Mesozoic and Ccenozoic Geology and Palceontology. 115 



T. A. Conrad described, from Trout creek, uear Fairplay, Ptycho- 

 ceras aratum and 3feekia hullata; from seven miles south-southeast of 

 Fairplay, Helicoceras vespertinu7n, Anchura hella ; and from near 

 Denver. Haploscapha cupax. 



Prof. Leo Lesquereux * described, from the Dakota Group at Fort 

 Harker, Kansas, Lygodium trichomanoides, Greviopsis haydeni ; 

 from Kansas, Todea saportanea, Dioscorea cretacea, Flahellaria min- 

 ima, Alnus kansasana, now Hamamelifes kansasanus, 3Iyrica obtusa, 

 Quercus paranoides. Sassafras aciitilobum, Oreodaphne cretacea, Em- 

 bothritim daphneoides, Diospyrosrofundifolia; from Minnesota, ii^^c?<5 

 hallana; from Decatur, Nebraska, Hedera ovalis, Protophyllum ne- 

 brascense; from the bluffs of Salina Ji'wev^ ProtopJiyllun minum; from 

 Warner's quarry eight miles from Winnebago village, bluffs of the 

 Missouri river, Ptenostrobus nebrascensis. 



The Cretaceous is visible, in North Carolina,! only in the bluff's in 

 the southeastern part of the State, from the Neuse and its tribu- 

 tary Contentnea, southward. It is best exposed, in the bluff's, along 

 the Cape Fear between Fayetteville and Wilmington. The rocks for 

 50 to 60 miles below Fa^-etteville consist of sandstones, clay slates and 

 shales, 30 to 40 feet thick, in many places dark to black and very lig- 

 nitic, with projecting trunks and limbs of trees, and at a few points 

 full of marine shells. For 40 to 50 miles above Wilmington, and in all 

 the other river sections, the rock is a uniform, dark, greenish-gray, 

 slightly argillaceous sandstone, massive, and showing scarcely any 

 marks of bedding. This sandstone everywhere contains a small per- 

 centage of glauconite, and is the representative of the true greensand. 



The Ripley Group was so named by Conrad from the town of Ri^iley, 

 Mississippi,;]; in 1858, and some of the species of shells at that place 

 are identical with species from North Carolina, Georgia, Eufaula, 

 Alabama, and Haddonfield, New Jersey. The mineral character of the 

 beds and state of preservation of the fossils are the same, proving 

 not onl3^ a simultaneous deposit, but a similar depth of water, not in 

 an estuary but in a marine basin. This group constitutes the great 

 bulk of the Cretaceous strata east of the Mississippi, and, as Conrad 

 supposed. Corresponds most nearl}^ in age with the Senonian stage of 

 D'Orbigny, or that part of the Cretaceous which underlies and most 

 nearl}- approaches in age the chalk. 



=■■ Cret. Flora, Hayden's U. S. Geo. Sur. Terr., vol. 6. 



tGeo. ofN. Carolina, 1875. 



t Jour. Acad. Nat. Sei. 2d Ser. vol. 3, 



