123 KANSAS ACADEMY OF SCIENCE. 
IV. GEOLOGY AND PALEONTOLOGY. 
THE DAKOTA CRETACEOUS OF KANSAS AND NEBRASKA. 
BY C. N. GOULD, UNIVERSITY OF OKLAHOMA, NORMAN, OKLA, 
Read (by title) before the Academy December 28, 1900. 
[A thesis submitted for the degree of Master of Arts May 7, 1900, by Charles Newton Gould, 
fellow in geology in the University of Nebraska, and accepted by the faculty June 4, 1900.] 
OUTLINE OF CONTENTS. 
INTRODUCTION. 
HISTORICAL SKETCH. 
Early Discoveries. 
The Meek-Hayden Controversy. 
Lesquereux’s Work in Paleobotany. 
Invertebrates and Recent Investigations. 
GEOGRAPHICAL DISTRIBUTION. 
Introduction. 
Southern Kansas Area. 
Belvidere Locality. 
Clark County Locality. 
Cimarron-Bear Locality. 
Economic PHASE. 
Introduction. 
Building Stone. 
Coal. 
Sand and Gravel. 
WATER-SUPPLY. 
Introduction. 
Origin of Dakota Water. 
Fresh-water Springs. 
Salt Springs and Marshes. 
Wells. 
Arkansas River Locality. Economic Value of Water. 
Smoky-Blue Area. PALEONTOLOGY. 
Nebraska Area. , Plants. 
Salt Creek Locality. Invertebrates. 
Platte River Locality. Vertebrates. 
Missouri River Locality. 
Big Sioux Locality. CONCLUSION, 
STRATIGRAPHY. E BIBLIOGRAPHY. 
Line of Unconformity. Index. 
Base of the Dakota. 
General Characteristics. 
Origin of Deposits. 
Peculiar Forms of Stratigraphy. 
INTRODUCTION. 
Few geological groups are so widely and yet so superficially known as the Da- 
kota Cretaceous. From the time Lewis and Clarke, in 1804, first noticed the 
hills of soft, yellow sandstone along the Missouri river at Blackbird hill and 
Maha (Omaha) creek until the present, there have been papers and references 
galore to this formation. One of several reasons for this fact may be that it is 
the only distinctively sandstone group of the plains. All other formations— 
Paleozoic, Mesozoic, or Cenozoic —consist, chiefly, of limestones, shales, and silt. 
There are, or course, many ledges of sandstone in the Carboniferous and other 
groups, but with a few minor exceptions the statement is true. 
The group is known, however, chiefly by its fossils. Perhaps no other forma- 
tion has yielded so large and varied a collection of species. The fossils are, for the 
most part, plants, particularly dicotyledonous leaves, although both vertebrates 
and invertebrates are represented. Some of the most famous paleontologists, 
both phyto and invertebrate, of Europe and America have written concerning 
this group. The literature is scattered throughout government and state reports, 
proceedings of scientific societies, bulletins of numerous surveys, and various sci- 
entific periodicals, not to mention the polite literature of such authors as Irving 
and Cooper. 
The present paper was undertaken with the intention of presenting a fairly 
complete description of the Dakota group in the light of the present knowledge 
of the subject. It was also planned to include descriptions and plates of a num- 
