274 KANSAS CITY REVIEW OF SCIENCE. 



1700 feet. This is the highest ground east of Arkansas and Walnut Valleys. On 

 the west side of this ridge the descent is gentle and scarcely perceptible, being 

 390 feet in twenty-five miles to the Arkansas Valley. On the east the descent is 

 more abrupt, the ridge presenting rugged walls of limestone separated by shaly 

 slopes, and the hills descend 350 feet in four miles, or 390 feet in six miles, and 

 in some places the descent is still more abrupt. From the main ridge sharp spurs 

 extend off from six to ten miles eastwardly. From the peculiarly rough character 

 of the eastern face of this ridge good wagon passes are often distant as much as 

 ten miles. 



The approaches to this ridge from Fall River Valley is by a succession of 

 terraces or plateaus of Upper Carboniferous rocks. At Twin Falls we are on a 

 lower terrace elevated about 1000 feet above the sea. The second terrace is 

 reached six miles south westwardly at 11 60 to 11 80 feet. This terrace occupies a 

 large area of the eastern part of Greenwood county with most of Elk. The eleva- 

 tion of the next terrace is about 1300 feet above the sea and it reaches to the foot 

 hills of the Permian and the slopes above blend with the Permain. This will in- 

 clude altogether about 500 feet of Upper Coal-measure rocks in this part of Kansas 

 which lie below the Permo-carboniferous. These beds are mainly shaly sand- 

 stones with occasional limestone beds and as far as observed contain one coal 

 bed of seven inches with two beds of bituminous shale, and one other coal seam 

 of five inches thickness appears just beneath the Permian. The Permian or 

 Permo-carboniferous of the " Flint Hills " include a total of about 500 feet thick- 

 ness. The following section I have condensed from several taken within twenty . 

 miles. 



1. Sixty-two feet including chert layers with thin beds of shaly drab-colored 

 limestone ; the highest rocks seen in " Flint ridges," observed Bryozoa with Athy- 

 ris subtilita, Productus costatus and Hemipronites crenisirid. 



2. Ninety feet mostly thin limestone layers chiefly disintegrating on ex- 

 posure. 



3. Seven feet bed of porous chert resting on Hmestone. Pinna peracuia 

 found everywhere. A Phillipsia was also obtained. 



4. Eighty-five feet chiefly drab shales with some thin layers of limestone 

 and red shale near lower part. Fossils are very abundant and can be picked up 

 in a finely preserved state, and include Fistulipora(T), Productus Nebrascensis, P. 

 semireticulatus, Meekella striaticostata, Chonetes graculifera, Terebratula bovidens, 

 Athyris subtilita, Yoldia subscitula, Schizodus Rossicus, Myalina perattenuata, Hemi- 

 pronites crefiistria, Aviculopima Americana, and other known Upper Carboniferous 

 fossils. 



5. Five feet of bluish drab and sometimes buff Hmestone containing Eutni- 

 crotis Hawni^ Mayalina perattenuata, Aviculopecten occidentalis. [This bed is easily 

 recognized wherever seen.] 



6. Ten feet red and green shales. 



7. Fifty- three feet beds shale, with some beds of lirpestone very good for 

 building purposes. 



