16 KANSAS ACADEMY OF SCIENCE. 



East and in Colorado of ores sent from this region, showed a yield of a con- 

 siderable amount of silver to the ton; but samples t-eut to Prof. Patrick, at 

 Lawrence, and to Prof. Kedzie, at Manhattan, gave no such assays, and the 

 excitement began to die out, though one or two local enthusiasts are still 

 toiling on. Prof Kedzie, in a report of an assay published in the Industrial- 

 ist (Manhattan), handled the matter rather neatly, saying that he would 

 examine, free of charge, all silver ores sent to him from that region, and 

 expected still to have some leisure for other pursuits. 



About a year and a half ago, Mr. Savage and Prof Patrick called the 

 writer's attention to certain specimens which had been sent to Lawrence for 

 examination from Woodson county, and which were different from any known 

 stratified rock in Kansas. The suggestion was that they were igneous rocks, 

 and that possibly there was glacial drift further south than had hitherto been 

 suspected. I was to visit the region and report on its geology. As I re- 

 turned home, in the southeast of the State, I called on Mr. J. W. Risley, of 

 Humboldt, and examined specimens in his possession, but was unable to 

 visit the exact locality. I was, however, convinced a geologic investigation 

 would reveal something of interest to science. Three months later I found 

 an opportunity to make the journey, and this time I had the privilege of going 

 in company with Prof Mudge. We spent the greater part of two days ex- 

 amining a district not exceeding three hundred acres in area. Some weeks 

 after that I had the opjiortunity to talk over the matter again with our late 

 beloved friend; and in June last, just twelve months after my first visit, I 

 went over the ground again, accompanied by Prof Middaugh, of Humboldt. 

 The second visit scarcely revealed any new fact, but largely verified former 

 notes, and I reproduce here a portion of an article from the Chetopa Advance, 

 in which I gave an account of our first visit: 



"The section corner where come together sections 28, 29, 32 and 33 of township 26, 

 range 15, east, is very near the eastern extremity of a strip about a quarter of a mile 

 wide and very nearly a mile long, extending mostly westward from the corner stone, and 

 mostly on the south side of the section line running between 29 and 32. A very little 

 of the region is in section 33. This may be called the southern terminus of a ridge of 

 high prairie, having spurs southward and a lower level both east and western ends. 



" We began investigation at the west. On the surface were some quartz fragments as 

 if they had been seams in clay. A shaft showed a limestone about two feet thick, under- 

 laid for many feet deep with slaty shale containing some mica. The limestone had fos- 

 sils. Going east the limestone changed to a dark massive-looking rock, not unlike some 

 igneous rocks, but the traces of fossils were still plain. Instead of shale there was a loose 

 earth under, with more mica; the rocks still horizontal. Further east a higher level 

 is obtained, and the surface rocks are quartzose; green mostly, and dipping at a consid- 

 erable angle. The loose earth is now yellower, and further east nearly black, and is rich 

 in mica. We called it micaceous dirt. We will retain that name. North and east of 

 the limited region we are describing, the surface rocks of the high prairie are Coal-meas- 

 ure sandstone, mostly reddish. Here they are all altered into quarlzite, green, and some 

 dark, blackish, olive, but many retaining their horizontal position, and the stratification 

 plain. Others are considerably tilted up, showing violent force in a very narrow area. 

 About the middle of the south edge of the area, and again at the eastern end, there are 



