C. W. TOMUNSON 

 stems and the color of the Red Beds of eastern Oklahoma. He 



says: 



The coloring matter is thought to have been derived from the solution of 

 the 7,000 or 10,000 feet of pre Carboniferous Limestone which formerly covered 



the Vrbuckle Wichita Mountains and much Of the surrounding region. The 



solution of the limestone furnished optimum conditions for the oxidation of 



its iron content, as it does at the present time in the limestone regions of the 

 Mississippi Valley, southern Europe, West Indies, and elsewhere. Moreover, 



the solution of the pre Carboniferous limestones and the conglomerates of the 



\1lu1. kle Wichita region now in progress produees a red residuum practically 

 Indistinguishable from Red Beds sediments. The red granites, red porphyries, 



and other crystalline rocks of the region under discussion contributed their 



shares Of material to the Red Beds. 1 



The Red Hods of the Grand Canyon section are underlain by 

 the famous Redwall limestone, and limestones underlie the Red 

 Heils practically throughout the Plateau province and in the San 



Juan region. Areas in Colorado of history similar to that of the 

 Arbuckle Wichita region, in that highlands existed there alter the 

 earlier Paleozoic limestones were deposited, and during Red Beds 

 times, may well have played the same part in the centra) Rocky 

 Mountain region that Beede assigns to the ArbuckleW ichita 

 uplift in Oklahoma. The existence of such highlands is demon- 

 strated by the great conglomerates in the Colorado \\a\ Beds. 1 

 Various other land-masses which contributed material to the sedi- 

 ments of the Red Beds 3 may have been quite as efficient as the 

 Arbuckle-Wichita highlands in producing residual soils stained by 

 ferric oxide. 



It is evident from the foregoing discussion that stream deposits 

 deriving their coloring matter from ferruginous residual soils are 

 probably of no little importance in the Red Beds, and may con- 

 stitute a major part of the series of sediments included under that 

 term. 



Terrigenous marine elastics . The fifth type of modern red 

 sediments is illustrated by deposits in the Atlantic Ocean off the 

 mouth of the Amazon River. 4 This is an exceptional occurrence, 



' Beede, op. cit. 



• See pp. 244-245. ■' See pp. 245-246. 



'John Murray, Challenger Reports, Deep Sea Deposits, 1891, p. 234. 



