360 T. E. SAVAGE ALEXANDRIAN SERIES IN MISSOURI AND ILLINOIS 



name Bowling Green limestone for the brown magnesian limestone that 

 is well exposed a few miles farther west, in the vicinity of Bowling Green. 

 Where the oolite is best developed, as at Louisiana, its fossils indicate 

 that this bed is the equivalent of about the upper two-thirds of the Edge- 

 wood limestone as exposed in the vicinity of Thebes, Illinois, and of the 

 corresponding part of the limestone present near the town of Edgewood, 

 Missouri. It represents a local shallow-water phase of sedimentation in 

 this region during only a part of Edgewood time. This was recognized 

 by Keyes in the following statement : 



"The oolite (Noix) appears to be somewhat of a local phase, hut is present 

 not only in the vicinity of Louisiana, but all the way to Paynesville, a distance 

 of 18 miles. The formation appears to be represented elsewhere in the vicin- 

 ity by fossiliferous limestones that are not oolitic." 



The strata to which the name Bowling Green limestone was applied 

 consist of about 30 feet of brown, somewhat massive, limestone, the middle 

 and upper parts of which contain few or no fossils, but the lower 1 or 2 

 feet carries a fauna similar |;o that found in the oolite at Louisiana and 

 in the upper part of the fossiliferous portion of the Edgewood limestone 

 in the vicinity of Edgewood, Missouri. 



Inasmuch as the succession of strata from the base of the Edgewood to 

 the top of the Bowling Green limestone appears to be unbroken, it is de- 

 sirable to include all of these strata under a single formation name. For 

 this more comprehensive series of deposits the term Noix oolite is not 

 appropriate, because the oolite phase is developed only over a small part 

 of the area of distribution of these strata, nor does it anywhere include 

 the entire thickness. Nor is the name Bowling Green limestone desirable, 

 for it was proposed for the limestone near Bowling Green, Missouri, 

 which represents only the upper and mostly unfossiliferous portion of 

 the Edgewood. On the other hand, the name Edgewood, as originally 

 proposed, embraces all of the strata between the Girardeau limestone and 

 the Sexton Creek (Brassfield) limestone in this region. The lower fos- 

 siliferous portion of the formation and the overlying brown, unfossilifer- 

 ous Bowling Green phase are both well developed in the vicinity of Edge- 

 wood, Missouri, while the lowest beds of the Edgewood are not known 

 north of this locality. 



For these reasons the name Edgewood limestone is retained as the for- 

 mation name, which includes all of the strata in Missouri and Illinois 

 between the horizon of the Girardeau limestone and the top of the mag- 

 nesian limestone near Bowling Green and the top of the brown limestone 

 overlying the oolite in Lincoln, Pike, and Ralls counties, Missouri, and 



