IOWA ACADEMY OF SCIENCES. 93 



development in the vicinity of the mouth of the Platte river 

 where the various outcrops seem to exhibit a thickness 

 of between 200 and 300 feet. This embraced all of the shales 

 from the first important limestone (Forbes-Bed B of Meek's 

 section) above the Plattsmouth, the latter, and some twenty- 

 five feet of shales below. The Plattsmouth forming a well 

 defined member by itself, the name Platte is retained for the 

 major part of the "division," or the shales. 



The advisability of recognizing this subdivision was further 

 advocated recently.* 



The fact that the exact equivalency of the Forbes limestones 

 on the Missouri rivar, with the principal limestones on the 

 Kansas river near Topeka is not; yet determined, makes little 

 difference so far as understanding the general stratigraphy is 

 concerned. The Forbes may be the continuation of either 

 the Topeka or the Burlingame limestones. At any rate the 

 Platte is very nearly, if not exactly, the equivalent of 

 Haworth's Shawnee formation, f It thus embraces the 

 Lecompton shales, the Lecompton limestone, the Tecumseh 

 shales, the Deer Creek limestone, the Calhoun shales, and 

 possibly also the Topeka limestone and Osage shales. 



Forbes Limestone. — In the Missourian series there is one 

 important limestone member bet wee a the Plattsmouth and 

 Cottonwood limestones. This is called the Forbes formation 

 from its best outcrops in northwestern Missouri, along the 

 Missouri river. In Kansas it appears to be the Burlingame. 



This stratum has been referred to many timas in the litera- 

 ture of the region, but it has never received special desig- 

 nation. Marcout assigned it and other beds, as exhibited at 

 Belleview and Omaha, to the Mountain limestone series (Mis- 

 sissippian), and the Plattsmouth limestone farther down the 

 river to the Permian. 



Whenever it is with certainty correlated with Burlingame 

 limestones of the Kansas river section, the title will prob- 

 ably have to take the place of one or the other of these. It 

 might be inferred that this could be easily determined from 

 the correlations of the geologists who have been in northeast- 

 ern Kansas. There are, however, in their work, marked dis- 

 crepancies. No account is taken of the remarkable syncline in 

 the extreme northeastern corner of the state. Along the Mis- 



* American Geologist, Vol. XXIII, p. 380, 1899. 

 + Univ. Geol. Sur. Kansas, Vol III, p. 94, 1898. 

 t Bull Soc G6ol. France, 3e serle, t. XXI, p. 132, 1864. 



