436 Correspondence. 
with it, wliile it is being continually borne along in the stream, which is 
very rapid when full. The quartz and flinty gravel is the erosive agent, 
and the water the power. 
From Fort Worth westward the surface of the country gradually ascenda 
above the sea level. Fort Worth is 623 feet above the sea, Weatherford is 
864 feet, with the lower (Gulf) Cretaceous occupying the surface at both 
places, with lower strata at Weatherford than at Fort Worth. Westwardly 
the Brazos cuts into the " Red beds " on the east, and on the west the rocks 
of the upper Coal Measures appear and are seen nearly as far west as Cisco, 
which is 1,611 feet above the sea. West of Cisco the country still gradu- 
ally rises, with occasional Cretaceous outliers. Colorado City is over 1,800 
feet above the sea, with the red beds as the most prominent rock. This 
indicates an anticlinal axis not far from Cisco, and a synclinal between Col- 
orado and El Paso not far, probably, from the latter place. 
Salt Deposits. The borings for salt penetrated and probably passed 
the Jura-Trias into the Permian, to which latter the strata below 800 feet 
depth from the surface may belong. At Kingman, Kansas, the surface for- 
mation is about the summit of the Permian; at 750 feet depth rock salt was 
reached. 
At Hutchison, Kansas, under a similar surface formation, the borings 
gave as follows : 
1. One hundred and ten feet of sand, gravel and clay. 
2. Three hundred and fifteen feet of red and black shale with gypsum . 
At 425 feet depth salt, extending to 715 feet, including 25 feet of shales 
occurring in thin layers three, eight and ten feet apart. The salt water 
remains below 210 feet from the surface. 
A boring at Lyons, Kansas, reports— 
1. Two hundred feet of drift. 
2. Two hundred and thirty feet of red shale. 
3. Two hundred and seventy feet of shale and gypsum. 
4. Thirty-five feet of black shale. 
5. Sixty-flve feet of gray shale. 
6. Salt at SOO feet depth. 
Near Blue Rapids, Kansas, salt water was obtained in Permian beds at 
S17 feet from the surface, the water rising within 20 feet of the surface. 
At Ellsworth, Kansas, where the surface rocks are the Dakota Cretaceous, 
rock salt was reached at 740 feet depth. Passing through 160 feet of salt, 
shale was penetrated, and at 1,100 feet gas obtained. The lower beds are 
Permian. 
Rock salt has been obtained in borings at other places in Kansas, gener- 
ally mixed with shale. 
The geological position of most of the salt beds of Kansas and Texas is 
In the Permian. There are also probably other deposits occupying basins 
,of more recent age, as the Spirit spring near Cawker City, Kansas. 
Vnimrsity of Missouri. G. C. Bkoadiiead. 
The literature of geyserite. It is difficult to understand why Dr. Hicks, 
in his notes on the "Geyserite deposits of Nebraska," as given in the 
Geologist for May and July, shoiild have ignored the literature of the 
subject. As long ago as April, 1885, the present writer published in the 
