THE LOUP FORK GROUP OF KANSAS. 205 



THE LOUP FORK GROUP OF KANSAS. 



CHAS. H. STERNBERG. 



This formation received its name from the Loup Fork of the Platte River, 

 Nebraska, where it was first studied by Dr. Hayden, the eminent United States 

 geologist. The rocks in Kansas consist chiefly of hard gray sandstone, or pud- 

 ding-stone conglomerate, with beds between of loose, yellowish sand, or soft gray 

 marl, the lime of which appears to be a sulphate, and was doubtless derived from 

 the chalk of the Niobrara Cretaceous, that lies beneath. The experiment has 

 often been made of burning this marl for building purposes, resulting invariably 

 in various colored slags. There are also found beds of red clay and silica. Near 

 Fort Wallace the hills are topped with thick masses of dendrite, the upper surface 

 consisting often of chalcedony or " moss-agate." 



Near Colyer, on the U. P. R'y (K. D.) on the high divide between the 

 smoky Hill and Saline Rivers, Mr. Joseph Savage, of Lawrence, has discovered 

 quarries of red, yellow and ribboned jasper belonging to this formation. At 

 South Benner, in Rawlins County, are beds several feet thick, of fine silica, hav- 

 ing a satin-like lustre. I had supposed from the exceeding fineness of the dust, 

 and from the fact that it polishes the metals, that it was diatomaceous earth, but 

 the microscope fails to show anything organic in it, only angular scales of trans- 

 parent quartz. 



My party left Buffalo Park, Gove Co., on the 20th day of July, 1881, and 

 reached the fossil beds of Decatur Co. on the 23rd inst. Our first camp was on 

 South Sapper Creek, ten miles southwest of Oberlin. Here we were very fortu- 

 nate, obtaining a great many specimens of mammalian vertebrates in the soft 

 beds of marl, sand and gravel. They occupied the spaces between the compact 

 strata of sandstone and conglomerate. From two localities half a mile apart, we 

 procured a number of bones and teeth of rhinoceroses, horses, mastodons, etc. 

 One perfect skull of a rhinoceros was found with under-jaw and atlas vertebra 

 in position. The rest of the skeleton had been dug out, evidently by other ex- 

 plorers, judging by the number of broken ribs that lay on and through a great 

 pile of debris, near the bank in which we found our specimen. I suppose, as is 

 common with explorers, that they took the long bones, vertebrae and arches. 

 This skull was preserved in grayish sand, that could be easily removed with a 

 knife. When it was a quicksand bog along the borders of the great Loup Fork 

 Lake, the huge animals, with many others, became entangled, and dying left their 

 skeletons which have been preserved so many ages, hidden from the sight of the 

 denizens of that country who never supposed that they had repeatedly walked 

 over the remains of these tropical beasts. 



We found in the same locality in a space six feet wide, and about fifty feet 

 long, a number of other specimens, including jaws with teeth, and bones of two 

 species of rhinoceros, bones and teeth of horse and mastodon. 



