CHAPTER IX. 



THE PERMIAN PROBLEM OF KANSAS AND NEBRASKA, 1858-1886. 



The determination of the upper limit of the Paleozoic rocks of America 

 was a problem which did not trouble the students of the geological for- 

 mations east of the Mississippi River until it had been suggested by 

 studies farther west. The Carboniferous period in the Appalachian 

 province was terminated by an uplift, which may have taken place 

 during the Permian epoch, as suggested by Messrs. Fontaine and White, 

 but strati graphically the system was terminated by cessation of depo- 

 sition, the result of the permanent elevation of the great mass of the 

 Paleozoic deposits above ocean level. West of the Mississippi, at the 

 western boundary of the outcrop of the Carboniferous system, in Ne- 

 braska, Kansas, and Texas, and around elevated masses in Dakota and 

 New Mexico, the Permian problem arose for solution. 



The first annoucement of the discovery of Permian fossils was made 

 in 1857, in a letter to F. Hawn, dated September 3, 1857, written by 

 F. B. Meek, regarding the identification of some fossils sent by the 

 former to the latter for that purpose. Mr. Meek's identification of the 

 forms was recorded in written memoranda in the Smithsonian Institu- 

 tion January 19, 1858. Mr. Hawn had sent similar fossils to Mr. Swal- 

 low, who reported their identification with Permian forms to the St. 

 Louis Academy of Science in a letter dated February 18, 1858, which 

 was read February 22. Mr. Meek communicated a paper announcing 

 the discovery of fossils "indicating Permian rocks in Kansas" to the 

 Albany Institute, March 2, 1858, and also in a letter to the Philadelphia 

 Academy of Natural Science, of the same date. 1 Following these an- 

 nouncements came fuller descriptions and other discoveries in other 

 parts of the outcrop of the same terrane, made by J. G. Norwood, B. 

 F. Shumard, and others. 



At the beginning of 1858, F. Hawn was United States geologist in 

 Kansas ; G. C. Swallow was State geologist of Missouri ; F. B. Meek 

 was assisting as paleontologist in the explorations of F. V. Hayden, 

 United States geologist in the Territories ; J, G. Norwood was State 

 geologist of Illinois, and B. F. Shumard was assisting G. C. Swallow 

 in Missouri. 



The Coal Measures had been studied and pretty thoroughly classi- 

 fied for all the States east of the Mississippi. Their marine fossils had 

 been gathered in most of the States, and partially identified. 



1 Am. Jour, aci., 2d ser., vol, 44, pp. 38, 39. 



Bull. 80 13 



