PEKMIAN. 477 



acteristic of the Permian in Europe. The vertebrate fossils, which had been found quite abun- 

 dantly in the area, were forms pecuhar to the Permian. The area was therefore assigned to the 

 Permian without any hesitancy. 



The fossils that had been taken from the area assigned to the Albany division were only 

 such invertebrate fossils as had been found in the Upper Coal Measures, and no vertebrate fossils 

 had been found. 



Instead of the strata being composed of red clay beds and sandstones, as was the case in 

 the Wichita division, they were principally limestones and yellowish and bluish clays. In view 

 of these dissimilarities it was thought best to describe the two areas under different names, 

 although it was thought at the time that it was more than probable that the Wicliita and 

 Albany divisions were but different fades of the same beds. * * * 



During my recent examinations the true stratigraphic relation between the two divisions 

 has been brought out, and I can now say with absolute certainty that they are the same in 

 time and belong to the Permian. 



The Wichita division is now admitted by everyone to be Permian. This conclusion is 

 based chiefly on the fossils that have been taken from the area and which have been described 

 and determined by different specialists. 



Prof. E. D. Cope described the vertebrate fossils collected from this division, a list of 

 which was published in the second annual report of the Geological Survey of Texas. These 

 fossils show the Permian age of the beds as plainly as any one kind of life can show the age 

 of any formation. 



The invertebrate fossils were partly described by Dr. C. A. White, and a list of his deter- 

 minations was published in the second annual report of the Texas Geological Survey. The 

 evidence from this source strongly corroborates the conclusion reached by a study of the verte- 

 brates, showing the Permian age of the division. 



Part of the flora collected from the division was described by Dr. I. C. White, and the 

 evidence thus obtained also corroborated the conclusion of the Permian age of the strata. 



Williston" dissents from this statement and cites Case,"' who summed up the 

 evidence as follows: 



The evidence for the Permian character of the beds rests, then, on the presence of a single 

 genus, Naosaurus, common to the Permian of North America and Europe, and on the commu- 

 nity of many very primitive characters and numerous more specialized ones, which, however, 

 reach either down into the Carboniferous below or up into the Triassic above. 



Cummins continues: 



The Permian age of this division being admitted, it follows that if the Albany division is 

 but a different facies of the same bed it also must be Permian. This fact has been abundantly 

 shown by the stratigraphic work done during the past season by myself and party. 



In previous years I made and published complete sections, by instrumental measurement, 

 across the area of the Albany and Wichita divisions at right angles with the strike, and gave 

 descriptions of the different beds composing the divisions, with a partial list of the fossils col- 

 lected from them. The lines of these sections were about 70 miles apart. The section across 

 the Albany division began at Albany and ran thence in a northwestern direction, crossing the 

 Clear Fork of the Brazos Kiver at the mouth of Fish Creek. The section across the Wichita 

 division began at a point 8 miles north of the town of Seymour and ran thence to Wichita 

 Falls. 



During the past year (1894) I have traced prominent beds found in each of these divisions 

 across the country between these two sections, and have found them to be continuous from one 

 to the other. By tliis means I was enabled to see the gradual change in the beds and to under- 

 stand that they were the same in time of deposition. 



o Personal communication. ' 



