120 University Geological Survey of Kansas. 
limestones 33 to 5 or more feet in thickness, which form the 
very conspicuous escarpment of this formation. The remain- 
der of the limestone layers are thin and all of them are soft, 
hardening upon exposure. In some places, as at Oketo, some 
of them are oolitic. Swallow®® describes the ledge at Fort Riley 
in 1866 as “a buff porous magnesian rock in thick beds.” It 
now covers what was at one time called the Florence limestone. 
Doyle Shales.1 
Prosser and Beede named these shales because exposed on 
Doyle creek, a tributary of the Cottonwood river, south of 
Florence. They fill the interval between the Fort Riley lime- 
stone and the Winfield formation. 
Thickness.—The Doyle shales are 60 feet thick. 
Area.—The Doyle shales occupy a wider area south of the 
Kansas river and north of it than do some of the preceding 
formations. 
Characteristics.—The Doyle shales are variously colored and 
contain thin slabs of limestone. ‘About twenty feet above the 
base is a thin grayish limestone which often appears on the 
surface, and at the top are yellowish shales containing a few 
fossils. These shales and the rocks of the overlying formations 
weather easily and form gently undulating prairies in sharp 
contrast with the rough topography produced by the flint and 
massive limestones below.” 
Winfield Formation.101 
This formation was named by Prosser from its prominent 
outcrop around Winfield, Cowley county. It lies between the 
Doyle shales and the Marion formation above. 
Thickness.—The Winfield formation is about 25 feet in 
thickness in the central and southern part of the state. North 
of the Kansas river, especially toward the Nebraska line, it 
seems to become very much less conspicuous and thinner ow- 
ing to the apparent thinning out of the limestones and the 
thickening of the shales. 
Area.—The Winfield formation has quite an extensive area, 
at least southwest of the Flint Hills. From the Cottonwood 
99. Swallow, G. C.: Prelim. Rep., Geol. Surv. Kan., p. 14. Lawrence, 1866. 
100. Prosser, C. G., and Beede, J. W.: Jour. of Geol., vol. x, p. 718, diagram. 
1902. 
101. Prosser, Chas, S.: Uniy, Geol. Surv. of Kan., vol. 11, p. 64. 1897. 
