NATURAL SCIENCES OP PHILADELPHIA. 131 



upon upper Carboniferous strata, and presents its usual characters, excepting 

 that the beds of sandstone are more frequently white. lie did not see No. 2 well 

 exposed, its place in the series being usually occupied by a slope. Above this, 

 however, he saw the lower beds of No. 3, presenting their usual lithological 

 characters, and containing the fossil everywhere marking this horizon, (Inoce- 

 ramus problematicus. )* 



Mr. Hawn writes us, he has been informed by an intelligent Deputy Surveyor, 

 that the formations represented in his section, especially the beds below the 

 upper limestone, were seen by him at intervals along the sixth principal me- 

 ridian, as far south as his survey extended, or to the fifth standard parallel, near 

 the Arkansas River. 



Exactly similar deposits were observed by Dr. George B. Shumard in the 

 vicinity of Fort Washita, and the Cross Timbers in northern Texas. He de- 

 scribes these formations as consisting of " grayish yellow sandstone, with in- 

 tercalations of blue, yellow and ash colored clays, and beds of white and bluish- 

 white limestone. The limestone reposing on the clays and sandstones." (See 

 Capt. Marcy's report of Explorations on Red River, page 181.) 



In one of the upper beds of this series Dr. Shumard found, along with several 

 new species of Cretaceous fossils, some of the same shells collected by Dr. 

 Roemer from similar depv.sits at New Braunfels, and other localities further south 

 in Texas. He likewise collected from the same beds, species identical with 

 some of those found in the same position by Mr. Marcou at Pyramid Mountain, 

 in New Mexico, thus establishing the parallelism of the formations at all these 

 localities.! 



A section of these deposits taken by Mr. Marcou at Pyramid Mountain, near 

 the Llano Estacado, (Bulletin Geol. Soc. France, Tome 12, p. 878,) corresponds 

 remarkably in its general features with Mr. Hawn's section already given, of 

 these formations in north-eastern Kansas. The identity of composition and 

 order of succession of the various beds represented in these sections, can scarcely 

 be due to accident, but points rather to the conclusion that they were deposited 

 at the same time in the same ocean. 



For the sake of comparison we give below, in a tabular form, Mr. Marcou's 

 section of Pyramid Mountain, with columns showing the parallelism of the 

 various beds with the formations in Nebraska, Kansas, New Jersey and Alabama, 

 as well as his views respecting the parallelism of the same with formations of 

 the Old World. 



* Since these remarks were written, I have received with deep regret the sad news of 

 Mr. Pra'ten s death. In making this announcement, it affords me a mel incholy pleasure 

 to bear witness t p his merits as a man and a devoted cultivator of natural science. Along 

 with all the artless simplicity of a child, he possessed an intellect of no ordinary powers ; 

 while his studious habits and untiring perseverance, aided by a wonderful memory, had 

 enabled him, under circumstances far from propitious, to acquire an amount of knowledge 

 in various departments of science, of which the most favored might be proud. Perhaps 

 no person now Uving possesses a better knowledge of the western carboniferous fossils 

 than he did; and yet this was only one of several branches of science to which he had 

 devoted many years of his life. His quiet habits and unpretending manners, however, 

 had to a great extent prevented his real merits fr.im being duly appreciated outside of 

 a comparaiively limited circle of personal acquaintances. With all, and better than 

 all, his other qualities of head and heart, Mr. Pratten was a high minded, honorable 

 man. F. B. M. 



1 1 am under obligations to Dr. B. F. Shumard for a few specimens of fossils collected 

 by his brother from these formations in Texas. F. B. M. 



1857.] 



