18 THE PLAINS. 



Coal of good quality is found in many places on the 

 plains. Building- stone is confined to a comparatively 

 few localities. On the middle plains, about the Smoky, 

 Pawnee Fork, and the Arkansas, there is an unlimited 

 supply of a rock about equally a limestone and a sand- 

 stone. In some places on the Arkansas, as at Old Fort 

 Lyon, it comes from the quarry in such perfect cubes or 

 parallelepipeds, that without cutting it may be placed in 

 a wall like bricks. In other places the strata is much 

 thicker ; but the rock itself, when taken from the quarry, 

 is so soft that it can be cut into any desired shape with a 

 common handsaw. This, though it makes a pretty build- 

 ing, is not so durable as the harder stone of the thinner 

 strata. 



A volume might be written of the curious features and 

 formations of the plains. Enough, however, has been 

 said to invite the attention of scientific men to this vast 

 and most instructive field. 



