540 KANSAS CITY REVIEW OF SCIENCE. 
Hence for Denver and South Platte valley, of the 13.77 inches rainfall at 
Denver, 9.37 inches of water are lost by evaporation, or sinks into the ground. 
At Cheyenne 6.9 inches are accounted for in the same way, from a yearly 
fall of 10.14 inches. 
At Fort Lyon, on the Arkansas river, the yearly rain and melted snow is 
12.50 inches, of which 8.54 inches are lost from the same causes. 
Basing the above figures on the same percentage as Clear Creek valley, we 
are inclined to believe that the chances of obtaining subterranean supplies of 
water from artesian wells are zuversely proportioned to their distance from the 
mountain range, and that the great diminution of rainfall from the main range 
eastward, already so much noted at Denver, is still more apparent as we go to- 
ward 1oz2 and ro: degrees of west longitude in the Platte and Arkansas valleys. 
And that to attempt to bore for permanent supplies of water east of parallel 
105, in Boulder, Jefferson, Arapahoe, Douglas, Bent or Larimer counties, will be 
infructious or unsatisfactory, and cannot, we believe, lead to the discovery and 
delivery of large, permanent supplies of water. 
The figures given for the rainfall for Clear Creek valley, the supply of water, 
etc., etc., are solely from the writer’s own data. For the outside localities they 
are obtained from the United States signal service office, Smithsonian Institute, 
Prof. Powell’s ‘‘ Arid Regions,” etc. 
THE MIOCENE BEDS OF THE JOHN DAY RIVER, OREGON. 
CHARLES H. STERNBERG, ELLSWORTH, KANSAS. 
These beds consist principally of clay, with here and there a stratum of 
green sandstone. ‘They are often covered with a cherty clay rock, that has been 
subjected to a great heat. Twelve or fifteen hundred feet of lava cover the 
deposit, and in many places dykes run across the country and through the 
tertiary beds. Here the earth has cracked and poured out its oceans of lava, 
where these dikes are exposed; they resemble rows of~cord wood, the basaltic 
columns lying horizontal. The clay beds are of various colors, red, green and 
yellow, withall the intermediate shades. These bright colors form a pleasing 
landscape, especially where the elements have worn the beds into Bad Land 
scenery, while above, rises escarpment after escarpment of basaltic columns. The 
distant summits are crowned with forests of pine. The rocks, as I have said, are 
chiefly clay, which have been softened on the surface by rain and frost into soft 
earth, into one sinks a foot or more. Beneath this the rock is solid and hard to 
work. Great numbers of coneretions are scattered through the beds. They are 
from a few inches to several feet in diameter. In places these concretions are 
arranged in rows one above the other one hundred feet in height, and the bed 
looks as if the rock had been faced with mortar and cannon balls six inches in 
diameter stuck into it in regular rows. Through the clay beds are often found 
