williams.1 MEEK, HAYDEN, SWALLOW, HAWN. 195 



In the early discussions Meek and Hay den recognized only " the Upper 

 Permian " of Swallow as equivalent to the Permian of Europe • the 

 44 Lower Permian" of Swallow they considered as intermediate/ and 

 called it " Permo-Carboniferous." After a thorough study of the fossils 

 in 1865 and later, Mr. Meek dropped the term " Pernio- Carboniferous," 

 and included all the rocks, except the upper zone of Swallow and the 

 barren rocks above and their equivalents, in the Upper Coal Measures. 



The facts emphasized by Mr. Meek were the gradual coming in of the 

 Permian faunas at the top of the Coal Measures, followed above by a 

 series of barren ferruginous beds and magnesian limestones with gyp- 

 sum, and these followed by the Cretaceous. But all along this south- 

 western border of the Carboniferous there was a gradual passage from 

 the Coal Measures lithology to that of the Permian type above, with no 

 stratigraphic break, and a gradual change in the faunas, the Permian 

 types coming in during the prevalence of Upper Coal Measure types, 

 and by degrees increasing in dominance till the latter had nearly ceased. 



There was nothing to suggest a distinct system except the European 

 classification, and in ignorance of European Geology no one would have 

 thought to draw a line of higher value than separating two etages, be- 

 tween the two sets of rocks. 



The correlation with the European Permian was made on purely pale, 

 ontological grounds. 



A letter from G. C. Swallow to B. F. Shumard was read before the 

 St. Louis Academy of Science, 1 announcing the identification of fossils 

 collected by Hawn from Kansas. The letter states : 



All of the described fossils, with perhaps two exceptions, are identical with Per- 

 mian species of Russia and England, while all of the new species appear to bo more 

 nearly allied to Permian forms than to any other. 



At the same meeting a paper was read by Messrs. Swallow and 

 Hawn. 2 Mr. Swallow considered the evidence of identity of fossils as 

 sufficient to justify the decision that "the rocks are Permian." 3 



Messrs. Meek and Hayden 4 announced to the Philadelphia Academy 

 of Science, March 2, 1858, by letter, the identification of fossils sent Mr. 

 Meek by Mr. F. Hawn from near the junction of Solomon's and Smoky 

 Hill Forks of Kansas Eiver, u indicating the probable existence of Per- 

 mian rocks in Kansas Territory." 



The fossils were in the form of casts in a yellowish magnesian lime- 

 stone, were u unlike any forms known to them from the Carboniferous 



1 Swallow, G. C: Discovery of Permian Rocks in Kansas. Read February 22, 1858. St. Louis Acad. 

 Sci., Trans., vol. 1, 1860, p. 111. 



Shumard, B. F.: Discovery of the Permian formations in Mexico. Read March 8, 1858. St. Louis 

 Acad. Sci., Trans., vol. 1, 1860, p. 113. 



Swallow, G. C, aud F. Ilawn: The Rocks of Kansas. St. Louis Acad. Sci., Trans., vol. 1, 1860, pp. 

 173-175. This paper was communicated to the Society February 22, 1858. 



2 "The Rocks of Kansas, with descriptions of New Fossils from the Permian formation in Kansas 

 Territory." This was published in full later, in the same vol. 1, pp. 173-197. 



3 The same announcement appeared in the American Journal of Science, March, 1858. (Vol. 25, 

 p. 305.) 



4 Proc. Phila. Acad. Sci., vol. 10, pp. 9, 10. 



