Permian Form a tions of Kansas— Prosser. 1 4 5 
cation of the upper Paleozoic formations of Kansas" to> 
state that 
"It will be seen that the Oklahoman series, as precisely de- 
fined above, is identified with the Big Blue series proposed by Dr.. 
Cragin in 189C, and therefore his name, which has priority, is 
adopted for this classification. "t 
Dr. Keyes in discussing my paper has objected to the 
above interpretation and made certain statements regard- 
ing the limits of the Oklahoman series. He says : "When 
the title Oklahoman was first proposed for the uppermost 
series of the Carboniferous its upper limits were not very 
definitely fixed — further than it was stated that in a genera! 
way the terrane corresponded to what had previously been 
called Permian. At that time the Red Beds were regarded 
as post-Carboniferous in age." t 
The original statement of Dr. Keyes in 1896, when he 
first defined the Oklahoman series is as follows : 
"In suggesting the name Oklahoman as a serial geological term' 
it is intended to apply to all those rocks of Carboniferous age which 
occur north of the Canadian river in Oklahoma and which lie be- 
tween the interval of the top of the Missourian series and the base 
of- the Cretaceous. * * * Although there has been little de- 
tailed study in the region regarding the relations of the series under 
consideration and the Cretaceous above, it is well known that the 
latter rests in marked unconformity upon all four series of the 
Carboniferous and at the north extends over still older formations."* 
The writer has given a fairly complete historical review 
of the correlation of the Red Beds or Cimarron series of 
Kansas 1 " and the following brief statement of the most im- 
portant changes in their correlation will be of interest in 
connection with the above quotation. In early papers the 
Red Beds were frequently called Cretaceous and correlated 
with the Dakota sandstone. In 1887 professor St. John 
referred them with a query to the Triassic system.* For 
several years subsequent to this report the age of the Red 
Beds was generally given as either Triassic or Jura-Trias. 
In 1893, however, professor Hay changed his correlation of 
the Red Beds of Kansas to the Upper Permian on account 
of the discovery of Permian fossils in Texas in beds which 
he considered as of similar age.* 
t Jour. Geol., vol. x, 1902, chart opposite p. 718. 
t Am. Geol.. vol. xxxii. Oct., 1903, p. 219. 
* Am. Geol.. vol. xviii. p. 27. 
; Univ. Geol. Surv. Kansas, vol. ii, 1897, pp. 75-83. 
1 Fifth Bien. Rept. Kansas State Board Agr.. pt. ii, pp. 140. 141. 
♦Eighth ibid, pt. ii. pp. 101, 108. 
