Mesozoic and Ccenozoic Geology and Palceontology. 171 



T. A. Conrad described, from Trout creek, near Fairplay, Pfycho- 

 ceras araticm and Jfeekia bidlata; from seven miles south-southeast of 

 Fairpla}', Helicoceras vespertinum, Anchura hella ; and from near 

 Denver. HaplosGapJia capax. 



Prof. Leo Lesquereux * described, from the Dakota Group at Fort 

 Harker, Kansas, Lygodinm tricliomanoides^ Greviopsis haydeni ; 

 from Kansas, Todea saportanea, Dioscorea cretacea, Flahellaria min- 

 ima^ Alnus kansasana, now H amamelites kansasanus, Myrica ohtusa^ 

 Quercusporanoides, Sassafi^as-acutilobum, Oreodaphne cretacea, Em- 

 hothrium daphneoides, Diospyrosrotundifolia\ from Minnesota, J^2c?t5 

 hallana; from Decatur, Nebraska, Hedera ovalis, Frotophyllum ne- 

 brascejise; from the bluffs of Salina River, Protophyllun minum; from 

 Warner's quarry eight miles from Winnebago village, bluffs of the 

 Missouri river, Ptenostrohus nehrascensis. 



The Cretaceous is visible, Jn North Carolina, f only in the bluffs in 

 the southeastern part of the State, from the Neiise and its tribu- 

 tary Contentnea, southward. It is best exposed, in the bluffs, along 

 the Cape Fear between Fayetteville and Wilmington. The rocks for 

 50 to 60 miles below Fayetteville consist of sandstones, clay slates and 

 shales, 30 to 40 feet thick, in many places dark to black and very lig- 

 nitic, with projecting trunks and limbs of trees, and at a few points 

 full of marine shells. For 40 to 50 miles above Wilmington, and in all 

 the other river sections, the rock is a uniform, dark, greenish-gray, 

 slightly argillaceous sandstone, massive, and showing scarcely any 

 marks of bedding. This sandstone everywhere contains a small per- 

 centage of glauconite, and is the representative of the true greensand. 



The Ripley Group was so named by Conrad from the town of Ripley, 

 Mississippi, J in 1858, and some of the- species of shells at that place 

 are identical with species from North Carolina, Georgia, Eufaula, 

 Alabama, and Haddonfield, New Jersey. The mineral character of the 

 beds and state of preservation of the fossils are the same, proving 

 not only a simultaneous deposit, but a similar depth of water, not in 

 an estuary but in a marine basin. This group constitutes the great 

 bulk of the Cretaceous strata east of the Mississippi, and, as Conrad 

 supposed, corresponds most nearl}^ in age with the Senonian stage of 

 D'Orbigny, or that part of the Cretaceous which underlies and most 

 nearly approaches in age the chalk. 



- Cret. Flora, Hayden's U. S. Geo. Sur. Terr., vol. 6. 



tGeo. ofN. Carolina, 1875. 



t Jour. Acad. Nat. Sci. 2d Ser. vol. 3, 



