PROSSER. | The Upper Permian. 73 
from the overlying Marion by their general grayish or bluish color 
which is in strong contrast with the prevailing red color of that 
formation. 
Professor Hay in his paper on the “Geology of Kansas Salt” 
noted the occurrence of “between one and two hundred feet of gray 
Shales, with an occasional limestone stratum!” However, as 
already stated, Professor Cragin is the first one to accurately des 
scribe the lithologic characters of these rocks and to propose an 
appropriate formation name for them. 
Ly the roadside on the Oxford-Wellington road four miles east of 
Wellington are yellowish thin limestones that alternate with yellow- 
ish shales, the lithologic character of these rocks differing but 
slightly from that of some of the Marion. Toward the top of the 
ridge are greenish argillaceous shales, and with them are layers of 
yellowish shales in which are layers of small, somewhat flattened 
concretions. The concentric structure of some of these concretions 
is nicely shown. Professor Hay has described these layers ag 
similar “to a pan of biscuits” and states that they will “separate intd 
several thin concentric domes as would the layers of half an onion2.” 
Me apparently failed to recognize their concretionary character. 
From the above locality along the road toward Wellington are 
occasional outcrops of yellowish and bluish, soft argillaceous shales, 
with an occasional layer of harder material an inch or so in thick- 
ness. Similar shales show in a branch of Slate creek just east of 
the city, and along the side of the hill to the west of Slate creek 
and the city. The blue shales are especially well shown in a small 
creek on the upland west of Slate creek and 75 feet above it, along 
the Southern Kansas railroad. 
In the vicinity of Wellington is an extensive deposit of gravel and 
sand which was referred to the Champlain period by J. P. West,? 
1 Robert Hay, Seventh Biennial Report Kansas State Board of Agriculture, Pt. 
II, p. 87, Topeka. See also Fig. I ‘‘Generalized section from Geuda Springs to King- 
man” on p. 86, and Fig. III, ‘“‘Generalized section across Kansas’? on both of which 
the “‘gray shales’’ are represented between the “Salt measures’’ and the ‘“‘red beds.”’ 
2 Robt. Hay, Bulletin U. S. Geological Survey, No. 57, pp. 19, 20, Washington, 1890. 
See Fig. 2, on p. 20. 
3 Ibid., pp. 39, 40. See Fig. 19, p. 40, which gives a section of the Santa Fe railway 
cut at Wellington. See Judge West’s article in Kansas City Review of Science and 
Industry, February 1895. This stratified deposit of sand and gravel was also referred 
to the Champlain by Professor Cragin who mentioned the occurrence of Mastodon 
Elephas and Bos latifrons in it (Bulletin Washburn College Laboratory Natural 
History, April 1895, p. 85, Topeka). 
