76 
PALEONTOLOGICAL GEOLOGY 
crops farther south in the embayment area. The probable exten¬ 
sion of the Midway formation to the head of the Mississippi 
embayment was long suspected, paleontologic evidence that its 
marine character was preserved to its northernmost limits was 
heretofore lacking. 
In his discussion of the Cretacic-Eocene junction Stephenson 
states that from central west-Tennessee northward '‘in Ten¬ 
nessee, Kentucky and southern Illinois, the deposits immediately 
above the Cretaceous-Eocene contact are of shallow-water origin 
and so far as known are barren of invertebrates.” 
West of the present Mississippi River in Arkansas, the Midway 
Eocene deposits are largely eroded, or covered. A narrow outcrop 
extends from near Rockport, in Hot Springs County, to Little 
Rock, in Pulaski County, and the northernmost previously known 
occurrence of Ostrea pulaskensis is in Pulaski County. 
Northeast of Little Rock, Arkansas, Midway deposits are rec¬ 
ognized by Stephenson and Crider, in wells and surface outcrops 
at Jacksonville, Pulaski County, near Cabot, in Lonoke County, 
at Beebe, White County, and from Bradford, in White County 
to Depart Creek, in southern Independence County. 
This occurrence of Ostrea pulaskensis in southeastern Missouri 
is nearly 100 miles northeast of the most northerly outcrop of 
Midway beds recognized in Arkansas, and nearly twice that dis¬ 
tance from the most northerly recorded occurrence of this species 
in Pulaski County, Arkansas. 
The circumstance shows that not only did marine faunas flourish 
near the very head of the Midway Mississippi Gulf, but also that 
the Midway sea transgressed rapidly over the nearly base-levelled 
Late Cretacic land surface that had been exposed during the long 
time interval now marked by the Cretacic-Eocene junction line. 
Bi:rry. 
World's Scarcest Crinoids. Few scientists have the sense of 
humor developed so strongly as did the late Charles Wachsmuth; 
and few are so fond of quiet practical joking. When he was 
finishing up that monumental joint effort on the Crinoidea Cam- 
erata and was beginning to survey the field for the next install¬ 
ment of crinoidal inquiry he one day petulantly threw down some 
Flexibiliate forms which he was examining and remarked that he 
