Smith.] ^^^ [Oct. 2, 



tlie rocks iu question are not to be referred to the Permian, because lie 

 can find no paleontologic or stratigrapliic break in the series. He finds 

 sixteen genera cliaracteristic of the Carboniferous and seven genera not 

 lliouglit to antedate tlie Permian in Europe, but associated with genera 

 not thought to occur later than the Carboniferous. Meek* says that 

 Fusulina, which occurs in great numbers in tlie Upper Coal Measures of 

 Nebraska, is considered in Europe to be mainly a Lower Carboniferous 

 genus. In this, however, he was mistaken ; his opinion dates from the 

 time when geologists were inclined to place all Carboniferous limestone 

 in the Lower Carboniferous. But it is now known that Carboniferous 

 limestone occurs in the Upper Carboniferous about as often as in the 

 Lower, and that the Fusulina limestones of Sicilj' and Russia grade 

 over into beds of undoubted Permian age. 



This is also true of corresponding beds in the upper part of the Car- 

 boniferous of Texas, since the line between Permian and Coal Measures 

 is purely arl)itrary. 



Although undoubtedly believing in continuity of life and formations, 

 Meek seems to have based his reasoning somewhat upon the old idea of 

 catastrophies, since he thought that the absence of a paleontologic or 

 stratigrapliic break was a sufficient reason for calling the beds in ques- 

 tion Upper Coal Measures rather than Permian. A large majority of the 

 genera and species are characteristic of the Carboniferous, and this 

 Meek thinks sufficient to off'set the fact that several genera previously 

 considered tj'pical of Permian are present. But some of these doubtful 

 strata have at last been acknowledged to be Permianf by Williams and 

 Tschernyschew, and Prof. Hyatt has described in tlie Fourth Annual 

 Report of the Geological Survey of Texas several cephalopods that are 

 common to the Permian of Texas and of Kansas. 



In the Upper Coal Measures of Arkansas, out of fifty -two species, there 

 are twenty -five in common with the doubtful strata of Nebraska, and 

 eleven other species are common to the Nebraskan Permo-Carboniferous 

 and the Lower Coal Measures of Arkansas, but have not yet been found 

 in the Upper Coal Measures of the latter state. But of the genera men- 

 tioned by Meek as being not considered to antedate the Permian of 

 Europe only two are found in the Arkansas strata, namely, SynodndiaX 

 and Lima. 



There is not sufficient reason for classing the Poteau mountain beds 

 with the Permian, but their fauna, as well as stratigrapliic position, place 

 them very high in the Coal Measures, since they are like the fauna and 

 position of the Mississippi Valley Upper Coal Measures. 



These beds derive an additional interest from the fact that on Poteau 



* P. 133, op. dl. 



t Trans. Kansas Acad. ScL, Vol. xiii, p. 38. 



X Waiigen has shown iu Pal. Indica, Sail Range Fossils i, Pmductus Limestone Fossils, p. 

 802, that Synocladia is not found in America, the species described by Swallow as Synoc- 

 India biserialis being a Scptopura. There is also some doubt as to whether Lima relifera is 

 ;i true Lima. 



