The Emporia weekly news. [volume] (Emporia, Kan.) 1881-1889, 1885-05-07
4 GEoLoGroAL sURHEH.

LOOuceQ Ior the purpose Oh ptONluLnB
for geological survey of the state. The
bills were nearly identical, and as It ap-
peared that there was . general feeling
throughout the state in favor of the sur
Vey. there was good ground for hoping
that useful act would be passed which
would cause the work to be commenced
this sesson. But such result was not.
Some persons having altogether made
quate conception of the scope and value
OF a geological survey started the idea
that the principal thing the bill should
provide for oughtito be 9 series of Dor
ings IN different parts of the state, and
thus find out what are the rocks and
minerals beneath the surface. This pro-
posal contains so specious q view Of the
matter that 1t is not wonderful that some
persons should be carried away with It,
though it is wonder that bill embodY-
ing the carrying out Of so costly an ex-
pertinent should actually have passed
the lower house.
We shall try to show what q boring
survey would accomplish and what q
geological survey would reasonably be
expected TO reveal.
1t q hole were bored with q diamond
drill, bringing up the core, to the depth
Of Athousand feet, we should know from
that what the strata were at that spot,
and in what order they occurred to that
depth. That spot is two inches in diane
ter. We learn nothing further from it;
the dip of the strata cannot be shown
and the strata themselves may be belied.
For instance, il at the depth of 200 feet
a bed of gravel were encountered the
drill might strike not small loose stones,
but one large one horizontally greater
than the diameter of the
drill, and piercing it and
bring up a core, the record would be "a
stratum OF limestone, sandstone or gran
ite," as the case might be, of from SIX 70
sixty inches thick, instead of gravel
with large boulders." Setting aside En-
rors of that kind if would need q series
of bOrings, say not more than I'VE miles
apart, across q county to form even an
approximate estimate Of the dip OF the
strata and their continuity under the
area of that county. 1t is q very low
estimate to say that one such boring
would cost $4,000 and only i've In
county would require $4,000. To do
this work, then, In only half the coun-
ties of the state would cost halt million
dollars. and the knowledge obtained
would be of little or no value at any
point sItuted five miles or more from the
line Of borIngs.
To have knowledge Of the geology Of
Kansas it is necessary that we have
some means of examining the rocky
strata to q considerable depth. Where
coal or metals have been accidentally
discovered and numerous shafts have
been sunk in a limited area and the rec
ord of the sinking of those shafts has
been kept, we can, for that district, form
conceptions of the thickness and order
and dip of the strata, which are not far
from the truth. Still, this method Of
boring or sinking shafts is very costly
and Its results are of very limited value.
1t may safely be SAID that had we de-
pended on boring or mining there would
have been no science of geology.
There is. however a method of learn
ing the structure of the earth's crust to
depth even OF thousands of feet with
| greater approximation to correctness for
extended areas than any borings can be
II aygyNarfa6 70 rrir ak g. ~
the cost. Nature has by various means
laid open the bosom of Mother Earth
A little stream will in few years cut q
great cash in bank of clay and let US
see its structure to the very bottom. A
large river which has been running fol
ages has cut down through soil ana clay
and solid stone tor hundreds of feet. An
earthquake may sometimes make great
fissure, miles in length and very deep.
We can examine the sides of the fissure
or of the river valley aud thus learn the
dip, the bedding, the structure of the
rocks for great depths and over thou
sands of miles of area. The great canoI
of the Colorado river is such q cutting
made by nature. 1t is more than a mile
deep. If the entire revenue of the ma
uonal government was expended IN dia
mond drill borings for long term o
years, they would give no such accurate
knowledge of the geology of that region
us would be obtained in q few years ex
animation of the walls OF the canon ant
Its branches by half dozen competen
biologists, at a merely infinitesimal par
of the cost.
1t is so in Kansas. The Kaw river ant
its affluents-say to the head of the Sol
omon-make a cutting into the sole
strata that in the aggregate is not les
than $500 feet deep, and it extends near
ly the whole length of the state. Tn
Neosho river gives a cutting shorter il
length, but of even greater proportional
depth. An examination of rocks ex
posed in the bluffs and ravInes OF thes
two valleys, which could be made in hal
dozen years, would give US the orde
of strata, with the dip and structure to
much greater extent, at a cost OF fey
: thousand dollars per annum, than woul
be possible in the same time by boring
that would cost half million.
The bills introduced by the academ
OF science provided that the four primo
pal river basins should be made til
basis of the survey; that is, that exami
nation should be made of the section
caused by the erosive power of tn
rivers Missouri, Kaw, Neosho and Al
kansas, and their principal tributaries
This would require the constant work c
four parties in the field and would r.
veal in a few years what are the mIners
resources of each portion of the stat
: Made by competent men this surge
would enable mining companies or in
diViduals to know what the chances ar
In any district for finding coal or othe
minerals; mining would be reduced t
the minimum of risk and capital nigh
be invested therein as a legitimate spec
ulation, and withheld from those region
where its expenditure would be waste
All the geological knowledge of tn
state would then be the property OF tn
state. One of our citizens at his oWl
expense, made q careful examination G
more than q hundred miles of the KsV
valley, and the elaborate diagram of tn
section made, he keeps locked up IS
valuable treasure. Another geologIs
has recently made a section of abOu
thirty miles of the valley of the Fal
river, giving depth of over 200 feet o
the various strata. In these works al
the knowledge that well borers coul
give has been freely used to correct Q
corroborate that obtained from g stud
of the exposures in bluffs and ravinel
but the main part efthe work has bee
done by careful inspection of the gigau