226 Uniwersity of Kansas Geological Survey. 
SECTION THROUGH THE CRETACEOUS FROM ABILENE TO THE 
COLORADO LINE. PLATE XXX, FIGURE 2. 
On the bank of the Smoky Hill river, a few miles west of Abilene 
is the last westward outcrop of the Permian limestone. The for- 
mation above is sand from the disintegrated sandstone of the Da- 
kota. it is very probable that the shales which did overlie the 
Permian limestone have been eroded away and the valley filled in 
with sand from the surrounding sandstone. Sheet water from the 
Dakota flows over the surface of the Permian limestone, and is 
reached in the valley at a depth of from 12 to 30 feet. Toward the 
west the surface rises gradually, and the outcrops are sand or 
loosely cemented sandstone. Between Solomon City and Salina, 
along the Smoky Hill valley, the soil presents the appearance of 
disintegrated Permian shale, but no outcrops occur. West of Salina, 
in the neighborhood of Mentor, small outcrops of sandy shale, inter- 
calated with thin layers of sandstone occur. These sandstones con- 
tain, according to Meek, the following invertebrate forms: Corbicula 
subtrigondis, Trigonarca salinaensis, Cardium kansasense, Oyrena 
dakotensis, Margaritans nebrasacenses, Mactra siuxensis, Tellina 
modesta, Pharella dakotensis, etc. 
Southwest of Mentor, in the vicinity of Salemsburg, is a row of 
hills called “The Smoky Hill Buttes.” The Buttes are from 200 to 
240 feet high, and consist of almost equal thicknesses of shale and 
sandstone. ‘he sandstone occurs at the top. The shales are bluish 
white and contain iron ore nodules and traces of lignite. The 
chanacter of the shales do not differ in any respect from those found 
in the Upper Dakota. A well one fourth mile north of the Buttes, 
reaches the Permian limestone after passing through a bed of red 
shale, which undoubtedly belongs to the Permian. On the hills west 
of Salina the red and white sandstone occur in the same horizon. 
Farther to the southwest, on Sharp’s creek, in McPherson county, 
the red beds are overlaid by a bed of shales which contains a shell 
bed of undoubted Kiowa fossils. The cone in cone structure, so 
common in the Dakota area, lies above this shale bed. At Brook- 
ville a well 88 feet deep passes through 26 feet of blue shale and 12 
feet of Permian limestone. Above the blue colored shales, on the 
surrounding hiils, the Dakota sandstone occurs. In passing up the 
