45S C. SCHUCHERT PALEOGEOGRAPHY OF XORTH AMERICA 



basin into the Mississippian sea. This basin was situated between Kanka- 

 keia and Wisconsia, and the waters passed around the northern end of the 

 former land or across it. At other times Traverse basin was part of the 

 Mississippian sea. 



In the Devonic and early Mississippic, Iowa basin was part of the Cor- 

 dilleran sea, but during the Cambric and Ordovicic it comprised the north- 

 western waters of the Mississippian sea in the states of Iowa, Minnesota, 

 and Wisconsin. In the Siluric it embraced Iowa, Illinois, and Wisconsin, 

 while during Pennsylvanic time it included the region immediately about 

 Iowa. 



Eeturning to the Mexico embayinent, it is seen that its waters may have 

 extended in a westerly direction around Llano into the Oklahoma basin to 

 the south and southwest of Missouria and east of Siouxia. This syncline 

 was a very persistent' one, and according to Taff has a mass of Paleozoic 

 sediments varying in thickness from 18.000 to 23.000 feet. During the 

 Ordovicic this basin was in open communication with the Sonoran sea, but- 

 later was restricted to Mississippian waters and faunas. In Mississippic 

 and Pennsylvanic times the Oklahoma basin passed north across western 

 Missouria into the Iowa basin: this passage may be known as Kansas 

 strait. 



New Jersey strait. — See Appalachian sea. 



Neiv York basin. — See Appalachian sea. 



Ocean, according to the Century Dictionary, applies to the great out- 

 ward sea, the Atlantic, as distinguished from the inward sea, the Medi- 

 terranean. The word refers to the independent, vast, and permanent 

 deep seas as the Xorth Atlantic and Pacific negative elements. 



Ohio basin. — See Mississippian sea. 



Oklahoma basin. — See Mississippian sea. 



Ontario basin. — See Hudson sea. 



Ottawa bay. — See Saint Lawrence sea. 



Ouray basin. — See Sonoran sea. 



Pacific ocean. — During the Cambric and Ordovicic this vast and most 

 ancient body of marine water mightily affected the Xorth American conti- 

 nent, and spread its faunas not only along the shores of Appalachia, but 

 in the early Ordovicic extended them into the Saint Lawrence sea as far as 

 northwestern Xewfoundland. Beginning with the Cambric, it connected 

 with the Arctic sea to the east of Cascadia, but this union was in general 

 not that of a wide sea. In Middle, and again in late Lpper, Ordovicic 

 time, however, there was a widespread inundation of the continent. At 

 these times the faunas appear to have been dominated by that of the Pa- 

 cific ocean. Later the life of the continental seas was not decidedlv 



