THE NEBRASKA PERMIAN 369 



the strata dipped slightly to the east, but in the same quarries 

 one could find slight dips in almost any direction. By com- 

 paring the height of the base of the Florence flint with the rail- 

 road grade at Blue Springs and Oketo, it was found that these 

 rocks had a southern dip of five feet to the mile. This informa- 

 tion, coupled with the readings taken at Odell, makes it very cer- 

 tain that these rocks dip to the southwest. 



In comparing the fossil life of the two states there are greater 

 differences than one might expect, especially when the Upper 

 Permian rocks are not known to Nebraska. So far there are 

 many more lingering Coal Measure species reported from Kansas 

 than Nebraska. As soon as the questionable species of both 

 states have been classified, the greatest differences in the fauna 

 will disappear. There is another interesting point that is not out 

 of place here. There are a few species of invertebrates reported 

 from the Texas Permian that are common to the Permian of Kan- 

 sas and Nebraska, and beyond question, when the Texas species 

 of gasteropods and pelecypods have been reported in full, there 

 will be many more species common. It seems very probable 

 that the Permian of Kansas and Texas was at one time con- 

 nected, and that it also stretched westward and northward to, 

 and possibly beyond, the Rocky Mountains. Many of the early 

 geologists connected with the geological surveys of the territo- 

 ries considered that the uppermost rocks of the Paleozoic in the 

 mountain region was Permian, and so recorded it ; but owing to 

 the lack of paleontological evidence, but few, if any, have ever 

 considered this classification correct. Only recently fossil hori- 

 zons of great importance have been discovered in what will in 

 the future be known as the mountain Permian. These fossils 

 are in part the same as those found in the Permian of Kansas 

 and Nebraska, but with them are numerous forms new to science 

 which are decidedly Mesozoic in character. When the mountain 

 formations have been thoroughly investigated, the Permian area 

 of the United States will be materially increased. 



Some may question whether there are any true Permian rocks 1 



1 See Prosser's discussion of this subject in Vol. Ill, Jour. Geol., pp. 789-796. 



