PROSSER. | The Upper Permian. 89 
the above is probably an underestimate rather than an overestimate 
for the total thickness of the Red-Beds. 
Careful search was made in the Red-Beds for fossils, especially 
in all places where a change of color seemed to indicate a possi- 
bility of finding organic remains, but without success. This but 
repeats the experience of former investigators of this terrane in 
Kansas and judging from the known scarcity of fossils in similar 
formations in other regions there seems little probability of finding 
them in the Red-Beds of southern Kansas. The great assistance 
that fossils would afford in determining the age of the Red-Beds 
was fully appreciated and on this account special efforts were 
made toward their discovery which however proved fruitless. 
CORRELATION. 
The correlation of the Red-Beds of southern iXansas is a difficult 
matter and one at present hardly possible to settie in a satisfac: 
tory manner. Physically, no break is known between the Wellington 
and superjacent Red-Beds, though Professor Cragin states that 
they succeed the former “without break, but possibly with a grad- 
ually introduced angular unconformity.”! In our work, no eyvi- 
dence of a period of interruption in the deposition of the strata 
was observed. Above, there is abundant evidence of great erosion 
before the deposition of the Cretaceous or Tertiary, showing that 
a long period of time elapsed between the deposition of the upper 
Red-Beds and that of the succeeding formation. This unconformity 
by erosion, which is very conspicuous when any considerable area 
of the region is carefully studied, separates the Red-Beds very 
clearly from the next later Cheyenne and Kiowa formations of the 
Comanche series. No fossils have been found in them in Kansas, 
or so far as known to the writer, in Oklahoma with the exception 
of fragments of fossil wood mentioned by Professor Cope2 In 
Texas, Professors Cope and Cummins, Dr. C. A. White and others 
have found fossils in layers occurring well toward the top of the 
Red-Beds.”? From the vertebrate and invertebrate fossils found in 
1 EF. W. Cragin, Colcerado College Studies, vol. VI, p. 18. 
2 Proceedings Academy Natural Science, Phil., 1894, Pt. I, p. 64. , 
3 According to Professor Cummins, ‘“‘two species of Ammonites, Orthocerites and 
Pleurophorus’”’ were found within less than 300 feet of the top of his Double Moun- 
tain division which he regards as the highest of the Permian (Geological Survey of 
a Fourth Annual Report, 1898, p. 230; and ibid., Second Annual Report, 1890, 
Dp. 408). 
