14 STUDIES IN GEOLOGY, No. 4 



It is thus extremely limited, although some of the ele- 

 ments are exceedingly common and this is especially true of 

 Palmatopteris fur cat a, Eremopteris whit el, Calamites suc- 

 kowii and Lepidodendron rimosum. I imagine that the 

 coarseness of the sediments and the apparent drifting of the 

 material is mainly responsible for the absence of a more 

 representative flora. Thus the present collections contain no 

 traces of Sigillaria, Cordaites, Sphenophyllum, calamite foli- 

 age, nor of any Neuropterids, Pecopterids, Alethopterids or 

 Lonchopterids. It is this feature of the flora which is un- 

 doubtedly responsible for the opinion of Steinmann, quoted 

 on a preceding page, that the Paracas flora is of Lower 

 Carboniferous age. 



A somewhat similar situation is furnished by the flora 

 of the Kuttung series of New South Wales, where the so- 

 called Rhacopteris flora appears to be wholly lacking in Neu- 

 ropteris, Alethopteris and Pecopteris. Walkom, however, 

 and quite rightly I believe, correlates this Kuttung flora with 

 the Westphalian stage of the European section. 



The nearest known occurrence of marine Carboniferous 

 is at Huanta, Dept. of Ayacucho 277 km. N.E. of Paracas. 

 The only known outcrop of _the marine Carboniferous west 

 of the Western Range is at Cotahuasi, Dept. of Arequipa. 

 This is about 150 km. inland from the present coast and 

 about 395 km, S.H. of Paracas. 



Continental Carboniferous, mostly of unknown age, is 

 more widely distributed in South America than has been 

 suspected. Thus there are some continental sediments in the 

 lower part of the section on the Copacabanya peninsula, and 

 Titicaca Island, at the Cerro de Lacctacucho, Sicuani, Dept. 

 of Cuzco, at the Pongo Mainique on the Urubamba, Dept. of 

 Cuzco. Steinmann (Geol. Rundschau, Bd. 2, pp. 50-51, 

 1910) records Lepidodendron and Rhacopteris incequilatera 

 Goppert from near Huichaycota on the Rio Huallaga in the 

 Eastern Range I km. south of Huanuco in the Department 

 of that name. In the same publication similar deposits, said 



