LIBRARY OF 
 
 1685- IQSe 
 
PRELIMINARY REPORT 
 
 CNITED STATES GEOLOGICAL SURVEY 
 
 WYOMING 
 
 PORTIONS OF CONTIGUOUS TERRITORIES, 
 
 (BELN'G A SECOXD AXXIjAL KEPORT OF PROGRESS,) 
 
 COXDL'CTED 
 
 UNDER THE AUTHORITY OF THE SECRETARY OF THE INTERIOR, 
 
 F. V. HA YD EN, 
 
 UNITED STATES GEOLOGIST. 
 
 WASHII^GTON: 
 GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE. 
 
 187L^ 
 
LETTER TO THE SECRETARY. 
 
 WASHmGTON, January 1, 1871. 
 
 Sir: In accordance with your iustructious elated July 15, 1870, I 
 have the lionor to present the* second annual report of progress of the 
 United States geological survey of the Territories, conducted under 
 your direction during the present season. 
 
 In the field work I have been guided by the following directions, con- 
 tained in your letter of instructions : 
 
 "The area of your exploration must necessarily be discretionary to 
 some extent ; but owing to the lateness of the season and the limited 
 time for field-work, it is thought advisable by this Department that the 
 field of your labor be confined principally to Wyoming and such portions 
 of contiguous territories as may be deemed desirable. You will be re- 
 quired to secure as full material as possible for the illustration of your 
 final report, such as sketches, photographs, &c. It is desirable that 
 your collections in all departments should be as complete as possible, 
 and you will forward them to the Smithsonian Institution, to be classified 
 and arranged according to law. You will be expected to prepare a pre- 
 liminary report of your labors, which will be ready for publication by 
 January 1, 1871. You are referred to your instructions of last season for 
 the details of your duties in the field." 
 
 The bill making the appropriation for the survey was not signed by 
 the President until the 15th of July, and immediately thereafter I pro- 
 ceeded to Cheyenne, Wyoming Territory, in accordance with the above 
 instructions. 
 
 My party was organized as follows : 
 
 James Stevenson, managing director ; Henry W. Elliott, artist ; Prof 
 Cyrus Thomas, agriculturist ; Wm. H. Jackson, photographer ; John H. 
 Beamau, meteorologist ; Charles S. Turnbull, secretary ; Arthur L. 
 Ford, mineralogist; C. P. Carrington, zoologist; Henry D, Schmidt, 
 naturalist ; L. A. Bartlett, general assistant. Mr. S. E. Gififord, land- 
 scape artist, of New York City, accompanied the party as guest from 
 Cheyenne to Fort Bridger. My emjjloyes were, one wagon-master, four 
 teamsters, and three cooks and laborers. At Fort Fettermau I employed 
 an old mountaineer as guide and interpreter, through that portion of 
 the countr^^ supposed to be infested with hostile Indians. 
 
 * This is really a fourth annual report of progress of tbe United States geological 
 survey of the Territories. The first and second annual reports will be found incor- 
 porated in the reports of the Commissioner of the General Laud Office for the years 
 18G7 and 1868. The th vd is the report of the survey of Colorado and New Mexico, 
 published last winter. 
 
4 GEOLOGICAL SUEVEY OF THE TERRITOEIES. 
 
 The greater part of our outfit was obtained at Cheyenne. Through the 
 generous kindness of the depot quartermaster at Fort Eussell, Colonel C. 
 A. Eeynolds, we were enabled to start on our journey, fully equipped, 
 August 6th. The previous year our course had been southward from 
 this point, along the eastern base of the mountains to Santa Fe, in 
 order to study the fine exposures of the rocks of different ages, as they 
 were lifted up by the elevation of the mountain chains. In order that 
 the labors of the two seasons might be connected together, it seemed best 
 to proceed northward along the eastern base of the Laramie range, by 
 way of Chugwater Creek, Laramie Peak, North Platte, Sweetwater, and 
 South Pass. The country along the immediate line of our route was 
 examined with as much care as possible, and frequent excursions were 
 made up the valleys of the little streams to their sources in the mount- 
 ains, thus obtaining cross-sections from the central nucleus of the mount- 
 ain ranges extending into the plains. In this way we explored the 
 North Platte and its numerous branches to the Eed Buttes ; thence we 
 struck across the divide to the valley of the Sweetwater ; thence up 
 that stream to its source in the Wind Eiver Mountains. The geological 
 structure of the Sweetwater Valley, although simi^le, was very interest- 
 ing, and afforded ample scope for the imagination in reconstructing the 
 numerous phases which it has assumed in past ages. We gave a hasty 
 glance at the Sweetwater mines and the southern portion of the Wind 
 Eiver Mountains, and passed down the Big aud Little Sandy Creeks to 
 Green Eiver, and thence by way of Church Buttes to Fort Bridger. 
 Here we established a permanent camp for about twenty days, made 
 numerous side excursions up the Bear Eiver, Muddy Creek, Black's Fork, 
 and Smith's Fork, thus exploring, with considerable care, the northern 
 slope of the Uinta Mountains. This range is one of wonderful beauty, 
 a unique creation, without a parallel in the West, so far as I have yet seen. 
 From Fort Bridger we proceeded southward to Henry's Fork, explored 
 that stream to its source in the axis "of the Uintas, then descended its 
 valley to Green Eiver, explored the latter stream to Brown's Hole, 
 and then returned uj) the river to the Union Pacific Eailroad. The 
 scenery and geology of this region are grand and instructive in the 
 highest degree. From Green Eiver Station we followed the old stage 
 road up Bitter Creek, via Bridger's Pass, Medicine Bow Mountains, 
 across the Laramie Plains, through the Laramie range, by way of Chey- 
 enne Pass, to our -point of departure, where we arrived about the 1st of 
 November. Here the party was broken up, most of its members returning 
 to their homes. A portion of the month of November was occupied in 
 studying the more interesting geological features along the line of the 
 Union Pacific Eailroad from Cheyenne to Salt Lake Valley. Mr. Elliott 
 constructed an excellent pictorial section of the entire road, bringing 
 out all the surface features with remarkable clearness and beauty. In 
 addition to hundreds of local sketches and sections, Mr. Elliott has de- 
 lineated three continuous pictorial sections across the territory of Wyo- 
 
GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF THE TERRITORIES. 5 
 
 ming which, if properly engraved, will form a new era in the exhibition 
 of stractaral geology. The collections in geology and natural history 
 were very large, and many new forms, recent as well as fossil, were added 
 to science. Some idea of the extent of the collections may be obtained 
 from the catalogues which are appended to this report. I take pleasure 
 in acknowledging the great fidelity of all my assistants to the interests 
 of the survey, and their efficient aid throughout the entire trip. My 
 principal assistant, and associate for many years on the plains, Mr. 
 James Stevenson, rendered me the same faithful and indispensable ser- 
 vices that have characterized his labors in previous expeditions. Mr. 
 Elliott, the artist, worked with untiring zeal, and his sketches and sec- 
 tions have never been surpassed for beauty or clearness in any country. 
 
 The valuable report of Prof. Thomas will furnish ample proof of his 
 constant fidelity to his duties. I regard his report as of great practi- 
 cal interest to the country. • 
 
 Mr. William H. Jackson performed his duties throughout the entire 
 trip with a true enthusiasm for his art, and the result is about 400 nega- 
 tives that have hardly been surpassed for beauty or perfection. These 
 l^ictures throw great light ou the singular geographical and geological 
 features of the West, and are, in my opinion, a real contribution to 
 science as well as to landscape photography. 
 
 Mr. Gifford, although accompanying the party by invitation for the 
 purpose of studying the grand scenery of the Eocky Mountains in an 
 artistic sense, rendered us most efficient aid, and by his genial nature 
 endeared himself to all. 
 
 To Mr. Beaman was assigned the duty of meteorologist, and his report 
 on the subject, herewith appended, will show his zeal in the work. The 
 elevations, though only approximately true, must be regarded as of great 
 value, extending as they do over a country in which very few observations 
 had previously been made. For a large part of the season we followed the 
 old routes of Fremont and Stansbury, and in our examinations we found 
 their reports of great service. So far as the general geographical 
 features of the country are concerned, and the leading facts useful to 
 the emigrant, we found them to be remarkably accurate, and I take 
 pleasure in bearing my hearty testimony to the zeal and ability of these 
 eminent explorers. So far, however, as the geological structure of 
 the country is concerned, but little of a definite character can be found 
 in their rejjorts. 
 
 In my report of last year I spoke of the great value of the assistance 
 rendered me by the military authorities of the West. I take pleasure in 
 again thanking them for still more valuable kindnesses the present sea- 
 son. Before leaving Washington I called upon the honorable Secretary 
 of War, General Belknap, with a letter from the Secretary of the In- 
 terior, requesting such assistance from the military authorities of the 
 West as could be afibrded me without detriment to the service. The 
 Secretary of War at once issued orders in accordance with this request, 
 
6 GEOLOGICAL SUEVEY OF THE TEREITORIES. 
 
 which were distributed to the different military posts of the West. 
 These orders were indorsed by General Meigs and General Eaton at 
 Washington, by General Sheridan at Chicago, and by General George D. 
 Euggles, in the absence of General Augur, at Omaha. 
 
 My outfit was obtained of Colonel C. A. Eeynolds, depot quartermas- 
 ter, stationed at Fort Eussell, and most cordially do I thank him for the 
 friendly interest he took in our welfare. The outfit we obtained here 
 could not have been purchased in the country, however large our appro- 
 priation ; and besides the great saving to the appropriation, the real 
 interest that both he and his subordinates manifested in providing 
 everything for our comfort and success, called forth the gratitude of 
 the whole party. At every military post we visited we were received 
 with great attention, and the numerous favors, so indispensable in 
 the performance of our duties, were granted us everywhere. In this 
 connection, in addition to those already referred to, I may more especially 
 mention Colonel Chambers, in command of Fort Fetterman, and Lieu- 
 tenant O'Brien, quartermaster. Captain Gordon and Lieutenant Gregg, 
 of Camp Stambaugh, Lieutenant Shepard, of Fort Bridger, Colonel 
 Bradley, of Fort Steele, and Lieutenant Bubb, of Fort Sanders. 
 
 Although the appropriation for the exploration of the year 1870 was 
 very liberal compared with those of former years, I did not feel war- 
 ranted in employing a topographer, and therefore was able to contribute 
 little of importance toward the improvement of our maps. The maps 
 already constructed by the Engineer Bureau of the Army are undoubt- 
 edly the best of any published in America, but in attempting to express 
 the geology of the mountain districts of the West upon them, they are 
 found to be quite inadequate. It has already been shown by the ablest 
 geographers in the Old World, that any topographical map that is not 
 constructed in accordance with well-established laws of geological struc- 
 • ture, must be of approximate value only. It is proposed to prepare a 
 map of the districts explored, on a scale of two miles to the inch, not 
 only to express the details of the geology with suitable colors, but also 
 to show, for the benefit of our legislators, the amount of land that can 
 be redeemed by irrigation, timber land, bottom land, »&c. Such a map 
 would be of great importance in determining the value of land grants 
 to railroads and other corporations, and would save to our Government 
 many times the cost of the entire survey. 
 
 My explorations of the country west of the Mississippi began in the 
 spring of 1853, prior to the organization of Kansas and Nebraska as 
 Territories, and I have watched the growth of this portion of the West 
 year by year, from the first rude cabin of the squatter to the beautiful 
 villages and cities which we now see scattered so thickly over that 
 country. We have beheld, within the past fifteen years, a rapidity of 
 growth and development in the Northwest which is without a parallel in 
 the history of the globe. Never has my faith in the grand future that 
 awaits the entire West been so strong as it is at the present time, and 
 
GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF THE TERRITORIES. 7 
 
 it is my earnest desire to devote tbe remainder of the working days of 
 ray life to tlie development of its scientific and material interests, nntil 
 I shall see every Territory, which is now organized, a State in the Union. 
 Out of the portions of the continent which lie to the northward and 
 southward of the great central mass, other Territories will, in the mean 
 time, be carved, until we shall embrace within our limits the entire 
 country from the Arctic Circle to the Isthmus of Darien. 
 
