KA-IsrS^S CITY 



Review of Science and Industry, 



A MONTHLY RECORD OF PROGRESS IN 



SCIENCE, MECHANIC ARTS AND LITERATURE. 



VOL. V. OCTOBER, 1881. NO. 6. 



GEOLOGY. 



THE BURLINGTON GRAVEL BEDS. 



PROF. J. D. PARKER, KANSAS CITY, MO. 



In the summer of 1870, while living at Burlington, Kansas, Shell Island, a 

 pleasant summer resort for bathing in the Neosho River, a short distance below 

 the city, attracted my attention. The island was composed of the finest silicious 

 gravel that I had ever seen. Some pieces of chert were of a red variety, while 

 the brown shades prevailed, the gravel in mass presenting a reddish brown ap- 

 pearance that was quite pleasant to the eye. An expert says the color of the 

 chert runs from a light to a dark shade of Italian pink, as oil colors are known to 

 artists. The gravel bed contained a slight detritus of sand with a few bivalve 

 shells, but otherwise had been washed by the river as pure as glass, and formed 

 a royal bathing beach that anyone might covet. 



It seemed impossible that such a mass of gravel should be an accidental de- 

 posit in the river bed. The query naturally arose — whence the origin of this 

 beautiful chert ? Soon a stratum of gravel was discovered outcropping in the 

 river banks. The stratum was traced up and down the river for some distance, 

 and found to vary in thickness from a few inches to two or three feet, but it 

 always presented the same general characteristics. In most places it rested im- 

 mediately upon the limestone, and was the water-bearing stratum of that locality. 

 In many wells a saucer-shaped chamber was blasted out of the underlying rock as 

 a receptacle for the water which flowed in from the superimposed gravel as clear 



as crystal. Soon in my rambles, as the gravel stratum was traced up the affluents 

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