82 ENVIRONMENT OF VERTEBRATE LIFE, ETC. 



author has shown in Publication 207 of the Carnegie Institution, page 77, 

 the red deposits are not to be directly correlated with the red beds of Texas 

 and Oklahoma, though they were undoubtedly formed very near the top of 

 the Pennsylvanian (Missourian) and may even be Permo-Carboniferous. 



(d) CONDITIONS IN MISSOURI. 



The condition of the area between the extreme western edge of the 

 Eastern Province (Illinois and Kentucky) and the eastern edge of the Plains 

 Province in Missouri and Kansas during Pennsylvanian time has been 

 well described by Hinds and Green. 1 



"At the beginning of the Pennsylvanian epoch the area included in the 

 present boundaries of Missouri was above sea-level. The highest part was a 

 plateau corresponding roughly with a tongue projecting into the northeastern 

 part of the State a short distance west of the site of the Mississippi. The region 

 now occupied by the main body of the Pennsylvanian was lower, though probably 

 the difference in altitude of the two areas was slight. Meanwhile sediments were 

 being deposited in shallow seas occupying parts of Oklahoma, Arkansas, and 

 northern Illinois and the waters were slowly advancing over adjacent land 

 areas * * *." 



[Near the beginning of the Allegheny (Cherokee or Henrietta)] "The land 

 area had been reduced to an island in southeastern Missouri, with a peninsula 

 projecting into Pike and neighboring counties and a small part of a northern 

 land-mass in the extreme northwestern corner of the State. The western sea 

 continued to advance eastward, while an eastern sea occupying most of Illinois 

 advanced westward. Probably by the end of Cherokee time the two seas had 

 joined, submerging practically all of northern Missouri and possibly nearly all 

 of southern Missouri also. No deposition appears to have taken place at this 

 time in the extreme northwestern corner of the State, for the Nebraska City 

 drilling shows less than 100 feet of Des Moines strata, probably of Pleasanton age. 



"There is still much doubt as to whether the Pennsylvanian sea finally 

 covered practically all of southern Missouri and submerged the Ozarks, though 

 the evidence in hand seems to indicate that a large part of the region was inun- 

 dated for a comparatively short interval, beginning, probably, near the end 

 of the Cherokee epoch. In nearly all the Ozark counties there are small outliers 

 or pockets of shale, sandstone, and coal in sink holes and other protected situa- 

 tions. Many of these, at least, are of Pennsylvanian age, but were probably 

 deposited before invasion or after the sea receded from the region. The sink 

 holes themselves were certainly formed while above ground-water level and some 

 of them seem to have been deepened while being filled with Pennsylvanian coal 

 and other materials. The remarkably thick pockets of cannel a coal formed 

 very slowly from only plant products most resistant to decay were deposited 

 in stagnant water that was probably fresh. 



"In addition to the pockets, however, sandstone and shale of Pennsylvanian 

 age are scattered over the Ozarks in small patches capping divides where erosion 

 has not been active. These outliers may have been deposited at the time when 

 the sea covered all or most of Missouri. The thinness of the probable marine 



1 Hinds, Henry, and F. C. Green, The Stratigraphy of the Pennsylvanian Series in Missouri, 

 Missouri Bureau of Geology and Mines, vol. xm, 2d series, p. 208, 1915. 



