40 THE GEOLOGIST'S TRAVELING HAND-BOOK. 



The numerous coal-beds themselves, which occur among this series of strata, the 

 most interesting and important of them all, are also found in America in all 

 their known varieties, from the most compact anthracite to the most fusible and 

 bituminous kinds of coal. There is no invariable order for the strata of coal 

 measures, but usually the bed of coal has a fire-clay bed below it, and shale 

 immediately over it. Extending our view over a considerable district, we find 

 these rocks are coarser and more massive towards the east or south-east ; that 

 they become more fine-grained, and less sandy and earthy, and the limestones 

 increase in size and number as we proceed westward or north-westward; that many 

 of the strata become reduced in thickness, and some of them entirely disappear. 

 In Pennsylvania and Ohio the middle portion of the coal measures contains no 

 coal seams, and hence is called the Barren Measures, thus dividing the formation 

 into Upper and Lower Productive Coal Measures. The Lower Coal Measures 

 sometimes contain valuable beds of iron ore. Salt is produced from the Lower 

 Coal Measures in Western Pennsylvania, Virginia, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, and 

 Kentucky.* 



15, Permian. On the Kansas Pacific, and on the Missouri, Kansas & Texas 

 Railroads, several stations are given in Western Kansas, in the annexed Guide, as 

 being on the Permian formation, which is found in America only in this locality. 

 The Permian rocks, according to Dana, are limestones, sandstones, red, greenish, 

 and gray marlites or shales, gypsum beds and conglomerates, among which the 

 limestones, in some regions, predominate. In Kansas they consist, according to 

 Prof. Mudge, of calcareous and arenaceous shales and beds of limestone. The 

 latter are quite impure, but sometimes massive rnagnesian limestone, of a drab and 

 buff color, is found, which furnishes an excellent building material. Prof. Swallow 

 describes them as a series of limestones, marls, shales, sandstones, conglomerates, 

 and gypsums. The State capitol of Kansas, at Topeka, is built of Junction City 

 limestone of the Permian formation. It is also used at Manhattan, and the build- 

 ings at Fort Riley are also conspicuous specimens of Permian limestone. The 

 rocks here called Permian, are conformable to the coal-measures, and contain 

 many coal-measure fossils, with some not found below. Some geologists think 

 there is no good reason for separating them from the Carboniferous system, of 

 which they form the upper member. Strata of the same age occur in Indiana, 

 Texas, and Mexico, where they contain many new and interesting reptilian remains. 

 In most parts of the United States, however, the coal-measures are not overlaid by 

 these so-called Permian or Permo-Carboniferons beds, either because they were 

 never deposited, or have been removed by erosion. One of the remarkable facts 

 in American geology is the extremely small extent of the Permian and Jurassic 

 groups of formations in the eastern half of the continent. The Permian forms 

 part of the New Red Sandstone of England, lying over the coal. The name is 

 derived from Permia, a province in Russia. 



* Havin" 1 been for twenty-one years actively engaged in mining, transporting and selling coal, 

 the author's business led him to the study of geology, particularly in its economic bearings, and 

 he has given to the world all he knows about coal in another work entitled, " THE COAL REGIONS 

 OP AMERICA THEIR TOPOGRAPHY, GEOLOGY, AND DEVELOPMENT," with a colored geological map 

 of Pennsylvania, a railroad map of all the coal regions, and numerous other maps and illustrations. 

 By James Macfarlane, Ph. D. One 8vo. volume of 700 pages. Price, in cloth, $5; in sheep, $6. 

 Published and for sale by D. Appletou & Co., New York. 



