NOTES    ON    GLASS    SANDS.  379 
Springdale  station  of  the  Sioux  City-Leeds  trolley  line.  Between  35 
and  40  feet  of  massive,  cross-bedded,  soft  sandstone  with  thin  clay 
partings  are  exposed.  The  top  is  overlain  by  10  to  80  feet  of  loess. 
The  sand  is  a  fine  to  medium  grained  quartz,  rather  angular,  and  carries 
a  small  proportion  of  mica  flakes.  Its  color  ranges  from  pure  white 
through  gray  to  }^ellow  and  dark  brown.  The  average  is  light  yellow. 
Where  iron  stained  the  objectionable  material  is  usually  hard  enough 
to  be  thrown  out  in  blocks.  Generally  the  rock  is  so  friable  thai  it 
could  conveniently  be  worked  by  hydraulic  methods.  This  sand- 
stone is  well  situated  for  quarrying  and  transportation,  as  it  is  close 
to  the  tracks  used  jointly  by  the  Chicago,  St.  Paul,  Minneapolis  and 
Omaha  and  the  Illinois  Central  railroads.  The  Dakota  sandstone  is 
exposed  also  at  the  base  of  Prospect  Hill  in  the  Missouri  River  bluffs, 
and  the  top  of  the  formation  is  low  in  the  bluffs  of  Big  Sioux  River, 
opposite  Riverside  Park.  Fuller  descriptions  of  the  Cretaceous  sands, 
clays,  and  limestones  of  this  region  and  a  map  of  their  distribution  is 
given  in  a  local  publication." 
Kansas. — Probably  nowhere  in  the  United  States  is  there  at  present 
a  greater  need  for  a  local  supply  of  glass  sand  than  in  southeastern 
Kansas.  In  the  gas  belt  there  are  10  window-glass  factories  and  8 
flint  or  bottle  and  jar  factories  in  Kansas  and  1  factory  across  the  line 
in  Indian  Territory.  All  these  are  obtaining  sand  from  eastern  Mis- 
souri, and  in  addition  to  the  selling  price  of  the  sand  the  consumers  are 
paying  three  to  three  and  one-half  times  that  amount  in  freight  charges. 
Besides  the  disadvantage  of  the  high  cost  of  sand  these  plants  are  at 
times  subjected  to  a  sand  famine,  due  to  the  inability  of  remote  pro- 
ducers to  fill  their  orders  promptly  and  to  the  inability  of  railroads  to 
move  the  material  when  it  is  needed.  The  sandstone  in  the  Buxton 
formation  has  been  thoroughly  prospected  with  a  core  drill  at  several 
localities  near  Fredonia.  A  typical  section  revealed  by  this  drill  is  as 
follows : 
Section  of  drill  hole  in  Buxton  formation  near  Fredonia,  Kans. 
Ft.  in. 
Light-brown,  slightly  coarse-grained  sandstone 3  1 
Light  yellowish-gray,  medium-grained  sandstone,  with  a  few  iron- 
oxide  specks  near  top  and  bottom  of  bed 4  10 
Brownish,    medium-grained,    speckled    sandstone    considerably 
stained  by  iron  oxide 7  2 
Gray  calcareous  sandstone. 0  6 
Total. 15 
aBurchard,  E.  F.,  Geology  of  Dakot?  '"ounty,  Nebraska :*Proc.  Sioux  City  Acad.  Sci.  and  Letters, 
vol.  1,  1904,  pp.  135-184. 
