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begins one half mile northwest of the south fork of Jim Ned creek. Here a bed of red sandy clay forty feet thick appears both overlaid and underlaid by a rusty clayey limestone. This in itself in no way differs from similar beds observed southeast of this in the typical Coleman, but this marks the beginning of a change in which finally nearly all the beds assume a reddish hue. The transitional beds should probably properly be classed with the Coleman beds of the upper Carboniferous, and the whole Coleman series may be possibly classed as Permo-Carboniferous.

A few miles northwest of the south fork of Jim Ned creek appear thin bedded shaley, red sandstones and red clays with geodic concretions.

From this on to Abilene the soil is everywhere of the peculiar red Permian hue. Occasionally limestone fragments indicate the proximity of this rock to the surface. It is invariably magnesic and in the creek bed six miles south of Abilene there is a typical exposure of the clayey pure white dense magnesic limestone of the Permian.

A deep red soil covers nearly all the country, derived no doubt by the wash from the abundant Permian clays. In places the soil is a fine grain sandy conglomerate, possibly derived from the decay of some Trinity conglomerate, but more probably from the decay of Permian.

From Abilene my course followed approximately the Texas&Pacific railway first a little north of west, then west-southwest to Pecos City.

Around Abilene and westward for six miles no bed rock outcrops, but the country is a comparatively level, deep soil prairie covered with mesquite. The soil is chiefly a sandy fine grained conglomerate. Seven miles west of Abiline near the railway there is an outcrop of Permian conglomerate and it is very likely from this bed that the soil to the east is derived. Fossils were collected in a bluish gray clayey limestone eleven miles west of Abilene in a railway cut. The fossils belong in the genera Pinna, Myalina, Productus, Bellerophon and Lima(?). They appear to be in no way different from the fossils of the Coleman division.

The level country continues westward to Merkel, twenty miles west of Abilene, but at this point the prairie character is lost and is succeeded by hills. This change has been brought about by the erosion of Sweetwater creek and other branches of the main Elm Fork of the Brazos. This change commences just west of Merkel where the east facing mesa rises to a height of more than seventy-five feet. The face of the Merkel mesa exposes alternating red and white strata of clays, sandstones, conglomerate and limestone. A peculiar purple conglomerate appears near Trent, consisting of sandy and breccia layers with a purple cement colored probably by maganese.