 It will not be possible for me in this report to give full credit to all 
 for the numerous favors and courtesies which have been extended to 
 my party, not only during the present season, but for the many years 
 of the past that I have been exploring the West. Manj- of them were 
 indispensable to my success, and a great source of saving in the expendi- 
 ture of my limited appropriations. I take this occasion to state that 
 every favor extended to myself or my i)arty by the citizens of the coun- 
 try, by the military authorities, or by railroad corporations, has been in 
 the past and will be in the future credited to the cause which I have 
 endeavored to advance. Every dollar that could be saved I have regarded 
 as so much power given me to place before the world in a i)roper light 
 the magnificent resources, scientific and practical, of our vast domain 
 in the West. 
 
 To Hon. Leland Stanford, C. P. Huntington, and Charles Crocker, 
 of the Central Pacific Eailroad; to Hon. John D. Perry and Gen- 
 eral A. Anderson, of the Kansas Pacific Railway; and to Gen- 
 eral John Pierce and Colonel Fisher, of the Denver Pacific Eailroad, I 
 would tender my grateful thanks for the generous manner in which 
 most important favors were extended to me and to my party, thereby 
 saving hundreds of dollars to the Government. 
 
 To the ofticers of the Union Pacific Railroad, in years past, I have been 
 greatly indebted for free transportation and other courtesies. From 
 General G. M. Dodge, of Council Bluffs, to whom the West is indebted 
 for its material advancement as much as to any one living man, I have 
 always received the warmest sym^jathy and aid. I have also to thank 
 Dr. T. C. Durant and Webster Snyder, former superintendent of the 
 road, for marked courtesies in the line of my scientific investigations. 
 Scientific men who are truly devoted to their calling cannot be specu- 
 lators or ardently given to pecuniary gains. Citizens of the country 
 and great corporations must ever be largely the recipients of the mate- 
 rial benefits of these labors. Generosity on the part of such corpora- 
 tions toward men who are devoted to the advancement of knowledge or 
 the good of the world, may be regarded as the index of their tone and 
 character. I am glad to say that, with comparatively few exceptions, 
 I have received from the railroad men of the West every mark of ap- 
 preciation I could desire. In former reports I have frequently men- 
 tioned the cordial sympathy of the citizens of the Territories in my 
 labors. I am obliged to speak the truth as I read it in the great book 
 of nature, whether it is in accordance with the preconceived notions of 
 
8 GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF THE TERRITORIES. 
 
 the iiilinl)it;iiits ol" a district or not, aud I cannot depart from this inex- 
 orable law for fear or favor. It is my earnest wish at all times to report 
 that which will be most pleasing to the people of the West, providing 
 there is any foundation for it in nature. When I cannot do so, I shall 
 wait for time to place me right in their estimation. 
 
 To Dr. G. L. Miller, editor of the Omaha Herald, and Captain William 
 Wilcox and William Stephens, of the firm of Stephens & Wilcox, Omaha, 
 Colonel I. W. French, of Cheyenne, and Miers Fisher, of Denver, Colo- 
 rado, my entire party have been indebted, from time to time, for material 
 favors of great value. My thanks are also due to Hon. S. F. Nuckolls, of 
 Cheyenne, Dr. Hiram Latham, of Laramie City, J. W. Watson, of 
 Georgetown, D. C. Collier, of Central City, aud J. M. Marshall, of 
 Black Hawk, Colorado. The gentlemen connected with the press of 
 the whole West, with very few exceptions, have always given me the 
 most hearty sympathy and assistance in all my labors, and to them I 
 extend my cordial thanks. 
 
 I have thought it best to make these preliminary reports the vehicle 
 of much detailed matter which T believe to be useful, upon which I shall 
 hereafter base many generalizations, but which cannot be repeated in a 
 more elaborate final report. The object of these reports seems to me 
 to be to bring before the people at as early a date as possible immediate 
 practical results. I have also endeavored to render them as free from 
 technical language as possible consistent with scientific accuracy. By the 
 hundreds of thoughtful minds all over our country the essays of Leidy, 
 Cope, Lesquereux, Hodge, and Newberry will be read with deep interest. 
 If this report is not as complete as could be desired, I would respect- 
 fully direct your attention to the fact that the entire exploration has 
 been made and the report submitted to you in a little less than six 
 months from the date of the passage of the bill authorizing it. It is my 
 hope to be able to continue these reports from year to year, and to make 
 them more complete and more useful to science and to the country. 
 Very respectfully, your obedient servant, 
 
 F. V. HAYDEN, 
 
 United States Geologist. 
 
 Hon. Columbus Delano, 
 
 Secretary of the Interior. 
 
I>^RT I. 
 
 REPORT OF F. V. HAYDEN. 
 
 Chapter— 
 
 I. FROM CHEYENNE TO FORT FETTERMAN. 
 IT. FROM FORT FETTER:MAN TO SOUTH PASS. 
 III.* FROM SOUTH PASS TO FORT BRIDGER. 
 IV. FORT BRIDGER AND THE UINTA MOUNTAINS. 
 
 V. FROM FORT BRIDGER TO UINTA MOUNTAINS, HENRY'S FORK, GREEN 
 . RIVER, AND BROWN'S HOLE TO GREEN RIVER STATION ON THE 
 UNION PACIFIC RAILROAD. 
 VI. FROM GREEN RIVER STATION, ^^.v BRIDGER'S PASS, TO CHEYENNE, 
 WYOMING TERRITORY. 
 
GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF THE TERRITORIES. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 FROM CHEYENNE TO FOET FETTEEMAN. 
 
 Duriug the summer of 1869 my explorations were •directed southward 
 from Fort D. A. Eussell, near Cheyenne, Wyoming Territory, along the 
 eastern base of the Eocky Mountains, through Colorado into New Mex- 
 ico, as fiir as the Placier Mountains. In order that I might trace the 
 different geological formations northward in their geograi)hical exten- 
 sion and connect the results of the two seasons' examinations, I thought 
 it best to commence the labors of the present year at the same point and 
 proceed northward, by way of Laramie Peak and South Pass. 
 
 Fort D. A. Russell is located on the north bank of Crow Creek, a small 
 tributary of the South Platte. The rocks which underlie the country in 
 every direction are evidently of modern date, and belong to the upper 
 tertiary. They are cut through by the little streams, and we find ex- 
 posed a moderately thick deposit of gravel and boulders resting upon an 
 irregular surface of the indurated marls, sands, and clays of the lake 
 sediments. This is the case in the valley of Crow Creek near the fort, 
 where the vertical bluffs are formed of aluminous marl, with a greater 
 or less admixture of sand. There are also layers of fine indurated sand- 
 stone, with small cavities filled with clay and irregular seams of whitish 
 silicious material scattered through all the beds. Near the base of the 
 mountains are small fragments of feldspar. Resting upon what ap- 
 pear to be true tertiary strata are beds of greater or less thickness, 
 composed of sand, gravel, and water- worn boulders, passing up into two 
 to four feet of unstratified marl, with a foot or so of soil. Our course 
 from Cheyenne was directly north along the military wagon-road to Fort 
 Laramie, and our first camp was on Lodge Pole Creek. The surface of 
 the country is beautifully undulating, consisting of rounded hills, ridges, 
 and valleys; but not a tree or bush is to be seen. The same formations 
 occur on Lodge Pole Creek that are noted above on Crow Creek. The 
 strata are the same on all the branches from the foot of the mountains to 
 the North Platte. Horse Creek and its branches are nearly desti- 
 tute of trees of any kind, and the water is so low that it can hardly 
 be called a running stream; still the soil is good, the bottoms quite 
 broad, and grass fine. For pastoral j)urposes this valley is very de- 
 sirable. In order that we may study the geological structure of the 
 country with success we must travel along the base of the mountains, 
 where the different strata are exposed by the elevation of the mountain 
 ranges. To ex^jlore the more mountainous portions, we must travel on 
 horseback, and make the road in the jilains, which our wagons must 
 adhere to, our base of operations. We can thus make side trips with 
 pack animals to any portion of the countrj^, however rugged the surface, 
 if it presents any objects of interest. 
 
 August 7. — This morning tiie train proceeded across the plains north- 
 ward to the Chugwater, a distance of about thirty-five miles. With 
 Mr. Gifford and four or five assistants I followed the valley of Lodge 
 Pole Creek to the foot of the mountains, about sixteen miles distant. 
 The surface of the country was undulating and covered with a fair growth 
 
12 GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF THE TERRITORIES. 
 
 of grass ; here and there in tlie Valley of the creek, or some side ravine, 
 the rocks are exposed, revealing their age to be upper tertiary. Cream-col- 
 ored marls and sometimes deep, ferruginous sands are seen, but the pre- 
 vailing color of the rock material is light drab-yellow. The valley of the 
 Lodge Pole Creek will average about six miles in width from bluff to 
 blufi". The surface of the highlands is covered to a greater or less ex- 
 tent with gravel and stray boulders of moderate size, varying from that 
 of a pin's head to a foot in diameter. Masses of carboniferous lime- 
 stone are very abundant, showing that these beds were very accessible 
 to the waters during the later drift period. Some of these limestone 
 masses are quite full of fossils, as crinoidal stems, Athyris siihtilita, 
 Orthis, and Chonefes. A careful examination of the stray boulders scat- 
 tered upon the plains will enable one to determine with a great degree 
 of certainty what formations are revealed along the flanks of the moun- 
 tains. I take the position that these superficial deposits are the result of 
 forces acting from the mountains toward the plains, and that in sweep- 
 ing down from the flanks across the uijturned edges of the beds of 
 dilferent geological periods, as there exposed, they carry portions of each 
 formation with them, and strew them over the plains. Wherever a form- 
 ation is well developed and exi)osed, there the more fragments of it will 
 predominate. When the red sandstones are largelj^ exposed, then the 
 drift will be filled with fragments of red sandstone, and the same is in- 
 variably the case with the carboniferous strata. 
 
 The Laramie Mountains, or Black Hills, as they are usually called, 
 form one of the shore lines of a great fresh-water lake, which covered 
 an enormous area on the eastern slope of the Eocky Mountains during 
 the middle and upper tertiary epoch. When the waters were drained 
 away from this lake basin, a vast thickness of clays, marls, sands, and 
 sandstones was left high on the sides of the mountains, sometimes 
 reaching nearly to the crest or divide. In many localities thebeds have 
 not been subjected to as much denudation as in others, and in that case 
 they jut up against the mountain sides so as to conceal all the older un- 
 changed strata, and not unfrequently concealing the metamorphic rocks 
 over large areas. 
 
