FIFTH ANNUAL MEETING. 51 



The fossils nearest the Permian are Ostrea congesta and dicotyled- 

 onous leaves, two species of the latter, found by us a year ago near 

 Fort Larned, being new to science. 



Probably it is well known to this association that the outcrop of 

 nearly all of the coal strata of our State have a strike northeast and 

 southwest, and that they can be followed across the State in those 

 directions. This also applies to all strata of the Cretaceous in the 

 northern half of the State. This rule holds true of the red sandstone 

 of the Cretaceous formation, from the Nebraska line in Washington 

 county to Pawnee Rock in the Arkansas valley, but when reaching 

 this valley the rule ceases. 



The average breadth of this sandstone in the northern half of the 

 State is about forty miles (northwest and southeast), or about sixty 

 in a diagonal line running due east and west. But when it reaches 

 the bluffs of the Arkansas valley the strike is westerly, and instead 

 of a westerly extension of sixty miles, it covers the whole country 

 from thirty miles east of Pawnee Rock to the western line of the 

 State, a distance of about two hundred miles. This shows that the 

 ocean which favored the deposit of the upper portion of the Creta- 

 ceous, so rich in vertebrate fossils, either did not extend in that 

 direction, or from some local cause was not favorable to such animal 

 life. Had the ocean extended in that direction, but was turbid or 

 deep, too cold or too salt, then no chalk deposit would have taken 

 place. Some one at least of these conditions must have existed for 

 a long period. 



The sandstone is much varied in condition and appearance. Near 

 Fort Larned and for seventy miles eastward much of it is of uniform 

 texture and hardness, so that it furnishes a good building material. 

 The buildings of old Forts Zarah, Harker and Larned are constructed 

 of it. Care, however, must be used in selection, as much of it is too 

 soft. Farther west it is more loose in texture, so that for thirty miles 

 on either side of Fort Dodge it is too friable and crumbling to be 

 used in forming culverts and buildings, and the railroad now in con- 

 struction through this valley has frequently been obliged to transport 

 its stone ten or twelve miles. From Fort Dodge to the western line 

 of the State, a distance of 115 miles, the stone is mixed with some 

 lime in a chalky state, which makes the sandstone still more friable- 



The strata are not clearly defined in thickness or extent. In some 

 places, particularly west of Dodge, the deposit varies in a great 

 degree. In some spots it is fine, and in others it is mingled with 

 pebbles of flint, quartz, and other silicious stones of the size of the 

 fist. Instances of oblique stratification often occur, usually of coarse 



