274 llie Amerlcnn Geologist. April. 1897 
or nearly one-third of the state. The lowest division is the Dakota, 
which lies in a narrow belt forming the eastern border of the Creta- 
ceous and consists of sandstone, saliferous and syp*^ife>"t>us shales. A 
considerable number of fo.ssil plants occur in this division and it con- 
tains two water horizons. The largest portion of the Cretaceous area 
consists of the Benton liniestones and shales, ;^0 feet thick. The Nio- 
brara, 400 feet thick, occupies a narrow belt along the border of the Ter- 
tiary area, and consists of the lower division, Fort Hayes limestone, and 
the upper division. Smoky Hill chalk, which is rich in fossils. The Fort 
Pierre shales occur in northwestern Kansas with a maximum thickness 
of 200 feet. This paper is followed by a short discussion of the rocks 
and fauna of the Kansas Niobrara by professor Williston. 
Haworth, in another chapter, discusses the physical properties of the 
Tertiary. This material consists of gravel, sand, clay, silt, black sand 
and volcanic ash. The gravel consists of fragments of the crystalline 
rocks and quartz, while the sand is largely composed of quartz. The 
black sand consists of grains of black iron oxide mainly magnetite. The 
evidence from the surface and from deep wells shows that any one kind 
of material is irregular in position, and that there is no definite relation 
between the different kinds of material. The origin of the Tertiary ma- 
terials is regarded as due to the decay of the crystalline rocks in the 
mountain area to the west, and they are regarded as river deposits 
rather than lake deposits. 
In McPherson county occur alternating layers of sand and clay with 
a stratum of volcanic ash. These deposits belong to the Equus beds, 
and are described by Haworth and Beede. The beds occur in a valley 
cut through the soft Permian shales and Dakota sandstone and they 
cover an area of 900 square miles. The authors do not find evidence to 
support the glacial theory of origin advanced by Sharp, and the evidence 
is against the other theories which have teen given by other workers. 
No satisfactory explanation of origin, nor the ag'ency of deposit of ma- 
terial, can yet be given. On account of the level surface, good soil and 
abundant water supply, this district is one of the best farming regions 
in the state. In the final chapter, prc>fessor Williston describes the 
conditions existing in the Pleistocene in Kansas, and gives a list of fos- 
sil vertebrates in that group of rocks. 
The present volume is uniform in size with volume i, but the gen- 
eral character of the papers is better, and the distribution of the jjlates 
through the text is an improvement. The typographical work is excel- 
lent and reflects credit on the state printer. The report will be sent to 
those who wish it, on receipt of 22 cents for postage. G. p. g. 
Preliminary Report on Artesian Waters of a Portion of the Dako- 
tas. By Nelson Hokatio Darton. (Extract from the Seventeenth An- 
nual of the U. S. Geol. Survey, 1895-6, Part II, Economic Geology and 
Hydrography.) In this paper we have another notable example of the 
way the government survey is throwing its energies into economic geol- 
ogy. The author may be congratulated on the able way he has collec- 
ted and illustrated the facts known concerning this novel and most in- 
teresting resource of our northwest. 
