whether there 

 really is any Permian System. 



But when Messrs. Meek and Hayden found the identity of 

 the Kansas Rocks with the Permian of Europe fully estab- 

 lished, at the Baltimore meeting, and that neither they them- 

 selves nor others could distinguish the Kansas fossils from 

 the characteristic Permian fossils from Europe there pre- 

 sented for comparison, and when they had seen Mr. Worth- 

 en's fine collection of (Permian) fossils from Illinois,! Dr. 

 Hayden makes haste to write a history of all the discoveries 

 and publications made on the subject, save what I had done 

 in the premises, and to announce, "We have, therefore, relia- 

 ble evidence of the existence of these rocks in Kansas, Ne- 

 braska, New Mexico and Illinois,"]: and this (read June 22d, 

 1858) is the first declaration, so far as I can discover, of any 

 settled opinion on the subject, by either Mr. Meek or Dr. 

 Hayden. 



In this same paper, they revise§ their Geology of the Black 

 Hills, by taking the Permian Rocks, F. and E., from the mid- 

 dle of the Carboniferous System, and erecting them into the 

 dignity of a Permian system || 



But Prof. Rocrers states in the British Association, that he 



* Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci. Phil., 1858, p. 144, note. 



t But Meek and Worthen now pronounce these "fine Permian fossils " 

 Carboniferous. (See Illinois Report*.) 



t Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci., 1858, p. 144. 



* Dr. Hayden says, this revision enables him " to add some geological 

 formations not previously known to exist in the West." He added De- 

 vonian (?) and Permian only. The Permian, therefore, was not previ- 

 ously known to exist in the West. This was said June 22d, 1858. What 

 then, did Messrs. Meek and Hayden mean by that record in the Smith- 

 sonian Institute, made five months before? 



|| This would look like a belief in the Permian, had they not add id a 

 note to the effect that " they do not wish to be understood as giving any 

 opinion on the question whether there really is any such thing as " the so- 

 called Permian." 



