PROSSER. | The Upper Permian. 79 
and southern Indian Territory should at least make us very wary 
of assenting to any such thickness of the Triassic in Kansas as that 
(1100 feet) ascribed to it by Mr. Hay.’?! 
The first careful description of the Red-Beds was published by 
Professor Hay in 1890 under the heading “Jura-Trias.” In describ- 
ing the area of this terrane he gave it as “An extensive region, tri- 
angular in shape, whose northern apex is near the northern part of 
the great bend of the Arkansas river and whose base in Kansas 
runs on the southern boundary of the state from the ninety eighth 
to beyond the one hundredth meridian, would be called by super- 
ficial observers the regions of red rock. The area of the formation 
expands across Indian Territory to the Red river and Texas. ! 
If a descriptive name were wanted we should call it the Red Rock 
Formation. The whole country is red. The soil, even where it con- 
tains much carbonaceous matter, is ruddy, the sedentary soil, just 
ferming on the steeper slopes is ruddier, fiooded rivers glance in 
the sunlight like streams of blood, steep bluffs and sides of narrow 
canyons pain the eye with their sanguine glare.” 
Professor Hay’s evidence for correlating this terrane with the 
Jura-irias seems to have been the appearance, lithological char- 
acters and stratigraphic position of the terrane. For after giving 
a summary of the evidence which he regarded as indicating such 
correlation he said ‘‘In brief, the lithologic characters, in so far as 
they may be regarded as criteria in the correlation of formations, 
and the stratigraphy alike suggest that the red rocks of southern 
KCansas represent the group of strata elsewhere found between the 
base of the Cretaceous and the summit of the Carboniferous; and 
although the evidence is not sufficient finally to demonstrate the 
age of the rocks, it is sufficient to warrant the provisional applica- 
tion to them of the name Triassic®.” 
On the “Geological Map of Southwest Kansas” accompanying 
this report the eastern line of the Jura-Trias is represented as cross- 
ing Reno, Sedgwick and Sumner counties, while the northwest 
1 Bulle tn Washburn College Laboratory Natural History, vol. II., pp. 33, 34. 
Topeka. 
2 Robt. Hay, Bulletin U. S. Geological Survey, No. 57.—A Geological Reconnais- 
sance in Southwestern Kansas,—pp. 20, 21. Washington. 
3 Ibid., p. 26. 
