Contributions to Geology of the Southwest. — Hill. 121 
showing no appreciable diminution of the supply which has its 
source in the Trinity sands at the base of the Comanche series. 
During the past two months from the wells at Pottsboro and 
Dallas, I have discovered that the Dakota sands are also the source 
of anothei valuable artesian area, which although not so extensive 
as the Forth "Worth- Waco area will prove of great economic value 
to Texas. 
" Llano Estacado" or "Staked Plains." An interesting ques- 
tion of nomenclature is whether or not the name Staked Plains 
should not be dropped from geographic nomenclature as the de- 
scriptive name for the great mesa to which it is applied. One 
popular apology for the use of this term is that early travelers set 
up stakes to mark their roads over these — then considered — 
waterless wastes. Another is that the term alludes to the staff- 
like stems of the Yucca plant which resemble stakes projecting 
above the ground. Neither of these hypotheses, however, will 
stand the test of application, for the traveler could not possibl}' 
have secured on the absolutely treeless plains timber wherewith 
to make his stakes, and the Yucca does not grow upon them. 
Upon the other hand, a glance at the Spanish dictionary will show 
that it will be impossible to translate the word "estacado" to 
mean a stake, but upon the contrary it means exactly the oppo- 
site — a palisade or wall, which is a most appropriate descriptive 
term for the Llano Estacado, inasmuch as it alludes to the sharp 
declivity or face of the escarpment which in many places marks 
the edge of these plains. In view of these facts is it not as er- 
roneous to use the term Staked Plains for the Llano Estacado as 
to write the name L'Eau Frais, "Low Freight," as is done upon 
Colton's maps of Arkansas? It may interest some to know that 
instead of being waterless, these great plains are now known to be 
one of the greatest water-bearing formations in America, over 
1,000 wells already having been bored, furnishing an abundance 
of water to the rapidly increasing population. 
The Dakota Sandstone in Arkansas. I have connected tin- 
Arkansas area of the Cretaceous with Texas in the past season's 
field labor, and in the course of these investigations mapped out 
the extent of every terrane in southern Indian Territory and north 
Texas, besides visiting all the historic Cretaceous localities, such 
as the Plains of the Kiamechia, from which the original type speci- 
10 
