The Loup Fork Beds 135 



black shale with giant septaria, the Fort Pierre 

 Group of the Cretaceous, whose upper beds we ex- 

 plored in Montana in 1876 for dinosaurs. In this 

 formation, in Kansas, I found a new species of 

 Clidastes. The specimens are now in the Kansas 

 University collection, and the species has been 

 named by Dr. Williston Clidastes westi, in honor of 

 the Kansas University collector, the late Judge E. P. 

 West. 



We have not gone far down the river below the 

 forks, before this formation, which at McAllister 

 topped the hills, passes under the river. Then 

 reddish and blue chalks occupy the country for some 

 miles, and in turn disappear to give place to yel- 

 lowish and blue chalks, which finally make way for 

 the blue and almost white chalks that run under the 

 river near the mouth of Hackberry Creek in eastern 

 Gove County. 



At White Rock in Trego County the hard white 

 limestone, in fortification blocks, is piled ninety feet 

 high. Further down appears the post limestone of 

 the Fort Benton Group, with its characteristic Ino- 

 ceramus shells; while in central Kansas, brown and 

 white sandstone and brilliantly colored clays occupy 

 the whole region for sixty miles, giving place at 

 last to the hard limestones and the friable shales and 

 sandstones of the Upper Carboniferous. No coal, 

 except very shallow veins in the Upper Carbonif- 



