8 GUIDEBOOK OF THE WESTERN UNITED STATES. 
noted for its floods, which follow exceptionally heavy or protracted 
rains. During their progress the volume of water in the stream is 
enormously increased. Overflowing the ordinary channel, the water 
extends widely over the lower lands, and as its velocity is also greatly 
increased, it does much damage. As the stream is well known to be 
subject to floods, many precautions have been taken to make railway 
embankments, bridge abutments, and other structures along it suffi- 
ciently high and strong to withstand them, but occasionally a very 
high flood causes great havoc. 
The great flood early in June, 1903, was the highest since the flood 
of 1844 and was more destructive than that one because of the 
greater population in the valley. The water extended from bluff to 
bluff at most places, but fortunately there were many localities at 
which the current was not strong. At the Union Pacific station, in 
Topeka, there was from 7 to 8 feet of water and at the Kansas City 
Union Station the water was nearly as deep. There was great loss 
of life and property, a large amount of mud was deposited, and the 
river’s course was changed in places. The flood was caused by ex- 
~ ceptionally heavy rainfall at the end of a long rainy season, which 
had saturated the ground and increased the flow of all the streams in 
the region. 
West of the Missouri-Kansas State line Kansas River makes a large 
bend to the south, cutting into the limestone slope of the valley so 
that a prominent bluff rises steeply above the stream. This bluff, 
which extends to Argentine, is nearly 200 feet high and exposes the 
same beds of limestone and shale that are seen in the bluffs farther 
downstream. The railway is built on a cut and fill at its foot. 
Argentine, the first stopping place in Kansas, was named from the 
Latin word for silver (argentum), smelting being the first industry 
; established there. It is a part of Kansas City, Kans. 
Argentine, Kans. West of Argentine for a few miles the railway leaves 
saree Te ‘eet. _ the immediate river bank and runs near the foot of a 
' wooded bluff, in which may be seen most of the lime- 
stone beds that are exposed at Argentine and Kansas City. Chief 
among these is a 30-foot bed of the Iola limestone, which is used 
extensively for the manufacture of Portland cement at Iola, in south- 
eastern Kansas. Next above is shale (Lane shale), and at the top of 
the bluff is a succession of limestones (the Stanton and Plattsburg 
limestones). All the beds descend gradually to the west, for the dip 
is mostly in that direction, and the land also rises as the valley is 
ascended, The grade of Kansas River is low; the rise from its mouth 
at Kansas City, where the elevation above sea level is about 720 feet, 
to Topeka is only about 150 feet. As the distance is 65 miles, the 
slope is less than 2} feet to the mile. 
