HAWORTH AND BENNETT.| General Stratigraphy. a 
Permian. 
CHASE STAGE. 
The Chase Stage includes the Wreford limestone, Matfield 
shales, Florence flint, Fort Riley limestone, Doyle shales and 
Winfield formations. 
SUMNER STAGE. 
The Sumner Stage includes the Marion formations and the 
Wellington shales. Here is the top of what originally was 
called the Permian. It is followed immediately by the so-called 
Red Beds, the exact geologic age of which was not known until 
within the last few years. Paleontological evidence has greatly 
accumulated, principally through the efforts of Cope, Willis- 
ton, Gould and Beede, all of which implies that the Red Beds 
are Upper Permian in age. According to this the Permian 
may be divided into two series, as was done by Cragin in 1896. 
The lower one he named the Big Blue Series, including the 
Chase and Sumner Stages as just given. The upper one he 
named the Cimarron Series, divided into two Stages, from 
the bottom upwards, the Salt Fork Stage and the Kiger Stage. 
SALT FORK STAGE. 
This includes the Kingfisher formation, or Harper sand- 
stone, and Salt Plain member; Glass Mountain formation, in- 
cluding Cedar Hill sandstone and Flower Pot shales; Cave 
Creek formation, including Medicine Lodge gypsum, Jenkins 
Clay and Shimer gypsum; Dog Creek formation, including 
Amphitheatre dolomite and Chapman dolomite. 
KIGER STAGE. 
This Stage includes the Red Buff formation, Day Creek dol- 
omite, and Taloga formations. 
Cherokee Shales.8 
The name Cherokee shales was given by Haworth and Kirk 
in 1894 to a heavy bed of shales lying at the base of the Coal 
Measures in Kansas. The name was chosen on account of their 
prominence in Cherokee county, the southeastern county of 
the state. 3 
Thickness.—The Cherokee shales are from 400 to 500 feet 
thick. They vary slightly from place to place, but on the 
whole are remarkably uniform. Some of the deep wells in the 
8. Haworth and Kirk: Kan. Univ. Quart., vol. 11, p. 105. Lawrence, 1894. 
