IOWA ACADEMY OP SCIENCES. 229 



PERMIAN ROCKS OF EASTERN RUSSIA. 



BY CHARLES R. KEYES. 

 (Abstract.) 



In this country the Permian question has long troubled our 

 geologists. For more than forty years it has been discussed, 

 and up to the present time little advancement appears to have 

 been made. Recently, interest has been awakened in the sub- 

 ject, and many workers have begun to attack the problems 

 anew. 



At first glance the title of this paper would seem to have 

 little bearing upon our Iowa geology. Yet, it is directly to 

 the Iowa part of the question that the present statements are 

 intended to apply. The southwestern part of the state con- 

 tains beds that have been placed in the Permian. In the con- 

 sideration of the so-called Permian beds in America, few 

 workers have been able to compare these formations directly 

 with the original Permian. The information has been largely 

 second hand, and the literature is to a great extent inaccessible 

 on account of being in foreign languages and widely scattered. 



During the geological excursions that preceded and fol- 

 lowed the sessions of the International Congress of Geologists 

 that were held in St. Petersburg a year ago, a number of 

 American workers, interested in the Permian question, were 

 able to examine pretty extensively the original beds constitut- 

 ing Murchison's system. The examinations were espe^nally 

 instructive, on account of the personal guidance of the Russian 

 geologists, who had long worked in the region. Along the 

 flanks of the Urals, and in the great valleys of the Kama and 

 Volga rivers, the sections were particularly complete. 



The most remarkable feature about the Russian Paleozoic 

 strata above the Devonian is, that in nearly every respect, they 

 are almost identical with the same parts of the general geolog- 

 ical sections developed in the Mississippi valley, as found in 

 Iowa, Missouri, and Kansas. And, strangely enough, the very 



