THE GRAVELS OF SOUTHERN KANSAS. 453 



We doubtless have engineers as capable to design, and builders as compe- 

 tent to execute such work as the Metropolitan Railway as any in the world, but 

 we seem to need capitallists bold and far-seeing enough to appreciate the fact; 

 that what New York and other large cities need are permanent roads, fitted for real 

 rapid transit, owning their right of way, and not interfering with public property 

 or individual rights. Whether the structures should be elevated above or de 

 pressed beneath the surface of the ground is a matter of local adaptation and 

 convenience, but the principles of absolute independence of ownership and free- 

 dom from complications, on the one hand, with structures owned by the public and 

 maintained solely for their benefit, and on the other hand with rights and priv- 

 ileges acquired by private citizens, partly at public expense and guaranteed to 

 them by the public. 



The amount of city travel is proved by experience to grow in proportion to 

 the facilities afforded for it. The construction of the elevated railroads in New 

 York City has doubled the travel on the longitudinal routes in six years. The 

 resources of the elevated and surface roads are now taxed to their utmost, and 

 the necessity is pressing for more and quicker modes of transit. 



It certainly seems as if a sensibly designed and honestly executed scheme 

 ought to bring fair profits on legitimate expenses. — Sanitary Engineer. 



GEOLOGY. 



CORRESPONDENCE. 



Pleasant Hill, Mo., November 21, 1884. 



Editor Review, Dear Sir,— In the Review for November Prof. J. D. 

 Parker discusses the Burlington Gravel Beds. As I have not been to that place 

 1 cannot discuss them. But if Mr. Parker will refer to Vol. Ill No. 8 p. 460 

 of the Review he may be interested in an article of mine on "Surface Deposits 

 of Southwestern Missouri and Southeastern Kansas" lying south of the marked 

 limit of "glacial drift." I suppose the Burlington gravel must be of similar age 

 to like deposits along the Neosho to the south, which I have seen. Most of the 

 gravel that I have seen from those beds I can refer to the age of the Upper Car- 

 boniferous or Coal Measures. That of Kansas is certainly all of that age, and the 

 gravel deposits all overlie the coal measures. 



The gravel on the " Flint Hills" is generally angular or sometimes locally 

 worn ; that on the Neosho, Fall River, Walnut, the Valley of the Pottawatomie 

 and the Marais des Cygnes is evidently water worn and the beds generally lie 

 above all known high-water. 



Similar deposits exist near the Marais des Cygnes in Bates County, Mo., and 



