KANSAS ACADEMY OF SCIENCE. 17 



masses of brecciated rock, the uniting material being quartz. Here then we have, with- 

 out doubt, jnetamorphic rock in situ — quartzite and breccia. About the middle of the 

 north edge of the area is a shaft twelve feet deep, six or eight feet long, and five feet wide. 

 It shows the metamorphosis beautifully. A mass of white quartzite, solid. (but also in 

 part greenish, with many pores and holes filled with crystals) and wedge shape down- 

 wards, looks at first as if it were injected material lying in a fissure of the rocks; but on 

 looking carefully we find it is a metamorphism of the immediately adjoining sandstone, 

 which at first is barely crystaline, but which can be traced through several stages dis- 

 tinctly to the massive white quartziie. In places this shows contortion. We judge, then, 

 that the metamorphic agency (heat) has been applied here from above, and under great 

 pressure, and up to the point of fusion. This shaft yields, among other quarlzose crystals, 

 beautiful amethysts, and some that may possibly be beryl. 



"The deepest shaft is that of Mr. Van Meter, which we will call No. 1. It is 70 feet 

 deep. It has 35 feet of water in it. We descended to the surface of the water. The 

 rocks near the surface are the altered sandstones and limestones; below is the micaceous 

 dirt ( dark colored ). This is crossed in all directions by seams of dark-blue ( or purplish ) 

 stone of great hardness, from one to twelve inches thick, and below the dirt is now solid 

 and has thin quartzose bands in it. These quartzose bands, imbedded in very fine red 

 clay, are further developed in shaft No. 2, about two rods to the north. This blue rock 

 and these quartz bands (only one-half inch thick) are what the miners expect will yield 

 silver or gold. We don't. In the Pucket shaft, further east, the shale of the west end 

 reappears with laminse of green carbonate of copper, and near the surface is brecciated 

 rock. 



'■ We regard the dark-blue rock as the expression of the igneous agency. We think it 

 is true igneous rock. We think long before other rocks were removed from the surface, 

 this was pushed up from below into cracks and fissures, probably finding here there was 

 no outlet, in mass; but it may have ascended in places higher than the present surface, 

 and spreading in small caverns altered patches of rock below it, and where there was 

 room, causing a stream of half-melted material, which inclosed the fragments which now 

 make the breccias. Again, the action of the heated material would be likely long to 

 have eflect on the waters, and the thin veins of quartz and the crystals are probably due 

 to infiltration in the cracks that were made as the mass cooled, while the micaceous dirt 

 is perhaps altered shale. 



"We have not here stated every fact, nor attempted to indicate all their bearings, but 

 we have given enough to show that we have here a geological fact in Kansas not before 

 recognized by our scientific men — metamorphic and igneous rock in silu; and that the 

 time of the metamorphic eruption ( which had no real outlet) was after the laying down 

 of these Carboniferous strata, and before the denudation of superincumbent strata. 

 Further, possibly other traces of igneous action may be found in regions where the 

 Carboniferous strata are thinner; possibly also in Cretaceous age, and where the Car- 

 boniferous rocks are thicker." 



My last interview with Prof. Mudge was when we were journeying together 

 from Holton to Valley Falls, in July, 1879. We talked over the whole 

 matter, and he differed from me in what I deem an important inference from 

 the facts we both knew. Of course I was anxious that he should agree with 

 me, and I restated the case to him as plainly as I could. He listened with 

 his usual patience, and when we had to part he spoke words eminently char- 

 acteristic, and which I shall ever remember : " Well, I don't yet see it as you 

 do, but I may change. I shall look the whole matter over again, and I may 

 change. Some men never change; a wise man miLst change sometimes." 

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