Twenty-fib ST Annual Meeting. 39 



of Ashland, and whose apex is in the northern part of Kingman county, than was 

 given-in the lecture of the preceding evening. He also inferred from the borings 

 at Salina, Ellsworth and Russell, that the triangular form was continued in the sub- 

 terranean development of the red-beds, and that Ellsworth was within, but near the 

 apex of it. The main feature of the paper, in which its scientific bearing is of great 

 importance, was the statement, also made in the lecture of the previous evening, that 

 the saliferous shales and beds of rock salt which lie beneath the Triassic red-beds 

 were continuous downward with them, and also were continued down without break 

 into the Permo-Carboniferous formations. That is, that in southern Kansas — and 

 presumably in the Indian country beyond — there is no break from Paleozoic to 

 Mezozoic time. 



This is not abtolutely affirmed, but the writer believes that the great mass of the 

 evidence so far tends that way. 



Note. — Just before this goes to press, the writer has made other observations in Kingman and 

 Sumner counties, and finds outcrop of the red-beds six miles west of Wellington, and the proof more 

 positive that they are continuous with the grayer shales below, and that these shales, extending to and 

 beyond Wellington, all belong to the saliferous horizon. — R. H. 



THE LOGAN COUNTY NICKEL MINES. 



BY PROF. F. H. SNOW, OF THE UNIVERSITY OF KANSAS. 



While engaged in collecting specimens of Natural History in Wallace and Logan 

 counties in August, 1888, I learned that considerable excitement had been produced 

 in the central portion of the latter county by the discovery of valuable metallic ores. 

 The first reports specified silver as occurring in paying quantities in that region, but 

 later advices substituted nickel for silver, without any abatement of the popular ex- 

 citement. I lost little time in making my way to the scene of commotion, and found 

 the center of the new mining region in the southwest quarter of section 2, township 

 14, range 46, west of the 6th principal meridian. This quarter-section is three miles 

 south of the 8moky Hill river, eight and one-half miles distant from Russell Springs, 

 the county seat of Logan county, fifteen miles a little west of south from Winona, 

 and eighteen miles a little south of east from Wallace, the county seat of Wallace 

 county. It is about forty-five miles east of the western boundary, and seventy-five 

 miles south of the northern boundary of the State of Kansas. Upon reaching this 

 locality, I found that although less than two weeks had elapsed since the announce- 

 ment was first made of the discovery of these mineral deposits, more than 400 

 acres of ground had been staked off for mining claims, and the excitement was 

 becoming more intense every day. Hundreds of people were coming and going, 

 and the once peaceful prairie had suddenly assumed the boisterous character of a 

 genuine mining camp. The nomenclature of the claims indicates that Kansas can 

 vie with Colorado and Arizona in the use of expressive language. The following are 

 the names by which some of the prospect holes have been christened: Western Chief, 

 Nickel King, Nickel Queen, Eli, Jimmie, Eureka, Nickel Canon, etc. 



Values of these mining claims had not found a definite basis; $20,000 was re- 

 ported to have been offered and refused for the two best claims, and five hundred 

 dollars had been indignantly rejected for a half-interest in a less promising mine. 



I was especially interested in visiting this spot because in former years, in com- 

 pany with Professor Mudge, and subsequently with parties of University students, I 

 had explored the rocks in the immediate vicinity in search of vertebrate fossils. It 

 was within twenty-five miles of this locality that in 1878 I had the good fortune to 

 discover the now famous saurian, whose remains are so perfectly preserved that even 



