The Sands of the Kansas River Valley.* 



BY M. Z. KIRK. 



Some months ago my attention was called to the great differ- 

 ence in character of the soils of the Wakarusa valle}' and those of 

 the Kansas river valley. The former usually are black and plastic 

 while the latter are loose and sandy and have a much lighter color. 

 The Kansas river valley from Kansas City to Manhattan has an 

 average width of about four or five miles and is skirted on either 

 side by bluffs from loo feet to 225 feet in height. This lower por- 

 tion of the Kansas river traverses the extreme southern extension 

 of the great glacial drift area of America. An examination of the 

 country lying north of the river for several miles, even so far as 

 Atchison and Whiting, shows that here and there throughout the 

 whole glaciated area of the state large masses of sand are fre- 

 quently found in connection with the glacial soils. In fact the 

 great beds of loess so abundant particularly along the Missouri 

 river valley, and in other parts of America with which the writer is 

 more or less familiar, frequently have the fine clay and silt washed 

 out from them by the surface waters leaving almost pure sand 

 behind. Such conditions are often observed in central and southern 

 Iowa and probably in man}' other places. Here the washing away of 

 the clay and silt frequently leaves masses of sand on the uplands 

 far removed from the main drainage tributaries. These are blown 

 here and there by the wind and collect in great sand dunes often 

 covering several square miles in extent with the sand forming so 

 large a proportion of the soil that the country roads are almost 

 impassable for heavily laden vehicles. With these points in mind, 

 it occurred to the writer that possibly portions at least of the sands 

 of the Kansas river valley had originated in a similar way. Upon 

 investigation the following conditions were found to obtain. 



On both sides of the river, but more particularl}' on the north 

 side almost all the way from Kansas City to Lawrence, great 

 masses of loess were found to exist along the bluffs, generall}' with 

 a streamer reaching downward into the vtlley, usuall}' forming 

 a ridge from five to ten feet higher than the general level and from 

 forty rods to half a mile in width and often a mile or more in 



[*From a preliminary paper yiviiif; a few results obtained l)y tlie Uiiivei'sitv Geo- 

 logical Survey of Kansas.] 



(12.")) KAN. UNIV. gUAI!.. VOI.. IV. NO. li, JANl'AKV. 1890. 



