ProsseR.] Cretaceous. —Comanche Series of Kansas. 155 
No. Feet. 
steeper part of the bluff. No. 4 of Cragin’s sec- 
tion lithologic characters of which are compared 
to those of the Cheyenne sandstones. 
2. Mainly blackish shales with thin layers of yellowish %75—75 
to whitish rock. Fossils infrequent. 
i. Bottom of section—level of Bluff creek, Red-Beds 
occurring a short distance down stream.! 
This section gives a thickness of 140 feet for the Comanche 
series all of which it is perhaps safe to refer to the Kiowa shales. 
The lower 75 feet of shales are nearly unfossiliferous and repre- 
sent a greater thickness than is the case with the black ‘paper 
shales” of itiowa county. Perhaps these might be referred to the 
black shales seen in the bluffs of Big Mule creek which were also 
capped by thin sandstone. In this event the sandstone forming 
No. 2 in the above section would probably represent that sandstone. 
The similarity of this sandstone to the Cheyenne has already been 
mentioned by Professor Cragin, and if this supposition be correct 
perhaps the lower 85 feet of the amphitheatre section could be 
referred as well to the time interval denominated the Cheyenne; 
while the fossiliferous superjacent rocks would represent the 
Kiowa. The writer, however, considers the entire section of 140 
feet as belonging to the Kiowa formation, regarding the Cheyenne 
as wanting. From the top of the Kiowa shales to the general level 
of the prairie is from 80 to 100 feet with occasional exposures of 
Vertiary rocks. A general idea of this bluff may be gained from 
Plate XIX which gives a view At the Entrance to the “Amphitheatre” 
on Bluff creek in which the black shales of No. 1 are partly concealed 
by foliage, above which is a conspicuous stratum representing the 
sandstone of No. 2; then to the vicinity of the summit of the bluff, 
we have the upper Kiowa shales capped near its shoulder by the 
Tertiary rocks. Plate XX, the Hastern side of the “Amphitheatre,” 
gives a view of the middle part of the eastern wall of the Amphi- 
theatre some distance above the former picture. The black shales 
form the lower part of the wall, then comes the sandstone stratum 
1 For Professor Cragin’s section see Bulletin Washburn College Laboratory 
Natural History, vol. 2, p. 79. Topeka. 