 Along the immediate line of the Union Pacific Eailroad, the tertiary 
 beds form a sort of bench, which rises gradually from Cheyenne nearly 
 to Granite Station. The tertiary beds are stripped off only to a moderate 
 extent, revealing a bed or two of carboniferous limestone. A vertical 
 section would show the upper tertiary deposits resting directly, though 
 unconformably, on the carboniferous limestones, and the latter lying 
 on the granites. But on either side, north or south, not only the car- 
 boniferous rocks are exj^osed, but the red beds and, perhaps, the triassic 
 or cretaceous. All along the flanks of the mountains, from Granite Canon 
 Station northward to the northern boundary of this lake basin, we know 
 thatformatiousof the age of carboniferous, triassic, Jurassic, cretaceous, 
 and perhaps lignite tertiary, exist, whether exposed by the denudation of 
 the White River tertiary beds or not. It is proper, therefore, to color all 
 these formations on a geological map by bands or zones along the sides 
 of mountain ranges. Though if a map were constructed on a large scale 
 and the geologj^ colored in detail upon it, these bands would be some- 
 what interrupted here and there by the concealment of one or more of 
 the formations, by modern tertiary, or drift deposits. The valleys of 
 the little streams, as they extend down into the plains from the moun- 
 tains, are usually quite rugged at first, but become less so until the sides 
 are rounded and grass-covered. But along the immediate base of the 
 mountains there is often a valley at right angles to the /alleys of the 
 
GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF THE TERRITORIES. 13 
 
 streams and parallel with the mouutaiu rauges, and evidently scooped 
 out by forces acting from them. From the head of Crow Creek to the 
 Clmgwater, there is a well-marked illustration of this type of valley. 
 It averages from five to ten miles in width, and the surlace is gently 
 rolling, and usually covered with grass. The little streams as they pass 
 across it do not cut deep channels. The eastern side is a high, abrupt, 
 irregular wall of White Eiver tertiary beds, oftentimes so eroded as 
 to present iu some degree the architectural appearance of the " bad lands." 
 Through tbis wall the little streams have cut their channels, and flow 
 down through the plains in valleys with more or less blufit'like hills on 
 either side, from one hundred and fifty to two hundred feet in height. 
 Where these parallel valleys occur at the foot of the mountains, the 
 changed as well as unchanged rocks have suffered great erosion. Here 
 and there they are omitted for some reason, and again appear in their 
 full proportions. Immediately north of Horse Creek there is a remnant 
 of the main " hog-back," or ridge remaining, composed of the triassic and 
 carboniferous beds, extending for about five miles, which is divided into 
 three parts by the channels of streams flowing through it at right angles 
 from the mountains. Its trend is nearly north and south, and its dip 
 east; and immediately west the granites an<l gneiss rise gradually 
 toward the crest of the range. This fragment of the main ridge shows 
 that but for erosion it would have been continuous all along the flanks 
 of the mountains. 
 
 An interesting question arises as to the manner in which these parallel 
 valleys have been scooped out. That it must have occurred after the 
 deposition of the latest tertiary beds is evident, from the fact that the 
 streams which form the outlets have cut their way through them. As 
 I have before stated, the mountains formed the western shore of the 
 great fresh-water lakes of the middle and upper tertiary periods. As 
 the mountains were slowly elevated, so that the vraters receded, there 
 was a depression at tlie immediate base of the mountains, of greater or 
 less depth, that received the drainage. The water-course would be 
 gradually formed for the principal streams and their branches. The 
 waters iu the parallel valleys formed a sort of lake-like expansion of 
 the little streams, and the waters of the lake performed their work of 
 erosion at the same time that the streams wore their channels through 
 the plains. It is probable that since the close of the tertiary period, 
 and the commencement of the present era, the climate of the west has 
 been much colder; that ice and snow accumulated on the mountain 
 ranges in vast quantities ; and that the quantit}^ of water to produce 
 the results which we find indicated by erosion and in the drift was far 
 greater than at present. It may be that ice was not the most important 
 agency, and though the evidence is clear that it performed an active 
 part, yet water was the princij^al agent, and the present existence of an 
 occasional moderate-sized boulder in the plains, too large to be trans- 
 ported by water alone, indicates that an iceberg was now and then 
 drifted out on the waters to the plains. The grooves, scratches, and 
 smooth sides of the mountain valleys in Colorado and other portions of 
 the Kocky Mountains point to the same conclusion. 
 
 From Horse Creek we proceeded northward to the ChugNYater, nine 
 miles distant. The road is a perfectly smooth one for wagons. On our 
 right are continuous walls of White Eiver tertiary, pierced here and there 
 by some little branch. On the left the granite rocks ar^ seen in long, 
 irregular ranges, rising very gradually nearly to the summit. The un- 
 changed beds seem to have been worn away to the level of the valley and 
 the edges covered with a deposit of drift. Here and there, however, they 
 
14 GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF THE TEREITORIES. 
 
 are exposed from beneath the White Eiver beds and the cretaceous 
 strata, with the usual ferruginous concretionary masses, which have 
 fallen in pieces; and from these latter have fallen out very good speci- 
 mens of Baculites ovatus and Inoceramus. 
 
 Near the sources of the Chugwater are some very rich iron mines, 
 which may prove of great value to the country in the future. The fact 
 of their existence has been known for some years, but no definite 
 knowledge of them has been given to the world. In Stansbury's Eeport, 
 page 266, there is the following paragraph: "In the bed of the Chug- 
 water, and on the sides of the adjacent hills, were found immense num- 
 bers of rounded black nodules of magnetic iron ore, which seemed of 
 unusual richness." In the winter of 1859-'60, while attached to the 
 exploring expedition of General W. F. Eaynolds, I made a trij) to the 
 sources of the Chugwater, and found great numbers of these worn masses 
 of iron ore; but not until a comparatively recent period were they 
 traced to their source in the mountains. During the construction of 
 the Union Pacific Eailroad some of the engineers visited the mines 
 and spoke of their future value. In the summer of 1868 I had an op- 
 portunity of examining this region in company with Dr. Latham and 
 Judge Whitehead, of Wyoming, and found the mines much richer and 
 more extensive than had previously been supposed. We commenced our 
 examinations in the valleys of the smaller branches of the "Chug" as 
 they emerge from the mountains, and found that the stray masses of 
 iron ore were confined to one of them. Following the branch up into 
 the range we soon came to the ore beds themselves, which we found to 
 be interstratified among the red feldspathic granites which comjjose 
 the nucleus of the range. The ore beds incline in the same dire(;tion 
 with the granites, and have the same joints and cleavage, and the ex- 
 amples of slicken-sides are numerous. They are not continuous, and 
 are confined to a restricted area, yet Mr. Whitehead traced one of the 
 beds a distance of over one and a half miles. The ore is located much 
 like that in the Lake Superior region, and is i)robably of the age of 
 the Laurentian rocks of Canada. The quantity of ore in this locality 
 appears to be unlimited. Thousands of tons have been washed down 
 into the valley of the "Chug" and distributed among the superficial 
 drift. As we leave the ore beds themselves these stray masses are 
 larger and more angular, and as we pass down the "Chug" they dwindle 
 to minute pebbles and disappear. Mr. J. P. Carson, of New York, an 
 assistant in the survey of 1868, made the following analysis of this 
 ore, at the school of mines, Columbia College : 
 
 Sesquioxide of iron 45.03 
 
 Protoxide 17.96 
 
 Silica 0.76 
 
 Titanic acid 23.49 
 
 Alumina 3.98 
 
 Sesquioxide of chromium 2.45 
 
 Sesquioxide of manganese 1.53 
 
 Lime 1.11 
 
 Oxide of zinc 0.47 
 
 Magnesia 1.56 
 
 Sulphur , 1.44 
 
 Phosphorus a trace 
 
 Fe 45.49 99.78 
 
GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF THE TERRITORIES. 15 
 
 It will be seen by this analysis that the ore is very rich in metallic 
 iron, but it is supposed that it will be reduced with some difficulty. 
 Professor Siilimau is of the opinion that the brown ore or limonite can 
 be employed with it, as a flux, with favorable results. Should the time 
 ever arrive when this ore is absolutly demanded by the country it will 
 be easily accessible from numerous jjoints. 
 
 It is probable, however, that the branch railroad from Cheyenne to 
 Montana will create a demand for these mines, and then the ore can be 
 taken down the valley of the Chugwater with ease. The Chugwater 
 Creek has its origin high up in the crest or divide of the range, and flows 
 for several miles along a rift or valley of upheaval. It then cuts through 
 a high ridge of sandstone of lower cretaceous age, and then wears its 
 channel through horizoutal strata of White Eiver tertiary to its junc- 
 tion with the North Platte. 
 
 From Cache a la Poudre to the Chugwater, the Laramie Mountains pre- 
 serve a remarkable degree of regularity. The line of fracture seems to 
 have been pretty nearly north and south. The singular parallel valley, 
 previously described, ends with the "Chug," and on the north side, ex- 
 tending for four or five miles, arelofty ridges of carboniferous and triassic 
 rocks, trending nearly northeast aud southwest, and dipping at a high 
 angle to the southward. From the "Chug" nearly to the Laramie River, 
 these ridges are enormously developed, having almost entirely escaped 
 erosion, and the entire series of sedimentary beds to the summit of the 
 cretaceous can be studied with ease. The most conspicuous feature 
 which we notice in descending the valley is the high wall of lower cre- 
 taceous sandstone, which stretches away toward the northeast like a 
 huge wall, and the jointage is so regular that it jn^sents the appear- 
 ance of a massive mason- work gradually falling to decay. These lower 
 cretaceous rocks, or No. 1, are composed of two beds of sandstone, in- 
 closing thin layers of clay and sand, with seams of vegetable matter or 
 impure coal. Just outside of this w^all is a remnant of yellow, chalky, 
 calcareous shale, of No. 3 cretaceous, which escaped erosion when the 
 valley between it and the tertiary wall w^as scooped out. After the 
 Chugwater emerges from this ridge, the valley becomes purely one of 
 erosion, iiassing through walls of whitish sandstone and marly clays, 
 the layers of sandstone projecting from the sides of the bluffs like shelves. 
 From this point to the entrance into the Laramie River, the " Chug "flows 
 through the same tertiary beds, and they vary here aud there in their 
 lithological composition. Near the crossing of the " Chug," where troops 
 are stationed, a hill of brown sandstone appears on the summit of the 
 bluff's, which has ijrotected the underlying softer marls and sands. 
 The sides of these sandstone walls are forty to sixty feet perpendicular, 
 sometimes overhanging, and large masses have broken off" and fallen 
 to the base. The most striking feature, however, is the tendency to 
 weather into the most picturesque castellated forms. One isolated hill 
 is circular, and the perfectly flat summit suggested for it the name of 
 " The Round Table." 
 
 Another isolated ijortion of yellow marl, still lower down, stands out 
 so conspicuously to the view of the traveler that it has received the 
 name of " The Pulj^it." The marly layers indicate rather quiet waters 
 for their deposition, but the sandstones show currents of greater or less 
 velocity ; sometimes they are quite fine and easilj' decomposed, so that the 
 surface of the plains in the vicinity is very sandy ; then they are quite 
 coarse, forming a conglomerate, or pudding stone, mostly of small water- 
 worn pebbles, with now aud then a mass six inches in diameter. They 
 also lie irregularly on the arenaceous marls below, as if the surface 'had 
 
16 GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF THE TERRITOEIES. 
 
 been mucli denudecl i^rior to tlie deposition of the sandstone. 1 tliink, 
 liowever, there has been no want of continuity in the beds, and that the 
 irregularity is caused by the change from quiet to turbulent waters. 
 Sometimes there is a sudden jog, so that the sandstone projects down 
 two to four feet, into the underlyiug bed of marl, or it will thin out 
 into indurated marl, to a great extent. For about ten miles these rocks 
 are worn by atmospheric influences into the singular formation de- 
 scribed, and then the cap of sandstone disappears, and the surface is 
 more rounded and covered with grass. The texture of the rocks deter- 
 mines everywhere the surface outlines of the country. In the walls 
 of sandstone and marl are deep vertical fissures, much like those in the 
 metamorphic rocks. Sometimes they pass up through the sandstone 
 cap, and at others are checked by it. They are often filled with par- 
 tially crystallized material, or charged with fine arenaceous sediment 
 from above. The direction of these fissures, or shrinkage-cracks, is 
 northwest and southeast. The plains everywhere present the appear- 
 ance of remarkable table-lands, as if the surface had originally been 
 planed off with great regularity, and the valleys have been grad- 
 ually worn out by water. The mountains immediately north of the , 
 "Chug" present a fine illustration of the style of flexure which is not un- 
 common throughout the Rocky Mountain district. The ridges of un- 
 changed formations seem to have suifered scarcely any erosion for a 
 distance often or fifteen miles north of the "Chug," and die out in the 
 Ijlains, with a trend northeast and southwest. This causes a jog of about 
 ten miles to the eastward. The j)ivotal point seems to be Laramie Peak. 
 Long lines of ridges may be seen running out from the main axis, nearly 
 to the head of Bitter Cottonwood ; and the trend of the axis extends 
 northwest. These flexures in most cases afford the best opportunities 
 for studying the unchanged rocks of different ages, in their order of se- 
 quence, from the granites to the most recent tertiary. 
 
