20 Veatch — Definition of the Geologic Term La/ramie. 



Colorado. If merely a general term without a type locality 

 had been desired, the term Lignitie, exactly defined for the area 

 involved, would have served all purposes. The change was 

 clearly based on recognition of the necessity of having a geo- 

 graphic type locality. From the above facts it follows irresist- 

 ibly that the type locality of the Laramie is Carbon, on the 

 Laramie Plains. 



L A critical consideration of investigations of Hay den and 

 King parties in this region shows that the actual Laramie expo- 

 sures studied by them are separated from the Cretaceous by an 

 unconformity of great magnitude. At Carbon, Hague partic- 

 ularly and minutely included only the beds above the break. 

 Both Hayden and Hague regarded these beds as entirely con- 

 formable with those beneath ; hence the statement by King that 

 the Laramie beds are those which conformably overlie the Fox 

 Hills, while correct according to the then existing knowledge, 

 is not correct at the type locality and therefore without deter- 

 minative value in this connection. It but illustrates anew the 

 absolute necessity of a type locality to afford means of finally 

 and conclusively correcting any inaccurate statement or conclu- 

 sions of the author or authors of a geologic name. Strictly 

 considered, the term Laramie, therefore, can appropriately be 

 applied only to the beds above the great unconformity and — 

 fixing an upper limit in part from our present knowledge — 

 below the Fort Union.* 



5. The attempt to redefine the term Laramie from the 

 exposures in the Denver region, some 200 miles from the type 

 locality, is therefore not defensible. It results in the scientific 

 anomaly of applying the term Laramie to a series of beds 

 entirely distinct from those at the type locality on which the 

 name was based. It completely robs the name of all geograph- 

 ical significance and gives to it even less meaning or appropri- 

 ateness than a mere lithologic term such as Lignitie. 



6. While strictly speaking the name Laramie can be applied 

 appropriately only to the upper beds (" Upper Laramie ") and it 

 cannot with any propriety be restricted to the lower beds 

 ("Lower Laramie"), the consideration that it was proposed for 



* At Evanston there are several reasons for believing that the base of the 

 Wasatch of Hayden contains representatives of the Fort Union, Puerco, and 

 Terrejon. Between the Laramie and the Coryphodon-bearing Wasatch are 

 some 4000 feet of strata separated from the Coryphodon-bearing beds by an 

 unconformity. At Black Buttes beds now known to be Fort Union (Knowl- 

 ton, Bull. Geol. Soc. Am., vol. viii, 1896, p. 145) were referred by King to the 

 Vermilion Creek. It therefore seems not only logical but in accord with 

 the original usage to define the upper limit of the Laramie as the Fort Union. 

 The Washakie beds which Hayden regarded as, in this region, limiting the 

 Lignitie above (3d Ann. Eept. U. S. Geol. Survey Col. and New Mex. , 1869, 

 p. 90) and which were included by King in his Vermilion Creek, are the 

 beds fi'om which Knowlton reports distinctive Fort Union plants at Black 

 Buttes. 



