362 BUFFALO LAND. 



Fragments of fish vertebrae of Anogmius type were 

 also found here by Dr. Janeway. These were ex- 

 posed in the yellow bed. Several miles east of the 

 post, Dr. J. H. Janeway, Post Surgeon, pointed out to 

 me an immense accumulation of Inoceramus problem- 

 aticus in the blue stratum. This species also oc- 

 curred in abundance in the bluffs west of the Fort, 

 which were composed of the blue bed, capped by a 

 thinner layer of the yellow. Large globular or com- 

 pound globular argillaceous concretions, coated with 

 gypsum, were abundant at this point. 



Along the Smoky Hill River, thirty miles east of 

 Fort Wallace, the south bank descends gradually, 

 while the north bank is bluffy. This, with other in- 

 dications, points to a gentle dip of the strata to the 

 north-west. The yellow bed is thin or wanting on 

 the north bank of the Smoky, and is not observable 

 on the north fork of that river for twenty miles 

 northward or to beyond Sheridan Station, on the 

 Kansas Pacific Railroad. Two isolated hills, " The 

 Twin Buttes," at the latter point are composed of 

 the blue bed, here very shaly to their summits. 

 This is the general character of the rock along and 

 north of the railroad between this point and Fort 

 Wallace. 



South of the river the yellow strata are more dis- 

 tinctly developed. Butte Creek Valley, fifteen to 

 eighteen miles to the south, is margined by bluffs of 

 from twenty to one hundred and fifty feet in height 

 on its southern side, while the northern rises gradu- 

 ally into the prairie. These bluffs are of yellow 

 chalk, except from ten to forty feet of blue rock at 



