446 GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF THE TERRITORIES. 



eral plant growth. Contrary to the prevailing impression, the alkaline 

 soils are probably the most fertile where the necessary moisture is at 

 hand. The " alkalies" are mainly in the clays and shales, and the soils 

 resulting from the disintegration of these are apt to be the strongest. 

 Moisture is needed on these soils, not to leach out the alkalies, but to 

 furnish them in solution to the roots of plants, and to provide a humid 

 atmosphere to surround the foliage. 



In the gradual progression of settlements, the Kansas frontier moving 

 west, and the Colorado coming east, to cover the entire Plains in the 

 course of time, this vast region will be found to have as small a propor- 

 tion of waste lands as some of the most favored States. 



MINERALS — METALS AND COAL. 



Westward from the ninety- seventh meridian, we are for about seven- 

 ty-five miles in the triassic region ; rocks of the same age of those 

 which, according to Whitney, are metalliferous in California. The Kan- 

 sas rocks are apparently in place as deposited. No metamorphism, no 

 grand upheavals, no outbursts of lava, have taken place. There may 

 have been a gentle uplift of a few feet in the region adjoining Fort 

 Harker on the east, the axis probably extending north and south ; but 

 even this gentle uplift is problematical, and is only suggested by springs 

 coming out of the hills east of Harker, with a volume and permanence 

 that can hardly be due to the local rain-fall. There seems to be a moder- 

 ate curvature upward of the eastern edges of the strata, due either to 

 their original deposition on the sloping beaches of the old triassic sea, 

 or to a subsequent gentle upheaval ; but even this curvature may be 

 only fanciful, and the waters of the numerous springs near Harker and 

 Brookville, some of which are at least 1,550 feet above the sea level, 

 may come round in the " divide " between the Smoky and the Saline, 

 from higher regions westward. 



No metals are known with certainty to exist in this immediate re- 

 gion. Much of the sand-rock is impregnated strongly with oxide of 

 iron, and many concretions of sulphuret of iron are found in the clays 

 and shales. It is possible that other metals — gold, silver, tin, and anti- 

 mony — might be traced. No examination with a view to metallic wealth 

 has yet been made. There are traditions, said to come from the Indians, 

 of tin and silver having been found near Salina, in the Smoky Hill re- 

 gion, but they are too vague to afford any clue to the mines, if any ex- 

 ist. I have been shown specimens of sulphuret and carbonate of copper, 

 and of galena apparently argentiferous, said to have been taken from a 

 locality very near Brookville ; but the party in possession declined to 

 give any information as to the place where found, or the probable quan- 

 tity. Should the more valuable minerals, copper, lead, silver, &c, be 

 hereafter ascertained to exist in this region, they will probably be in 

 veins of segregated character lying in the planes of the general strati- 

 fication, and not true veins, or lodes, traversing the strata. The copper- 

 bearing stratum at Mansfeld, Prussia, is described by Whitney as " a 

 bituminous marly slate," and in Silesia a similar slate is worked for 

 copper ; the beds being similar in character with some near Brookville, 

 but I do not know their geological age. 



Coal, according to all geologists who have written of Kansas, dips 

 westward in the carboniferous formation, and is overlaid by the per- 

 mian and later beds. Hence it may be found under the ninety- seventh 

 meridian, but at what depth is yet entirely a matter of conjecture. In 

 time it will no doubt be sought at some points west of all present mines; 



