60 Kansas Academy of Scieyice. 



its interior and dissolved out the rock, making great caves 

 like those of Missouri, Kentucky and Indiana. Then Kansas 

 sank beneath the waters of the ocean once more and the water 

 of the crust of the earth, charged with various minerals which 

 it had dissolved from distant portions of the limestone, surged 

 into the caves and proceeded to fill them with flint, zinc sulfide, 

 lead sulfide and calcite. 



WHENCE CAME THE MATERIALS OF THE SHALES AND SAND- 

 STONES OF KANSAS? 



There seems to be little question that the clay and sand of 

 the shales and sandstones of eastern Kansas came from the 

 granites and lavas of the Ozarks of Missouri and the Arbuckle 

 and Wichita mountains of Oklahoma. Sand, clay, carbonate of 

 lime (calcite), and flint (silica) have little physical resem- 

 blance to granite, gneiss and lava, but chemically they are 

 near relatives. The granites and gneisses consist chiefly of 

 orthoclase feldspar and quartz. This feldspar is a double 

 silicate of alumina and potash. Carbonic acid of rain water 

 takes away the potash of the feldspar and leaves the simple 

 silicate of alumina, which is the chief ingredient of common 

 clay. The carbonic acid unites with the potash, making car- 

 bonate of potash. This remains in the water and eventually 

 serves a very important function in food-making in green 

 plants. The clay residue from the feldspar is washed away 

 and floats out to sea, where it settles in deep water, leaving the 

 quartz of the granite and gneiss to follow more slowly to the 

 seashore, where the waves soon grind it into beach sand. 



The feldspar of lava is quite different from that of granite 

 and gneiss. It is usually a triple sihcate of alumina, soda and 

 lime. Carbonic acid of rain water unites with the soda and 

 the lime, making carbonate of soda (washing soda) and car- 

 bonate of lime (the material of limestone), leaving the silicate 

 of alumina, the chief ingredient of clay, as before. Carbonate 

 of soda is very common in volcanic regions. Should it en- 

 counter nitric acid in rain water it becomes sodium nitrate, a 

 very important plant fertilizer; if it meets hydrochloric acid 

 it becomes sodium chlorid or common salt, so abundant in the 

 ocean and in salt lakes. The carbonate of lime has also a very 

 important history, and is very acceptable to some plants and 

 many animals for use in their supporting hard parts. 



