40 The American Geologist. January, 1900 
quarter of section 26, T. 14 S., R. 6 W. The leaves collected 
are now being identified in the museum of Southwest Kansas 
College, preparatory to being placed in the U. S. National 
Museum. 
Concerning the fossils of the Dakota group in general, suf- 
fice it here to say that in the last report of professor Les- 
quereux, published since his death by Dr. Knowlton, he states 
that the Dakota has yielded 460 species of plants of which 429 
are dicotyledons.* Several have been added since that time 
and doubtless farther research will reveal additional species. 
Conclusion. 
The relation of the Comanche to the Dakota is still a 
mooted quested. The Dakota consisting of several hundred 
feet of leaf-bearing sandstone and shale containing a flora so 
characteristic can scarcely be denied a place among the 
Cretaceous groups even if it had not been recognized by 
geologists for over forty years. It is a case where priority must 
obtain. On the other hand Comanche fossils are known ■ to 
extend many feet into the sandstones which were once con- 
sidered Dakota, and even above horizons yielding typical 
Dakota leaves. As stated above, the best bed of Mentor fossils 
found — in the Marquette region — is in a dark brown hard 
sandstone which if judged from its lithological appeiirance 
alone is certainly Dakota and is fifty ft. above the first stratum 
known to contain dicotyledons. That this region represents a 
locality of shifting sediments and changing elevations of sea- 
bottom is extremely probable ; neither is it improbable that 
Comanche fossils extend far into the Dakota or even into the 
Benton. The subject is one that calls for careful research. It 
is to be hoped that the studies which Dr. Stanton is making 
of the invertebrates collected in 1898 will assist in the solution 
of the problem. The opinion of the writer is that by the law 
of priority the base of the Dakota will eventually be recognized 
at the lowest stratum above the Cheyenne yielding typical 
Dakota leaves. 
♦Flora of the Dakato Group, Mon. XVII, U. S. G. S., p. 226, 1892. 