 In all my examinations, however, 1 have not detected the lignite ter- 
 tiary along the base of the mountains north of Cheyenne, until it makes 
 its appearance from beneath the White Eiver beds, about three miles 
 south of Fort Fetterman. 
 
 The Chugwater has a valley about one hundred miles long. ' It has 
 been for many years a favorite locality for wintering stock, not only on 
 account of the excellence of the grass and water, but also from the fact 
 that the climate is mild throughout the winter. Cattle and horses thrive 
 well all winter without hay or shelter. 
 
 The high walls or bluffs which inclose the rather broad valley protect 
 it from the strong cold winds. The soil is everywhere fertile, and, where 
 the surface can be irrigated, good crops of all kinds of cereals and 
 hardy vegetables can be raised v\'ithout difficulty. From the Chugwater 
 we cross the table-like plains for ten miles, and descend to the beautiful 
 valley of the Laramie. From the plains the Laramie range comes out 
 in full view, with the Laramie Peak near the center, towering far above 
 all the other ranges. The main range, with the numerous minor ranges, 
 trend about northwest and southeast. The tertiary rocks on the Lara- 
 mie, near the crossing, have weathered into quite remarkable architec- 
 tural forms, much like those on White River. The texture is similar, 
 also, with marls and calcareous concretions passing tip into fine sand- 
 stones, which decompose so readily, that the valleys and the hills are 
 covered with loose sand. In the harder layers of sandstone are singular 
 whitish, concretion-like sticks and twigs. A few fossil remains were 
 found — as the teeth of Oreodon culbertsonii and Testudo nehrascensis. 
 Oth%r bones were collected, which have not been determined. There are 
 
GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF THE TERRITORIES. 17 
 
 also masses of sandstone vrhicb appear like mud-rock, and layers like 
 impure white limestone, probably composed largely of sulphate of lime 
 and magnesia. From our camp on the Laramie we enjoyed one of the 
 beautiful sunsets which are not uncommon in this western country. 
 But this was a rare occasion, for the sun ])assed down directly behind 
 the summit of Laramie Peak. Tlie whole range was gilded with a 
 golden light, and the haziness of the atmosphere gave to the whole 
 scene a deeper beauty. Such a scene as this could occur but once in a 
 lifetime. From Laramie Eiver to the Bitter Cottonwood our road 
 extends over broad, grassy plains, entirely underlaid by the recent ter- 
 tiary beds. Upon our left the mountains are in full view, and the grassy 
 l^lains seem to extend to the granite foot-hills. As the Bitter Cottonwood 
 Creek seemed to be the nearest point to the Laramie Peak, we camped 
 here two days to make an examination of that region. On the morning 
 of August 12th I started for Laramie Peak with Messrs. Giftbrd, Jack- 
 son, Elliot, Turnbull, and Ford; passed up the valley of the Cottonwood 
 to the foot-hills of the mountains. Mr. Jackson made a large number 
 of excellent photographic views, which will prove of interest not only 
 to science but also to all lovers of "the picturesque in nature." The- 
 scenery in this region is very attractive as well as instructive. The 
 valley of the Bitter Cottonwood, as well as the numerous little ravines 
 that flow into it, are inclosed by rather high bluff-like banks, which 
 show no rocks older than the White Eiver tertiary, until we reach the 
 base of the mountains. Still there is a great thickness of what we have 
 called "local drift," which increases to the base of the mountains, 
 and to a great extent conceals all other rocks. This superficial drift 
 becomes coarser and the stray rocks less worn the higher we ascend. 
 The difference in elevation between our camp on the Cottonwood, and 
 the base of Laramie Peak — a distance of tw^enty-flve miles — is about 
 one thousand eight hundred feet. I have previously noticed the enor- 
 mous development of the sedimentary ridges north of the Chugwater,. 
 and the flexure of the mountains around to the north and northwest ; 
 also, the dying out of the ridges in the plains one after the other in the 
 usual en echelon manner. Between Laramie Canon and Horseshoe Creek 
 these ridges are not seen at all, rising above the surrounding country, 
 and they are exposed only in one locality, to a limited extent, by one of 
 the branches of the Cottonwood, cutting a deep valley through the 
 superficial drift and tertiary beds, just at the base of the mountains. 
 The red beds and carboniferous limestones only, are seen on each side of 
 the road which leads from Fort Laramie to Laramie Peak. Here are two 
 small rounded hills capped with carboniferous limestones. Still, for the 
 most part, the drift and tertiary beds jut up against the granite foot-hills, 
 and the long, table-like benches extend down for miles with a gradual 
 but rather rapid descent, giving a far-extended but beautiful and pic- 
 turesque appearance to the scene. 
 
 Between the Chugwater and the Laramie Eiver the surface seems to 
 have escaped erosion to a great extent, while between Laramie Eiver 
 and the Bitter Cottonwood Creek the erosion has been tremendous. 
 All the ridges, which must have been from five hundred to one thousand 
 feet in height, have been smoothed down and concealed, and the gneiss 
 and granites which form the foot-hills or lower ranges have been worn 
 away so that they project but little above the surface. We have there- 
 fore a belt of country underlaid by metamorphic rocks, five to ten 
 miles in width, covered with most excellent grass, as level as the plains, 
 and very desirable for settlement ; which, but for erosion, would have 
 been as rugged as any portion of the mountainous district. As we 
 2g 
 
18 GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF THE TERRITORIES. 
 
 approach tlie mountains, we pass over many beds of quartz, black g-neiss, 
 seams of feldspar, with now and then a bed of massive feldspathic 
 granite. These rocks are nearly vertical in position, and in most cases 
 project above the superficial drift so as to be barely visible, with a 
 strike nearly north and south. The intercalated beds of massive un- 
 stratified feldspathic granites are thin at first, while the gneissic beds 
 are the most prominent ; but as we approach the base of the mountains 
 the red feldspathic granites rise in thick picturesque ridges, fifty to one 
 hundred feet high, like ruined walls, lending- a peculiar as well as pictur- 
 esque appearance to the landscape. These granites afford most excel- 
 lent rock studies of their kind. The tendency to weather into rounded 
 forms by exfoliation and the jointing are shown very finely. The 
 principal lines of fracture are most continuous, and have a strike east 
 and west, and southeast and northwest, while the other set trend nearly 
 north and south, or northeast and southwest. The tendency to exfolia- 
 tion by the stripping off of thin concentric layers has enlarged the 
 openings sometimes several feet. The granites are thus divided into 
 rather regular rhomboidal masses, many of which have fallen down at 
 the foot of the ridges, and by exfoliation have been so rounded that they 
 appear like immense transported boulders. The texture of the rock is 
 really an aggregate of large crystals of reddish feldspar, with quartz 
 and mica ; the feldspar so predominating that it gives the character to 
 the rock. The mica usually occurs in small masses and in limited quan- 
 tities. The gneissic rocks are divided by the jointing into more regular 
 cuboidal blocks, and have suffered comparatively little from exfoliation. 
 The gneissic strata diminish while the massive granites increase as we 
 approach the main range, which is composed aluiost entirely of the 
 latter. The examples of anticlinals and synclinals in the metamorphic 
 rocks are nowhere better shown than around Laramie Peak. It would 
 require a detailed geographical as well as geological survey, with maps 
 and sections constructed on a large scale, to show the various axes of 
 upheaval. 
 
 The valley of the Cottonwood Creek, which extends along the east 
 base of Laramie Peak and rises about five miles south of it in the maui 
 crest, is a beautiful synclinal. A series of short parallel ridges rise to 
 the very summit of Laramie Peak, on the east ^ide, inclining eastward, 
 while on the opposite side is a similar series of ridges, although much 
 lower, dipping to the westward. These anticlinal and synclinal open- 
 ings give passage to the little streams and ravines or form the open 
 grassy plains which are so pleasant to the Indian. Sometimes these 
 valleys exj)and out into beautiful oval, park-like areas, which at the pres- 
 ent time are the favorite resorts of the wild game, and, if the country 
 were ever settled, would attract a pastoral people. Emigrants from the 
 mountainous districts of the Old World would find here a scenery not un- 
 like that of their own country, with pure air and water and a mild and 
 extremely healthy climate. Cereals and roots of all kinds could be raised 
 sufficient to supply the wants of such people, while the raising of stock 
 would be a source of wealth both to them and to the country. It is 
 somewhat strange that the Laramie range should give origin to no im- 
 portant stream. Both the Platte and the Laramie Elvers liow directly 
 through it. While the springs or little streams are not uncommon, this 
 range cannot be regarded as well watered, and in the autumn the water 
 supply is somewhat limited. This may be accounted for from the fact 
 that the snows of winter are very light and the amount of rain falling 
 during the year quite moderate. Laramie Peak, which is the highest 
 point north of Long's Peak, is not more than ten thousand feet high, 
 
GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF THE TERRITORIES. 19 
 
 and usually retains no snow on its summit after May. One fact is quite 
 clearly shown, along- the immediate base of the mouDtains from the 
 Chugwater to the Bitter Cottonwood, that when a flexure in a mountain 
 range occurs, a portion of the foot-hills and ridges have suffered very 
 little erosion, and can be studied in their full development. For a dis- 
 tance of fifteen miles north of the Chugwater the local erosion from the 
 mountains was very limited, while from Laramie Eiver to the Bitter Cot- 
 tonwood, about fifteen to twenty miles, the erosion has been tremendous. 
 This difference can be accounted for, perhaps, from the fact that the 
 passage of the waters from the mountains was through the anticlinal 
 and synclinal valleys which extend nearly north, and swept over the 
 l^laius between the Cottonwood and the Laramie Eivers. Long parallel 
 benches, with remarkably regular, table-like surfiices, extend down from 
 the base of the mountains between the valleys of the streams. Their uni- 
 formity over such large areas is a striking feature in the landscape. 
 North of the Cottonwood these long benches have a singularly regular 
 series of side furrows, which extend for miles, and give to the surface 
 the appearance of the sea swept by a gentle breeze. We have not before 
 observed this feature, so well marked, although the parallel benches are 
 not uncommon. 
 
 On the morning of the 14th we left Cottonwood Creek for the La 
 Bonte. The wagon-road, although several miles from the Platte River, 
 is still ten to fifteen miles distant from the foot of the mountains. The 
 White River tertiary beds prevail, for the most part, and here and there 
 are high hills, or " buttes," of marls and sandstones, weathering into the 
 castellated forms, before described, but to a limited extent. Still, these 
 beds continue to possess a thickness sufficient to conceal the underlying 
 older formations. Between the Cottonwood and Horseshoe Creeks these 
 deposits are overlaid by a heavy thickness of local drift, and jut up 
 against the granites until we come to the immediate valley of the 
 Horseshoe, where it emerges from the foot-hills. Here is a singular val- 
 ley of erosion on the south side. A small branch flows into the Horse- 
 shoe, uncovering the ridges of carboniferous limestones and red beds, 
 over an area of about a mile in length and half a mile in width ; still, 
 on the opposite or north side of the Horseshoe, the drift juts full against 
 the granite sides. This examj)le shows clearly, that even where they 
 cannot be seen at the ijresent time these sedimentary ridges exist in 
 gTcater or less force all along the mountain flanks. There is no water 
 in this little branch for a great portion of the year, yet all the superficial 
 drift or White River sediments have been washed out, leaving the skele- 
 ton-like ridges of the older rocks. In one place the limestones rest 
 directly on the granites. The dip of the ridges is about 60°, and they are 
 two hundred to two hundred and fifty feet in height above the bed of 
 Horseshoe Creek. That the Jurassic and cretaceous beds exist all along 
 here we cannot doubt, but they are entirely concealed. The valley of 
 the Horseshoe is about three miles wide from bluff to bluff. The cream- 
 colored marls lie close up to the granite rocks. We have usually observed 
 that the sediments of the later tertiary strata were coarser the nearer 
 we approach the base of the mountains ; but this does not seem to be 
 the rule. In some localities the finest marls and sands rest directly 
 upon the metamorphic rocks or fill up the inequalities in the surface far 
 up among the foot-hills nearly to the crest. This range of mountains, 
 however, seems to have formed a well-defined shore line for the lake, for 
 we can find no evidence that the waters passed the divide in the Laramie 
 Plains, although they washed the flanks far up toward the summit. 
 
