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GEOLOGY AND PALJLONTOLOGY. 



OBSERVATIONS ON THE CARBONIFEROUS LIMESTONE OF THE BOUNDARY 

 SURVEY COLLECTIONS, AND ITS RELATIONS WITH THE CARBONIFEROUS 

 LIMESTONES OF THE MISSISSIPPI VALLEY. 



The carboniferous limestone, so often mentioned in the preceding pages, and which has been 

 usually referred to in published reports aa " Carboniferous limestone," and as " Lower carbo- 

 niferous limestone," is actually of the same age as the coal measures. This point we have but 

 lately had the means of satisfactorily determining. 



Several species of fossils were known to characterize this formation over a wide extent of 

 country, and from their associations the rock was referred simply to "carboniferous limestone,"* 

 without distinguishing the order of position among the diiFerent members of that saries. Among 

 tliese species were several known to occur in the coal measures of Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Iowa, 

 and Missouri^ while none of them were characteristic of the lower carboniferous limestones. 



In the Missouri Geological Report of 1855, Professor Swallow has placed the limestones and 

 shales of Weston and other localities, which contain these fossils, in the upper coal measures. 

 At the same time, some of them are known to occur in the lower coal measures ; and, with our 

 present knowledge, we are constrained to believe that certain species occur both in the upper 

 and lower coal measures of the west. 



In order to understand fully the relations of this higher carboniferous limestone of the west 

 to the other members of the series termed carboniferous, it is necessary to present the following 

 section of these rocks, beginning with the upper member : 



Section of the carboniferous limestones and the coal measures in the 

 valley (f tke J\rnsissij)j)i. 



{ Sliales, slialy sandstones, tandstones, and seams of coal, 

 with shaly and more compact limestone, constituting 

 the upper coal measures. This limestone is designated 

 OS the upper carboniferous limestone, and constitutes the 

 carboniferous limestone of the Rocky Mountains. 



Coal measures below the limestone, being the middle and 

 lower coal measures of the Missouri report, and ihe 

 iou'er coal measures, in part, of Ohio and Pennsylvania. 



Kaskaskia, or Upper Arcliimedes limestone 



VII. 



VI. 



V. — Gray, brown, or ferruginous fandstone 



IV. — St. Louis limestone, or concretionary limestone . . . . 



Arenaceous bed . 



Ill 



< Warsaw, or second Archimedes limestone. 

 (^ Magnesian limestone 



^LOCALITIES. 



Localities of the upper carl/oniferous limestone, Ohio; Indiana. 

 Illinois; Weston and Bellevue, Missouri; Great Salt Lake, 

 Utah Territory ; near Santa Fe, and at the Pecos village, 

 New Mexico, etc. 



Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Missouri, etc. 



Kaskaskia and Chester, Illinois; St. Mary's, Missouri, etc .... 

 Below St. Genevieve, Missouri, between Prairie du Rocher 



and Kaskaskia, Illinois. 

 St. Louis, St. Genevieve, Missouri ; Alton, Illinois ; highest 



beds below Keokuk, Iowa. 



[•Warsaw and Alton, Illinois; Spergen Hill, Blooniington, Ind. 

 J 



Beds of passage, shale or marl, with geodes of quartz, etc 



II. — Keokuk limestone, or Lower Archimedes limestone 



Beds of passage, (chcrty beds,) GO to 100 feot 



I. — Burlington limestone 



Oolitic limestone and argillaceous sandstone of the Che- 

 mung period. 



* Dr. Owen in his report upon the Chippewa land district, gives numerous sections of the carboniferous limestone in the 

 Mississippi and Missouri valleys, and its connexion with beds of coal; but he does not speak positively with regard to the position 

 of this rcok or its distin:tion from the carboniferous limestones below. 



Keokuk, Iowa; Warsaw, Illinois 



Keokuk, Iowa; Quincy, Illinois; above St. Genevieve, Mo.. 



Rapids of the Mississippi, above Keokuk 



Burlington, Iowa; Quincy, Illinois; Hannibal, etc., Missouri. 

 Burlington, Iowa; Hannibal, Missouri 



