UPPER PALEOZOIC FORMATIONS OF KANSAS 723 



Beede have shown from fossils, the Permian age of the Kansas- 

 Oklahoma Red Beds. 1 



Another paleontologist, who is studying the fossils of the 

 western Carboniferous writes me : 



I don't believe that there is any Permian there at all, unless possibly the 

 Marion and superjacent beds are Permian. I express the opinion with that 

 qualification, (the possibility of the Marion being Permian), and another that 

 the Kansas area may have been a shut-in basin and have retained its Car- 

 boniferous facies into Permian time. 



Dr. Erasmas Haworth wrote me as follows: 



1 do not hesitate to say that I am most strongly opposed to the substitu- 

 tion of the term Oklahoman or any other for that of Permian. It looks now 

 as though the whole of the Red Beds would be called Permian. Should this 

 be done we will have a terrane which, along the southern line of Kansas, will 

 be from 2,000 to 3,000 feet thick, or in other words as thick as the whole of 

 the Coal-measures. This mass of earth is as different in all physical aspects 

 from the Coal-measures as they are from any other terrane. It should be 

 given a prominent place, but just how prominent I am not yet ready to 

 express an opinion. I do not see how anybody can well settle the question 

 of rank of the American Permian until all these questions are worked out, 

 which work will necessitate an intimate examination of the territory lying 

 between Kansas and Texas. I favor insisting on the use of the term Permian 

 and let its rank stand as others have given it until somebody is ready to 

 tell us in detail and in a connected way what we have in Kansas, Indian 

 Territory, and Texas. As far as I can see the indications now are that the 

 Permian ultimately, with the Red Beds included, shall be entirely separated 

 from the Carboniferous. 2 



In 1 89 1 Dr. Th. Tschernyschew, the former able director of 

 the Russian Geological Survey and the authority on the middle 

 and upper Paleozoic of Russia, in company with Professor H. S. 

 Williams, examined the rocks as exposed along the Kansas 

 river from Manhattan to Fort Riley. Their conclusions were 

 reported as follows by Mr. Robert Hay: "While agreeing that 

 the lower beds [at Fort Riley] are Permo-Carboniferous, they 

 state that the upper beds — where the Phacoceras is — are 

 decidedly Permian, the Russian professor assuring me that both 



•Gould, Jour. Geol., Vol. IX, 1901, pp. 337-41; Beede, Am. GeoL, Vol. 

 XXVIII, 1901, pp. 46, 47; and Adv. Bull. First Bien. Kept. Okla. Geol. Surv., 1902, 

 pp. I-II. 



2 Letter of December 16, 1898. 



