94 KANSAS UNIVERSITY QUARTERLY. 
sandstones about 450 feet thick, known as the Cherokee shales* 
and sandstones. They are exposed over a belt of country about 
twenty-five miles wide, lying between Spring river and Oswego, 
and extending across the corner of the state far into Missouri and 
the Indian Territory. The surface is gently undulating, the 
monotony of lowland topography being occasionally broken by 
ridges and mounds which owe their existence to heavy sandstone. 
Such a mound is the one west of Baxter Springs near the Terri- 
torial line. The country around Columbus exhibits a number of 
sandstone ridges, the city being located upon the divide between 
Spring river and the Neosho. Within this area are situated Pitts- 
burg, Cherokee, Columbus, Wier City, Mineral, Sherman and 
Chetopa. Over this area there are no limestones of stratigraphic 
importance, those which exist being usually associated with coal 
seams as ‘‘cap rocks.” The western border of the Cherokee 
lowlands is 
THE OSWEGO ESCARPMENT. 
At Oswego we meet with the first important limestones, known 
from their exposure at that place as the Oswego formation. ft 
They cap the heavy shale beds and produce an escarpment 
which along the river bluff is 120 feet high. To the south the 
escarpment continues west of the Neosho river passing into the 
Territory; to the northeast it passes Sherman, and produces the 
hills around Monmouth and to the northwest of Mineral City. Just 
north of Cherokee it bends to the north, crosses Cow Creek near 
Girard and runs a little north of east almost to the state line, being 
very prominent at Mulberry, from which place it bends to the 
north, passing in a sinuous line west of Arcadia, Bunker Hill being 
a part of it. From there to Fort Scott it is very irregular and has 
many outlying hills. East of Fort Scott it reaches the state line, 
but bends back up the Marmaton and after crossing the river, 
finally passes into Missouri. It is in this escarpment that coal is 
obtained by quarrying the limestone above it. The Oswego forma- 
tion extends but a short distance to the west on the surface. The 
next formation met with is the Pawnee, producing 
THE PAWNEE ESCARPMENT. 
The Pawnee limestone} formation produces but a slight influence 
upon the topography. To the north it becomes more important 
and is seen in the escarpment crossing the divide between Labette 
*Haworth and Kirk, Univ. Quart., Vol. II, p. 105. 
+Haworth and Kirk, Kansas Univ. Quart., Vol. IT. p. 105. 
tHaworth and Kirk, Kansas Univ. Geol. Sury , Vol. I, Chap. 2. 
