142 University of Kansas Geological Survey. 
ditions are favorable it will be seen that the western slope, appar- 
ently steep and broken by ravines, is of a blackish color suggesting 
the not uncommon name in Comanche county, of Black Hill, by which 
it is generally known in the southern part of the county. As the 
same name has been given to two hills in the Kiowa-Barber- 
Comanche area, it is proposed, in order to avoid confusion to des- 
ignate this one Avilla hill from the name of the township in which 
it occurs and of which it forms the most prominent elevation. The 
extreme top of the hill is 2140 feet so that it has the same altitude 
as the high prairie to the north of Avilla and about Coldwater. 
From the top of Avilla hill one sees that it is a large butte carved 
out of the former great plain by prominent streams on all sides. 
To the north is the upper part of Salt Fork (termed on the Comanche 
county map, Red Elk creek, and on some other maps Red Fork); to 
the east Mustang and other southern branches of the Salt Fork; to 
the northwest Cavalry creek and to the west and south the great 
Cimarron river. The view from the butte is a commanding one, for 
to the north are the bluffs of Salt Fork with the high prairie 
stretching far away in the distance, while in the opposite direction 
is the white Salt Plain of the Cimarron river bounded on the farther 
side by the southern bluffs of that river. If the observer happens 
to stand on the summit of this hill on one of those scorching mid- 
summer days peculiar to southwestern Kansas he will see the 
saline incrustation of the Salt Plain and the sand dunes along the 
river gleaming white in the brilliant sunshine and the air below 
him vibrating intensely. It furnishes an experience long to be re- 
membered and one that, possibly, the traveler would not care to 
have repeated very frequently. 
The rise from South Fork toward the hill for about five miles is 
quite gradual, averaging from 130 to 160 feet, when the steep part of 
the hill is reached, with a rise of perhaps 150 feet in the next mile. 
On the western and southern sides the flanks are very precipitous 
for 160 feet and are greatly seamed and broken by the heads of 
numerous ravines. The measured section is from Salt Fork level 
along the road, that stands one half mile west of Avilla, to the 
foot of the hill and then up its steep western flank. 
