456 Haworth—Stratigraphy of the Kansas Coal Measures. 
In character the Cherokee shales vary greatly both vertically 
and laterally. Portions of them are bituminous, portions are 
argillaceous, and arenaceous. In color they are as variable as 
in composition. Some are almost a jet black, others a light 
grey, and others representing the various colors usually char- 
acteristic of Coal Measure shales. They are exceedingly rich 
in coal, producing at the present time more than two-thirds of 
the whole amount mined within the state, supporting all the 
mines in the vicinity of Weir City, Pittsburg, Cherokee, and 
to the northeast to Arcadia, as well as those about Fort Scott 
and at Leavenworth. The well records to the west show fre- 
quent veins of coal. At Cherryvale a twenty seven inch vein 
was passed about fifteen feet above the base and several lesser 
ones above. At Topeka eleven veins were passed, while every 
well record examined shows three or more. | 
Here and there throughout the Cherokee shales greater or 
lesser beds of limestone occur, usually from six to fifteen 
inches in thickness and of very limited lateral extent, but 
occasionally four or more feet, although none of them seem to 
have sufficient lateral extent to be of importance stratigraphi- 
cally. They generally contain many invertebrate fossils, from 
a list of which the following are taken :* 
Fusulina cylindrica in extreme upper portion; Pétdlodyctia 
triangulata ; Lehombopora lepidodendroides ; Athyris lamel- 
losa; Athyris subtilita, found in almost every limestone in 
the Coal Measures; Chonetes mesoloba; Discina nitida ; 
Productus longispinus; Productus costatus; MSpirifera 
camerata,; Spirifera planoconvecus; NSpirifera lineata ; 
Nucula ventricosa; Schizodus y (very large) Bellero- 
phon carbonaria;, Macrocheilus primigenius; Nautilus plano- 
volvis (?) 
The Oswego Limestone.t-—Above the Cherokee shales are 
two limestone systems separated by from four to seven feet of 
an unusually black shale. Each is from five to fifteen feet 
thick, and they are wonderfully persistent laterally for lime- 
stones so thin. The Cherryvale well record shows that they 
extend that far west. To the northeast they appear on the 
surface in a sinuous line passing from the south side of the 
state to the northeast by way of Oswego, Girard and Fort 
Scott, near which points they cross into Missouri. Many of 
the different well records to the northwest show them, and 
quite likely they were passed in the boring at Kansas City and 
Topeka, although one cannot well decide regarding so thin 
limestones without more intervening wells. The lower lime- 
* Copied from unpublished catalogue of Kansas Coal Measure fossils prepared 
by Rev. John Bennett, Fort Scott. 
+ Haworth and Kirk, Kan. Univ. Quart., vol. ii, p. 105, Jan., 1894. 
