140 
THE SCIENTIST. 
which premiums are offered: 
Best and greatest variety of birds, by tax 
idermist; best botauicai colh ction; best en- 
tomological collec ion, best col'ection geo- 
logical and mineralogy of the West, best 
collection mineral ores, best collection 
sh-lls, bes collenion natuial w ods. 
It is to be hoped that 'his dep irtment will 
be well represented as it is of int. rest, and 
general profii to the public. 
Written for tlid Scientist. 
By Edwin ^Vai.ters. 
Maiiimotli Slgil aria. 
In township 24 south, and range 18 east, 
in Souther Kansas, is an ii teresting field for 
the geologist. Here are several thousand 
acres of 1. nH, in the counties of Greenwood 
and Woodson, that abound in gignntic sigil 
laria. The field extends fr m three to five 
miles east of the vil'age of Virgil, and is cen- 
trally about twenty miles sou'hwest of Bur- 
lington. It extends for possibly three or four 
miles in a noriheastei ly and southwesterly 
direction . The best spec'mens of this fossil 
fern can yrobally be found along the bluffs 
of thi west fork of Dry Creek. 
The field con ist^s mainly of a high broken 
somewhat sandy prairie. Along Dry CreelT 
is a narrow belt of stunted tim])er, consist- 
ing, for the most part, of post oaks and 
"blackjacks." Although nearly on the top 
of the high divide that forms the watershed 
between the Verdigris and Neosho rivers, 
the soil is generally black. I have seen no 
analysis of this soil, but believe its color is 
largely attributable to vegetable carbon de- 
rived from the remains of the immense for- 
ests of endogenous plants that grew and de- 
cayed in the neighborhood. 
The geological horizon of these sigillai-ia is 
rather sharplv defined. It is in the upper 
carboniferous period about 150 feet below 
the bottom of the permian Much of Green- 
wood, Woodson, Coffey and Wilson counties 
is on the horizon. The particular formation 
in which these plant remains are found con- 
sists of a yellow or yellowish brown sindstone 
that varies from twenty to eighty nine feet in 
thickness. In this particular field, the sand- 
stone is 1 miinated in places, and, ia others, 
much decompo ed. The specimens them- 
selves consist of sandstone c.ists, the mater- 
ial being the same as the above described 
sandstone wliich f >rmed their m trix. They 
are now almjst always found detached from 
the bedrock. 
The figure pre ented here\^ ith will give an 
idea of the beauties ot these specimens. 
The one here represented is, so far as Tknow, 
the l)est specimen ever f( und in the locality^ 
It was disccvered by myself something 
over twenty years ngo, while chasing a run- 
away Tex s steer In S'ptemljer, 'ihS^, T. J. 
Tidsvvell, of Independence, Mo., Sid. J, 
Hare, now of the Academy, and myself vis- 
ited the neighborhood expressly to obtain 
this specimen. I had given such a glowing 
description of it that these gentlemen, with 
the instincts of true scientists, were as ready 
to procure it as I was myself. They both be- 
came verv enthusiastic when they reached 
the field, and we, with some difficulty, had 
found the specimen which had lain, for all 
the long years since I had last seen it, un- 
disturbed. 
There is a railroad now at Virgil, four 
miles west of the place, but at that time 
it was the work of two days for all of us 
