Lower Cretaceous of Kansas. — Gonld. 35 
level of the Smoky Hill river. Several deep valleys and rocky 
canyons a mile or two in length exhibit ledges of yellow and 
dark brown sandstone which in superficial appearance remind 
one of the Dakota which is so plentiful a few miles northwest. 
The valleys in their lower part are cut down into the Permian 
which is easily distinguishable in the locality. It consits of 
bands of red and yellow shale weathering into escarpments, 
buttes and slopes very like the outcrops near Castleton in Reno 
county or at Caldwell on the Oklahoma line. The horizon of 
the Permian at this point seems to be the upper part of the 
Wellington, while that at Salina is evidently the Marion. 
Professor Cragin in 1889 reported some isolated localities 
of Kiowa shales in western McPherson county.* Soon after 
he published an account of an outcrop and mentions several 
typical fossils among which were Ostrea franklini, Cardium 
kansasense, Turritella marnonchii and others. f Professor J. A. 
Udden found shells west of Lindsborg.+ Mr. J. W. Beede 
in 1897 while collecting material for his paper mentioned 
above, visited the region and found fossils near the Natural 
Corral on the northwest quarter of section five, T. 18, R. 5 W.§ 
A section is given on page 80, Vol. II of the University 
Geological Survey of Kansas showing 106 feet of alternating 
shales and sandstones. The section below was taken near the 
same place and represents approximately the same horizon. 
Mr. W. N. Logan sent fossils from the Natural Corral. These 
were identified as Mentor fossils.] | 
b. Stratigraphy. 
The localities studied are near the home of Mr. Osborne, 
four and one-half miles southwest of Marquette. The Natural 
Corral is about one mile west of Mr. Osborne's farm. Several 
small sections were taken from which the following generalized 
section is made : 
Feet 
II. Covered slope on hills southwest. Equus beds ±50 
10. Dark brown to black sandstone forming prominent escarp- 
ments, very fossiliferous in a layer one to two feet thick 
in the middle of the ledge 8 
*Bul. W. Col. Lab. Nat. Hist., vol. II, p. 37. 
tibid., p. 80. 
^American Geologist, vol. XVI, p. 165, 1895. 
§ llUni. Geol. Sur. of Kans., vol. II, p. i8g, 1897. 
