UPPER PALEOZOIC FORMATIONS OF KANSAS 729 



The original Permian strata are indistinguishable, lithologically, from the 

 so-called Permian of Kansas. In both there are the same gray and varie- 

 gated sandy shales and marls, passing locally into sandstones, that are often 

 copper-bearing. Occasionally there are present thin bands and beds of buff 

 earthy limestone. Gypsum is abundantly developed in the beds and inter- 

 spersed everywhere through the rocks. Saline shales are of not infrequent 

 occurrence. On both continents all these pass upward into " Red Beds " that 

 are almost destitute of fossils. 



And in another paragraph is a striking statement that "In the 

 Russian district one finds it difficult to imagine that he is not 

 wandering through some part of Kansas. Only the presence of 

 the Russian peasant or sudden contact with a village of the 

 steppes dispels the illusion." 



Secondly, under the heading, " Range of faunas," Dr. Keyes 

 reported as follows regarding the fossils : 



The succession of faunas appears to be essentially the same in the Russian 

 Carboniferous and Permian as in the Mississippi valley. The composition of 

 each of the faunas is also strikingly comparable. The most noteworthy 

 feature of the organic remains, viewed as a whole, is the gradual replace- 

 ment of a purely marine type by a shore and brackish water phase, as the 

 change from open sea to closed water conditions took place, and finally to 

 those in which life could not exist. The most prominent characteristic of the 

 biotic change from a Carboniferous phase to a Permian one seems to be the 

 replacement of a predominantly brachiopod fauna by one in which lamelli- 

 branchs formed the preponderant element. 1 



While in another article Dr. Keyes said : " In lithological and 

 faunal characters the rocks are so nearly alike that it is difficult 

 to fancy that in the Urals one is on the opposite side of the 

 earth from our Iowa and Kansas beds." 2 



Under the general heading, "Comparison of the Russia and 

 Mississippi Valley Carboniferous," and subheading, " Strati- 

 graphic parallelism," Dr. Keyes stated that "In Russia and in 

 the Mississippi valley the general geological sections of the 

 Upper Paleozoic are remarkably alike. The basins occupied by 

 these rocks are very nearly of the same size. As already stated 

 in the first-mentioned area, the Permian very greatly predomi- 



1 Jour. Geol., Vol. VII, 1899, p. 334. 



2 "Permian Rocks of Eastern Russia," in Proc. Iowa Acad. Sciences, Vol. VI, 

 1899, p. 231. 



