184 Geological Gleanings.. 



. • f H. — Very hard reddish-gray limestone, containing Syringopora, 

 o § J Productus, Terebratula, &c. In the middle of this bed 



g ? I there is an 8 foot layer of very hard compact bluish lime- 



O cg j stone containing many crinoid remains, whole 50 ft. 



« d f 



S .2 J I. — Potsdam sandstone, containing Lingula, Obolus ? and frag- 



2^1 ments of Trilobites,— 30 to 50 ft. 



02 I 



J. — Coarse feldspathic granite, forming mountain masses. 

 K. — Highly metamorphosed strata, standing vertical. 



We have alscf received from the authors a paper by Messrs. 

 Shumard & Swallow, describing a large number of new species 

 of animal remains from the coal measures of Missouri and Kansas, 

 and a paper by Prof. Swallow and Major Hawn on the Permian 

 rooks referred to in our last number. It would appear from this 

 paper that the Permian rocks of Kansas attain a thickness of 820 

 feet, and consist of Limestone, magnesian limestone, shales, and 

 clays of various texture and colour, conglomerate, and gypsum. 

 They are divisible into two subordinate groups, an upper and 

 lower, and are wholly marine. Their distinct superposition on 

 the coal measures, and the character of the fossils, would seem to 

 leave little doubt that they are really of the age ascribed to them. 



We learn that in Prof. Hall's Report on Iowa, soon to be 

 published, evidence will be adduced of the existence of the latest 

 member of the Palaeozoic series in that state, and also in Illinois. 

 Nothing affords a stronger evidence of the activity of geology 

 in the West, than the nearly simultaneous discovery of this impor- 

 tant fact by several observers. 



In the same report, Prof. Hall notices the remarkable interca- 

 lation in the coal measures of the West of a bed of limestone 

 higher than the true or underlying carboniferous limestone, and 

 gradually thickening westward. He argues from this the preva- 

 lence of oceanic conditions throughout the far West, at a time 

 when terrestrial conditions prevailed to the East : — 



"The evidences of the existence of this ocean in the far west 

 and south-west during the Coal period, amount to almost a proof 

 that the conditions of that area which now constitutes a part of 

 the continent, were never such as to admit of the. production of 

 coal plants, and the deposition of such materials as make up the 

 Coal measures, at least during the latter part of the Coal period. 

 In regard to the earlier part of that period, or the time in which 

 the Lower Coal measures were formed, we have not, at present, 



