448 GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF THE TEERITOEIES. 



BUILDING MATERIALS. 



One of the most surprising features of life in Kansas is the importation 

 of building materials in the shape of pine lumber from distant localities, 

 when the State is so bountifully supplied in all parts with materials for 

 the walls of houses at once cheaper and more desirable. The famous 

 limestones in the bluffs of the Kaw Valley, where the mural treasures 

 are fitted by nature for man's use, or readily shaped by the saw and plane, 

 are succeeded on the west by sandstones at Abilene, Salina, Brookville, 

 Harker, and Ellsworth, and by limestones at Wilson, Fossil, and other 

 points westward to Hays and Ellis. Still farther westward, in the neigh- 

 borhood of Fort Wallace, limestones appear of various pleasing colors, 

 so soft as to be wrought with more ease than blocks of wood, yet hard- 

 ening on exposure so as to sustain the weight of large buildings. 



Lime may be cheaply made at numerous points on the railway. Imme- 

 diately at the coal mines, near Wilson, are cretaceous limestones of ex- 

 cellent quality, from which lime may be produced at very small cost. 

 The intelligent colonists, now looking for locations in the region about 

 Wdson, where they expect to settle in 1871, will no doubt appreciate this 

 valuable material. 



Clays for brick and roofing tiles, as well as for all kinds of coarser 

 pottery, if not for the finer, are abundant, as are also sands for mortars 

 and concretes. So far as I have been able to learn, but little use has 

 been made of concrete for buildings in Kansas, although the raw mate- 

 rials are abundant in almost every neighborhood. 



In the climate of Kansas, even the adobes of New Mexico, well laid 

 up in coarse lime mortar, with external plastering of the same, always 

 provided the mortar is properly made and the unburned bricks thoroughly 

 dry, would be preferable to any wooden walls, and less costly. 



The future will witness a great change in the mode of building The 

 imperishable materials so profusely scattered through the State will be 

 made use of by a population wisely attentive to both economy and com- 

 fort. Kansas will become as famous for the solidity and taste of her 

 buildings as for the rich and varied products of her soil. 



Fences of stone have been constructed in many localities, and will 

 soon be found in many more. Constructed of blocks regular in size, 

 they combine a species of beauty with their obvious permanence, pleasing 

 both to the eye and the judgment. It is, perhaps, not an unmixed mis- 

 fortune that timber is so scarce, when the result of the scarcity is the 

 durable stone fence and the living hedge. 



WATER SUPPLIES WESTWARD TO ELLIS. 



On the railway line the settlements may be said to extend a few miles 

 beyond Ellsworth, about 225 to 230 miles west from State Line. On the 

 Solomon and on the Saline, as also on streams south of the Smoky, settlers 

 are some 25 miles farther westward. Up to the limit of present settle- 

 ments water is as abundant and accessible as it is in Iowa or Missouri. 

 It is established that in all of Kansas, near the thirty-ninth parallel, and 

 east of 98° 30' west longitude, there is no part where settlements are 

 impracticable or need be retarded on account of the scarcity of water. 

 In addition to the Kepublican, Smoky Hill, Saline, Solomon, and other 

 constant streams, there are innumerable arroyos and courses in which 

 water for stock is found in constant pools, or near which abundance can 

 be had in shallow wells. It is also a pleasant fact that iu the uplands 

 the general rule is that water is accessible in all directions in wells ot 



