THE RELATIONS OF SOME CARBONIFEROUS FAUNAS II 



vieve are probably no greater than one would expect in the case 

 of an immediately succeeding series, while the differences are 

 rather more than one would expect in the same series at a point 

 relatively so near the typical Genevieve area. The supposed 

 dispersion also of the beds under consideration seems to afford 

 some support for the view advanced. 



Beneath the Wapanucka limestone in Indian Territory lies 

 the Caney shale, a great mass of black shale, sometimes reach- 

 ing a thickness of 1,500 feet, which probably is, in a general 

 way, or partially, equivalent to the interval under consideration 

 — that between the Boone and the Kessler formations. This 

 interval, it will be remembered, also contains a good deal of 

 black shale, and underlies the Kessler limestone, which I cor- 

 relate with some confidence with the Wapanucka limestone, 

 though, as already remarked the final specific comparisons and 

 identifications have not yet been made. The Caney shale, 

 however, is, in its fullest development, much thicker than the 

 beds in Arkansas, and an opinion would at present be hazardous, 

 as to whether only a part of it represents them, or the entire 

 thickness is merely an expansion. 



The fauna of the Caney shale consists largely of Goniatites, 

 which are both varied and abundant in certain localities, where 

 they help to form calcareous lentils. With the Goniatites occur 

 little besides, except at some points a small species of Posid- 

 oniella in great abundance. At the base of the Caney at one 

 locality a more varied though somewhat sparse and ill-preserved 

 fauna has been found. This fauna and the Goniatites, some 

 of which are of the crenislria and s^hcEricus types, are very 

 suggestive of the fauna of the Fayetteville shale and Spring 

 Creek limestone. The Caney rests sometimes upon lower 

 Helderberg rocks, sometimes upon those of Ordovician age ; 

 and Mr. Taff tells me that his field work of the present season 

 tends to demonstrate the presence over a considerable area of a 

 great thickness of sandstones and shales of Carboniferous and 

 probably Pennsylvanian age, beneath it. 



In the White Pine district of Nevada the beds called *' Lower 

 Carboniferous " by Mr. Walcott, which are here suggested to 

 be of Pottsville age, are underlain by a black shale — the White 



