110 GEOLOGY. 
ledonous leaves, including all the genera, and one or more species found in the cretaceous sand- 
stones at the Moqui villages. 
East of Pawnee rock we saw no rock in place till we approached the Little Arkansas, and 
even then the exposures are exceedingly meagre and unsatisfactory. The surface is entirely 
unbroken, and the soil somewhat sandy and red, especially between Walnut and Cow creeks, 
about Plum buttes. I have supposed that beneath the surface were here concealed the varie- 
gated marl series, and the equivalents of the red sandstones of the Little Colorado; but in what 
force and exhibiting what characters can only be conjectured. The impracticability of making 
a direct comparison between the eastern and western outcrops of these strata was a source of 
extreme regret to me, but it was impossible to accomplish it without the time and means at 
command. From the section given by Messrs. Meek and Hayden of the strata intervening 
between the Cretaceous and Carboniferous formation in parts of Kansas just north of the 
localities in question, it is evident that there is not a perfect correspondence with those filling 
that interval in New Mexico. 
From the Little Arkansas to Council Grove we were occasionally able to obtain some inti- 
mation of the nature of the underlying rocks, or, at least, of the harder ones. These are 
light-yellow, or gray calcareous sandstones, with gypsum, and cream-colored, yellow, and blue 
magnesian limestones ; a group quite different, in many respects, from any rocks found west 
of the Rio Grande. 
They have been carefully studied in this vicinity by Messrs. Meek and Hayden, and have 
afforded them the first conclusive evidence of the existence on the American continent of 
representatives of the Permian rocks of Europe. On Turkey creek are exposed a few feet of 
yellowish arenaceous limestone, containing gypsum and layers of carbonate and sulphate of 
lime, which were evidently deposited on a surface fissured by a net-work of cracks. These 
layers are now covered with, or composed of, a series of angular cells, formed by the anasto- 
mosing plates which once filled the cracks referred to. 
On the banks of Cottonwood creek a cream-colored magnesian limestone was noticed, which 
is known to be Permian, but which yielded me no fossils. From Messrs. Meek and Hayden I 
learn that it is highly fossiliferous at no great distance from the crossing, containing various 
Permian fossils, such as Monotis Hawni, Myalina perattenuata, Bakevellia parva, &c., &c., good 
specimens of which I received from these gentlemen, and have placed in the collections of the 
survey. 
At Diamond Spring a limestone is quite fully exposed, having been extensively quarried to 
form the corral. It is bluish-gray in color and more compact than those noticed on Cotton- 
wood creek and the Little Arkansas. It contains no fossils, that I could discover, at the 
spring, but Mr. Meek found a few fossils somewhere in the vicinity, which prove it to lie at the 
base of the Permian, or summit of the Carboniferous series. 
COUNCIL GROVE TO FORT LEAVENWORTH. 
Passing Council Grove we left behind us all the undoubted Permian rocks, and after an 
interval of some miles of debatable ground, occupied by strata of intermediate age, we came 
upon those of purely Carboniferous character, which continue thence, without interruption, to 
Fort Leavenworth. 
The geological structure of this portion of our route is so simple and so well known that but 
little need be said of it. The Carboniferous formation, as here developed, when compared with 
its equivalents east of the Mississippi, shows great lithological differences, though containing 
—— weed —_ which are characteristic of the Coal measures in Illinois, Ohio, and 
ennsylvania; such as Productus semireticulatus, Spirifer cameratus, er lineatus, Spirigera 
subtilita, &e., &c. With these, however, are te which I ws 8 met a the 
cs | = coal fields, Fusilina cylindrica, Productus splendens, Spirifer plano-convexa, Spirifer 
