STRATIGRAPHICAL GEOLOGY 
249 
uplift. But the original Muscogee formation also embraces the 
Cherokee Shales of Kansas and Missouri. It is not at all probable 
that the shales to which Cherokee was applied will ever be classi¬ 
fied as a part of the Arkansan Series, for strong diastrophic 
reasons. Thus treated the Muscogee becomes an unusable and 
useless term. Whether it could ever be restricted and redefined 
so as to take the place of Cherokee is perhaps somewhat question¬ 
able. Yet it might be, without doing serious violence to the 
canons of nomenclature. There is, however, already another and 
later title in the field, one which is virtually co-extensive with 
the Kansas term. This is Vinita Formation, proposed by Sieben- 
thal,® and afterwards further described and defined by Ohern.® 
But the same objections and also some others obtain concerning 
Vinita as they do with Muscogee, so in this respect there is little 
to choose between the two. 
Rather than have to deal with the complications which an en¬ 
tirely new title might introduce it seems probable that the title 
Muscogee should be best fitted to the situation. By elimination 
of the great lower Arkansan Series, which has clear diastrophic 
definition, it leaves the Oklahoman term applicable to its remain¬ 
ing upper portion, which is an exact equivalent of the old Cher¬ 
okee shales, now nameless. This solution of a difficult problem 
in nomenclature is doubtless the only one by which the term Mus¬ 
cogee may be retained as a valid terranal title. 
K^yes. 
Wide Extent of Texas Potash Formations. Late discoveries 
of potash minerals in the Permian red-beds of western Texas 
promise large developments along this line, perhaps the most 
important in the entire country. These red-beds contain, as is 
widely known, extensive deposits of common salt; and it is as- 
ciated with these that the potash occurs. 
Texas salt beds on the High Plains appear to have been de¬ 
posited from the concentration of sea-water in narrow arms of 
the ocean through a long period toward the close of Paleozoic 
times. In the course of the desiccation of these waters potash 
salts in the brines are precipitated last whenever the points of 
5 Bull. U. S. G. S., No. 340, p. 191, 1908. 
6 Research Bull., Oklahoma State Univ., No. 4, p. 12, 1910. 
