THE SANTA FE ROUTE. 29 
At Stafford, nemed for Lewis Stafford, a captain in the First 
Kansas Regiment, the Santa Fe line is crossed by a branch of the 
issouri Pacific Railway. This region is typical of 
the Great Plains,' its smooth surface being apparently 
level but rising gently toward the west. The sur- 
face formation is moderately. compact sand, in 
places containing concretions or streaks of calcium 
carbonate. The thickness of this deposit is not known, but it i 
Stafford. 
Elevation 1,858 feet, 
Population 1,927. 
ansas City 272 miles. 
it 1s 
probably about 100 feet. It is supposed to lie on the thin eastern 
edge of the Dakota sandstone. 
A few miles northeast of Stafford are marshes caused by salt 
springs. The salt water was used extensively in the early days for 
curing meat, and in 1878 a small salt works was erected to extract 
the salt for sale in the surrounding country. 
' The ‘Great Plains are smooth treeless 
slopes that extend eastward from the 
foot of the Rocky Mountains into central 
Kansas as well as intoadjoining States 
seent to an altitude of 2,000 to 2.200 feet 
in central Kansas, where they merge into 
the rolling prairies that have been de- 
scribed on previous . The plains 
are trenched by the relatively shallow 
valleys of many rivers and creeks flowing 
to the east, but extensive areas of the re- 
markably smooth tabular surfaces remain 
between these valleys. One of these is 
shown in Plate IV, A. 
The major part of the Great Plains is 
coyered by sands, gravels, and loams of 
late Tertiary age, varying in thickness 
irom 50 to 200 feet in greater part and in 
general lying on a relatively smooth sur- 
face of the older rocks. The materials 
97579°—Bull. 6183—15——-3. 
courses across the region, sometimes cut- 
ting valleys but mostly depositing sedi 
e time was one of relatively 
arid conditions, probably in general simi- 
lar to the present, the streams bringin: 
es 
were somewhat less than they are at 
nt, so that the deposits were not to 
an or, W 
Maliail 
Lama Se f tery tren re Oe 
creeks, as they are now. Itis known from 
the fossil bones found in the deposits that 
the region was inhabited by numerous 
toed horses, 
elephants and bisons of peculiar types, 
as well as a great many species of smaller 
animals have been found and dug out, xe 
and many of these bones a : a 
