102 Tnwersity Geological Survey of Kansas. 
wish to, for the combination of the two, as originally under- 
stood, but Adams’s name, Piqua, for the upper one of the two 
must give way to Swallow’s Stanton, unless priority be en- 
tirely ignored. 
Thickness.—The Allen limestone varies in thickness proba- 
bly more than any other limestone in the state, excepting the 
Drum. It ranges from 6 to nearly 75 feet. At Neodesha, on 
Little Bear Mound, at the Indian Portland Cement Company’s 
plant, a number of dry holes have been put through it, some 
for the purpose of testing its thickness and some in the search 
for oil and gas. In no case did the drillers report less than 60 
feet and some of them reported 100. It is probable, however, 
that this latter is somewhat of an exaggeration, and that 75 or 
80 feet would include all of it. To the south, around Syea- 
more and Table Mound, it has a thickness equally great where 
not worn away by erosion. Northward from Neodesha this 
thickness is quite variable. In the vicinity of Greeley and Lane 
it is close to 40 feet thick, but at intervening places it is much 
less. At Carlyle it is 20 to 25 feet thick, while in the hills be- 
tween Chanute and Vilas it is probably not more than 7 to 8 
feet thick. On many of the hilltops where erosion is wearing 
it away it is but a few feet in thickness, and we are left to con- 
jecture what its original thickness was. 
Area.—The area occupied by the Allen limestone is practi- 
cally coextensive with the Stanton, and the two will be de- 
seribed together under that head. 
Characteristics.—The Allen limestone differs quite materi- 
ally from ordinary limestones in its physical properties, on ac- 
count of which it so readily breaks into small fragments by 
blasting. At the Indian Portland cement plant at Neodesha 
this property is carried to so great an extent that quarrying 
operations are conducted by first shooting the rock by dyna- 
mite and immediately gathering it with a steam-shovel, there- 
by quarrying it at an expense less than one-half of that of any 
other place in the state. Here it is mixed with the shaly ma- 
terial not so much along the bedding-plains as apparently a 
sort of brecciated mixture with the shaly material scattered 
irregularly through the limestone. This property in general 
is noticeable in many other places, and yet, broadly speaking, 
it is truly as stratified as limestones usually are. Also, it is 
quite highly crystalline, with many fragments of calcite an 
inch or more across. The so-called marble-quarries at Lane, — 