 From the north side of the Horseshoe Creek we have the most im- 
 
20 GEOLOGICAL SUEVEY OF THE TERRITORIES. 
 
 posing view of Laramie Peak, witli the intervening mountain ridges. 
 They show a trend about southeast and northwest. Between Horseshoe 
 and La Bonte the black gneiss beds must be two thousand to three 
 thousand feet in thickness, extending in long lines across the country 
 nearly north and south, just projecting above the surface, nearly vertical. 
 For ten miles or more the White Eiver tertiary beds conceal the moun- 
 tain flanks ; but from five to fifteen miles northeast of the range, toward 
 the Platte River, the older beds are uncovered over very restricted areas. 
 At the head of a little branch of La Bont6 two ridges of reddish sand- 
 stone and limestone rise up from beneath the tertiary beds, inclining 10° 
 to 15° east of north. The little dry branch has cut through the rift 
 between the ridges caused by the uplift, showing one of them to be com- 
 posed mostly of bright brick-red sandstone, with a layer of light gray 
 sandstone tinged with red, (triassicj) while the other ridge is made up 
 of carboniferous limestones and sandstones. In the limestones are 
 seams of chalcedony, from which most of the varieties of flint scattered 
 through the drift are doubtless derived. Sometimes these isolated hills 
 are elevated in such a way that the two sides incline in opposite direc- 
 tions, forming a fissure at the summit, through which the waters find 
 their way, thus wearing out a gorge or caiion. In the interval between 
 Horseshoe and La Bonte Creeks, and west of the Platte Eiver, the older 
 sedimentary rocks, as carboniferous, triassic, Jurassic, and cretaceous, 
 are uncovered in spots by denudation, always inclining from the moun- 
 tains at a high angle. The pine forests in the mountains at the sources 
 of the Horseshoe and the La Bonte are more dense, and the timber 
 larger, than in any other jjortion of the range that we have seen. Great 
 abundance of ties for railroad purposes could be procured. Our camp 
 in the valley of the La Bont(§ was a pleasant one ; a fine, luxuriant 
 growth of grass covered the immediate bottoms of the creek, and our 
 animals found excellent grazing on the uplands also. The creek is bor- 
 dered with bitter and sweet cottonwood, box elder, and large tree wil- 
 lows to a considerable extent. The soil is certainly fertile enough, and 
 where it can be irrigated, will produce fine crops of all kinds. This 
 will prove one of the best valleys along the North Platte, both for agri- 
 cultural and pastoral purposes. 
 
 On the morning of the 16th we left La Bonte Creek for Fort Fetter- 
 man, which is located near the junction of La Prele with the North 
 Platte. The atmosphere was very smoky, limiting our range of vision 
 considerably, so that we could not see the mountains distinctly. Just 
 north of the La Bonte are a series of anticlinals and synclinals, which 
 are somewhat different from any before observed. The road i^asses 
 along a synclinal valley, with the red sandstones (triassic) inclining 
 southwest on our left, and the Jurassic, with an outcropping of the 
 red beds at the base, about a mile distant, on our right, dipping north- 
 east. The beds on our left dip about 30"^, while those on the right not 
 more than 10^ or 15^. 
 
 The end of one ridge inclining southwest apparently juts up against 
 another inclining northeast. These irregularities are local, and are due, 
 I)erhaps, to the variableness of the internal forces that produced the ele- 
 vations and the different degrees of strength of the earth's crust. 
 
 There is an immense ridge, or "hog-back," extending from the La 
 Bonte to the Eed Buttes, which forms an illustration of these apparent 
 irregularities in the exhibition of the interior forces, on a large scale. We 
 can express them no better than to call them " i)uffs," or local risings of 
 the earth's surface, whidi cause a fracture along the central axis in 
 rather rcguiar lines, and this fracture gives access to atmospheric iuflu- 
 
GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF THE TERRITORIES. 21 
 
 ences wliicTi gradually wear out an anticlinal valley. These anticliuals 
 vary from a few liuudred yards to many miles in length, involving a few 
 beds or all of them down to the granite. We regard each great range of 
 mountains, as the Laramie range, Black Ilills, Wind Eiver range, Big 
 Horn range, &c., anticlinals on a grand scale ; all the ridges, whether 
 composed of changed or unchanged rocks, inclining, step-like, from one 
 central axis. 
 
 In the distance, near the North Platte, a bluff-like wall can be seen, 
 composed of the White Eiver tertiary beds, nearly horizontal or inclin- 
 ing at a very small angle. This abrupt wall is more or less continuous 
 all along the shore of this ancient fresh-water lake, and marks steps in 
 the progress after erosion. It shows that the sediments once extended 
 up to the jflanks of the mountains, with a thickness of several hundred 
 feet more than at present. Between this wall and the sides of the 
 mountains, which vary in distance from two to twenty miles, there 
 are always remnants more or less continuous, with gTeater or less thick- 
 ness. It is from underneath these beds that the older rocks appear, here 
 and there, over an area sometimes of only a few hundred feet, or extend- 
 ing several miles. About five miles north of La Bonte, close by the 
 traveled road, there is a somewhat remarkable conical butte, composed of 
 fine gray sandstones, portions of it approaching a quartzite. The butte 
 is about fifty feet high, with a dip 35<^ to the northeast, and looks like 
 a mass of rocks that had been transported from some other locality and 
 lodged there, for there are no others of the kind for a considerable dis- 
 tance on either side. The explanation appears to be, that this is an 
 isolated portion left after the erosion or denudation of this valley. About 
 half a mile to our left there is a long parallel ridge inclining northeast 
 toward the Platte, with the basset edges of the rocky layers on the 
 southwest side towards the road. At the base a small portion of the 
 red beds is visible ; above them the Jurassic series. Over the red beds, 
 and forming a sort of transition or bed of passage between them and 
 the Jurassic series above, is a layer of this same sandstone, thirty to 
 fifty feet in thickness. This anticlinal valley is about five miles in 
 length and a mile in width, and is now occupied almost entirely by the 
 red beds, while the gray sandstones, and doubtless the more recent 
 formations, Jurassic and cretaceous, extend over the whole area ; and 
 this butte, with a few masses of sandstone on some low elevations close 
 by it, is all that is left at the present time. I call them remnants, mon- 
 uments, or landmarks, left after erosion to assist us in reconstructing 
 the ancient form of the earth's surface. We cannot say that, because a 
 formation or series of formations do not exist over certain areas at the 
 present time, they did not once exist there, and that too in their fall 
 development. How these isolated portions escaped the general erosion 
 it is somewhat difficult to determine. The currents of water, which seem 
 to have come from the direction of the mountain range, were perhaps 
 turned aside by some obstruction thus passing around them ; no debris of 
 any kind has lodged on the sides of the butte. The entire plain country 
 of the West aftbrds examples of these buttes, and I have often alluded 
 to them in former reports. Bijoux Hills, on the Missouri Eiver, Turtle 
 Hill, Deers Ears, Thunder Butte, Church Buttes, Pulpit Eock, and many 
 others which have been regarded as worthy of a place on our best 
 geographical maps, are examples of this kind. 
 
 A glance at the map will show that the Laramie Mountains have bent 
 around westward so as to cause the upheaved ridges to incline about north- 
 east, and as the range continues to curve the ridges to incline north and 
 even to the northwest, following the bend of the axis of elevation. In the 
 
22 GEOLOGICAL SUEVEY OF THE TERRITORIES. 
 
 red beds, between the La Bonte and La Prele, are some layers of fine white 
 amorphous gypsum. About ten miles from La Bonte we cross Spring 
 Creek, a small stream without wood, where travelers sometimes halt 
 for lunch or rest. The most conspicuous feature here is the bluff 
 wall of tertiary, which extends up westward so as to form the high hills 
 on the north side of the valley. The waters have worn deep into the 
 cream-colored marls, so that we have over a restricted area miniature 
 " bad lands." The dome-like hills and the numberless furrows down the 
 sides, the harder layers projecting out like verandahs, are well shown. 
 Three miles before reaching Fort Fettermau, the lignite beds make their 
 appearance from beneath the more modern deposits, exhibiting their 
 peculiar lithological characters in a marked degree. The strata dip 20^ 
 northeast, and where seen in apposition, the White Eiver tertiaries do 
 not conform. Seams of lignite and great quantities of brown iron ore 
 occur here. Some of the iron ore is quite rich, but most of it is very 
 lean. The prevailing constituent in all the rocks, sands, sandstones, 
 clays, &c., is iron, presenting every shade of color that can be derived 
 from that mineral, the yellow iron-rust color predominating. There are, 
 however, some layers of quartzite or coarse sandstone, which is very 
 compact and nearly black, and some of it contains a fair percentage of 
 iron. As soon as we come to these beds, the entire surface of the country 
 presents a somber hue, more rugged and less fertile ; due probably to the 
 greatly diminished amount of calcareous matter. Much of the country 
 has a burnt appearance, due, probably, to the oxidation of the iron. Fort 
 Fetterman is pleasantly located on a bench-like point between the La 
 Prele and the North Platte, near their junction. It commands a fine 
 ^dew of the country in every direction, but more especially up the Platte 
 Yalley, which can be seen for ten miles or more, with its sinuosities and 
 its pretty fringe of fresh green foliage. All the underlying rocks on 
 both sides of the Platte, as well as the La Prele, for several miles around, 
 belong to the eocene or lignite tertiary period. The soil everywhere 
 seems to be productive. Several of the officers at Fort Fetterman have 
 made experiments in raising vegetables in a small way with success. 
 It is the opinion of Colonel Chambers, the commander of the post, that 
 with suitable irrigation, all the more important crops can be raised with 
 ease. 
 
 On the morning of the 17th we made a short side trip from the fort 
 up the valley, to the caiiou of the La Prele. Lieutenant O'Brien and 
 Captain Wells accompanied us to point out the location of a remarkable 
 natural bridge, which was said to rival the famous one in Virginia, with 
 which every school-boy is familiar. We found it even more wonderful 
 than we had anticipated, and it is a matter of surprise that so great 
 a natural curiosity should have failed to attract the attention it de- 
 serves. The caiiou is about ten miles from the fort, and is formed 
 by the passage of La Prele Creek through a long ridge that extends 
 from the La Bonte to Bed Buttes. The canon is one of upheaval and 
 erosion. The ridge is a long, local anticlinal or "puff," and the strata 
 incline from each side of the summit. The gorge is very irregular and 
 tortuous, filled with huge masses of rock that have fallen down, obstruct- 
 ing the passage. Where the stream has cut through the rocks direct 
 we have vertical walls on each side and a narrow gorge; but where 
 the channel passes along a rift the valley expands out several hun- 
 dred feet. Where the La Prele emerges from the canon it cuts 
 through the limestones and red-beds at right angles, forming a regular 
 gorge, with walls fifty to one hundred and fifty feet high. At the head 
 of this gorge the stream has at some time changed its bed, passing 
 
GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF THE TERRITORIES. 23 
 
 directly throngli a point of rocks that extends across the channel. The 
 old bed is now overgrown with trees and bnshes, but is fifty feet higher 
 than the present one. The little creek must have changed its course 
 slightly, for some reason not apparent now, so that its waters were 
 brought against this point or wall of rock, and finding a fissure or open- 
 ing "through, it gradually wore its present channel. It is certainly as 
 perfect a natural bridge as could be desired. The opening under the 
 bridge is about one hundred and fifty feet wide and Mty feet high. The 
 old bed is about three hundred feet to the northwest. It is also plain 
 that the water at one time flowed over the top of the bridge, which is 
 fifty to one hundred feet lower than the top of the gorge, so that we 
 have here some of the intermediate steps which a stream takes in the 
 process of wearing out a gorge or channel. The rocks are mostly lime- 
 stone, quite pure, arenaceous limestone, and at the base very cherty 
 limestone. I found a few fossils in the caQon in a blue limestone, as 
 Hemipronites crassus, Prodnctus nodosus Myalina perattemiata, &c. I 
 think all the rocks are of carboniferous age, although some of them may 
 be Silurian. Whatever the age of the rocks may be, there seems to be a 
 great thickening of them as we go westward. This ridge, which is 
 twelve hundred feet above the base, is composed entirely of what I have 
 usually classified as carboniferous rocks, and nowhere in the caiion, 
 which is at least half a mile in length in a straight line, have the waters 
 worn through to the granites. On the west side of this ridge the beds 
 incline west, northwest, and southwest, and between it and the main 
 mountain range there is an interval of ten to fifteen miles in width, 
 with one or two ridges of limestone and sandstone dipping from the 
 mountains. This broad interval forms a beautiful, grassy valley, whicb 
 is a great resort for game, and will some time afford fine pasturage for 
 stock. The metamorphic rocks soon make their appearance. On the 
 northeast side of the ridges the White Eiver beds lap on the flanks in 
 many places, but here and there they are stripped off so as to reveal the 
 red-beds, Jurassic marls, and the cretaceous. Six miles of the valley 
 between the caiion is covered with the modern deposits, and the remain- 
 der of the way to the fort, with the lignite beds, which are shown in high, 
 cut bluffs of ferruginous sands and sandstones. We were indebted to 
 the hospitable ofl&cers of Fort Fetterman for a very pleasant and instruct- 
 ive day. 
 
