178 Natural History Bulletin. 



The work was begun at Independence, and a large number 

 of exposures of Devonian strata in and around the city were 

 examined. About a mile east of the city the beds are folded 

 and disturbed to a slight extent, and at one locality in the 

 bank of a small stream the Gyroccras beds, — No. 3 of the sec- 

 tion published in the Geologist for September, 1891, — were 

 exposed. At this locality some of the layers associated with 

 the Gyroceras beds were found to be completely brecciated, 

 and, in all respects relating to composition and structure, 

 identical with the breccia exposed in the bed of the river 

 below the city bridge. There were also here some indica- 

 tions, though not altogether satisfactory, of the Independence 

 shales, — No. 2 of the sections mentioned above, — cropping out 

 from beneath the breccia. The breccia in the bed of the river 

 was next examined for some distance below the bridge and 

 some of the fragments were found to contain Gypidula occi- 

 dentalism Hall, a species that occurs often in consideral num- 

 bers in intimate association with the large Gyroceras from 

 which the assemblage of beds immediately overlying the 

 Independence shales was named. 



From one to two miles below the city of Independence the 

 river turns abruptly to the east along the base of a rocky 

 bluff some fifty or sixty feet in height. The face of the bluff 

 is partly sodded over, but in general, and particularly a few 

 feet above the level of the water in the stream, the rocks are 

 well exposed. The Gyroceras beds proper appear here about 

 six or eight feet above the water, and may be traced for a 

 distance of nearly half a mile. In places these beds with the 

 associated la3-ers above and below them ^for a thickness of 

 fifteen feet or more are broken into small fragments, mixed in 

 the most promiscuous manner conceivable, and re-cemented 

 into a solid bed of breccia. In other places the fragments are 

 several feet or even several yards in diameter and evidently 

 very much disarranged. For several rods in a few instances 

 all these strata, elsewhere so generall}^ converted into breccia, 

 retain their original position without sign of disturbance. 



