276 KANSAS UNIVERSITY QUARTEkl.V. 



bed. For many miles there is a row of bluffs or isolated mounds 

 similar to those in Mound Valley, only more pronounced. 



From the vicinity of Uniontown northward the Triple limestone 

 systems remain tolerably close together, passing Mound City, Pleas- 

 anton, Boicourt, La Cygne and Fontana, and reaching to the north- 

 east across the state line. Throughout this whole distance the 

 topographic features are similar to those in the vicinity of Mound 

 Valley and Cherryvale, but here they are produced by the Triple 

 limestones serving as a protection above the Pleasanton shales which 

 have their maximum thickness in this vicinity. These limestones as 

 a whole are very interesting in many ways. Their separation to the 

 southward producing the radiated structure is different from that 

 usually found in the state; the uppermost layer thickening so rapidly 

 to the westward from Cherryvale, reaching a thickness of 40 feet at 

 Independence; and the remarkably large masses of flint which they 

 carry, particularly in the vicinity of Uniontown, are some of their 

 prominent characteristics. To the north of where they disappear 

 beneath the surface their existence is shown by the drill record at 

 Paola, and at Kansas City they occur near the surface in the bluffs 

 along the Missouri river. Broadhead * has named the lowermost 

 member the Bethany Falls Limestone, number 78 of his section. 

 According to his report it reaches from the north line of Missouri to 

 Kansas City, from which place it unmistakably extends across the 

 state of Kansas and into the Indian Territory to the south. 



Above the Erie or Triple limestone system is anofher bed of shales 

 which thickens greatly to the south and thins to the northeast. At 

 La Harpe the drill record shows them to be 100 feet thick: in the 

 vicinity of Chanute and TJiayer they are fully 150, while farther to 

 the southwest by the way of Neodesha they increase slightly in thick- 

 ness, so that beyond the Verdigris river at the great Table Mound, 

 near Independence, they measure fully 200 feet, a thickness which 

 they approximately maintain to the south line of the state. But 

 northeastward from La Harpe they gradually become thinner until in 

 the vicinity of Mound City they are only from 20 to 25 feet. These 

 shales likewise carry coal of considerable commercial importance, 

 such as the Thayer coal, and that at other local mines to the south- 

 west which supply large communities, although putting but little fuel 

 on the general markets. 



At the close of the period in which the Thayer shales were pro- 

 duced a great limestone forming period was ushered in and the most 

 extensive limestone system anywhere to be found within the Coal 

 Measures of the state, the lola limestone, was formed. To the south- 



Rep. Mo. Geol. Survey, 187:.'. p. 



