Hawortu. | The McPherson Equus Beds. 295 
streams, as already explained for the Smoky. No such conditions 
have been noticed along either stream. Further, the great eleva- 
tion required for the Saline would have carried it across the up- 
lands into the Solomon above Minneapolis. Neither does the 
character of the present valley between the mouth of the Saline and 
the mouth of the Solomon river appear to have been so recently a 
mere lateral to the Solomon only a few miles long. 
Third: If the materials of the Equus beds were brought down 
from the west by the Smoky Hill river, or by any other stream, or 
if the materials are largely of glacial origin, then they should corre- 
spond closely in character with the recent river sands or with the 
glacial material. Almost every handful of sand gathered from the 
valley of the Arkansas, the Smoky, or the Saline, streams passing 
through the Tertiary regions of the west, is largely composed of 
feldspar gravels, and frequently fragments of other rock-forming 
minerals are seen. Likewise the sands of the lower Kansas river 
valley which are so largely of glacial origin have a great abundance 
of feldspar gravels. But the sands of these Equus beds so far as 
examined by Doctor Grimsley seem to have no feldspar whatever. 
This strongly implies that they are obtained directly from the Da- 
kota sandstone, as that rock is almost if not entirely free from 
feldspar gravel in this part of the state. 
At present it must be admitted that no satisfactory explanation 
of the origin of the Equus beds channel, nor of the agency for the 
deposition of the materials, has been advanced. A further study 
of the problems involved is in progress. 
ECONOMIC INTEREST. 
This strip of country is particularly fertile and very valuable 
farm land. The soil seems to possess nearly all the peculiarities 
necessary to the growth of the various farm products. It is so 
level that it can almost all be cultivated, the uplands being about 
as good as the bottom lands. The water supply is almost ideal. 
Over the entire eastern portion at a depth of 18 to 30 feet, pure, 
soft water is found in good supply. The soft arenaceous texture 
of the clay above the sand beds containing the water makes well 
digging easy. Over the western portion the wells vary from 40 to 
