316 Bell — Remarkable Concretions of Ottawa County, Kan. 



resembling iron ; and these saucer-like layers are separated 

 from the spheres above by an interval of several inches, as 

 shown in fig. 2, where a portion of the material that once filled 

 this space has been removed. 



These titanic marbles have been weathered to a dull gray 

 color, and in their crevices several species of small ferns are 

 growing ; probably Pelleas and Cheilanthes. 



Where freshly broken, these rocks are almost white, have a 

 crystalline appearance, and by artificial light, when held in 

 certain positions, reflect a silvery luster. Treated with hydro- 



chloric acid in a test tube, fragments effervesce freely, staining 

 the acid yellowish, and leaving only a few particles of what 

 seems to be silica. 



One writer claims that these are glacial bowlders ; but it 

 seems unnecessary to make use of any argument to refute this 

 view. A state geologist of Kansas has announced that they 

 are corals but adduces no proofs ; possibly for the reason that 

 there are none. If he had visited The Cliff, and noted the 

 hemispherical cavity near its top, from which one of these 

 round masses had been dislodged, and had then, gone below, 

 and carefully examined the mass itself, and tested a portion of 

 it, he would have found that it was identical with the larger 

 pieces at Kock City ; and a more rigid search there would have 

 failed to show any coralline structure, but would have shown 

 that they are concretionary masses of crystalline limestone, 

 most of them still in place. 



In Hitchcock's Geology, an illustration and brief notice is 

 given of similar masses in shale, found near Muscatine, Iowa. 



Franklin, Pa. 



