256 Kansas Academy of Science. 



relation is made. However, while the texture of the stone varies 

 somewhat from that of the original exposure, its distance from the 

 base of the Marion is about the same and its nature is not all in- 

 consistent with such a correlation. The conglomerate was first 

 described by Meek and Hayden in No. 9 of the section quoted 

 above. The name, "Abilene conglomerate," was first applied as a 

 formation name by Prosser in "The Classification of the Upper 

 Palaeozoic Rooks of Kansas." '^ It is a calcareous conglomerate, con- 

 taining some sand and sandstone pebbles, near Abilene, where it 

 seems to be considerably thicker than in the Herington-Marion 

 region. In the field, no sand or sandstone was noted in the rock 

 about Herington or Marion. It is a heavy, hard, perhaps dolomitic 

 stone, composed of fragments of yellow, orange 'and gray masses 

 firmly united in a light-gray cementing material. As previously 

 noted, it rests upon the "cracked shale," which is rather thick in 

 places and frequently not very dissimilar in appearance in poor ex- 

 posures. It forms a weak escarpment which has been followed as 

 far south as the divide between Marion and Peabody. Certain pe- 

 culiar calcareous deposits south of Doyle creek near Peabody prob- 

 ably belong in the same horizon. It has not yet been recognized 

 in Oklahoma. 



This is the highest stratum of rocks in the Kansas white Per- 

 mian making an escarpment of sufficient strength and continuity to 

 be mapped over large areas. Above this horizon the limestones 

 and gypsums appear to be more or less lenticular and discontinu- 

 ous, so far as our investigations have gone. More detailed work 

 may show that series of these occupy the same stratigraphic hori- 

 zons and admit of approximate mapping, but it hardly seems so at 

 present. In this respect the rocks of the Marion stage are quite 

 distinct from those of the Wellington shales. So far as known, 

 too, the Wellington shales are fossiliferous only in few localities 

 and probably fewer horizons. For these reasons it seems best to 

 limit the Marion stage to the formations herein described and 

 shown on the accompanying maps, where only the limestones are 

 shown. 



7. Jour. Geol, III, p. 797, 1895. 



