8 KANSAS ACADEMY OF SCIENCE. 



This idea may be carried still further. With but few local exceptions, the 

 strata of our whole State dip to the northwest. We suppose these strata were 

 mostly formed beneath the sea, and assumed approximately a horizontal posi- 

 tion. If we now consider any one stratum, we find that, no matter how many 

 times it has been emerged and submerged, its final position is one in which 

 its eastern portion has been raised more than its western. In other words, 

 if we represent the upward movements of a stratum by the positive sign +, 

 and the downward movements by the negative sign — , we find that the alge- 

 braic sum of the oscillations of its eastern portion is greater than that of its 

 western. We are thus led to look for the origin of these movements in the 

 direction of their greatest eflJect — that is, towards the Ozark mountains. 



When we consider the great number of alternate emergings and submerg- 

 ings of our State in connection with its almost uniformly unbroken strata, 

 and the probable total absence of all eruptive rocks, this question becomes 

 one of extreme importance to the structural geologist. 



As we proceed westward from the boundary line between the two forma- 

 tions, we come at once into the coal region. Near the west line of section 8, 

 township 34, south, range 25, east, a four-inch vein was found within fifteen 

 feet of the surface. In section 13, township 34, south, range 24, east, a six- 

 inch vein has been worked where it outcrops in a ravine. From this point 

 westward and northward there are quite a number of places where surface 

 veins have been worked. Still farther to the northwest is a large, almost 

 circular, mound, which is at least 150 feet higher than the surrounding val- 

 ley. It is principally located in sections 34 and 35 of township 33, south, 

 range 24, east. It is locally called "Bald Mound." Its summit is covered 

 with sandstone, beneath which is a ten to twelve-inch vein of coal. This vein 

 is not more than fifteen feet below the highest point on the mound, so that 

 its elevation is at least 130 feet above the surrounding plain. On the north 

 side of the mound, at an altitude of fifty-five feet from the northern base, a 

 shaft has been sunk 106 feet. It passed through three veins of coal. The 

 first is a ten-inch vein, about nine feet below the surface; the second, a twelve- 

 inch vein, eighteen feet deep; and the third, a five-inch vein, eighty feet below 

 the surface. This shaft proved that the great body of the mound is a com- 

 pact, black shale. The last four feet penetrated the Sub-carboniferous. As 

 soon as the shale was reached a true "fault" was revealed. It trends south- 

 east and northwest, and the walls on either side are inclined to the southwest, 

 about 12° from vertical. This prevents the shaft from following the up-and- 

 down line of the fault very far, but the first vein of coal shows it perfectly. 

 The southwest side has been dropped fully three feet. 



To the north and east of this mound is an almost unbroken hill of about 

 an equal height with the mound. This long, circular hill is covered with 

 sandstone underlaid with coal, which probably corresponds to that exposed 

 on the summit of Bald Mound. The circular valley lying between the hill 

 and mound was doubtless at one time covered by this same sandstone, coal 



