OF THE UPPER MISSOURI. 39 
of that State, and exhibited a fine collection of fossils which he considered as belonging to 
that system. Prof. Hall, in his Iowa Report, thinks there is some evidence of the occur- 
rence of the same series of rocks in Western Iowa, so that we already have indications of 
the existence of the supposed Permian system in Kansas, Nebraska, New Mexico, Illinois, 
and Iowa, and future investigations may reveal it in Missouri and other Western States. 
During the past summer Mr. F. B. Meek and the writer made a geological exploration 
of that portion of Kansas bordering upon the Kansas river and its tributaries, for the pur- 
pose of attempting to solve the interesting problem of the relations of the Carboniferous 
rocks to the supposed Permian strata of that Territory. We found that all the eastern 
portion of that Territory from the Missouri river to longitude 98° was occupied by Car- 
boniferous and Permian rocks, with outliers and overlapping edges of the Cretaceous Red 
Sandstone No. 1 of our Nebraska section. The results of our labors were embodied in a 
paper™ read before the Academy of Natural Sciences at Philadelphia, January, 1859, from 
which I extract the following pages: 
The route pursued by us while making these investigations, was first from Leavenworth 
city on the Missouri, across the country to Indianola, near the mouth of Soldier creek, on 
the Kansas ; thence up the north side of Kansas and Smoky Hill rivers, to the mouth of 
Solomon’s fork. Here we crossed the Smoky Hill, and followed it up on the south side 
to a point near the ninety-eighth degree of west longitude ; from which point we struck 
across the country in a southeast direction to the Santa Fe road, which we followed north- 
eastward to the head of Cottonwood creek. Leaving the road here, we went down the 
Cottonwood valley some thirty miles, when we turned across the country nearly due north- 
ward to Council Grove. From the latter place we followed the Santa Fe road back south- 
westward about twenty-four miles to a watering-place known as “ Lost Spring ;” here we 
again left the road and struck across the country in a northwest direction to Smoky Hill 
river, at a point nearly opposite the mouth of Solomon’s fork. We then travelled down 
the south side of Smoky Hill and Kansas rivers to Lawrence, where we crossed the 
Kansas and proceeded in a northeast direction back to Leavenworth city. 
The first outcrop of rocks examined by us during the expedition is at a point just below 
the steamboat landing at Leavenworth city. At this place and for some distance above 
on the river, the formation is well known to belong to the upper, but not the highest por- 
tions, of the great western coal measures. 
The section here near the Leavenworth landing, presents the following beds, in descend- 
ing order: 
* Geological Explorations in Kansas Territory. Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci. Pa., January, 1859. 
