114 Kansas Academy of science. 



might as well include the mountains in the moon — for there is no one to dispute it) are 

 composed of hard, silicious rocks. Notably are volcanic mountains included in this 

 category : for example, the Sierra Nevadas, and the volcanic mountains of the Pacific 

 coast, as well as those of Europe and Asia. Another inference I would like to make in 

 this connection is this: that all mountain-peaks as seen to-day, are but fragmentary re- 

 mains of what were once vast elevated plateaus, or long, massive elevated ridges, worn 

 away by the tooth of time, and the present peaks are only the survival of the hardest, 

 while the softer parts it may be have long since disappeared in the bottom of the 

 ocean. 



2d. The mission of the dykes, thrust up as they are through the vast seams of lignite 

 coal — and many of these dykes have, no doubt, never reached the surface — is to mineral- 

 ize the coal, or make it ready for the coke oven and furnace, as well as the coal grate, in 

 the habitation of man : for example, the coal mines of Trinidad and vicinity, as well as 

 those immense seams of coal near Walsenberg, on the way to Veta Pass. Otherwise 

 these coal seams would have been only black carbonaceous dust, like the coal now quar- 

 ried in our Dacotah in Russell county, along the Republican river, and also in many coal 

 seams east of the mountains in Colorado. 



3d. The lesson of metamorphism, which is a very important one to the geologist. 

 This is seen illustrated upon the west peak, where its entire surface of soft sandstone is 

 changed to hard quartzite; and still further it is seen all along the line of the dykes, 

 which came up hot and changed the adjoining sandstone into quartzite for a few feet 

 only, when it fades out into its original softness, and is thus weathered into steep cliffs 

 all along the dykes, peaks which now dot all the surrounding country. 



NOTES ON SOME KANSAS MINERAL WATERS. 



BY PROFESSOR O. H. FAILYER, STATE AGRICULTURAL COLLEGE. 



Some years since, a farmer living in the eastern part of Riley county, this State, in 

 prospecting for coal, drilled to a depth of 120 feet; then abandoned this boring and be- 

 gan another one something over 100 yards distant from the first. In the meantime the 

 water had risen to within four feet of the surface. A four-feet ditch was dug; from this 

 the water flows at a rate which the farmer estimates, by measuring the flow during a short 

 period, at 800 gallons per hour. At the depth of 85 feet the second well began to flow 

 from the top, giving a stream, I am informed, 1] inches in diameter. The boring was 

 continued to a depth of 180 feet. The water ceased to flow from the well, but a ditch 

 two or three feet deep permitted the water to escape again. The capacity of the well is 

 now 200 gallons per hour. Analysis of the waters of these wells gave the following 



results: Grains 



No. 1. Grams per U.S. 



per litre, gallvn. 



Calc. oxide (as bicarb.*), 090295 5.27G6 



(ale. oxide (not carb.) 553883 32.3673 



Mag. oxide 096792 5.6561 



Iron oxide (as bicarb.), 004101 .2426 



Sodium, 008699 .5183 



Sulphuric acid (S0 8 ), 1.050101 61.3651 



Chlorine, 025060 1.4644 



Silica 172785 10.0968 



No. 2. 



Calc. oxide (as bicarb.*) 103945 6.0746 



Calc. oxide (not carb.) 251383 14.6900 



* Combined and free carbonic acid not determined. 



