32 University Geological Survey of Kansas. 
strike the Fort Dodge area in Iowa, and if it is continued to the 
southwest it will strike the extensive deposits of the Canadian 
river in Indian Territory and those of Texas. 
Topography and its Evolution. 
In order to understand and be able to interpret the topog- 
raphy of the Kansas gypsum belt and its problems, we will go 
back in imagination to the time when an area of sediments 
like the early Kansas land first emerged from under the sea, be- 
fore the forces of earth and air commenced to fashion and 
mould it into the varied patterns of nature. 
Such a review will enable us to understand more clearly the 
conditions we find to-day in this belt; and it will also teach the 
useful lesson that the land has not always possessed the appear- 
ance it has to-day, but that the familiar objects of river and val- 
ley, hill and dale, are transitory features on the earth’s surface. 
Everything changes and grows old, even the so-called everlast- 
ing hills; and all conform to the universal law of nature —ad- 
justment to environment or to surrounding conditions. This 
law only in late years has been discovered reigning in the in- 
organic world of rock and cliff, and it is no longer connected 
solely with organisms. 
This is a comparatively new phase in geology, and so is often 
set apart as on a pedestal under the term of New Geology. 
But it is new because of progress in the science, and merely 
represents new methods of study in old structures. It has 
added life and interest to our study of inanimate nature, and it 
is but proper that it should form a part of our present chapter 
on topography. 
STREAM GROWTH. 
If a sea floor is elevated several hundred feet into dry land, 
as has happened many and many times in the history of the 
earth, the surface will be approximately smooth. As the rains 
fall upon the broad level plateau the surface will be roughened 
and the water will collect in small rills and rivulets, just as we 
see to-day on any exposed surface after a rain. These rivulets 
will flow together, forming larger ones, and pursue their paths 