 We will now notice briefly the geological character of some of the well- 
 known localities contiguous to but not immediately on the route. The 
 White River group, which we have had occasion to mention so often, 
 extends from La Prele Creek eastward nearly to the Missouri Eiver. 
 It is therefore the prevailing formation in this region. Scott's Bluffs, 
 Chimney Eock, and Court-house Eocks are well-known landmarks on 
 the North Platte, belonging to the White Eiver group. A few miles 
 north, or northwest, of Fort Laramie is a group of high hills rising 
 above the tertiary beds, exposing a considerable thickness of carbonif- 
 erous rocks, with an extensive series of gneissic strata; and here and 
 there a nucleus of feldspathic granites. Eaw Hide Butte, which gives 
 origin to several streams, as Eaw Hide Creek and a branch of the Mo 
 brara Eiver, rises above the surrounding country six hundred to eight 
 hundred feet, and exposes a nucleus of reddish feldspathic granite, with 
 gneissic strata inclining from its sides, with carboniferous limestones 
 reposing uncouformably upon the upturned edges. In some cases the 
 limestones are elevated to the summits of the hills in a nearly horizontal 
 position. All these isolated mountains seem to have been islands in this 
 great tertiary lake. There is no doubt that all the formations that suc- 
 ofed the carboniferous period, as triassic, Jurassic, cretaceous and lower 
 
24 GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF THE TERRITORIES. 
 
 tertiary, once covered tliem in tbeir full thickness, but tliey liave all 
 been swept away. Now the more modern tertiary beds jut up against 
 their sides or are deposited high up in the ravines, indicating by their 
 position that this lake existed here after the mountains had attained 
 nearly their present elevation. There is also an anticlinal valley more 
 or less distinct, extending across the intervening country, connecting 
 those elevations with the Black Hills and the Laramie Eange. The fact 
 that nearly all of the ranges, however small they may be or distinct 
 from each other, are connected together by some link however obscure, 
 illustrates- the unity and simplicity of the Eocky Mountain system. 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 FROM FORT FETTERMAN TO SOUTH PASS. 
 
 On the morning of the 20th we left Fort Fetterraan for the South Pass 
 by way of the Sweetwater. Our first camp was on Box Elder 
 Creek, twelve and one-third miles up the valley of the North Platte. 
 The lignite tertiary beds are the only rocks exposed, and they incline 
 north and northwest 5° to 15^. They are comi^osed of rusty sands and 
 sandstones, arenaceous clays, with some seams of impure lignite. Some 
 of the sandstones are largely concretionary, and break in i)ieces readily 
 on exposure. The high ridge to the west of us trends about north- 
 east and southwest. Along the base of the ridge are some terrace-like 
 benches, perhaps broken fragments of higher levels not swept away. 
 They extend at intervals as far as Fort Casper. In some instances 
 they jut up closely and even lap on to the flanks of the ridge 
 They are remnants of the White River group, whick once extended un- 
 interruptedly over the whole valley close up to the ridge, but which has 
 been washed away, except these fragments. They now seem to give 
 that beautiful bench-like aspect to the surface, which, contrasting with 
 the rugged features of the ridge, adds interest to the scenery. They 
 nowhere incline more than 5°, and in most instances are horizontal, 
 never conforming with the older formations. It is most interesting, by 
 means of these remnants, to trace the old shore-line of the lake, which 
 can be done as perfectly and as clearly as that of any of the northern 
 lakes of the present time. This hog-back or ridge seems to have formed 
 an effectual barrier to these waters on the north side of the Laramie 
 Mountains. 
 
 The Box Elder Caiion aflbrds a good section through the ridge. It is 
 a much more regular gorge than the caiion of the La Prele, and is purely 
 one of erosion, and is six hundred to eight hundred feet in depth. It is 
 so narrow that it is difficult to pass through it on foot, and the sides are 
 perpendicular, and sometimes overhanging. The predominating rocks 
 are sandstones, or calcareous sandstones, with some layers of quite fine 
 limestones, but there is a great variety of texture. Some of the layers 
 indicate very quiet deposition for forty or fifty feet, but the greater i)or- 
 tion of the sandstones is full of irregular layers, showing clearly the 
 nature of the waters at the time. The prevailing color is light yellow, 
 varying to a deep rusty hue, but there is often a tinge of brick red which 
 is marked at some localities. The sandstones are full of beautiful sili- 
 ceous geodes. The ci'j^stals of quartz are mostly small, but very clear, 
 and are set in a layer of amorphous silica or chalcedony as a paste. In 
 the cherty limestones are very distinct fossils, as Athyris, OrtJwceras, 
 
GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF THE TERRITOEIES. 25 
 
 and others. Near the summit of the ridges the gorge becomes very deep 
 aud narrow, and the granite rocks are well exposed, with the unchanged 
 beds directly in contact. In the valley of a small stream about four miles 
 above, the unchanged beds extend only up to the foot-hills, while their 
 relation to the metamorphic rocks is perfectly clear. Eestiug directly 
 upon the granite rocks is a bed of reddish sandstone and quartzite, 
 sometimes so coarse as to be called a pudding-stone, which I have no 
 doubt is Lower Silurian, (Potsdam.) No fossils could be found, but the 
 character and position of the rock render it most probable that it is of 
 that age. Above it, without any apparent unconformability, are beds 
 of limestone and sandstone, which I have regarded as carboniferous, ' 
 though a portion may be of older date. Eeceding from the foot-hills 
 is a series of low ridges, of Jurassic, cretaceous, and lignite strata, as far 
 as the eye can reach — far across the Platte. The red beds are not cjearly 
 shown, but there are remnants of them on the flanks to show they once 
 existed here. The White Eiver beds which jut up against the sides of 
 the ridge are largely made up of reddish, indurated sand, no doubt de- 
 rived from the ground-up materials of the red beds. Among the cai*- 
 boniferous rocks of this region are beds that could be made useful for 
 economical purposes. The yellow, rather chalky limestone near the 
 summit of the ridge is rather magnesian, and could easily be wrought 
 into fine building materials. It somewhat resembles the magnesian 
 limestone so much in use near Junction City, Kansas, but it is more 
 chalky. It contains a few small cavities filled with quartz crystals, but 
 not to such an extent as to prove an injury. The surface exix)sed to the 
 atmosphere is covered with beautiful, basin-like depressions, in which 
 the rain-water accumulates, showing that it is acted ui)on readily by the 
 atmosphere. The mountain ridge which we have been examining runs 
 out in the valley of Deer Creek, about fifteen miles above the Box Elder, 
 producing a jog. A second ridge comes in about five miles back of 
 this, which fronts the Platte for ten miles, where the Casper Eidge 
 juts in abruptly and ends with the Eed Buttes. This jog occui^ies an 
 area about five miles wide and ten miles long, and has been so smoothed 
 by denudation that it is very beautiful to the eye, and always has been 
 an attractive place for herdsmen. 
 
 Eleven years ago I passed a portion of the winter in this valley, con- 
 nected as an assistant with an exploring party under the command of 
 Captain W. F. Eaynolds, United States Engineers. Our stock, which 
 amounted to nearly two hundred mules and horses, was wintered very 
 nicely in the valley of Deer Creek near this jog, without a i^article of 
 hay or grain, with only the grass which they gathered from day to day. 
 The climate was mild and the snow never deep, so that the ground was 
 always exposed to some extent. The present season the hay for winter 
 use at Fort Fetterman is obtained from this valley. The geology of the 
 valley of Deer Creek is very interesting in its details, and I regretted 
 that I could not spend more time at this point. From its junction with 
 the North Platte for five miles of the valley the lignite beds are well 
 developed, revealing the usual sandstones, indiirated clays, &c. Near the 
 mouth of Deer Creek a coal-bed was on fire in the winter of 1859-'60, and 
 I was informed that it is still burning. The surface is heated and much of 
 the earth baked a brick-red color for a considerable space. Five miles 
 up the valley the black clays of No. 4, capped with a thin bed of ferru- 
 ginous arenaceous clays. No. 5, is exposed in the bluffs by the creek. 
 Underlying a long bench which extends down from the foot of the 
 upheaved ridges are two quite striking beds of sandstone. The lower 
 one is concretionary entirely; that is, it is filled with spherical masses 
 
26 GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF THE TERRITORIES. 
 
 of sandstone of all sizes from a few inches in diameter to several feet 
 which split horizontally into thin laminse. The indurated sandy clay 
 in which these concretions are inclosed exhibits the same concretionary 
 character so that the rocks weather into curiously fantastic forms. This 
 bed is undoubtedly cretaceous, and is probably a bed of passage to the 
 lignite tertiary. A few fossils are found in the harder masses, as Inocer- 
 amus, Baculites, &c. Above this bed is a thick group of grayish-brown 
 sandstones, with rusty brown concretions, which also weather into curi- 
 ous architectural forms. These benches extend nearly to the foot of the 
 upheaved ridge, with only a slight inclination, perhaps 5°. The older 
 beds are exposed forming a very narrow belt. 
 
 Our camp on the night of August 21 was near the mouth of Muddy 
 Creek, on the North Platte, thirty-four and one-fourth miles northeast 
 of Fort Fetterman. Muddy Creek rises in the Laramie range, cuttin«- 
 a remarkable canon through the eastern end of Casper Mountain, one of 
 upheaval and erosion combined. The eastern end of this singular rido-e 
 is about fifteen miles southwest of the mouth of Muddy Creek, and con- 
 tinues nearly parallel with the Platte for twenty miles or more until it 
 ceases at the Eed Buttes. About noon of the 22d we left the Platte near 
 the mouth of the Muddy and struck across the intervening country in a 
 southeast direction, to make an examination of this interesting rido-e 
 The scenery at the head of the Muddy is very remarkable, and, s'o far*as 
 dynamical geology is concerned, would well repay a week or two of dili- 
 gent study. Casper Eidge seems to trend nearly northeast and south- 
 west, and the rocks which cap the ridge dip slightly southeast. The 
 ridge is capped with carboniferous limestones and Potsdam sandstones, 
 and these form a high wall abutting northwest toward the Platte, as if 
 the whole mass had been lifted up eight hundred to one thousand feet 
 above the plains below, in a nearly horizontal position, and the edges had 
 been broken off all round, and the fragments are now found lying against 
 the sides in a highly inclined position, or have been washed away. The 
 eastern end has escaped erosion, for the ridges are here quite large. The 
 Muddy flows through a narrow valley, for a mile or two over a portion'of the 
 red beds— a high ridge on the left, composed of heavy beds of bluish 
 limestone, red argillaceous sands and sandstones; immense beds, capped 
 with a massive bed of fine pudding stone, which I have usually regarded 
 as the bed of passage between the Jurassic and cretaceous. This is the 
 first time I have noticed these pudding-stone beds north of Cache a la 
 Poudre. They are well developed and persistent through Colorado and 
 New Mexico, but apparently disappear, in part or entirely north of the 
 Union Pacific Eailroad. But here we find them appearing quite suddenly 
 in full development. Immense cubical masses have fallen from the 
 ridge, twenty feet thick. This pudding-stone is composed of smoothly 
 worn pebbles cemented in a paste of sand, and disintegrates slowly, and is 
 so hard that a fracture passes through the pebbles. It would polish well, 
 and make an excellent building rock. These tilted ridges seem to bend 
 around toward the south side of the Casper Eidge, and I have no doubt 
 it may be regarded as an oblong quaquaversal. The edges which have 
 broken off', or bent down, incline from all sides of the central portion. 
 
