320 
IOWA CAMBRIC SUCCESSION 
tion, the name actually applies only to a small, exposed surface of 
the main body of Magnesian limestone — of what is designated in 
the Iowa reports as the Oneota Dolomite. When the Winchell 
title comes to be applied to the exposures in the southeastern parts 
of Minnesota on the Mississippi River it refers to an entirely dis¬ 
tinct terrane. In this latter sense the name finds its way into 
Iowa. As such there is direct violation of primary canons of 
nomenclature. The name virtually assumes the rank of a pre¬ 
occupied term, and is therefore invalid. The error arises mainly 
because of early wrong interpretation of the stratigraphic position 
of the sandstone immediately overlying. 
Were it not for the fact that Shipton’s formational name 
Sparta was already pre-occupied by Vaughn for a Tertiary 
terrane in Louisiana, this title might be readily extended so as to 
cover the entire dolomitic bed; and therefore become a valid and 
useful term. 
The Allamakee Dolomite seems to have as yet no recognizable 
representative in Minnesota. 
In substituting the name Waukon Sandstone for the older title 
Jordan Sandstone, as used in Iowa, not the typical Jordan ter¬ 
rane, it is with a keen sense of necessity, because of the fact that 
the term Jordan as originally proposed refers to an entirely dif¬ 
ferent stratigraphic unit. There is curious confusion on part 
of the Minnesota workers in the designation of the terranes in the 
Minnesota River section. Beginning along the last mentioned line 
correlations are carried into the southeastern portion of the state, 
where the same names are found to apply to entirely distinct for¬ 
mations. When the mistakes are recognized the confusion is ren¬ 
dered all the more distressing for reason of direct violation of all 
rules of nomenclature. Not only are new names used, but old 
ones are given new meanings. 
In view of the fact that the title Jordan Sandstone as originally 
proposed is valid its mistaken extension to other formations leaves 
the thick sandstone terrane beneath the Oneota Dolomite as ex- ' 
posed in northeastern Iowa, southeastern Minnesota and south¬ 
western Wisconsin that has commonly masqueraded under this 
36 Proc. Iowa Acad. Sci., Vol. XXIII, p. 142, 1916. 
37 American Geologist, Vol. XV, p. 225, 1895. 
