50 A. C. Peale — Application of the Term Laramie. 



doubt existed in his mind as to the exact age of the beds 

 exposed at Carbon. On p. 144 he says "In determining the 

 true horizon of these beds, however, it is necessary to trace out 

 their relations with the great sandstone formation, which forms 

 all the higher ridges of the region, and to compare the strata 

 with other similar localities of Laramie or supposed Laramie 

 described in the remaining portions of the Report. In the 

 Annual Report for 1876 of the U. S-. Geological and Geo- 

 graphical Survey of the Territories, published in 1878, the 

 reports of the geologists, which were prepared during the year 

 1877, all contain the term Laramie and the beds are repre- 

 sented and so named on the maps in the atlas of Colorado 

 which bears the imprint of 1877 although not actually issued 

 until 1878.* 



The Atlas of the 40th Parallel Survey, on which the Laramie 

 is also shown, bears the imprint of 1876, but was not issued 

 until a later datef (1877 or 1878 ?). 



It is evident, therefore, that the term came into use in both 

 the King and the Hayden organizations at about the same 

 time. 



Having given the facts as to the name and original use of 

 the name " Laramie," I now wish to show that the definition 

 holds just as good to-day as when made and that, notwithstand- 

 ing the mistaken application of the term to beds of older as 

 well as of more recent age, there still remains the set of beds 

 to which the name of Laramie was originally applied and to 

 which no other name can logically be applied. As to the age 

 of the beds we are not primarily concerned in this place. As 

 Dr. G. M. Dawson said nearly thirty-five years ago, J " much 



of the difference of opinion" "appears to have 



arisen from approaching the problem with preconceived ideas, 

 and the attempted application of paleontological generaliza- 

 tions derived from the study of other localities, which have 

 been formulated under too rigid laws." The confusion in the 

 use of the name is due mainly to the fact that not only have 

 the paleontological collections been too meager, but that the 

 stratigraphical relations have been misunderstood. Beds of 

 various ages have been mistakenly correlated as of Laramie 

 age without the confirmation of paleontological evidence, 

 although we now know that both stratigraphically and paleon- 

 tologically they are utterly different. Thus the beds at Point 



* Catalogue of Publications of the U. S. Geol. and Geograph. Surv. of the 

 Territories, 3d edition, p. 50, 1879. 



f Both the Hayden and King Atlases are reviewed in this Journal, 3d 

 series, vol. xv, May, 1878, King's on p. 396 and Hayden's on p. 397. The 

 former is said to have been " recently iss\ied " and the latter u just issued." 



% Geol. and Eesources of the Region in the vicinity of the Forty-ninth 

 Parallel, 1875, p. 184. 



