30 CROSS 



relations which King and Hayden thought characteristic of the Lara- 

 mie. Mr. Veatch has shown this by ample quotations from the 

 definition of the former. In all statements quoted and in others 

 which might be cited the relations most strongly emphasized in 

 regard to the Laramie is its conformity with the underlying Creta- 

 ceous beds. King believed the Laramie to be Cretaceous; Hayden 

 thought it transitional between Cretaceous and Tertiary. King 

 believed that Mesozoic sedimentation ended by reason of a great 

 Rocky Mountain revolution and that the Laramie was separated 

 from the lowest Eocene beds, erroneously supposed by him to be 

 the Wasatch, by a marked unconformity. Hayden thought that 

 Laramie and Wasatch were essentially conformable. 



The essence of King's definition is contained in the sentence: 

 "accordingly .... it was amicably agreed between us 

 [King and Hayden] that this series should receive the group name 

 of Laramie, and that it should be held to include that series of beds 

 which conformably overlies the Fox Hill."^ " There is no difference 

 between us as to the conformity of the Laramie group with the under- 

 lying Fox Hill."^ There is no reference to the Carbon or any other 

 section of Laramie beds as typical. The name would appear to have 

 been chosen because it was deemed the best one derivable from the 

 zone covered both by the King and Hayden surveys, and not because 

 of a type section. It was undoubtedly believed that the Carbon 

 section illustrated, but in common with many others, the funda- 

 mental relation of conformity with the underlying Cretaceous. 



Hayden's last statement of his position was in the introduction 

 to Lesquereux's Tertiary Flora, as follows: 



"The facts as we understand them at the present time would 

 seem to warrant this general division, viz: a marine series, Creta- 

 ceous; gradually passing up into a brackish water series, Laramie; 

 gradually passing up into a purely fresh water series, Wasatch."" 

 He regarded it probable that the Wasatch and Fort Union beds 

 were identical, in part at least. 



The Laramie of King's conception was a natural stratigraphic 

 unit with a well defined base to be found in many places but with 



' U. S. Geol. Expl. of 40th Parallel, Vol. I, Systematic Geology, 1S78, p. 331. 



"Ibid., p. 348. 



» U. S. Geol. and Geog. Survey of the Ter., Men. VII, 1878, p. v. 



