360 BUFFALO LAND. 



pools from which his exhausted energies could not 

 extricate him. 



PART TI — GEOLOGY. 



The geology of this region has been very partially 

 explored, but appears to be quite simple. The fol- 

 lowing description of the section along the line of the 

 Kansas Pacific Railroad, will probably apply to sim- 

 ilar sections north and south of it. The formations 

 referable to the cretacious period on this line, are 

 those called by Messrs. Meek and Hayden the Da- 

 kota, Benton, and Niobrara groups, as Nos. 1, 2 and 

 3. According to Leconte,* at Salina, one hundred 

 and eighty-five miles west of the State line of Mis- 

 souri, the rocks of the Dakota group constitute the 

 bluffs, and continue to do so as far as Fort Harker, 

 thirty-three miles farther west. They are a " coarse 

 brown sand-stone, containing irregular concretions 

 of oxide of iron," and numerous molluscs of marine 

 origin. Near Fort Harker, certain strata contain 

 large quantities of the remains (leaves chiefly) of 

 dicotyledonous and other forms of land vegetation. 

 Near this point, according to the same authority, 

 the sand-stone beds are covered with clay and lime- 

 stone. These he does not identify, but portions of it 

 from Bunker Hill, thirty-four miles west, have been 

 identified by Dr. Hayden, as belonging to the Ben- 

 ton or second group. The specimen consisted of a 

 block of dark, bluish-gray clay rock, which bore the 



* Notes on the geology of the survey for the extension of the 

 Union Pacific Road E. D. from the Smoky Hill to the Rio Grande, 

 by John L. Leconte, M. D. Philadelphia, 1868. 



