22 GUIDEBOOK OF THE WESTERN UNITED STATES. 
The coal bed lying below the Howard limestone has been worked 
at mines in the vicinity of Lebo. This coal is the 
Lebo. same bed that is worked in the neighborhood of 
andres _ feet. Scranton and Osage. (See pp. 17,18.) The bed is 14 
Paeareny eeakis to 16 inches thick and is mined by stripping and 
tunneling. 
At Neosho Rapids the railway reaches the bank of Neosho River, 
a large stream flowing in a wide valley floored with thick beds of 
sand and loam it has itself deposited. Neosho is an 
Indian word meaning clear, cold water. This valley 
aa a is followed as far as Emporia. Near milepost 104 
Kansas City 102 miles, the railway crosses Cottonwood River, which in this 
vicinity occupies the same wide flat as the Neosho 
and which empties into that stream a mile to the east. The thick 
accumulation of sand and loam deposited by these streams has re- 
duced their slope and compelled them to follow very crooked courses. 
Near Emporia the Burlingame limestone, which slopes down from 
the east, crosses the valley of the two rivers, but it is covered by the 
alluvial deposits so that its precise location underground is not 
known. A mile east of Emporia the main line from Holliday by way 
of Topeka joins the Ottawa cut-off. Near this place the Santa Fe is 
crossed by a line of the Missouri, Kansas & Texas Railway, popularly 
known as “The Katy.” 
Neosho Rapids. 
MAIN LINE WEST OF EMPORIA. 
West of Emporia the railway passes over the flat bottom lands on _ 
the north side of Cottonwood River to Florence, a distance of 45 
miles. The valley is wide near Emporia and as far west as Safford- _ 
ville, and the shale slopes on the north and south rise gradually to 
plateaus capped by limestone. 
At Saffordville siding the Cottonwood Valley is much narrower and 
the limestone caps on the ad jacent shale ridges are conspicuous. One 
imestone ledge is a short distance above the track; 
Baffordville. 30 to 40 feet higher, with shales intervening, is another 
raceme eee limestone. These two limestone beds are exposed in 
many prominent ledges to the vicinity of Clements, 
a distance of 22 miles. The lower one (the Neva) is from 7 to 8 feet 
thick, and in the outcrop breaks out into large blocks with sharp 
angles and rough surface of chalky-white color. The Cottonwood 
limestone, the upper ledge, is one of the most continuous and best- 
marked formations of Carboniferous age in Ka t carries 
fossil mollusks of numerous species that are characteristic of the 
ee a ee 
* Distances by way of Topeka are given for places west of Emporia. To get the 
distance traveled by way of the Ottawa cut-off 15 miles should be deducted. 
