UPPER PALEOZOIC FORMA TIONS OF KANSAS 71 I 



a more satisfactory classification to regard the base of the 

 Permian as marked by the lower limit of the Wreford limestone 

 and the writer is inclined to accept this line for the division as 

 indicated by Dr. Freeh. If this be done the writer would class 

 the two formations succeeding the Eskridge shales (Cottonwood 

 limestone and Garrison) together to form a stage for which he 

 would propose the name of Council Grove. The upper part 

 of the stage is well shown in the bluffs of the Neosho River 

 and its tributaries in the immediate vicinity of this city, while 

 the Cottonwood limestone and the overlying Florena shales may 

 be found in the Neosho valley, about six miles below Council 

 Grove. 



Alma limestone. — This is a massive light gray to buff-colored, 

 foraminiferal limestone, frequently composed of two layers with 

 a thickness of about six feet. It contains very few fossils, with 

 the exception of Fusulina secalica Say, which is extremely 

 abundant in its upper part, and is called "wild rice" by the 

 quarrymen. It is the most important dimension stone in Kansas, 

 and at various localities are extensive quarries. Its constant 

 lithologic character, with its line of outcrop frequently marked 

 by a row of massive light gray rectangular blocks filled with 

 Fusulina, make it one of the most important stratigraphic 

 horizons in the Upper Paleozoic rocks for at least two-thirds 

 of the distance across Kansas and into Nebraska. Swallow 

 called the stratum the Fusulina limestone, 1 and for years it has 

 been known commercially as the Cottonwood or Cottonwood 

 Falls limestone, and at other localities as the Alma and Man- 

 hattan limestone. Haworth and Kirk, in their " Neosho River 

 section," called it "limestone system No. 13, which is consid- 

 ered the equivalent of the famous Cottonwood Falls limestone ; " 2 

 but in their description of the quarries near Cottonwood Falls, 

 under their "Cottonwood River section," simply called it 

 "No. 13," 3 and did not apply to it the term Cottonwood Falls 

 limestone. The same year Prosser proposed the name "Cotton- 

 wood formation " for the limestone and superjacent fossiliferous 



1 Prelim. Kept. Geo/. Surv. Kan., 1866, p. 16. 



2 Kan. Univ. Quart., Vol. II, Jan. 1894, p. 112. 3 Ibia., p. 113. 



