BULLETIN OF THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF AMERICA 

 Vol. 23, pp. 457-462, PLS. 23-24 SEPTEMBER 25, 1912 



bouldp:r beds of the caxey shales at talihixa, 



oklahoma ' 



BY J. B. WOODWOETH 



(Presented before the iSociety December 30, 1911) 



CONTENTS 



Page 



Introduction 457 



Criteria of glaciated stones 458 



Strijie of the Canej' shale pebbles 459 



Conmients of Ulrich 459 



Remarks on Ulrich's comments 460 



Floating ice in the Caney Shale sea 461 



Remarks on Carboniferous climate 462 



Introduction 



The Caney shales, described by Taff- in 1904, were later characterized 

 as a formation by Girty^ in the following terms : 



'•The Caney shale occurs in numerous exposures through the Arbuckle and 

 Ouachita ^Fountains, in the central parts of the Choctaw and Chickasaw na- 

 tions, respectively. It consists of black and blue argillites. with local sandy 

 strata in the upper part, and has a maximum thickness of more than 1,000 

 feet. While most of the Caney is a black shale, the upper portion comprises 

 beds of a lighter color which may have a different fauna." 



The fauna of the Caney shale is marine. Girty very guardedly re- 

 ferred the beds to the Pottsville, which reference L"^lrich* later proved to 

 be correct on stratigraphic and faunal evidence. 



In 1909 Mr. Taff, in a paper read before this Society,^ called attention 

 to a remarkable boulder bed occurring in the lower part of the Caney 

 shale. In three localities in the Ouachita Mountains, limestone and flint 

 boulders were described as bearing grooves and strire, the origin of which 



^ Manuscript received by the Secretary of the Society January 4, 1912. 



2 Joseph A. Taff : Preliminary report on the ideology of the Arbuckle and Wichita 

 Mountains in Indian Territory and Oklahoma. Professional Paper No. .SI, U. S. Geol. 

 Survey, 1004. pp. .3.3-.34. 



'George H. Girty: The fauna of the Caney shale of Oklahoma. Bull. No. .377, U. S. 

 Geol. Survey, 1900, p. 5. 



* In a note to the author commenting on the paper read before the Society. 



5 Joseph A. Taff : Ice-borne boulder deposits in mid-Carboniferous marine shales. Bull. 

 Geol. Soc. America, vol. 20, 1909, pp. 701-702. 



XXXIII— Bull. Geol. Soc. Am., Vol. 28, 1911 (4.«S7) 



