NATURAL SCIENCES OP PHILADELPHIA. 15 



living at Zeandale, that the bed is from four to six inches in thickness, and 

 overlaid by about three and a half feet of blue shale, strongly impregnated 

 with alum. Above the latter, he said there is an eight or ten inch layer of dark 

 argillaceous material, weathering to an iron rust color, and containing many 

 nodular concretions, perhaps of carbonate of iron. From the information 

 obtained in regard to the location and elevation of this coal bed, we are in- 

 clined to believe it must hold a position a little below the horizon of the mid- 

 dle of the slope at the top of the foregoing section. It is probably the 

 highest bed of coal in the whole series of this region, at any rate we saw no 

 indications of coal above it. 



About a mile or a mile and a half north of the locality where this coal bed 

 has been seen, the dividing ridge between the Kansas and Deep creek, rises to 

 an elevation of near three hundred and twenty feet above the latter stream at 

 the nearest point. Here at the summit of this ridge there are some thin out- 

 crops of gray and whitish argillaceous limestone, showing on weathered sur- 

 faces a somewhat laminated structure, and containing at places large spines of 

 a species of Archaocidaris ; beneath this there is about two feet of gray frag- 

 mentary limestone reposing on a more compact bed of hard gray limestone 

 near three feet in thickness, and often cellular in the middle. Along the slope 

 about one hundred and twenty feet below the horizon of these beds, we found 

 loose specimens of Spirifer cameratus, Orthisina wnbraculum? Rhynchonella Ula,Al- 

 lorisma, Synocladia biserialis, &c. Just below these, there were many loose slabs of 

 light yellowish fine grained calcareous sandstone, containing Productus, Pecten, 

 and Fucoidal markings. About forty-seven feet lower down the slope, and 

 near one hundred and fifteen feet above the level of the Kansas, there is an 

 exposure of light grayish yellow granular limestone, showing a thickness of 

 three feet, in which we only saw fragments of a Choneles, and Crinoid columns : 

 large tabular masses of this rock were strewed along the slope for some distance 

 below. 



At the mouth of Big Blue river, on the south side of the Kansas, there is an 

 abrupt bluff, along which several slides have exposed many of the beds com- 

 posing the high ridge mentioned six or seven miles below here. The dip, how- 

 ever, of the strata towards the west, or north west, is so great that the lime- 

 stone containing spines of Archceocidaris, seen on the summit of the ridge be- 

 low this, at an elevation of about 320 feet above the Kansas, is here, opposite 

 the mouth of Big Blue river, only elevated about 214 feet above the Kansas ; 

 consequently the three feet of grayish yellow limestone cropping out 115 feet 

 above the Kansas along the slope of the ridge above mentioned, at the mouth 

 of Blue river, has sunk beneath the level of the Kansas. 



This far we have scarcely attempted to draw parallels between the various 

 beds seen by us at different places, in consequence of the fact that our obser- 

 vations were isolated, as must necessarily be the case in a mere reconnois- 

 sance, extended over a large area in a short space of time. In addition to this, 

 the group of rocks examined presents no extensive beds of limestone or other 

 hard material, forming well marked horizons, or continuous lines of outcrop, 

 by which the relations between strata seen at different localities could be traced 

 out. This difficulty is also greatly increased by the frequent repetition of pre- 

 cisely similar beds at different horizons in the series, and above all by the 

 great vertical range of the organic remains. Consequently we have pre- 

 ferred to present separately the local sections examined, instead of attempting 

 to construct a continuous general vertical section showing the order of super- 

 position of the various strata. To do this successfully throughout all the va- 

 rious rocks of the whole Kansas valley, would require much more time than 

 we had at our command. 



As our examinations along the Kansas and Smoky Hill rivers above this 

 point were made in more detail, where the outcrops were more frequent and 

 continuous, we have, as we believe, been able to trace out the connections and 

 order of succession of the various strata with considerable accuracy. Hence, 

 we give below a general section of the rocks in this region, commencing with 

 1859.] 



