CORK EL A TION OF CA RB ONIFER OUS RO CKS 3 5 I 



the top of the Minersville-Nebraska City section is stratigraph- 

 ically a little lower than the Burlingame limestone, we will find 

 that on the Kansas River, between the base of this limestone 

 and that of Meek and Hayden's Permian are the Wabaunsee, 

 Cottonwood, and Neosho formations, together with the greater 

 part of the Chase formation, having a total thickness of approxi- 

 mately 900 feet. When it is also considered that massive lime- 

 stones constitute a considerable portion of these rocks it will be 

 seen that there is a decided time interval between the Nebraska 

 City rocks and those of Meek and Hayden's Permian in Kansas. 

 Or, again, the thickness of the rocks between the base of the 

 Burlingame limestone and the base of Swallow's Lower Permian 

 along the Kansas River, or Meek and Hayden's Permo-Carbon- 

 iferous, is approximately 525 feet. 



The failure to note the difference in age and faunas between 

 the rocks of the Nebraska City region, along the Missouri River, 

 and those of the upper Kansas and lower Smoky Hill River 

 valleys in Kansas has led to certain erroneous statements and 

 conclusions. This is possibly the explanation for the statement 

 of Professor Calvin in his contribution to " A symposium on the 

 classification and nomenclature of geologic time-divisions," in 

 which he says : " The greater part of the assemblage of strata 

 called Permian by Prosser and the geologists of Kansas Univer- 

 sity contains precisely the same fauna as our Missourian or 

 Upper Coal Measures, and if there is no better excuse for recog- 

 nizing Permian in America than that afforded by the beds in 

 question, then America has no Permian." 1 The rocks which I 

 have correlated as Permian, but without expressing a positive 

 opinion as to whether the division should rank as a distinct 

 system or as the upper group of the Carboniferous system 

 (using Dana's stratigraphic terms) are the Neosho, Chase, 

 Marion, and Wellington formations and the Cimarron group or 

 Red-beds. The line between the Permian and the Upper Coal 

 Measures or Missourian group was drawn provisionally at the 

 base of the Neosho formation ; 2 because in the Neosho and 



'Jour. Geol., Vol. VI, p. 353. 

 'Ibid., Vol. Ill, pp. 795, 800. 



