152 ■ CHARLES S. PROSSER 



by surface evaporation. Connected with these saline and gypsiferous deposits, 

 and overlying them, are the "Red Beds," sometimes referred to the succeeding 

 Trias; but they appear to be late Permian, in the main at least.^ 



Professor Scott also states a similar conclusion in his general work 

 on geology where he says that: 



In the region beyond the Mississippi the Permian beds thicken southward, 

 attaining in southern Kansas a thickness of 2,000 feet, and in Texas of more than 

 5,000 feet. The mountains of Oklahoma, which may have been raised late in 

 the Carboniferous or early in the Permian, separate the Texas and Kansas 

 areas 



In the latter part of the period, lagoons were cut off from the sea and con- 

 verted into salt and bitter lakes in which the salt and gypsum of Kansas and the 

 gypsum of Oklahoma and Texas were precipitated. Occasionally the sea broke 

 into these lakes, bringing a marine fauna with it for a short time.^ 



Professor Scott is an accomplished vertebrate paleontologist and 

 under his account of "Permian Life" is the statement that — 



the most important character that distinguishes the life of the Permian from that 

 of all preceding periods is the appearance in large numbers of true Reptiles. 

 There is no reason to suppose that such a variegated reptilian fauna can have come 

 into existence suddenly, and their ancestors will doubtless be discovered in the 

 Carboniferous; but while no true reptiles are certainly known from the latter, 

 in the Permian they are the most conspicuous elements of vertebrate life.^ 



Under the description of the Carboniferous Dr. Kayser, the dis- 

 tinguished professor of geology in the University of Marburg, 

 writes that : The marine Upper Carboniferous of Kansas has become 

 known to us in particular through the numerous works of Charles 

 Prosser. Tschernyschew and others have brought out most promi- 

 nently the great similarity of the fauna with that of the Timans and 

 Urals. 4 



Finally, under the description of the Permian Dr. Kayser states: 



In the United States we find in the east (Virginia, Pennsylvania, and so forth) 

 conformably over the productive upper Carboniferous [Upper Productive Coal 

 Measures] the so-called Barren Measures [Upper Barren]. They contain Callip- 



I Geology, Vol. II, 1906, pp. 620, 621; also, see A College Text-Book of Geology, 

 by the same authors, 1909, pp. 660, 661. 



^ An Introdtiction to Geology, 2d ed., 1908, p. 639. 



3 Ibid., p. 652. 



4 Lehrbuch d. Geologic, 3d ed., Pt. II, ''Geologische Formationskunde," 190S, 

 p. 236. 



