Mathematical and Geological Papers. 55 



In about 1910 Dr. J. W. Beede, while working for some 

 private parties, seems to have discovered the southeast edge 

 of this dome, but appears not to have extended his investiga- 

 tions to the west edge, apparently thinking it to be the usual 

 form, having the dip to the east and a monoplane to the west. 

 However, further investigations disclosed the form mentioned. 



The elevation is comparatively very great, being as much 

 as 600 feet above the outer edge on the east, as the Burlingame 

 limestone that was found 600 feet deep at McFarland is an 

 out-cropping surface rock across the dome. 



In the fall of 1913 a company was formed to prospect this 

 anticline for gas and oil, and practically the entire dome of 

 the anticline was leased and a prospect hole commenced at a 

 point about a half mile south of Zeandale, on the Rock 

 Island railway, and continued to a depth of 955, where granite 

 was claimed to have been encountered. If so, a new discovery 

 was thus made which is now puzzling all the geologists in the 

 country, it being found at about the horizon of the Pleasan- 

 ton shales. At McFarland, about fourteen miles southeast, a 

 well was drilled by the Rock Island Railway Company to a 

 depth of 2000 feet and penetrated the Cherokee shales only 

 174 feet, which are probably about 650 feet thick. Counting 

 off the 600 feet of bulge would make the bottom of the Cher- 

 okee shales on the anticline 1876 feet deep; and judging from 

 the deep wells at Caney and lola, it would appear that this 

 so-called granite is at least 3000 feet out of place, and prob- 

 ably much more. 



Various reasons for its presence at this horizon have been 

 advanced, one being that an ancient mountain range lies 

 buried along this anticlinal fold, and that the bulge of the 

 dome was caused by a new uplift of the old mountain range. 

 Another and more probable explanation, if it is granite, is 

 that, the uplift being so great, the breaking of the strata at 

 the edges of a steep dip caused the crevices through which 

 the molten matter of the interior of the earth intruded itself 

 in the form of dikes, and that as the holes drilled are directly 

 on the edge of the steep dip to the west, they struck this 

 crevice and penetrated this dike, which is probably in the form 

 of a vast wedge, and may be several hundred feet, even 

 thousands of feet, in depth. It is not likely to be a vast sheet 

 that was run out by some old volcano and spread over the 



