The vertical variations in sodium, lead and barium have been determined in the Cottonwood Limestone (Beattie Formation of the Permian System) and in the Burr Limestone bed (Grenola Formation of the Permian System). The limestones in the two beds were quite similar in composition. The shale layer in the Burr bed had much less sodium and not enough lead and barium to determine. The purpose of this study has been to determine the vertical variations of the sodium, lead and barium contents of four outcrops of the Cottonwood Limestone bed and of three outcrops of the Burr Limestone bed located in the Manhattan, Kansas area. This study is a continuation of recent work by Lanning and coworkers (3, 4, 5, 6, 7) on the vertical variations of the chemical composition of these limestone beds. The Cottonwood Limestone is a member of the Beattie Formation of the Permian System. Outcrops are found in a zig-zag north-south line across Kansas from Nemaha to Cowley counties. The ledge, from 5 to 7 feet thick, contains three distinct layers consisting of a center section about 4 inches thick with a layer above and a layer below, each about 3 feet thick. The Burr Limestone is a member of the Grenola Formation of the Permian System. The ledge, from 6 to 7 feet thick, contains three distinct layers consisting of top and bottom layers of limestone each approximately 3 feet thick and a center layer of shale about one foot thick. Lanning and Hiebert (7) have shown that the shale layer of the Burr Limestone contains less than 1.0% CaO. The technique used to determine these trace elements was flame photometry. For Na, emission flame photometry was used and for Pb and Ba, atomic absorption (AA), "one of the fastest growing areas of spectroscopy" (2).