232 



G. P. GRIMSLEY — GYPSUM DEPOSITS OF KANSAS. 





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ure 2, shows 40 feet of shales and gypsum. The mine entrance is 20 

 feet above the water in the creek, and the stratum worked is 5 feet thick, 

 underlaid by about 4 feet of shaley limestone. Below this there is a 

 series of shales, with a 3-foot stratum of gypsum. The roof of the mine 

 is a compact, dark shale, with a thickness of 3 feet. Above this come 2i 

 feet of buff shales and 2 feet of gypsum. There is an alternation of 

 shales and gypsum to the top of the hill. The shales with the interca- 

 lated gjrpsum layers are folded and broken. The folds extend down into 



the mine, causing the shales 

 of the roof to cut out the gyp- 

 sum in many places, so that 

 the mine probably will be 

 abandoned before very long. 

 This section is shown in plate 

 22, figure 2,* in which the 

 man is standing on the top of 

 the gypsum. The dip of the 

 gypsum is north, toward the 

 creek. 



The lower part of the 

 heavier gypsum layer is very 

 compact and filled with oval 

 crystals of yellowish brown 

 selenite, having the greater 

 length in the direction of the 

 vertical crystal axis. The 

 crystals are laminated by the 



5 % feet, shale and limestone, pronounced pinacoidal cleav- 



. age. The larger ones are 

 about seveneighths of an inch 

 long and half an inch wide, 



Figure ^.-Section of the Crown Plaster Company's Mine. ^ gpecimens f rom this por- 

 tion of the stratum breaks with conchoidal fracture. The upper part 

 is white, less compact, contains no oval crystals, and pieces break more 

 irregularly. 



At Hope, 20 miles southeast of Solomon, is located the mill of the 

 Kansas Cement Plaster Company, which has been in operation since 1887. 

 They first used the middle stratum quarried near the top of the hill, but 

 in 1894 they sank a shaft 80 feet in depth to the lower stratum, which is 

 nearly 14 feet thick. The rock is white, though much of it is traversed 



4 feet, soil and gypsum. 



i foot, gypsum. 



2 feet, shale and gypsum. 



i foot, g5'psum. 



2% feet, buflf shale. 



io inches, gypsum. 



5 feet, buff shale. 



2 feet, gypsum. 

 iYq. feet, buff shale. 



3 feet, dark-blue shale. 

 5 feet, g\ ? psum. 



3% feet, shaly limestone. 



3 feet, gypsum. 



* The two photographs were used by Professor Prosser in his paper in volume 2 of the Univer- 

 sity Geological Survey of Kansas and were kindly loaned by him. 



