98 University Geological Survey of Kansas. 
240 acres. It is well covered with large masses of tailings 
and rough stuff from the mines, and has many shafts on it. 
In addition there are two places where the roof of the 
mines have caved to the surface, producing large and irregu- 
lar openings into which surface water runs during every rain 
storm, and to a considerable extent from the surface ponds 
and from the pumps. The soil is loose and porous, as rocky 
soils usually are, permitting the surface water to be absorbed 
by the ground to an unusually great extent. At the time of 
investigation there were six large mining companies operat- 
ing pumps with pumping barrels ranging from eight inches 
to twelve inches in diameter. By learning the number of 
hours per day operated, the number of days in the year, and 
the capacity of each pump per hour, it was possible to make 
a fair approximation of the total amount of water drawn 
from the ground. 
Almost all this pumping was from mines within eighty 
acres of ground, although the surface water from about 240 
acres drained onto this land. The result obtained by Mr. 
McClaire was that the amount of water pumped per annum 
was equal to a rainfall of forty-five inches on an area a small 
fraction over 250 acres. An investigation was then made to 
determine what became of water brought to the surface by the 
pumps. Approximate measurements were made of the drain- 
age both north and south, which resulted in accounting for 
about sixty per cent. of the total amount. The other forty 
per cent. in one way and another seems to work itself back 
into the mines, or is evaporated. This is done in a variety 
of ways. Part of it runs directly back in the shafts, without 
having been thrown onto the tailings piles by the mills. No 
operator was very particular on this matter. The shaft water 
was used in the mills and was carried out by machinery to 
the pile of tailings, from which it drained in different direc- 
tions. Usually attempts were made to catch a part of it in 
surface reservoirs so that it might be again used, particularly 
in midsummer when ground water was the least abundant. 
A very considerable portion worked its way back into the 
ground down old and abandoned shafts and down openings 
produced by caving of mines, and down through the soil and 
