THE PERMIAN SYSTEM IN KANSAS. 



39 



Texas, a belt which is far greater than the discontinuous 

 one of the Geuda, and is, indeed, one of the greatest 

 gypsum deposits in the world. 



THE KIGER DIVISION. 



The upper division of the Cimarron series is the Kiger 

 division, so named from Kiger creek in Clark county, Kansas, 

 a stream that traverses all of the terranes of this division 

 except the lowest. On the central plains north of the 

 Ouachita mountains, this division includes all of the rocks of 

 the so-called "red-beds" that lie above the Medicine Lodge 

 gypsum. In southern Kansas, it includes the following suc- 

 cessive members, beginning with the lowest: the Dog Creek 

 shales, the Red Bluff sandstones, the Day Creek dolomite, 

 the Hackberry shales, and the Big Basin sandstone. 



The lower part of this division (including the Dog 

 Creek and Red Bluff terranes as exposed on the Medicine 

 Lodge river drainage) was reconnoitred by the writer in 

 1884, '85 and '86, but the lirst knowledge of it as a whole 

 was obtained by Prof. Orestes St. John in his reconnaissance 

 of 1886, and set forth in 1887 in his "Notes on the Geology 

 of Southwestern Kansas. ""'•■ 



In addition to other facts given under the heads of 

 the several formations, relative to the westward extension of 

 the Kiger, it may here be noted that an outcrop of this div- 

 ision, but of undetermined terrane, occurs on the Beaver, 

 six miles west of Beaver City. 



THE DOG CREEK SHALES. 



The lowest member, or Dog Creek terrane, of the Ki- 

 ger consists of some thirty feet, or locally of a less or 

 greater thickness, of dull-red argillaceous shales, with 

 laminai of gypsum in the basal part and one or two ledges 

 of unevenly lithitied dolomite in the upper. The color of 



♦Fifth Biennial Report of the Kansas State Board of Agriculture, 

 pp. 132 to 152. 



