The Saline County journal. [volume] (Salina, Kan.) 1871-1893, 1877-09-20

present forests, grew upon the shores
this lake The squirrel, beaver, deer
elk, buffalo, elephant, and mastodou
lived in the forest upon its borders
The romans brought to light by the ex
amiuations in Pompeii, Herculaneum
aud Troy do not tell the history OF those
cities more accurately than the petrified
trees and shells and bones exhumed
from whit was that mud deposit, tell
the history of this lake aud its shores.
Mai. r. Hawn, now of Leavcn-
worth, in pursuing his land surveys un-
der Surveyor General Calhoun, and sub
seauently in assisting Prot. G. &. Swal-
low in his Kansas geological survey,
found this lake or Loess deposit as II
has been called, in the following Kansas
couutios: Miami, Brown, Doniphan,
Chase, Linn, Lyon, Butler, Usage, Nor
ris and Greenwood. Prot. Swallow
mentions il rs forming the principal sol!
of cultivation IN many other of our Kan
sas counties. Its depth is spoken of as
being in places IN Miami county as great
As twenty feet, and in Brown county
seventy five feet.
Prof. Samuel Aughey SAYS this Looss
deposit prevails over at least three
tourths Oh the surface of Nebraska, and
that it ranges in thickness from FIVE to
one hundred and fifty feet. Prof. C. a.
White says this deposit occupies the sur
face of all the counties OF Iowa which
border upon the Missouri River.
In Missouri, near Kansas City, on what
were the banks of this great lake, have
been found mounds which were built by
the people who lived at the time the wa
ters of this lake swept Its shores. With
IN the mounds, beside shumsn skeletons,
have been found stone Implements, Of
peace and war, used by those people.
Such implements have been found in
Nebraska deeply buried in the soil which
composed the sediment Of the lake
found under such circumstances as TO ad-
NIT of no doubt that the implements
were deposited there during the time of
the prevalence of the waters of the lake
over that region.
Little research has been had an Kan
sa. for relics of the tribes of the past.
Yet ancient pottery has been picked up
in many places. On the Solomon and the
Big Blue, Prof. Nudge has seen places
where such pottery was evidently man
ufactured. At Junction City remains
of supposed ancient earth works are
seen. Hieroglyphics perhaps similar to
those seen at Pasmer's Cave have been
fonnd elsewhere, eut upon the faces of
rocks IN western Kansas. But no at
tempt at description or translation has
yet been made go far "a know.
When the educators Of the state shall (.
have we'll taken hold of the study and
teaching OF the surface geology of Kan
sas, as the school law contemplatcs that |
they should do and in the manner point. |
cd out in the admirable little Kansas !
achool book entitled agricultural Geol.
ogy," by Prof. VIM. K Kedzie Of the I
state Agricultural college, we shall have
raised mp an army of inquirers and OBJ.
servers, in respect to this portion of the I
foot stool-befnre the time when God .
left it fashioned for the inhabitancy,
first OF the red man and since for our
Own race. Not the least interesting
branch OF thus investigation will be that
Of the chronological facts connected with
the geological period Just preceding the
present As you suggest, it will be an
appropriate work for the State Historl
,sl Society to encourage such invcstga
'ious. Yours truly,
F. e. ADAMS