370 E. Haworth — Deformation of Strata in Kansas. 



of its course where it flows east the bluffs on either side of the 

 creek are not especially different from the ordinary. Tribu- 

 taries from the north are most numerous but quite a number 

 are found entering the creek from the south in the north- 

 western part of Meade county. Farther east, opposite the artesian 

 area, no tributaries of any consequence are found on the south, 

 while arroyas of greater or less size are found every mile or 

 two on the north. For twenty miles below the sharp angle at 

 "Wilburn scarcely a tributary as much as two miles in length 

 enters from the east, while the drainage streams flowing south- 

 east to the Cimarron rise almost on the verge of the eastern 

 bluffs of Crooked Creek. Throughout this distance many 

 tributaries enter from the west, the most important being 

 Spring Creek, about twelve miles long, and Stump arroya, 

 nearly as long. 



The general character of the uplands is that of a broad plain 

 inclined to the southeast about ten feet to the mile. The 

 various drainage channels are cut down into this plain, generally 

 producing abrupt blufls on each side. From Wilburn to Meade, 

 however, the bluffs of Crooked Creek are far apart, with the 

 whole of the artesian area between. Below Meade the bluffs 

 on the east side of the creek are high and abrupt, often being 

 almost precipitous in character. They have a decidedly new 

 appearance, as though the erosion which produced them was 

 very modern. Almost none of the rounded forms of old age 

 are to be found, but the angular points and steep walls of 

 recent formation are everywhere present. On the western side 

 there is a gently sloping plain stretching from the creek to 

 from one to five miles away, producing an appearance scarcely 

 duplicated within the state. The general upland plain from 

 eight to twelve miles to the west of Crooked Creek both phy- 

 siographically and geologically corresponds with the plain on 

 the east of the creek, which approaches to within less than a 

 quarter of a mile of the creek valley. The general appearance 

 from Meade southward is that of a fault with the western wall 

 dropped and Crooked Creek occupying a position over the fault 

 line. Northward the whole artesian valley seems to have been 

 dropped downwards, leaving an abrupt wall on the west, and a 

 more gentle wall on the east. Standing any where in the valley 

 one can see the wall all around him. On the west it is con- 

 siderably over a hundred feet in height, while to the east it is 

 some less, but still very perceptible. We have here a valley 

 occupying almost twenty square miles which is so different from 

 anything else known in this part of the country that it is exceed- 

 ingly difiicult to explain its origin by any system of erosion. 

 The peculiar position of the creek is likewise hard to explain 

 by any ordinary conditions of erosion. The sharp angle at 



