THE GUADALUPAN SERIES; AND THE RELA- 

 TIONS OF ITS DISCOVERY TO THE EXIST- 

 ENCE OF A PERMIAN SECTION IN 

 MISSOURI.* 



Charles R. Keyes. 



A most spirited controversy was the Permian Question 

 in American geology during the middle of the last cen- 

 tury. For more than 50 years was it warmly debated 

 without tangible results. While some of the attendant 

 problems still remain not fully solved it is with great 

 interest that it may now be announced that recently data 

 of a critical character have been secured for the definite 

 settlement of the main question. 



Singularly, during all of this period of nearly two gen- 

 erations of discussion the only real evidences favoring the 

 occurrence of strata of true Permian equivalent in this 

 country are contained in papers first read before our 

 Academy and published in the initial volume of its Trans- 

 actions. To this record I desire to call especial attention 

 at this time, and also to refer to the significance of cer- 

 tain discoveries which bear directly upon the general 

 question that the Far Southwest and Mexican tableland 

 have recently afforded. 



Among the earliest communications made to our St. 

 Louis Academy of Science were several presented by 

 one of its most active and distinguished members, Dr. 

 B. F. Shumard. One of these papers in particular, read 

 at the regular meeting of March 8, 1858, was an announce- 

 ment of the discovery of true Permian fossils in the white 

 limestones of the Guadalupe mountains on the southern 

 boundary of New Mexico, not far from El Paso. 1 Soon 



*Presented by title to The Academy of Science of St. Louis, Novem- 

 ber 21, 1910. 



'Trans. Acad. Sci. St. Louis, 1:113; 387-403. 1860. 



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