350 The Ametican Geologist. June, 1900 
this account, as well as the inaccessibility of his report, that, 
by later writers, his work has been passed over, or regarded 
as w^iolly worthless. There is, however, a large proportion 
of Swallow's work that is not only good, but that is really 
marvellously well done for its day and under the conditions 
under which it was accomplished. In fact, so keen were his 
observations and so comprehensive his conclusions that his 
final arrangement of the strata of the region dilTers in no very 
essential features from that proposed by writers w'ho entered 
the field a full generation afterwards, went over the ground 
independently, and gave the terranes new names. This later 
work only emphasizes the previous correctness of some of 
Swallow's conclusions, and justness of his claims to fuller 
recognition. 
Swallow's general geological section of Kansas was con- 
structed by piling local sections upon one another. The strata 
were numbered in order, as well as described, and some were 
given special names. His correlations of beds in other parts 
of the state with those of the typical localities were faulty be- 
cause he depended altogether on paleontological and lithologi- 
cal similarities, and because he was unable to directly connect 
the various sections stratigraphically. It did not occur to him 
that in what we now know as the Missourian series, for ex- 
ample, there was a constant repetition of similar limestones 
and shales. The sections on the eastern border of the state 
were thought by him to be followed immediately by the beds 
exposed on the Kansas river from Topeka westward. Almost 
all of the section, of 500 to 1,000 feet, between the lola and the 
Atchison (Wabaunsee) shales was thus omitted. However, 
these errors do not render the whole of his work unworthy of 
notice. 
A careful examination of Swallow's published section of 
Kansas, and his known movements while prosecuting the sur- 
vey, show very clearly that he based his general section chief- 
ly upon the observations made in two localities — one on the 
eastern border of the state, in Aliami county, along what we 
now call the Osage river, and the other a hundred miles to the 
northwest, along Mill creek and the Kansas river, in Wabaun- 
see and Riley counties. These localities, therefore, may be 
taken as the typical localities; all others mentioned being cor- 
