THE McPHERSON EQUUS BEDS. 
CONTENTS. 
Location. 
Topography. 
Structure. 
Origin. 
Economic Interests. 
LOCATION.1 
There is a formation of considerable economic and scientific in- 
terest located in McPherson, western Marion, Harvey, and eastern 
Reno counties. A large channel is carved out of the Permian shales 
and, in the northern part, Dakota sandstone. Its eastern limit, 
Plate XLV, is a line trending north and south along the west side of 
Sand creek to a place a few miles north and west of Lehigh, Marion 
county. Here it turns westward about twenty miles, then north- 
ward to the Smoky Hill river. Its western boundary, beginning at 
Smoky Hill river, runs south just east of Edward’s creek to the 
Little Arkansas river, south of which the sandhills seem to en- 
-eroach upon its area. It is well shown in the wells at Halstead and 
in all probability extends south to the general Tertiary or Pleisto- 
cene area along the Arkansas river. The “Tertiary grit” referred 
to by Professor Hay,” just east of Wichita, is probably an outcrop 
of this formation, as on the margins of the area, and the isolated 
patches, the sand is imbedded in a limy matrix which resembles the 
“Pertiary grit” farther west. 
Over the deeper portions of the channel and well to its western 
edge lies a chain of lakes and basins extending from the large basin 
two miles west of McPherson to the Arkansas river south of Patter- 
son. The area north of the Little Arkansas river is about eight 
1 Mr. Beede did the greater part of the field work indicated in this paper. 
2 Bulletin 57, U. S. Geological Survey, p. 34 and fig. 9. 
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