Sixteenth Annual Meeting. 17 



PROCEEDINGS OF THE SECOND DAY, 



NOVEMBER 22, 1883. 



The President, Mr. Robert J. Brown, in the chair. The following papers were read: 

 PRELIMINARY REPORT ON THE GEOLOGY OF NORTON COUNTY, KANSAS. 



BY ROBERT HAY. 



Made tn the Kansas Academy of Science, Topeka, November 21, 1883. 

 INTRODUCTORY. 



Having, in the month of August, to take charge of the County Normal Institute, at 

 Norton, I found myself, in the early part of that month, on a dull, half-drizzly day, de- 

 scending from the high prairie down the somewhat steep slopes to the valley of Prairie 

 Dog creek. The peculiar weathering of some rough rocks near the roadside attracted 

 my attention, and called to mind similar appearances in Trego county, and I at once de- 

 termined to work out as far as possible the geology of the county in which I was about 

 to take a sojourn. 



My opportunities were exceptionally good. A medical man, Dr. E. M. Turner, was 

 sufficiently interested in the subject as already to have made some collection of fossils, 

 and to give me a drive out in his buggy nearly every afternoon, and with me to devote 

 several entire Saturdays to exploration. At the end of my sojourn, the results were al- 

 ready so definite, that on representation of the facts, I was encouraged by our President 

 to remain a little while longer to give some sort of completeness to my investigations, 

 for the benefit of the Academy. The finding of a very fine lower jaw with a nearly full 

 set of teeth just at the end of my prolonged visit made it certain that there would be 

 full repayment for any amount of investigation, and caused Dr. Thompson and Dr. Brown 

 to agree with me that it would be well to secure the fossils for our Kansas museum, and to 

 desire that I should return and secure them, Dr. Brown kindly making himself responsi- 

 ble for the cost. The results of my explorations in both these visits are stated in the 

 following report, to which I will only further premise, that my journeys have extended 

 over the entire county — from the Nebraska line to the boundary of Graham county, and 

 from close to the eastern border to within less than one township of the western frontier; 

 and the relations of the strata were determined by observations in more than thirty defi- 

 nite localities, fortified by many accurate measurements and careful estimates made on 

 t be spot. There is a certain definiteness about the geological phenomena that leads us 

 to consider this a typical county, a knowledge of wbose features will enable us to deter- 

 mine the more readily those of several others in the same northwestern region. 



REPORT. 



Norton county is situate in our northern tier of counties, and contains by the survey 

 900 square miles. It includes the first five townships in each of the ranges west of the 

 sixth principal meridian numbered from 21 to 25 inclusive. It is the fourth county from 

 our Colorado boundary, and the 100th meridian passes through it. The elevation of the 

 surface is between two and three thousand feet, as is shown by Professor St. Jobn's con- 

 tour map, in the last Biennial Agricultural Report. 



In considering the geology of this county, we shall investigate it under the following 

 heads: 



