ANTHRACOLITHIC ROCKS OF KANSAS 135 



Dr. Diener's account of the correlation of the Upper Paleozoic 

 formations of central Europe with those of Russia is also interesting. 

 The professor wrote as follows: 



In the Rhenish regions, where the sequence of terrestrial and lacustrine plant- 

 bearing strata of this epoch is most complete, the true coal measures come to an 

 end with the Ottweiler Schichten, whereas the following series of rocks, comprising 

 the Cuseler and Lebacher Schichten, have been united in a lower division of the 

 permian system by Giimbel. In the Carnian Alps plant-bearing beds, containing 

 a rich flora of the Ottweiler Schichten, alternate with Fusulina limestones, which 

 have been proved by Schellwien to be homotaxial with Nikitin's Gshelian stage in 

 Central Russia. As has been noticed by Geyer, this alternating series of dark 

 Fusulina limestones and plant-bearing beds is conformably followed by a compact 

 mass of white Fusulina limestones (Trogkofelkalk) containing Spirijer supra- 

 mosquensis Nikitin, which must be correlated with the topmost carboniferous 

 Fusulina limestones (Schwagerina horizon) of the Ural Mountains. The homo- 

 taxis of the Ottweiler Schichten and of the Carnian Fusulina limestone, which itself 

 corresponds in age to the uppermost carboniferous beds of Central Russia (Gshe- 

 lian stage) and of the Ural (Cora horizon, and Schwagerina horizon), apparently 

 requires the boundary line between the two systems to be drawn immediately 

 above the Schwagerina limestone of the Ural and Timan, and below the Artinskian 

 stage. ^ 



Professor Diener still believes that the Artinsk belongs in the 

 Permian, as may be seen in the following quotation from a recent 

 letter: 



The Artinskian stage of Russia I still consider as forming the lowest stage 

 of the permian system. Its cephalopod fauna differs decidedly from any which 

 has been found in the upper carboniferous rocks of the Ural. As a boundary 

 line must necessarily be drawn between the two systems, this line — artificial as 

 it is — should be drawn at the base, not at the top of the Artinskian stage. ^ 



In all my references, however, to the correlations of the Kansas 

 deposits with those of Europe by European geologists, I have given 

 exactly the name of the European division with which they made 

 correlation and if it were with the Artinsk or Permo-Carboniferous 

 it was so stated. 



On page forty-eight Dr. Girty states that " Tschernyschew corre- 

 lates part but not all of Prosser's 'Permian' with the Artinsk"; 

 while on the following page he says, "if the Kansas 'Permian' 



1 Ibid., p. 89. 



2 Letter of November 24, 1909. 



