98 KANSAS ACADEMY OP SCIENCE. 



or springs are ever found. In the Gray Beds, however, there are al- 

 ways springs and streams of running water. 



In September, 1901, the heaviest rain since May fell in torrents 

 for an hour and a half. Water lay everywhere on the surface of the 

 ground, but soon disappeared. My son had discovered a locality rich 

 in fossil invertebrates, consisting chiefly of casts of coiled and straight, 

 nautilus-like shells, across the creek, and shortly after the downpour 

 I went over there to my work, but had not been engaged long before 

 George shouted to me that if I did not want to swim I had better cross. 

 His advice I followed so hastily that I left my tools behind. In- 

 stantly a raging, boiling flood of water covered the rocks in the bed 

 of the creek over which I had just crossed dry shod, rapidly rose to 

 eight feet, and threatened to submerge my camp. Looking for good 

 ground on my side of the creek (the west), I found the gulch before 

 referred to. There was first a level floor, formed by the first stratum 

 of the Gray Beds, extending west 500 yards to a ledge of red sand- 

 stone eight feet thick, the floor covered with the debris washed from 

 the Red Beds. To my astonishment, although the surface was dry, 

 a flood of water was rushing out from under the upper deposits, and 

 tumbling in a minature waterfall over the gray ledge (nearly five 

 feet thick ) into the ravine below. The upper sandstone layer is com- 

 posed of very fine-grained sand that seems to have been ground into 

 an impalpable powder by the beating of the waves. It is very com- 

 pact and heavy, breaking on exposure into rectangular blocks so per- 

 fect in shape that they can be used for building purposes without the 

 use of the hammer and chisel. This stratum is eight inches thick, 

 and is free from fossils. I believe it contains some lime. The sec- 

 ond stratum breaks into large blocks of many tons weight, contains 

 a few casts of invertebrate fossils, is coarser grained than No. 1, and 

 about twenty inches thick. No. 3 is of the same general character as 

 the other layers, twelve inches thick, and literally packed full of the 

 casts of straight and coiled shells related to our living nautilus, and 

 they are mingled in great confusion. I believe some of the coiled 

 shells were a foot in diameter. This stratum is not as compact as 

 the others, and seems to contain more lime. No. 4 is a very solid 

 gray sandstone, eight inches thick, its upper surface crossed at vari- 

 ous angles by elevated rounded ridges of harder material than the 

 rest. 



From these observations, I conclude that the pervious nature of the 

 Red Beds, which in the valley of the Big Wichita are about 300 feet 

 thick, allows the water that falls upon them to rapidly percolate through 

 until it reaches the impenetrable gray sandstone ; then it runs off at 

 whatever angle the rock may be tilted. 



