40 KANSAfi ACADEMY OF SCIENCE. 



the dermal scales upon the abdomen are as accurately outlined as are those of living 

 reptiles. Only six miles north of this spot we obtained during the same vacation a 

 saurian whose jaws, nearly three feet in length, were jus.t protruding from the blue 

 shale, under such circumstances as to indicate that there had been no serious disturb- 

 ance of the rock-strata during the millions of years which must have elapsed since 

 the reptile gave up its life. It was within a few miles of this spot that Professor 

 Mudge obtained the most perfect specimens of fossil birds which have ever been dis- 

 covered; birds with teeth in their jaws, which have furnished the material for the 

 great work on Toothed Birds ( Odontornithes) by Prof. Marsh of Yale College. Hav- 

 ing been thus familiar with this region as a paradise for fossil hunters, I was anxious 

 to ascertain if it were possible that some local disturbance had produced metamor- 

 phic changes resulting in the formation of metallic ores. In Woodson county a 

 square mile of the carboniferous rocks has thus been metamorphosed to an unknown 

 depth, the disturbing forces having transformed into crystalline rocks the original 

 fragmentary rocks, thus producing some of the conditions under which metallic de- 

 posits are found in mountainous regions. A great silver excitement was produced 

 in that country about twelve years ago, having for its center this limited area of 

 crystalline rocks. The chemists found faint traces of silver in their analysis of 

 this material, and the entire area was honeycombed by the excavations of prospect- 

 ors and miners, who gathered from near and from far, with the expectation of strik- 

 ing a bonanza. Thousands of dollars were expended in the vain attempt to extract 

 the precious metals from rocks which had been declared by our best geologists and 

 chemists to be of no actual value for mining purposes. It is true that a trace of 

 silver was detected in these rocks. There are also traces of silver and gold in the 

 waters of the ocean, and we are told that the total amount of these precious metals 

 thus held in solution would be sufficient to make every human being rich if they could 

 be separated from the containing waters by some inexpensive process. There are 

 undoubtedly minute quantities of gold and silver in all our Kansas rocks, from the 

 sub-carboniferous deposits of the southeast to the tertiary deposits of the northwest. 

 A Denver chemist reported a trace of gold and a small amount of silver ( $i.50 to the 

 ton) in the rocks of Logan county. But any attempt to extract these metals from 

 Kansas rocks seems as impracticable as would be the attempt to separate them from 

 the waters of the ocean. 



A careful examination of the rocks now being mined for nickel in Logan county 

 reveals no evidence of metamorphic action. There is an entire absence of crystal- 

 line rocks. The so-called "nickel ore" is the prevailing f ragmental rock of the Ter- 

 tiary age, the characteristic conglomerate or pudding-stone which overlies the eroded 

 surface of the Niobrara limestones and shales. The color of this rock at the " mines " 

 is darker than that of the ordinary conglomerate, but it is unmistakably the same 

 kind of rock. A chemical analysis of specimens of these rocks by Prof. E. H. S. 

 Bailey reveals the presence of nickel and cobalt in very small quantities. A special 

 examination of one specimen, said to be among the richest, showed not more than 

 one-third of one per cent, of cobalt, and one-tenth of one per cent, of nickel. The 

 specimens used for this analysis were of my own selection from the two mines con- 

 sidered to produce the most valuable ore. 



It may be here stated that the lowest graJe of nickel ore as yet found profitable 

 for treatment is mined in large quantities at Lancaster Gap, Penn., and contains 

 from It to 2 per cent, of nickel. But this ore, in order to merit transportation to 

 the refining works at Camden, N. J., must first be reduced at the mines to a more 

 concentrated form by being smelted into a "matte" containing 10 percent, of nickel. 

 Thus the Logan county rocks, according to Prof. E. H. S. Bailey's analysis, con- 



