in West Texas and Southeast New Mexico. 331 



way;* another was sunk by H. J. Hagerman in 1909 about 20 

 miies east of Roswell, New Mexico, in section 5, T. 11 S., R. 

 28 E., to a depth of 2,850 feet. Apparently this well was 

 begun near the top of the local section of red beds and was 

 continued in them to a depth of 1,625 feet, beneath which 

 limestone, including some thin sandy layers, was encountered 

 down to the bottom of the well. A minimum, thickness there- 

 fore of these red beds is 1,600 feet. 



The red beds of Pecos Valley are delimited above, as Cum- 

 mins and Drakef determined a number of years ago, by an 

 erosional unconformity which separates them from the over- 

 lying Dockum formation of Triassic age. 



The lower limit of the red beds of Pecos Yalley, defined as 

 the lowest occurrence of either red strata or of gypsum, is 

 variable and is not a definite horizon, but rather forms a zig- 

 zag line extending diagonally across the strike of the rocks. 

 In Texas the basal formation of the red bed group, the Castile 

 gypsum, rests directly on the Delaware Mountain formation. 

 Farther north in New Mexico, southwest of Carlsbad, the red 

 beds rest on strata which are a few thousand feet above the 

 Capitan limestone but which are conformable with it. J On 

 the eastern flanks of the Guadalupe Mountains west of Carls- 

 bad red beds occur at a somewhat lower horizon interbedded 

 with these strata which lie above the Capitan limestone. 

 Local exposures clearly show the "fingering out " of red beds 

 and their merging into the more sombre-colored deposits, the 

 occurrence of the red coloration extending across the strike of 

 the rocks. West of Poswell the main red beds lie upon a 

 massive limestone which is the northern continuation of the 

 rocks that have just been referred to. Deposits of red sand- 

 stone and shale are also intercalated in the limestone west 

 of Roswell. Farther north, along the line of the Eastern 

 Railway of New Mexico, as shown below, almost the entire 

 Carboniferous section is composed of red beds. 



Fossils are of rare occurence in these red rocks, although at 

 a few localities shells have been obtained from the interbedded 

 limestones, and fragments of fossil wood also have been found. 

 Dr. Girty does not feel justified in saying anything definite as 

 to the age of the fossils collected from the red beds either by 

 Mr. Fisher or by myself. These include Sehizodus ovatus 



* Annual report of Capt. A. A. Humphreys to the Secretary of War, 

 December, 1858. 



f Drake, N. F. , Stratigraphy of the Triassic Formation in Northwest Texas : 

 Third Ann. Kept. Geol. Survey of Texas, 1892, pp. 227-235. 



X When detailed work is done in this region these strata which lie above 

 the Capitan limestone will be separated into formations and probably 

 included in the same group with the Delaware Mountain formation and the 

 Capitan limestone, but it is not desirable now to introduce new names. 