 The Muddy Creek issues from Casper Eidge in two branches, cutting 
 deep and most picturesque gorges through the yellow and reddish car- 
 boniferous rocks. The walls of the caiions show on the outside the 
 beds inclining 40° to 60°, but in the ridge the beds are nearly hori- 
 zontal from base to summit, five hundred to six hundred feet. ' These 
 gorges show quite clearly the anatomy of the ridges. Passing from the 
 .east end of the ridge westward, we find that for about a mile the broken 
 
>. GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF THE TERRITORIES. 27 
 
 portions lap on to the sides of the ridge in regular order, then for 
 about five miles they have been entirely swept away, revealing the 
 metamorphic rocks in places and the contact of the unchanged beds 
 with them. An immense deposit of debris covers the lower lidges at 
 the base and juts up against the sides of the ridge; the nearly vertical 
 edges of the fragmentary ridges project above the debris, as remnants 
 left after erosion. The debris or superficial drift is so great that it juts 
 up against the side of the ridge at least six hundred feet above the bed 
 of the riatte, concealing, to a great extent, the underlying forma- 
 tions. Still portions crop out occasionally, showing that they exist. The 
 ridges of cretaceous and lignite tertiary are very distinct in the plains, 
 inclining from the mountain at a small angle. Near the Platte, about 
 ten miles above the Muddy Creek, there is a considerable area covered 
 with light-gTay sandstones, which have weathered into most unique 
 forms. They resemble the ruins of some old village, j)ortions of the 
 stone walls with the chimneys remaining. One mass of rock we called 
 the "Blacksmith's Forge." The material is a fine gray sandstone, with 
 very irregular layers of deposition. No single lamina can be traced 
 continuously more than a few feet. The rock is also full of rusty, ferru- 
 ginous, hollow nodules. It has been weathered full of holes and caves, 
 which give it a picturesque appearance. These afford fine places 
 of retreat for wild animals. The sandstone is so soft they have been 
 enabled to extend the natural cavities at pleasure. When exam- 
 ined with a glass the sandstone shows small particles of quartz, with 
 a few grains of feldspar and mica, loosely held together. The dip of 
 all the tertiary beds is northeast 5° to 20<^. A bed of lignite crops out 
 in many jjlaces. Near old Fort Casper the long benches that extend 
 down from the base of the ridge toward the Platte form a marked fea- 
 ture in the surface. They are composed of tertiary and cretaceous beds, 
 and the latter formation is better shown here than at any other point 
 north of the Chugwater. These benches are really table-lands, their 
 surface appearing even and smooth to the eye. Just above the bridge are 
 some high bluffs on the left bank of the Platte, composed of lower creta- 
 ceous clays. No. 2. On the summit of the hills', about four miles east of 
 the Eed Buttes, are some quite prominent ledges of yellow ferruginous 
 sandstone with Inoceramus and huge rusty concretions; underneath 
 them are the black shaly clays of No. 2, with all the evidence of barren- 
 ness w^hich they carry with them. There seems to be an unusual ex- 
 posure of the cretaceous beds for about fifteen miles, and they jut up 
 close to the base of Casper Eidge. The beds incline from the ridge in 
 regular order, and follow its flexures. 
 
 Our camp near the lied Buttes was an interesting and instructive one. 
 AYe were located on a broad, grassy bottom of the Platte, in a sort of 
 amphitheater, with the rocky beds rising to a great elevation all around 
 us. The Eed Buttes are so called from the high ridges or groups of ridges 
 which are separated by the channel of the Platte. The basset edges of 
 the beds bear eastward toward our camp, and a laj^er of the brick-red 
 argillaceous shales is exposed. As w^e approached them from the east 
 in the afternoon, the rays of the setting sun greatly heightened their 
 color and brought them out in relief, so that we could readily see why 
 they have been such prominent landmarks and have so long attracted 
 the attention of the traveler. These buttes, taken together, may be 
 regarded as an irregular anticlinal, with one side formed of quite 
 lofty ridges, and the opposite side fragments of low ridges, which look 
 as though they had broken off of the edges of the opposite portion 
 during the upheaval. The red beds are well exposed, with a thickness 
 
28 GEOLOGICAL SUEVEY OF THE TERRITORIES. • 
 
 of four himdrecl feet, and aboA^e tliemare the Jurassic beds, with Pec-' 
 ten, Belemnites densus, and a small species of Ostrea iu great numbers. 
 The summit is capped with the thick layer of pudding-stone described as 
 occurring near the source of the Muddy, huge masses of which have fallen 
 on the side and at the base of the ridge, looking like gigantic boulders. One 
 of these masses is twenty-eight feet in all its dimensions, and is com- 
 posed of water- worn pebbles, varying in size from a grain of quartz to 
 an inch in diameter, set in a cement of sand. The large, amphitheater- 
 like area inclosed by the Eed Buttes and vicinity might be called an iin- 
 perfect quaquaversal, composed of a number of anticlinals and i)artial 
 quaquaversals. On the north side of the Platte an anticlinal extends 
 off toward the northwest, showing in a small area the upper portion of 
 the Jurassic with a full development of the cretaceous. The two sides 
 come together iu a distance of five or six miles and finally die out in 
 the plains. The Platte passes through this anticlinal. On the south 
 side of the river the two sides of the anticlinal are well shown, but 
 only the cretaceous and Jurassic beds are exposed. In the former are 
 four or five layers of sandstone with interpolated beds of indurated sandy 
 clay, and separating the two formations is a massive bed of quartzite 
 or sandstone, of variable thickness as well as texture, ten to thirty feet. 
 On the east side of the Platte is quite a remarable gorge or canon, which 
 was first observed by the zealous photographer of the expedition, Mr. 
 Jackson of Omaha, and in whose honor we called it Jackson's CaGon. 
 The waters of a former period (for the gorge is a dry one at the present 
 time) have cut directly down through the limestone, much as they 
 have at Box Elder and at the head of the Muddy. The gorge is two 
 hundred feet wide at the top, and sixty to seventy feet at the bottom, 
 and three hundred and fifty feet to four hundred feet deep. From the 
 caSon the red beds incline in a series of ridges which form one-half 
 a circle. These red beds contain irregular seams of gypsum. Par 
 to the northwest the Big Horn Mountains can be dimly seen, and the 
 intermediate space between them and the Platte is slightly disturbed by 
 lines extending across the plain toward the range. These lines of dis- 
 turbance, or anticlinals, seldom bring to the surface rocks older than cre- 
 taceous. At Piney Butte the Jurassic beds are exposed over a very 
 small area. It appears that at this point the Laramie range breaks up 
 into several lines of disturbance, extending far across the plain toward 
 the Big Horn range. So far as I can ascertain, the ranges are there 
 more intimately connected than with any others to the westward. They 
 both form the outer or eastern border ranges. 
 
 On the morning of the 26th we left our pleasant camp near the Eed 
 Buttes, and passed over the high ground to the westward, with the 
 Buttes on our left, and the ranges of the Big Horn dimly visible on our 
 right. In looking back from the west, eastward, on the ridge of which 
 the Eed Buttes form a part, we can see that the general dip is about 
 southeast or south, inclining gently down to the plain. About four miles 
 west of the Eed Buttes, on the north side of the road, are the most re- 
 markable semi-quaquaversals, one of which looks much like a crater. 
 The northwest side forms a perfect rim, while the southeast is open, 
 with a dry valley alongside, into which the materials within the rivL 
 have been washed, so that it forms half an amiDhitheater, with the in- 
 closed space smoothed off and grassed over. The southeast end of Piney 
 Butte Eidge is separated by a synclinal, not more than one hundred 
 yards wide. The ridges form a complete half circle, and they extend 
 across the country far to the northwest. Between the Eed Buttes and 
 the Yellow Springs, a distance of sixteen miles, there is a series of low 
 
GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF THE TERRITORIES. 29 
 
 ridges, forming' several anticliuals. The long walls of sandstone extend 
 across tbe country northwest and southeast, inclining 30^ to 50'^. The 
 sandstones arc mostly of the age of tlie lignite tertiary, gray and rusty 
 brown color, with all kinds of texture and modes of deposition. 
 
 About five miles west of the buttes a new formation appears of later 
 date, the latter dipping 5° to 10° in the same direction, but not con- 
 forming to the older beds. Long ridges and benches extend down nearly 
 parallel with the course of the Sweetwater, composed mostly of in- 
 durated argillaceous sands of a lighter color and less variable materi- 
 als than the lignite beds. The high ridges around our camp are capped 
 with a thick bed of quartzite sandstones, sometimes approaching a 
 pudding-stone. West of Willow Springs we ascend a high hill covered 
 with a thick bed of quartzitic sandstones in drift, and capped with the 
 coarse sandstones. It is quite probable that we have been passing over 
 the eastern rim of an ancient fresh- water lake, the rock materials of whicli 
 are incidental with the trend of their deposits. Long high benches, com- 
 posed of these beds, extend far southward as the eye can reach, parallel 
 with the North Platte and the Sweetwater. It is plain that they jut up 
 close against the sides of the ridge that borders the north side Of the 
 Platte, near the junction of the Sweetwater. Here and there the creta- 
 ceous or lignite ridges rise above the more modern deposits, always in- 
 clining at a large angle, showing unmistakable (TIscordancy. Ascending 
 an elevation of about four hundred feet, west of Willow Springs, we de- 
 scend a long slope, into the valley of the Sweetwater, which, in some 
 respects,' is one of the most intere'sting geological districts I have ever 
 examined in the west. There is ahigh ridge or divide between the drainage 
 of Wind River, North Platte, and Sweetwater, three hundred to four 
 hundred feet above the channels of these streams, which is composed of 
 the tertiary beds. The Sweetwater forms a distinct concavity, with this 
 high divide on the north and east, and the valley has been scooped out 
 so that until we reach the Sweetwater Canon, near the South Pass, only 
 the massive granite ridges rise up among the modern tertiary beds which 
 jut close up against their base. This is most emphatically a valley of 
 denudation, over a space of at least thirty to fifty miles in width. All 
 the unchanged formations, from the lignite tertiary down to the massive 
 feldspathic granites, have been worn away, leaving the granites scat- 
 tered over the valley in the isolated ridges. At that time there was a 
 fresh-water lake which occupied the entire valley, much as Salt Lake once 
 occupied the great basin, concealing most of the granite ridges, while 
 others rose above the waters like islands. Then was deposited what 
 might be called the Sweetwater group, or perhaj^s a series of beds identical 
 with the upper portion of the Wind River deposits. These were scooped 
 out again in time, and the pliocene marls and sands were deposited ; and 
 then again there was an other scooping out of the valley, and finally a cov- 
 ering the hills with drift. In the pliocene marls and sands are q uite abund- 
 ant remains of mammals, similar to those which are found on the Niobrara 
 Eiver, in Nebraska. The Seminole and Sweetwater mountains, although 
 covered all about their flanks with tertiary beds, show, higher up, the 
 elevated ridges of Potsdam sandstone and carboniferous limestones. The 
 whole range is comparatively smooth and grassed over, as if it had been 
 too high above the waters to have been affected to any extent by the 
 later forces that scooped out the valley ; so, too, the Sweetwater Moun- 
 tains, or hills as they should be called, simply expose the Potsdam sand- 
 stone, carboniferous, red beds, with very small areas of the Jurassic, cre- 
 taceous, and granites. Indeed, the Sweetwater valley is a sort of anticlinal, 
 with the Seminole and Sweetwater hills on the south side, and the divide 
 
30 GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF THE TERRITOEIES. 
 
 between the Wind River and Sweetwater on the north. The northern 
 portion of the anticlinal is seen only for ten to twenty miles near the 
 Three Crossings, where the lower Silurian and carboniferous beds are 
 shown over a restricted area. The numerous granite ridges which are 
 scattered all through this valley are most i)robably remnants of a vast 
 mountain nucleus, from which the unchanged rocks inclined on either 
 side. 
 
