THE PERMIAN SYSTEM IN KANSAS. 5 



indicated further westward in southern Kansas and north- 

 ern Oklahoma by the Medicine Lodge gypsum, is chieiiy 

 south with an easterly element. Thus the dip of the upper 

 Permian is nearh' transverse to that of the lower. Whether 

 unconformity, or a quaquaversal flexure, or disparity of 

 sedimentation is the main cause of this discordant relation, 

 remains to be proven. But it is believed that if it be un- 

 conformity, it is a succession of minor uncomformities 

 rather than a single large one, a supposition to which the oc- 

 currence of conglomerates at several horizons in the middle 

 Permian possibly lends weight; while disparity of sedimen- 

 tation must apparently be taken into account in solving the 

 problem. 



Along the western edge of the area of their outcrop, 

 the Permian Rocks of Kansas are unconformably succeeded 

 by Cretaceous and Neocene sediments: or specifically by 

 the Cheyenne sandstone,* the Kiowa shales,* and the 

 Mentor beds* of the older Cretaceous (perhaps in part by 

 Dakota sandstone of the later Cretaceous also), and by 

 Loup Fork and later fresh-water sediments of the Neo- 

 cene. 



THE BIG BLUE SERIES. 



The Kansas Permian presents itself in two series, the 

 lower of which is known to belong to the Permian by its 

 fossils and the upper of which is apparently connected 

 by a bond of stratigraphic continuity with the demon- 

 strated Permian of Texas, as above indicated. The 

 lower series includes the strictly so-called Permo-Carboni- 



*On these formatione. Bee "A Study of the Belvidere Beds."' in 

 American Geologist, Vol. XVI, pp. .'{^T-SSo; "The Mentor Beds," in 

 same volume, pp. 102-1G5; '"Descriptions of Invertebrate I'^'ossils from 

 the Comanche series in Kansas, Texas, and Indian Territory," in 

 Colorado OolleceStt'diks, Vol. .5; and earlier papers by the writer 

 in Nos. !> and 1 1 of the Bulletin of the Washburn College Laboratory of 

 Natural History, Vols. and 7 of the American Geologist, etc. Also 

 "Outlyini,^ Areas of the Comanche Series in Kansas, Oklahoma and New- 

 Mexico," by R. T. Hill, in American Journal of Science, September 

 1895. 



