CARBONIFEROUS FORMATIONS IN NEW MEXICO 153 



The Guadaloupan series is unique. In all the American con-" 

 tinent there is no formation with which it may be compared, or 

 with which it may be geologically correlated. At the typical local- 

 ity it consists of a thick sandstone at the base, surmounted by 

 over 1,000 feet of white massive limestone. So far as known, the 

 formation is exposed only on the southern border of New Mexico. 

 It has suffered enormous erosion, and has been entirely removed 

 from the central New Mexican area, over which it no doubt at one 

 time extended. The extensive faunas which it carries have no 

 known counterparts in the Kansan section. They are all younger 

 than any of the described faunas of Carboniferous age in that 

 district, yet older than the earliest Mesozoic faunas. The greatest 

 development of the formation is found in the Guadaloupe Moun- 

 tains, in southeastern New Mexico, which form the western border 

 of the broad Pecos valley. Fossils were described from this local- 

 ity by Shumard more than half a century ago. Nothing more was 

 known of them until quite recently, when Girty identified a large 

 number of Shumard 's species from this place and many others. 

 The relationships of the formation with the other parts of the Car- 

 boniferous section of New Mexico have never been known until 

 quite lately. 



Along the east slope of the Guadaloupe range the Carbonif- 

 erous Red Beds, or Cimarronian series, appear to overlie the white 

 limestone series in marked unconformity. Its position in the Kan- 

 sas section probably is marked by a hiatus at the bottom of the 

 Cimarronian beds of that region. 



The great fault-scarp at Guadaloupe Point presents a sheer 

 precipice of more than 3,000 feet in height. The lower 200 feet 

 appear to be the uppermost dark limestone of the Maderan series 

 (Hueco limestone of Richardson). Then follow 1,500 feet of light- 

 colored, coarse-grained massive sandstone — the Eddy formation,^ 

 which extends northward through Eddy County, New Mexico. 

 The white Capitan limestone forms the upper 1,000 feet. 



The Carboniferous Red Beds of New Mexico appear to be the 

 western extension of the Cimarronian series of central Kansas. 



I Richardson's name of Delaware formation for this bed is preoccupied for a 

 well-known Ohio formation. 



