514 TRANS. OP THE ACAD. OF SCIENCE. 



has seen no satisfactory evidence that these Kansas Rocks are 

 Permian. 



Drs. Shumard, Norwood, and Swallow, and Mnj. Hawn, 

 satisfied to let the question rest on the evidence already ad- 

 duced, say nothing more. 



Affairs look dubious again, and Messrs. Meek and Hayden 

 hasten to Kansas and examine a "large part of it," and make 

 alareie collection of fossils. After several months, they gave 

 us the results,* which is, in substance, that there is really no 

 evidence in Kansas, either on palasontological or lithological 

 ground, of a Permian System,! although some of the rocks 

 are "equivalents of the so-called Permian of Europe." 



Thus, this matter is wisely settled. They pertinaciously 

 held on to the discovery, and at the same time, fearing they 

 have discovered nothing, they say, no evidence has been 

 found that there really is anything to be discovered. 



But, in the course of events, Prof. Newberry, in summing 

 up for the use of the Government what was known of Kansas 

 Geology, declares the evidence conclusive that the Rocks in 

 question are the "representatives of the Permian Rocks of Eu- 

 rope.":}: And this, too, on the facts adduced by Messrs. Meek 

 and Hayden. He probably did not know of any other evi- 

 dence, as he did not refer to any. 



And Count D'Archiac§ positively declares in his History 

 of Geology, that our western geologists have clearly proved 

 the existence of the Permian System in several localities in 

 the West. Then follows my Preliminary Report, which shows 

 a very distinct Permian System. 



This is a little too much of a good thing, which they had 

 well-nigh abandoned; and Dr. Hayden, fully armed with co- 

 pious notes from Mr. Meek, publishes the remarkable paper 

 which made this article necessary. 



In this paper, they claim the Permian, not only by right 



* Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci. Phil., 1859, p. 20. 



t " The passage from the Carboniferous to the strata containing Per- 

 mian types, however, is so gradual here, that it seems to us that no one 

 undertaking to classify these rocks without any knowledge of the classi- 

 fication adopted in the Old World, would have separated them into dis- 

 tinct systems, either upon lithological or palaeontological grounds, espe- 

 cially as they are not, so far as our knowledge extends, separated by any 

 discordance of stratification, or other physical break." 



t See Colorado Explor., Ex-Lieut. Ives, p. 110. 



§"Les dc'couvertes si importantes de MM. Swallow, Hayden, et G. 

 Shumard au Nouveau-Mexique.de MM. Swallow et Hawn dans Kansas, 

 de M. Norwood dans l'lllinois, etc., justifient pleinement, au contraire, 

 l'existence de la faune permienne, et par conse'quent de cette formation 

 dans cette partie du nouveau continent, sans cependant autoriser, quant 

 a present, une division en deux groupes qui correspondraient d'une mani- 

 ere absolue, 1'un au zechstein, l'autre au rothe-todte liegende." 



