SWALLOW — MEEK'S NOTES ON GEOLOGY OF KANSAS. 519 



range clown into the Carboniferous rocks, as they have in- 

 formed us. 



Dr. Hayden says: "The occurrence of a few types that 

 would generally be regarded as Permian along with numer- 

 ous well known Coal Measure species far below the Permian," 

 etc., etc. If this curious hypothesis is designed to represent 

 the facts in our Lower Permian, the Dr. may be a little too 

 fast. He should remember that, according to the present 

 state of our knowledge on this subject, these rocks contain 

 more than three fossils of Permian types to one of Carbon- 

 iferous, nor should he say they are "far below the Permian," 

 for that is just what he is trying to prove, the question at 

 issue — what logicians call "begging the question." 



The Dr. also says the Permian types in Kansas do in seve- 

 ral cases appear in something like "colonies" far down in the 

 Coal Measures,* in beds similar to Permian Rocks. This is 

 worthy of note. I have often thought it strange that so 

 many of our Permian fossils should be found scattered off 

 "far down" in the older rocks, as found by Messrs. Meek and 

 Hayden, but it is still stranger that whole "colonies'''' should 

 travel so far from home and carry their accustomed Permian 

 beds with them. These facts might be looked upon as "indi- 

 cating the existence of Permian Rocks," and that they are not, 

 after all, so "far down in the Coal Measures" as Messrs. 

 Meek and Haydenf have sometimes put them. 



It must also be added, in order to have the full force of 

 the Palseontological argument, that scarcely any of the 15 

 fossils admitted to be common to these Lower Permian rocks 

 and the Coal Measures range below the very highest beds of 



* If this be so, why may not colonies and, much more, a few species, of 

 Carboniferous fossils be found in the Permian ? Messrs. Meek and Hay- 

 den seem to labor under the erroneous impression that in seeking a divi- 

 sion between the Permian and Carboniferous, they must begin at the 

 lowest beds and work up, and place all the rocks in the Carboniferous 

 until the last Carboniferous fossil disappears. But if they begin in the 

 upper beds of the Permian and work down, following the same rule, they 

 would be compelled to place more than a thousand feet of the Upper Coal 

 Measures in the Permian ; as they say, they themselves found Permian 

 fossils that low down in the series. And, besides, if they apply the same 

 rule to the other systems, they will blot out several, if not all, above the 

 Silurian. Even the venerable Devonian system will disappear with the 

 others. 



t There may be no harm in remembering in this connection, that two 

 of these colonies, E. and F. of Messrs. Meek and Hayden's Nebraska Sec- 

 tion, never did wander "far down " in the Coal Measures as represented 

 by Messrs. Meek and Hayden, (see Acad. Nat. Sci. Phil., 1858, p. 144,) 

 but like sensible fossils staid at home, as shown by these same authors a 

 few months later. (See Acad Nat. Sci., 1858, p. 144.) It may be ex- 

 pected that when Messrs. Meek and Hayden correct the rest of their own 

 work on the Permian and Coal Measures all of the other "colonies" will 

 be found at home in the Permian Rocks, snug and close where the Cre- 

 ator put them. 



