38 
The American Geologist. 
January, 1896 
river in southwestern Missouri, and considers them of Terti¬ 
ary age. I have examined the region, although in a rather 
desultory manner, and perhaps my observations may contri¬ 
bute some light on the subject. 
Between the towns of Galena and Baxter Springs in Chero¬ 
kee county, Kansas, the K. C., F. S. & G. railroad crosses the 
Spring river near the small town of Lowell. Here the valley 
was found to consist mostly of a nearly level plain, bounded 
on the east side by abrupt bluffs of Lower Carboniferous lime¬ 
stones and on the west by gently sloping hills of Carbonifer¬ 
ous shales and sandstones. The valley plain varies from one 
to several miles in width and stands 50 or 60 feet above the 
ordinary level of Spring river. It constitutes a “second bot¬ 
tom 1 ’ of that stream. Railway cuttings and excavations by 
the stream in its banks show this terrace to be composed 
mostly of solid rock overlaid by a brownish red gravelly clay, 
showing unmistakable signs of deposition in water. This 
gravelly clay is a river deposit formed by Spring' river at a 
time when it flowed at a higher level, meandering over the 
broad plain which now forms its “second bottom.” It is syn¬ 
chronous with similar terrace gravels found throughout the 
Ozarks, which latter I correlate with the Lafayette formation 
in the lower Mississippi region. Hence its age may be placed 
near the end of the Tertiary era. 
At the close of the Pliocene period and opening of thePleis- 
tocene, when the eastern portion of North America was ele- 
vated to a high altitude, the region about Spring river par¬ 
ticipated to a certain extent in this movement, and the stream 
trenched its present comparatively narrow trough to a depth 
of at least 50 to 60 feet below the former flood-plain. This 
new valley does not exceed in size more than one-twelfth of 
the upper trough of Tertiary erosion, and where it has been 
excavated in very hard strata it is much smaller. 
In comparatively recent times the valley of Spring river and 
the surrounding region were greatly depressed below their 
present level. This caused a flooding of the stream, resulting 
first in the formation of a bed of clean, perfectly waterworn, 
and flnely stratified gravel and sand. This deposit is confined 
to the sides of the newer or Quaternary trough, and outcrops 
in the river bank along the edge of the terrace lands. It was 
