49° 



TRANS. ST. I.OUIS ACAD. SCIENCE. 



with large tumbling masses of rock ready to be used. From the 

 head of Ivanpah creek the rock has been hauled in wagons 20 

 miles to build the court-house at Eureka. On Cedar creek, Cow- 

 ley county, are exposures of very thick layers, and good quarries 

 have been opened near Winfield. 



The buff and drab limestones are found everywhere in Cowley 

 county east of the Arkansas and Walnut rivers, and are either on 

 the surface or within four feet of it everywhere on the uplands ; 

 but are generally deficient in organic remains, and many of the 

 beds afford a poor building-stone. North of Winfield, on the 

 highlands, the strata afford quartz geodes. 



Throughout Butler county the rocks are similar in character to 

 those of Cowley, and we also find that in passing west from the 

 Permian Mountains ("Flint Hills") good specimens of fossils are 

 very rare. Between Walnut river and Whitewater the rock is 

 often upon the surface : west of Whitewater deeper soils cover it, 

 and the wells reveal blue shale beds. 



Springs of water are often rare, but on the hills of Cowley Co. 

 water is generally reached at about 60 feet depth, and, passing to 

 the valley below, we find good springs at a corresponding hori- 

 zon with the bottom of these wells. The Permian ridge includes 

 about 500 feet of Permian strata. 



Assuming the westerly dip to be regular, we probably have 

 1,000 feet additional thickness of higher strata in passing across 

 Butler county ; so we may be safe in assuming 1,500 feet of Per- 

 mian beds in southern Kansas. 



In these counties it is the newest rock below the Quartenary. 

 No other rocks of later formation than the Permian may be found 

 in either Cowley, Butler or Greenwood. 



The Permian of Kansas rests conformably on the coal 

 MEASURES, and there is no decided line of separation between 

 the two. Certain strata can be grouped together, as can certain 

 other strata of other formations. The only marked difference is 

 this: — Passing a certain horizon in the ascending series, we find 

 the rocks to be all of a drab, buff' or cream color, and the lime- 

 stones more impure and break with a rougher fracture ; also, when 

 jointed vertically, the angle more nearly approaches a right angle, 

 whereas the coal measure limestones are jointed into more acute 

 rhomboidal blocks. 



