66 The American Geologist. J"'^'- ^^^■*- 
magnesium contained in the filtrate, from the calcium-magnesium is pre- 
cipitated as magnesium ammonium phosphate and weighed as magnes- 
ium pyro-phosphate. Nicholas knight. 
Cornell College, Mount Vernon, Iowa. 
Surface Deposits of Western Missouri and Kansas Beginning 
in western Missouri and extending into Kansas, there are found along 
the valley of the Barais des Cygnes occasional deposits of partially 
rounded fiint gravel often about two inches in diameter but generally 
smaller. These deposits generally are found on hills or in valleys at an 
elevation above all known high water and are frequently associated 
with red clay. In the eastern part of Bates county these gravel beds 
are found upon hills over 200 feet above the Marais des Cygnes valley 
or 800 or 900 feet above the sea. Such deposits occur at the head of 
Panther creek on the higher lands of Bates county. Ne,.r Carterville 
on high ground and at Carthage 80 feet above the valley of Spring 
river, and at Nevada, Mo., such gravel deposits occur. Considerable 
quantities of flint gravel are found on the high lands of Miami county, 
Kansas, near the Missouri line. In Miami and Anderson counties, 
Kansas, gravel beds exist on the upper terraces of the Marais des 
Cygnes and its tributaries, and it is found nine feet thick on ridge be- 
tween the Marais des Cygnes and Pottawatomie rivers and over fifty 
feet above the valley of the latter stream. In Kansas along th..; 
Marais des Cygnes there are two well defined terraces, one at 20 to 40 
feet above the stream, the other about 50 feet higher. The lower is 
rich with alluvial deposits, the upper valley often wide overspread with 
clay and with water worn gravel beneath. The second terrace is about 
900 feet above the sea. On the higher ground south of Girnett, Kansas, 
the gravel seems everywhere to be present at a general elevation of 
about 1,050 feet above the sea. In the valley of the Neosho, at Neosho 
Falls, one finds a deposit of sand and gravel several feet in thickness, 
lying at an elevation of 1,000 feet above the sea or 30 feet above or- 
dinary water of the Neosho river. Further north, at P.nilington, thick 
gravel deposits are reported, also south of Emporia. Similar deposits 
I have observed near the Verdigris at Toronto and above all known 
high water of that stream. Farther west, on Fall river, at an eleva- 
tion of 1,100 feet above the sea, and higher than all known water of 
the river there are deposits of flint gravel, the quantity seeming less 
at the western outcrops. 
Extending into Kansas from the south and near the line of Cowley, 
Elk, Chautauqua, Butler and Greenwood, and northwardly towards Em- 
poria, there is a higher ridge known as the "Flint Hills.'' Tliis is much 
higher than the country lying east or west and is covered with partially 
rounded but mainly angular fragments of flint. The solid strata of this 
ridge are of Permian age, excepting near the line of Elk and Cowley, 
where- the base is of well defined upper Coal Measures strata. The 
eastern escarpment of the ridge in this vicinity is well exposed and 
from the plains, five miles east, the rise is 300 to 400 feet io the crest of 
the ridge. On the west, the country slopes off gently for 20 miles to 
