684 THE JOURNAL OF GEOLOGY. 
Apparently the first published announcement of the Permian 
age of the Kansas fossils was a letter from Professor G. C. 
Swallow to Professor J. D. Dana, dated February 16, 1858, and 
printed in the March number of the American Journal of Sctence 
and Arts* Swallow mentioned some ten European Permian 
species; these or closely allied species he had identified in 
Major Hawn’s collection and he stated “I can but feel that the 
above is sufficient to justify us in the decision that they are 
Permian.” 
On March 2d, Professor James Hall read a paper by Meek and 
Hayden before the Albany Institute, describing a small collec- 
tion of fossils ‘from near the mouth of the Smoky Hill fork of 
the Kansas River’ concerning which is the statement : ‘We think 
there is scarcely room to doubt that it [the formation] is of 
Permian age.”? A letter from Meek and Hayden making brief 
mention of the discovery was read the same day before the 
Philadelphia Academy of Natural Sciences.3 
After reviewing the various statements referring to the dis- 
covery of Permian rocks and fossils in Kansas, it appears that to 
Professor Swallow belongs the credit of first announcing the fact 
before a scientific society and publishing a notice of the dis- 
covery in the leading scientific periodical of the country.‘ 
214-221, where Professor Swallow says, “‘ The Coal-measures occupy a belt along the 
eastern end of the territory, extending westward as far as Fort Riley. West of the 
Coal-measures the Permian strata are developed over a wide zone stretching across the 
territory from north to south” (p. 220). 
t 2d series, Vol. XXV., p. 305*. 
2 Trans. Albany Inst., Vol. IV., p. 76. The paper is entitled “ Descriptions of new 
organic remains from northeastern Kansas indicating the existence of Permian rocks 
in that territory,” pp. 73-89. This paper was noticed in the May number of the Am. 
Jour. Sci. (2d series, Vol. XXV., p. 442). . 
3 Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci., Philadelphia, Vol. X., pp. 9, 10. 
4 Professor Hayden stated that extras of the Albany Institute paper were distributed 
two days after it was read, so that the paper “was actually published on the 4th of 
March;” but he seems to have been in error in stating that the March number of the 
American Journal of Science, which contained Professor Swallow’s letter. was issued 
“between the 4th and toth of March” (Am. Jour. Science, 2d series, Vol. XLIV., 
1867, p. 38, f. n.). 
The Proceedings of the Albany Institute for March 2, 1858, following the remarks 
