THE PLAINS PROVINCE 95 



changes to typical red beds. On the State line, the distance from the Winfield 

 formation, the upper conspicuous limestone member, to the eastern outcrop of 

 the red beds is perhaps 30 miles; on the southern line of Kay County, Oklahoma, 

 it is not more than 15 miles, while farther south the line of separation can not 

 be determined, for the reason that the limestone disappears, and its place is 

 taken by red shales and sandstones. In southern Kansas there are three distinct 

 kinds of Permian rocks: First, the heavy limestones in eastern Cowley County 

 and along Walnut River: second, the bluish and gray clays and shales of the 

 Marion and Wellington formations from Walnut River to western Sumner 

 County; and, third, the typical red beds, consisting of red sandstones and clays 

 extending from this point nearly to the west line of the State. In eastern Okla- 

 homa, on the other hand, only red beds appear. 



"Thus it is seen that the red beds extend farther east in Oklahoma than in 

 Kansas, and that the eastern limit of the red beds does not coincide with the line 

 of separation between the Pennsylvanian and the Permian. In other words, 

 the red color of the rocks, which has been thought characteristic of only the 

 Permian of the region, in fact transgresses far into the region of the Pennsylvanian 

 rocks. This means, of course, that the line of separation between the rocks of 

 these two epochs must finally be drawn far out in the red beds, and this the writer 

 has attempted to do. 



"The horizon of the bone beds of Texas is an extended one, and probably does 

 not correspond to any one horizon in Kansas or Oklahoma, but to several of them. 

 Dumble's correlation of the Phacoceras dumbeli zone of the Wichita formation 

 with the Fort Riley limestone is probably about as near correct as we can state 

 at the present time." 



Gould further states that the vertebrates from the Pittsburgh red shale 

 in Pennsylvania are from a horizon equal to the Oread limestone, 1,000 feet 

 above the Cowley County horizon, and that the vertebrates from near 

 Danville, Illinois, are from a horizon which it is certain "that there is no 

 reason for supposing that the surrounding shales are as high stratigraphically 

 as the basal Permian of Kansas." 



In a discussion of the upper Pennsylvanian rocks of eastern Oklahoma, 

 Gould^ and others have included deposits as high as the equivalent of the 

 Garrison formation. They show that the limestones and shales below the 

 Wreford become sandy toward the south and many of them disappear before 

 the Arkansas River is reached. Of the 10,000 to 12,000 feet of shales or 

 sandstones reaching from the Mississippian to the Permian (well into the 

 Permo-Carboniferous — Case) the shales greatly predominate. While it is 

 apparent that the limestone thins out and disappears to the south, there 

 are present some limestones as far north as Bartlesville and Tulsa which 

 thin out to the north, having all the appearance of detached lenses. The 

 shales and sandstones constantly increase in thickness and frequently 

 coalesce. The two upper groups recognized in eastern Oklahoma are the: 

 Ralston, from the base of the Pawhuska to the base of the Wreford ; Sapulpa, 



' Gould, C. H., D. W. Ohern, and L. I. Hutchinson, Proposed Groups of Pennsylvanian of 

 Eastern Oklahoma, Research Bulletin State University of Oklahoma No. 3, 1910. 



