—=s>* 
WOODWORTH: GEOLOGICAL EXPEDITION TO BRAZIL AND CHILE. 45 
above the base of the series are without doubt referable to the Per- 
mian. The Permian strata are known along a narrow belt from 
southern Minas Geraes southward through the states of Sado Paulo 
and Santa Catharina; they extend into Rio Grande do Sul where the 
beds turn westward on the southern border of the basin-shaped area 
of late Palaeozoic and early Mesozoic sediments which form the 
central geological province of South America. Except where the 
Devonian beds intervene these strata rest with marked uncon- 
formity upon the Pre-Devonian rocks. According to Dr. Derby ! 
the Permian consists of the following beds: — 
Rocinha limestones. 3 meters. Stereosternum bed. 
Estrada Nova shales. 150 meters. Gray, mottled shales with flints; 
known in Santa Catharina. 
Iraty shales. 70 meters. Black shales with Mesosaurus. 
Palermo shales. 90 meters. With fossil wood. 
Coal measures. 150 meters. Sandstones and shales with 2 
beds of coal. Glossopteris 
flora. 
Tillite beds. 
Basal beds. Sandstones with boulders and pebbles. 
Dr. I. C. White in his admirable Report? on the coal fields of south 
Brazil groups the Permian beds in the following section: — 
Passa Dois series.. Rocinha limestone. 3 M. 
223 meters Estrada Nova shales with chert 150 
Iraty black shale (with Mesosaurus) 3 70 
Tuberao series. Palermo shales 90 
180 meters Rio Bonito sandstones and shales with 
coal and Glossopteris flora 158 
Orleans conglomerate 5 
Yellow sandstones and shales to granite 
floor nk 
Total thickness 403 meters or 1,322 feet. 
Dr. White appears to regard the various formations of the Permian 
as more or less persistently parallel throughout Sao Paulo, Parana, 
1 Verbally communicated at Ponta Grossa in 1908. 
2 Dr. I. C. White, Relatorio final apresentado a S. Ex. o Sr. Dr. Lauro Severiano 
Miiller. Comissio de Estudias das Minas de Carvao de Pedra do Brazil. Rio de 
Janeiro, 1908, p. 33. 
’ Dr. White includes Stereosternum in this bed; but this is an error: it is found 
in the Rocinha limestone. 
