NORTH AMERICA AND THEIR VERTEBRATE FAUNA. 79 



been found associated with this sandstone in Indiana. In Illinois, however, some 

 fossils were some time ago found in some shale thought to be of the same age as the 

 Merom sandstone. The possible Triassic age of the fossils led Mr. Collett to suggest 

 that the Merom sandstone might be of the Triassic age. Concerning these fossils he 

 says: 'Adjommg this locality (section 25, Township 19, Range 13, Vermilion County, 

 lUmois) Dr. J. C. Winslow, of Danville, Illinois, discovered a bed of fossils which is 

 named m his honor "Winslow Bluff." They occur in a bed of black, brown, gray, 

 red, and pink shales, backed with sandstone, filling a depression denuded by forces 

 acting at the close of the coal age, which has carried away the regular deposits, in- 

 cluding probably three seams of coal.' " 



"We can only say, at this time," the question is still an open one. If the correla- 

 tions of the channel sandstones of Parke County, which fill channels which cut down 

 to and through Coal III, correlate with similar sandstone of Illinois, and with western 

 Indiana, then it will be seen that previous to their laying down, the Coal Measures 

 of the State have been tilted at an angle that would place neariy their whole thick- 

 ness above sea-level in Parke County, while a score, or a little over, of miles away 

 to the southwest, nearly the whole of the Coal Measure column, as preserved in the 

 State, seems to have been under water. The exposed conditions of the eastern part 

 of the measures seem to have resulted in the strata from Division VI up having been 

 carried away, with valleys extending down into the measures to Division III." 



"Coxville Sandstones {Meromf) ■} "Not only are channels cut down through the 

 ineasures, but there appears to have been extensive, though shallow, erosion for some 

 distance either side of the immediate channel, also filled with sandstone. The evidence 

 points to either a short time after the laying down of Coal VI, or to a time entirely 

 subsequent to the deposition of the Coal Measures proper; or at a time correspond- 

 ing with the laying down of the Merom sandstone of SuUivan County. The latter 

 theory is considered as best sustained." ' 



' ' In the east of Raccoon Creek, "" opposite Coxville, is the exposure of a sandstone- 

 filled erosion channel, which has been given the name of Coxville Carboniferous 

 River. As this sandstone was, by the old survey, considered to be a ridge of Mans- 

 field sandstone, the following sketch (fig. 12) is given, showing the true relations. 



^Quarry and 



j glass-sand worKs 



Wheats Mine 

 Coal VI at 

 rock house 



Fig. 12. — Diagram showing rock exposure across Raccoon Creek from Coxville, Indiana, 

 to show relation of Coal VI to sandstone at the crossing of the "Coxville 

 Carboniferous River." (After Blatchley and Ashley.) 



"The channel proper is some 600 feet broad and exposed to a depth of at least 

 40 feet, and how much deeper is not known. The sandstone of this filling is 

 massive, hardly showing a suggestion of bedding. Toward the west side is a little of 

 the appearance of cross-bedding, or perhaps more closely resembling sand-dune struc- 

 ture. Above this 40 feet of exposed channel the sandstone rises without perceptible 

 break or change another 15 feet, but now spreads out on either side. On the east 

 side this can be traced some 100 feet or so, by a clean exposure, to a rock-house, 



' Blatchley and Ashley, 23d Annual Report State Geologist Indiana, p. 82. 

 ^ Blatchley and Ashley, 23d Annual Report State Geologist Indiana, p. 300. 

 "Blatchley and Ashley, 23d Annual Report State Geologist Indiana, pp. 385, 386. 



