850 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. V. No. 126. 



mitted for publication on February 1st, and it 

 comes to hand early in April. This is in great 

 contrast with the delay which formerly used to 

 occur. 



t. d. a. cockeeell. 

 Mksilla, N. M. 



Marine Fossils from the Coal Measures of Ar- 

 kansas. By James Peerin Smith. (Preface 

 by John C. Beannee, late State Geologist 

 of Arkansas.) Pp. 72. Plates xvi.-xxiv. 

 This memoir, reprinted January 7, 1897, from 

 the Proceedings of the American Philosophical 

 Society, Vol. XXXV. , No. 152, is also ' 'the ninth 

 of a series designed to illustrate the investiga- 

 tions and explorations of the Hopkins Seaside 

 Laboratory, an adjunct of the biological labora- 

 tories of the Leland Stanford Junior Univer- 

 sity." It was prepared at the request of Dr. 

 Branner and deals with the rarer, and therefore 

 more interesting, fossils of the Coal Measures. 

 In these strata marine species furnish the most 

 valuable data for the purposes of correlation. 

 Heretofore they had been announced from but 

 one locality : now, after a careful study of the 

 material brought together by the last (Branner) 

 survey. Professor Smith is able to announce 

 them from twenty-one additional localities, ex- 

 tending from Independence county, on the 

 east, to the Indian Territory, on the west. 

 Forty- eight genera are represented by ninety 

 species, of which forty-eight are found in the 

 in the Lower Coal Measures and fifty-two in 

 the Upper, ten species being common to both. 

 The author characterizes the fauna as poor, such 

 as would wander in whenever, by subsidence, 

 the shallow waters became more habitable, 

 and he also points out that, under the condi- 

 tions then prevailing, it could not become well es- 

 tablished, as it was frequently forced to migrate. 

 In consequence of this, a gradual transition 

 from the fauna of the Lower Carboniferous 

 Limestone does not exist in this region. No 

 attempt is made to classify the beds more 

 minutely than into Upper and Lower Coal 

 Measures, and even this is at times un- 

 certain, especially when their marked simi- 

 larity, folding and faulting are taken into 

 consideration. Then follows a list of locali- 

 ties in which marine fossils were found, 



seventeen in the Lower Coal Measures and 

 four in the Upper (one of which, Poteau 

 mountain, is two miles west of the Scott county, 

 Arkansas, line, in Indian Territory), together 

 with the names of the fossils, character of the 

 deposits, and the names of the collectors. A 

 comparison is made with the Permo- Carbonifer- 

 ous of Kansas and Nebraska and the strong 

 faunal resemblance of the Upper Coal Measures 

 of Arkansas to the youngest Paleozoic rocks of 

 Nebraska shown. The relations of the Ar- 

 kansas deposits to those of Texas are also noted : 

 "None of the characteristic ammonite genera 

 [of the Permian] were found in the Arkansas 

 region, but nearly every fossil found in these 

 Coal Measures was also found in Texas. And in 

 the Texas Permian nearly all the species except- 

 ing the ammonites were found in the underlying 

 Upper Coal Measures. This makes the analogy 

 between the Upper Coal Measures of the two 

 regions very strong." 



In view of this Professor Smith concludes "that 

 while some of the beds in western Arkansas are 

 very high up in the Coal Measures, none that 

 belong above them are as yet certainly known, 

 and the Poteau mountain syncline, across the 

 line in Indian Territory, is the only place where 

 there is any likelihood of finding Permian de- 

 posits." Some very interesting comparisons are 

 also made with foreign faunas : for instance, of 

 the Lo-piug fauna in China "nearly all of the 

 species are either found in America, or they have 

 their nearest relatives there." In this connec- 

 tion another point of unusual interest is brought 

 out, viz., that many of the species which are 

 "very common in America and Asia are un- 

 known or rare in Europe, which fact would 

 tend to prove a connection with Asia by water, 

 and the separation of the European and the 

 American Upper Coal Measure deposits by a 

 land barrier. ' ' In short, our author regards the 

 two regions, America and Asia, as belonging to 

 the "same zoological province, the Pacific Car- 

 boniferous sea. ' ' Moreover, ' 'many of the Ameri- 

 can species that are found at Lo-ping are also 

 found in the Salt Range beds, ' ' thus extending 

 the close relationship to India. Of the Upper 

 Carboniferous fauna, at Itaittiba, Brazil, de- 

 scribed by Derby, twelve out of twenty-seven 

 species of brachiopods are shown to be ' ' iden-i 



