THE I'lCK.MIAN SYSTEM IN KANSAS. 21 



Stones) in which saline impregnations are common, giving 

 rise to salt springs, salt creeks, salt or brackish wells and 

 other saline waters within and near the area of their out- 

 crop, and resulting in a topography characterized by vari- 

 ous closely allied features termed salt-plains, salt-marshes, 

 salt-draws, salt-bars, salt-licks, salines, etc., in which the 

 chloride of sodium is often practically pure, but sometimes 

 associated with other salts. 



These salt-impregnated shales constitute what may be 

 regarded as upper, or secondary salt-measures. Compara- 

 tively little use has been made of these measures as a salt 

 supply hitherto, owing to the undeveloped condition of this 

 part of the country and to the vast supplies of salt found to 

 the eastward in the Geuda measures. But much use has been 

 been made of the salt of the Great Salt plain, within distances 

 to which it can conveniently be hauled in wagons, as in dry 

 seasons it forms on the "plain" a crust of pure, coarsely 

 crystaUized salt several inches in thickness, which is easily 

 removed and available, as taken, for " stock-salt" or, with 

 simple crushing, for all of the domestic uses to w^hich salt 

 is put. This salt-crust is composed in part of pyramidal 

 and intersecting turkey-foot groups of cubical crystals and, 

 as viewed from the brow of the bluffs which overlook it, 

 appears like a held of glistening snow. In the early days 

 of the settlement of w^estern Kansas, the salt was hauled 

 over the old Nescatunga, or Kinsle}', trail to Kinsley and 

 other points on the A. T. & S. F. railway. Salt derived 

 from the Salt Plain measures is now manufactured at 

 one point, if not more, in Oklahoma, in which common- 

 wealth it is probable that these upper measures will ulti- 

 mately become of considerable commercial importance. 

 Rock-salt is alleged to crop out in a ravine nenr the Salt 

 plain ;* but no examination as to the accuracy of this report 

 has been made. 



*On the north side of the Cimarron, in a canyon a few miles below 

 the entrance of Buffalo creek. 



