go KANSAS UNIVERSITY QUARTERLY. 
crops, erosion has been at work at varying intervals and for long 
periods. The westward dips and the succession from older to 
newer formations along this section argues in favor of the hypothe- 
sis that the shore line during Paleozoic times was to the east. 
This hypothesis is still further strengthened by the fact that the 
deposits themselves, show marginal conditions in their eastern out- 
crops, while the records of deep wells show deep sea conditions to 
have been more prevalent to the west as is indicated by the thin- 
ning of shale beds and the thickening of the limestone systems. 
That this shore line made many oscillations and migrations is 
evidenced from the alternation of oceanic and litoral deposits and 
the deposits of coal in the upper part and near the westernmost 
exposures of the Carboniferous. At the close of the Palaeozoic 
era the land area must have advanced much further westward, 
since the deposits of salt and gypsum in the upper portion of the 
Permian indicate the absence of open seas. During the whole of 
the Cretaceous period deep sea conditions prevailed over most of 
the state since the deposits are now present in the western two- 
thirds of it after a considerable erosion. At its close the raising 
of the mountains’ to the west caused the final retreat of the sea. 
The only remaining deposits, the Tertiary and limited Quarternary 
areas being of fresh water origin. 
ORIGIN OF PRESENT DRAINAGE, 
Until the close of the Cretaceous the drainage of Kansas or such 
portions of it as were land areas, was to the west into the Creta- 
ceous sea, since the deposits indicate a land mass to the eastward. 
The raising of the mountains to the west produced a drainage 
slope to the east over the newly exposed Cretaceous formations, 
which subjected them to a considerable erosion before the Tertiary 
of Kansas was laid down. Just what oscillations have occurred 
since then are not so easily determined. If, however, the Tertiary 
deposits were lacustrine to any extent, it would seem probable that 
there existed during that period a broad basin extending over the 
western part of the state far to the north and south, into which the 
drainage from the west flowed. If the sediments which produced 
the Tertiary were simply spread out on a flood plain, similar con- 
ditions probably existed. It appears therefore that not until near 
the close of the Tertiary times were the Park mountains sufficiently 
elevated to induce a drainage from that region across the Arkansas 
Plateaus to the Mississippi. We may accordingly look upon the 
present physiography of Kansas as being of the latest period. 
