58 Kansas Academy of Science. 



mountain ranges worn nearly to the level of the sea, and espe- 

 cially in the belt of debris on one or the other flank, or some- 

 times on both flanks. 



In this second yielding of the crust of the earth, this time at 

 the close of the Proterozoic era, the ranges of the Archeozoic 

 era were rejuvenated, the sand and mud flats on their flanks 

 were folded, the folds were crushed together, and the sediments 

 were metamorphosed; that is, semifused and compacted or 

 crystallized. By this metamorphism the sand and sandstone 

 were converted into quartzite, like that in the drift hills south 

 of Topeka, shoved down from Minnesota and South Dakota by 

 the Kansan glacier; and the more or less pure clay was com- 

 pacted into slate and various schists. The limestone became 

 marble, and the coal graphite. 



Among the mountains of the United States that date from 

 the close of the Archeozoic or Proterozoic eras are the Blue 

 Ridge of Virginia, the Adirondacks of New York, the low 

 mountains about the synclinal trough now occupied by Lake 

 Superior, the Ozarks of Missouri, the Arbuckle and Wichita 

 mountains of Oklahoma and some near-by mountains of Texas, 

 various granite ranges along the belt now occupied by the 

 Rocky Mountains, and some scattered ranges east of where 

 now lie the Sierras. 



WHERE WAS KANSAS? 



During all these millenniums, and many more, Kansas lay 

 peacefully sleeping beneath the waters of old ocean, at least 

 what there was of her, little disturbed by the mountain-making 

 east, south and west. Sediments were undoubtedly deposited 

 within her borders, but of these we know nothing by observa- 

 tion. Of this much we are pragmatically certain, however: 

 during the twelve million years of the Cambrian and Ordovi- 

 cian periods of the Paleozoic era, the winds, rains and ocean 

 waves tore down the mountains, squeezed up at the close of the 

 Proterozoic era and continued the work of filling up the oceans, 

 making in them the foundations of continents and islands that 

 appeared above the sea later, on which land life was to flourish. 

 Of this debris Kansas undoubtedly received her share. 



Before the dry land appeared, the sands were cemented into 

 sandstone, the clays became shale, and in the deeper, clearer 

 waters great beds of limestone were formed of the skeletons 

 of coral polyps, crinoids, brachiopods, clams, snails, chambered 



