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16 KANSAS UNIVERSITY QUARTERLY. 
and composed of loose dust-like particles, rather light in weight, 
and is formed from solution of gypsum in water. 2. The compact 
variety, including alabaster and massive gypsum, which is very soft 
and of specific gravity, 2.2 or near. 3. Fibrous gypsum or satin 
spar, usually found in thin layers, in form of fine needles or prisms. 
4. Foliated gypsum, sometimes massive, but usually in small con- 
cretionary masses. 5. Spar gypsum or selenite, found in transpa- 
rent crystals. 
Gypsum is found in Thuringia, Saxony, Norway, at Mont Martre 
near Paris, Austria, Bohemia, Italy, Egypt, Arabia, Persia, and 
many other places in the old country. In the United States it is 
found along an east and west line in central New York, from 
Oneida county to Niagara; near Sandusky, Ohio; near Grand 
igan; in Smyth and Washington 
Rapids and Alabaster Point, Mich 
counties, Virginia; in Alabama and Louisiana; in Iowa, Kansas, 
Arkansas, Texas, Oklahoma, Indian Territory, Colorado, Montana, 
Utah, South Dakota, Wyoming, Arizona, Idaho, New Mexico, Cal- 
ifornia. The total amount produced in the United States in 1894 
was 239,312 short tons. The State of Kansas* produced that year 
64,889 tons, of which all but 647 short tons was calcined, thus 
standing second to Michigan among the states in quantity mined. 
The value of this product was $301,884, an excess of $112,264 over 
Michigan, placing this state first among the states of the Union in 
value of gypsum products. The value of the Kansas gypsum mined 
that year was greater than that of all the other states, excepting 
Michigan. There has been an increase in value of the gypsum 
products of Kansas of $207,649 in six years, which makes a record 
the state may well be proud of, and at the present time a very 
small percentage of the available supply has been taken, so that 
Kansas gypsum has a promising future. 
LOCATION AND DIVISION OF AREA, 
The gypsum deposits in Kansas occur in a belt trending north- 
east-southwest across the state. The belt of exposed rock varies 
in width from five miles at the north to fourteen in the central part 
and thirty-six miles near the southern line, with a length of 230 
miles. 
This area is naturally divided into three districts; which are. 
named from the important centers of manufacture: the northern or 
Blue Rapids area in Marshall county, the central or Gypsum City 
area in Dickinson and Saline counties, the southern or Medicine 
Lodge area in Barber and Comanche counties. These areas ap- 
*Statistics from 16th Annual U. 8. Geological Survey, 1896, 
