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STRATIGRAPHICAL GEOLOGY 
ing the St. Louis and Kaskaskia limestone. The evident 
importance of the Ferruginous formation, as thus understood, was 
then so thoroughly appreciated that the need of a geographic desig¬ 
nation seemed urgent. For this purpose Aux Vases was tentatively 
selected in field notes; and finaly the term got into print. 
In late years Ulrich^^ attempts to afix an old term of Engle- 
mann’s to the sandstone in question, as displayed on the Mississippi 
River. He observes: 
The publication of Englemann’s name “Cypress Sandstone” for this 
sandstone in 1868 seems to have been overlooked by later workers on the 
Mississippi section so that one, and probably two, synonyms have crept 
into literature. Thus, in 1876, Norwood applied the name “Big Clifty” 
sandstone to a formation in western Kentucky that, if it is not strictly 
equivalent to the Cypress sandstone, at least agrees closely with it in 
lithologic character and seems to occupy the same stratigraphic position. 
In 1892 Keyes, who overlooked not only the name proposed by Englemann, 
but Norwood’s designation as well, proposed the name “Aux Vases” sand¬ 
stone, to take the place of “Ferruginous Sandstone.” The type localities 
for the formations to which these three names — first Cypress sandstone, 
then Big Clifty, and finally Aux Vases sandstone — were applied are all 
contained within an area less than 200 miles across. They are, moreover, 
unquestionably in one and the same geologic basin and are practically 
identical in lithologic character. Finally, as the formations in each case 
were assigned to precisely the same stratigraphic position, i. e., next below 
the Kaskaskia limestone, there can be no reasonable doubt of their 
synonomy. 
In these statements Ulrich is entirely too presuming. Before pub¬ 
lishing the title Aux Vases Sandstone as a terranal term I did the 
very thing which the author mentioned did not do; and I did no 
guessing. I not only did not overlook Englemann’s title, as 
Ulrich claims, but before venturing to propose the new terranal 
name I visited the original Illinois locality. Ascent of the bluff, 
below the town of Golconda, in Pope County, quickly disclosed the 
fact that Englemann’s “Cypress Sandstone,” or “No. 8,” could not 
possibly be the so-called Ferruginous bed of Missouri, but that it 
was on a much higher horizon. The prospect from the top of the 
bluff was convincing that the Englemann title was applicable only 
to a higher sandstone; and that the bed was separated from the 
sandstone superposing the Ste. Genevieve limestone by 50 to 60 
feet of shales. A quarter of a century afterwards a party consist¬ 
ing of officials from the several State surveys climbed the same 
Golconda bluff and arrived at a like conclusion.^^ Ulrich being 
of the number of that conference stood fully convinced of his 
11 Prof. Pap. 36, U. S. Geol. Surv., p. 54, 1905. 
12 Kentucky Geol. Surv., Mississippian Fossils, p. 18, 1917. 
