294 STUART WELLER 



Wherever the contact of the Bethel sandstone with the under- 

 lying Renault is exposed, there is evidence of unconformity between 

 the two formations. In the Ohio River bluffs in southeastern 

 Hardin County this contact is well exposed, the lower layer of the 

 sandstone, 6 to i8 inches in thickness, is composed of fragmental 

 material consisting of flat pebbles, slabs more or less irregularly 

 disposed, much lime sand, quartz sand of large, rounded grains, 

 with many fragments of fossils, some of which are worn and rounded. 

 The actual line of contact between the two formations is uneven and 

 undulating. At Indian Point, in southern Johnson County, the 

 basal layer of the Bethel sandstone is a lime conglomerate with 

 more or less flattened pebbles up to two or three inches in maxi- 

 mum dimension. The unconformity of the Yankeetown upon the 

 underlying Renault in the Mississippi River counties, is suggested 

 by the varying thickness of the Renault, and by the uniform charac- 

 ter of the Yankeetown, resting in different places upon limestone, 

 shale, and sandstone layers of the Renault. 



The correlation of the Yankeetown-Bethel horizon entirely 

 across the state must be based upon the correlation of the imder- 

 lying and overlying formations, both of which are abundantly fos- 

 siliferous. No determinable fossils have anywhere been collected 

 from the Yankeetown, and the invertebrates that have been found 

 in the Bethel are a few very imperfect examples of common Chester 

 types of brachiopods and bryozoans. This sandstone does contain, 

 in places, numerous fragmentary plant remains, mostly tree trunks, 

 of which the only form that can be identified is Lepidodendron, 

 probably of the same t3Ape that was present in the sandstone layers 

 of the Renault, and which is present in most of the Chester sand- 

 stones. 



Paint Creek limestone.^ — Overlying the Yankeetown and Bethel 

 formations is the Paint Creek Kmestone and shale. In the Missis- 

 sippi River counties, extending from St, Clair County, Illinois, to 

 Perry County, Missouri, there is present in the lower part of this 

 formation, a persistent bed of deep-red, non-laminated clay or 

 shale, 12 to 15 feet in thickness. Between this red clay and the 



'Weller, Trans. III. Acad. 5«., Vol. VI (1914), p. 125; also III. State Geol.Surv., 

 Monog. I (1914), p. 26, 



