NOTES ON THE TERTIARY AND CRETACEOUS PERIODS OF 



KANSAS.* 



By B. F. Mudge. 



The State of Kansas is about four hundred miles long from east to 

 west and about two hundred miles (three degrees) in width from north 

 to south. Its average altitude above the level of the sea, by the 

 List of Elevations by H. Gannett, United States Geological Survey, Mis- 

 cellaneous Publications No. 2, is not far from 1,780 feet. The lowest 

 point is at tbe junction of the Kansas and Missouri Rivers, and is 750 

 feet. , The highest is in Cheyenne County, about 4,000 feet. The alti- 

 tude of Monotony station of the Kansas Pacific Railway on the west 

 line of the State is 3,792 feet. The Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe 

 Railway station at Syracuse, Arkansas Valley, also near the west line, 

 is 3,425 feet. 



By inspection of the map of the State, it will be seen that the rivers 

 drain the country in a southerly and easterly direction. As there is not 

 a waterfall on any of the streams 7 feet in height, the descent is gradual, 

 averaging 7i feet to the mile. The State is so well drained that there 

 are very few valleys with stagnant ponds, and there is not a peat-swamp 

 of fifty acres within its boundaries. 



STRATIGRAPHICAL GEOLOGY. 



A general vertical section of all the formations seen in Kansas would 

 be in descending series as follows : 



I. — Quaternary system : 



Alluvium. 

 Bottom prairie. 

 Bluff or Loess. 

 Drift. 



II. — Tertiary system : 



Pliocene. 



III. — Cretaceous system ; 



Niobrara. 

 Dakota. 



IV. — Carboniferous system : 

 Permian. 



Upper Carboniferous. 

 Coal-measures. 

 Lower Carboniferous. 



" Tlieie lias been no State geologist dnriug the i)ast ten years, ami tbe information 

 embodied in this sketch was nearly all obtained while engaged in ot'ier duties. In 

 relation to the classihcation of fossils, I have consulted the works of Lssquereux, 

 Meek, Marsh, and Cope. 



