MM T/ie Attiericoii GeiAoyist. Doci'iniKT, isai 
]);ii-t ially ]iict;tiii(ir|)Ii(is('(l r('rniji;in()us s^iiiKlstoiic. giving- iis a 
<^-limpse of a sta^"(- in the conversion of tlie sandstone into 
(juartzyte. Some i>arts of this ]e(lf»;e are traversed with seams of 
chalcedony. 
The springs issuing rrotii tin* ('heyenne sandstone are usu- 
ally of more or less distinctly mineral character. Iron, sul- 
pliuric acid, gypsum, epsom salts and alum are some of the 
substances which they coiimioiily hold in solution. In some 
instances, as in the Blue spring on the now deserted Lanphier 
claim, the mineral matter imparts to the water a peculiar 
bluish-white turbidity. A less strongly mineralized sj)ring in 
tile box-canon head of Cameron draw, a ravine on the farm oi" 
Mr. Thomas (Jameron, near Belvidere, is probably similar to 
the Blue spring in mineral character. A qualitative analysis 
made by Prof. G. H. P^iilyer, head of the chemical department 
of the Kansas State Agricultural College, shows that the 
water of the Cameron spring contains epsom salts, alum and 
gypsum. That this spring was formerly used by the Indians, 
is indicated by the now rapidl}" vanishing hieroglyphics 
which the latter have carved in the soft Corral sandstone of 
the adjacent canon-wall.* A spring on North Elk creek, 
which was visited a few years since by Mr. William A. 
Sherrill and the writer and was known to the settlers as 
Poison spring, issues from the sandstone in a trickling cur- 
rent so heavily laden with white liocculent precipitate as to 
have the consistency of corn-meal gruel. The mineral matter 
of the Poison spring, as indicated by the |)eculiar.and astrin- 
gent taste, is probably in large part alum and epsom salts. 
Nodules of the yellow phosphate of iron were discovered in 
the Cheyenne sandstone by Prof. Failyer as one of the results 
of a reconnaissance of the Barber-Clark county region, which 
he made in company with the writer last summer. This dis- 
covery makes it seem possible that traces of phosphorous may 
be found in the waters of some of the springs in this sand- 
stone. 
*That the Cameron spring was used as a medicinal spring by the 
aborigines of the well-named Medicine Lodge River valley, and not 
mei-ely as an accessible and sheltered camping spot, seems to be indi- 
eated by the fact that the north side of this valley is here well supplied 
from l)old springs of the Neocene gravels, with sti'eams of fine water, 
one of which. Spring creek, enters the bottom-land of the river opposite 
the mouth of Cameron draw, and is fringed along part of its eourse 
with thickets of timber and brush, atfording excellent shelter. 
