10 Tkansactions of the Kansas 



blanks, simply requesting that a copy of these be returned to me at the close of each 

 mouth for tabulation. 



The solution of this question is destined to become, from a chemical standpoint, 

 one of the most important problems of the century before us ; but a problem whose 

 solution can only be purchased by long years of untiring study. 



Kansas State Agricultukal College, October, 1875. 



THE NEBRASKA HOT BLUFF. 



By Prop. Wm. K. Kedzie, of the Kansas State Agricultural College. 



The somewhat startling natural phenomenon to which it is the object of this 

 paper to call attention, is a bluff of the Missouri river, on the northern boundary 

 of Nebraska, and near the village of Ionia. It is also not ver}^ far distant from the 

 opposite town of Yankton, Dakota, and has been principally visited and described 

 by prospectors from the latter city. 



It is in appearance a quite ordinary river bluft", about a thousand feet in length, 

 one hundred and fifty feet high, and sloping from the river by which its base is 

 washed at an angle of seventy or seventy-five degrees. By the undermining action 

 of the river a large mass, some five hundred feet long, one hundred feet high, and 

 twenty to thirty feet thick, was some months ago scaled from the face of the bluff 

 and fell to its base, forming a large mass of debris rising at some j^oints fully fortj^ 

 feet above the level of the river. It is this immense fragmental mass which has 

 displayed the striking phenomena so terrifying to the ignorant and superstitious of 

 the neighborhood, and which very beautifully illustrates the important chemical 

 transformations constantly in progress within the earth's crust. 



Attention was first called to the peculiarities of this locality by a party of miners 

 who were prospecting for indications of coal veins. On passing over this mass of 

 debris, they found steam escaping from the crevices at every point. The ground was 

 also perceptibly heated, and by placing the ear to the earth a crackling sound was 

 heard proceeding from below. An opening was made in the mass to the depth 

 of two feet, when the heat became so intense as to be scarcely endurable. Upon 

 perforating the heap still further with an ordinary augur, the temperature was 

 found to be rapidly increasing with the descent. An ordinary thermometer with a 

 range of one hundred and fifty degrees was thrust into the augur-hole thus made, 

 when the mercury shot up so rapidly to the top of the tube that it had to be 

 instantly withdrawn to prevent the bursting of the bulb. All these circumstances 

 carefully considered seemed to indicate that the temperature of the interior of the 

 mass was fully 212° F. The exterior was, as a rv;le, coated with a hard incrustation 

 of mineral salts brought up by capillary action from below; on breaking this the 

 interior was found in a fine pulverulent condition, closely resembling the slacking 

 process of lime. The intense heat of the mass made itself felt for many square 

 rods around, and the steam escaping from the crevices was of a peculiarly sour, 

 pungent odor. The mass is completely impenetrated by an abundance of beautiful 

 crystals of Selenite (Gypsum) ; many of the crystals microscopic, others aggregated 