 We pass over a level surface for the most part, through the deep sands, 
 which are the result of the disintegration of the tertiary sandstones. 
 Large areas are covered with the alkali efflorescence, so that they are 
 white as snow. From Willow Springs we camped at Independence 
 Eock, a noted landmark for travelers for many years past. I was 
 anxious to understand the geology of this wonderful spot, and on that 
 account was delighted to find my tents pitched at its base. The Sweet- 
 water flows immediately along the southern end of it, although on the 
 opposite side of the stream another ridge continues toward the south- 
 west, which, I have no doubt, was once connected with it. Independence 
 Eock is really one of the granite ridges in this valley, and is a remnant 
 of much larger mountains. It now looks like an enormous boulder lying 
 out in the plain. It is a vast but most excellent illustration of the theory 
 of disintegration by exfoliation, for it is rounded and resembles an 
 oblong hay-stack with the layers of rock lapping over the top and 
 sides of the mass like the layers of hay on a stack. Thin layers have 
 been broken off in part, and huge masses are scattered all around it; 
 but on some portions of the sides they lap down to the ground with 
 so gentle a descent that I was able to lead my horse nearly to the sum- 
 mit, about two hundred feet. Two sets of fissures are plainly seen in 
 this rock, one set east and west and the other north and south. 
 
 The entire mass, as well as all the granite ridges in the valley, may be 
 called feldspathic ; that is, the red and white feldspar predominate, while 
 the mica occurs in very small quantities. It is quite probable that the 
 vast quantities of this alkaline efflorescence were derived from the de- 
 composition of the feldspars. Stansbury gathered some of these salts, 
 which he called " efflorescence from a saleratus pond," on Sweetwater 
 river. Dr. Gale found them " to be composed of the sesquicarbonate of 
 soda, mixed with sulphate of soda and chloride of sodium, and is one of 
 the salts called Trona, found in the natron lakes in Hungary, Africa, and 
 other couu tries." These salts are not perceptible to the taste in the water 
 of the stream itself. The granite ridges south of Independence Eock, 
 and on the opposite side of the Sweetwater, I estimated to be from one 
 thousand to fifteen hundred feet above the bed of the stream. I ascended 
 one of the loftiest of the ranges, with great difficulty, on account of the 
 smoothness of the rocks and the abruptness of the sides. From the 
 summit as far as the eye could reach in ever^^ direction granite ranges 
 could be seen, of varying lengths, from one hundred to fifteen hundred 
 feet above the surrounding plains. Far away to the southeast, dimly 
 seen and overtopping all the rest, was a range of mountains which I sup- 
 pose were the Slediciue Bow range. All around the flanks of these 
 granite ranges the same tertiary beds jut up withont any interruption, 
 and are smooth and even, so that the granite masses seem to rise abruptly 
 out of the plains. In some of the broad intervals are the most beautiful 
 terraces or benches, sloping gently down from the base of the mountains 
 to the valley. Not a sign of water could be seen in any of these moun- 
 tains at the present time. A few cottonwoods and groups of quaking 
 asps, in some of the ravines on the sides, gave evidence that water issues 
 from them at certain seasons of the year. A few stunted pines struggled 
 
GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF THE TERRITOEIES. 31 
 
 for existence among the crevices, and some rare shrubs and ferns were 
 all the vegetable life observed. It seems as though the Sweetwater 
 flowed through this valley for fifty miles or more with scarcely a tribu- 
 tary to add to its volume. 
 
 These grauite ridges present the finest opportunity for the study of 
 rocks. Huge fissures, which have been enlarged hy atmospheric agencies 
 so that they vary in width from a few inches to several feet, seam and 
 farrow their sides. 
 
 On the summits vast masses, of one hundred tons weight, appear just 
 ready to topple down. Many of these fragments look like gigantic 
 boulders, so rounded have they become by the process of exfoliation, and 
 such they would be called if they could be transported from the tops of 
 these mountains by water and ice to the prairies of Illinois, without any 
 farther change in their form. Some of these masses are now covered 
 with thin scales or layers, which are ready to fall off, and multitudes of 
 fragments are scattered around. Before leaving Independence Eock we 
 endeavored to obtain an approximate idea of its dimensions. The cir- 
 cumference, measured with the odometer, is fifteen hundred and fiftj^ 
 two yards, and the barometer indicated the height of the north end to 
 be one hundred and ninety-three feet, and the south end one hundred 
 and sixty-seven feet. The trend of the mass is about northeast and 
 southwest. There is a depression near the middle which cannot be 
 more than sixty feet high. The huge fissures which pass through the 
 rock in various directions seem to form channels for water, and remiuc 
 one of a river and its branches. Although there is enough of red feld 
 spar to give the whole a reddish tinge, yet the Avhite or soda feldspa. 
 occurs in great quantities. Five miles up the valley we came to an 
 other well-known locality, the Devil's Gate, a canon which the Sweet 
 water seems to have worn through the granite range. The road passes 
 throagh a depression in the mountain which is about thirty feet highei 
 than the bed of the stream, and I am inclined to believe that the Sweet- 
 water once flowed through it, bat for some reason, not very obvious, 
 chauged its channel. Perhaps the water found some fissure through 
 which it began to flow, and gradually wore its way through, as we 
 see it at the present time, or it may have vibrated its way from point 
 to point. Now the stream flows between these lofty walls with a low, 
 gentle murmur, which cannot be regarded as the roar of a torrent. 
 Indeed, it gave forth a soothing music not common to mountain streams. 
 The current is not strong, and finds its way among the huge masses 
 which have fallen down from above without difficulty. The left wall is 
 somewhat higher than the right. The caiiou is about northeast and 
 southwest, as if the waters had passed through a sort of dike fissure, 
 and the northeast end shows the gate more perfectly-, where the walls 
 on either side are nearly vertical, and the width of the bottom is not 
 more than one hundred feet. The southeast end is worn out to some 
 extent, and is two hundred to three hundred feet wide. By the barom- 
 eter Mr. J. W. Beaman made the right wall three hundred feet high, 
 and the opposite one to be a few feet higher. In the gate or caQon is a 
 wide dike or trap, whicli has a trend about northeast and southwest, in 
 which the channel of the river may have started originall5^ At the 
 present time the waters have cut across the dike so that the southeast 
 portion still remains on the right side. These granite ranges are not 
 unfrequently banded with old trap dikes, trending about northeast and 
 southwest, and varying in width from a few feet to two or three 
 hundred feet. Some of them yield quite readily to atmospheric agencies, 
 and many conspicuoas depressions are j)roduced in the ranges, thus 
 
32 GEOLOGICAL SUEVEY OF THE TERRITOEIES. 
 
 adding mucli to the pictnresqiieness of the scenery. These dikes are 
 quite common iu some of the ranges, and all have a peculiar black ap- 
 l^earance iu the distance ; but the difference iu texture is shown by the 
 influence of the atmosphere upon them. Some of them stand up as 
 sharj) and angular as ever, but most of them have been so rounded off 
 that the loose masses are nearly spherical, and the thin coats are fall- 
 ing off" like the layers of an onion. Sometimes the materials are coarse, 
 and the rock falls in pieces; again the mass is round and smooth, 
 glistening like black opaque quartz. There is no evidence at the pres- 
 ent time of the age of these dikes, except that the material was thrust 
 up through the fissures in the granite. They may be of different ages 
 or of the same age. We find they have been subject to the same 
 erosion as the granite, and extend across the country in regular bands. 
 From the Devil's Gate we traveled westward along the bottoms of 
 the Sweetwater to the " Cloven Peak," a conspicuous landmark for the 
 traveler. On our right hand we were walled iu most effectually by the 
 granite ridges ; on our left, in the distance, about fifteen miles, was the 
 Seminole range, or hills, as I have regarded them in this report. They 
 rise high above the surrounding country, but seem to have formed the 
 south side of the tremendous erosive forces which once swept through 
 this valley. The outlines of these hills are so different from any others 
 that are within the range of vision, that they excite the attention of 
 the observer at once. There are no ridges of upheaval along the flanks, 
 as in the case of the Laramie range, but the grassy plains jut np close 
 to them, and the very snmmits are, for the most part, rounded and 
 grassed over. No timber clothes them, except now and then a group 
 of poplars. The north side is very abrupt, while the south side 
 slopes off into the plains. Near the Three Crossings there is a low 
 point or pass in the hills which extends for about ten or fifteen miles, 
 where a second range commences, called the Sweetwater Hills, and 
 continues to the vSouth Pass. The Seminole Hills rise about fifteen hun- 
 dred feet above the Sweetwater Valley, while the Sweetwater Hills vary 
 from eight hundred to twelve hundred feet. Near Cloven Peak, fifteen 
 miles west of Devil's Gate, there are some high bluff banks on the south 
 side of the Sweetwater, about one hundred feet high, which indicate 
 the existence of quite modern tertiary beds, like those on the Niobrara 
 Eiver. They are composed of indurated sands and marls of a light- 
 gray or cream color, and are in appearance precisely like those seen on 
 the Laramie Eiver, and many other places, which I have usnally re- 
 garded as of the pliocene age. Still farther to the westward are numer- 
 ous exposures of these beds, which are weathered into the nsual fortifi- 
 cation-like forms, and scattered around their base are large numbers of 
 remains of extinct mammals and turtles, apparently identical with those 
 found on the Niobrara. They occur in the same beautiful state of pre- 
 servation. These beds are full also of oddly-shaped concretions of sand- 
 stones of all sizes. The sandy beds disintegrate very readily, and the 
 bottoms, as well as the road, are made up of loose sand, which is readily 
 moved by the wind, rendering traveling difficult. Indeed, the entire 
 valley of the Sweetwater, below St. Mary's Station, is more or less 
 Covered with moving sands, the result of the disintegration of these 
 liliocene beds. The appearance of the surface is similar to that seen on 
 the Niobrara Eiver and the head of the Loup Fork in Nebraska. I am 
 inclined to believe that these pliocene beds are a deposit made, subse- 
 quent to the somber brown indurated sands, and the conglomerate sand- 
 stone which forms the outer rim of the Sweetwater basin. The pliocene 
 beds are best shown iu the valley itself near the stream, while no traces 
 
GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF THE TERRITORIES. 33 
 
 of it were seen (on the liig-li divide west) about the rim of the valley. 
 The granites form tiie boldest and most barren-looking ridges I havu 
 ever seen ; some of the i>eaks are true dome-shaped, and are apparently 
 as smooth and as bare as a ehureh dome. No water is to be found in 
 or around them, and here and there a few stunted pines manage to ex- 
 traet a scanty nourishment from among the fissures. On our left the 
 most magnificent benches extend down from the Seminole Mountains 
 for ten miles or more. This range is smoothed and grassed over, and 
 some portions are thickly covered with pines. 
 
 West of the Seminole Mountains is another detached range or group 
 of hills ten to fifteen miles long, parallel with the Sweetwater; then 
 near the Three Crossings there is another range, low and covered thickly 
 with pines. Still farther west is another detached group of hills, which 
 extend to the South Pass. These hills undoubtedly form the southern 
 rim of the Sweetwater basin. I think this basin varies from thirty to 
 fifty miles in width. In one of these detached groups of hills we can 
 see a high ridge of limestone, with a strike northwest and southeast, 
 while the group of hills trends about northeast and southwest. Near 
 the Three Crossings the high granite ridges are on our right, and rise 
 seven hundred to eight hundred feet above the bed of the Sweetwater. 
 From the tops of the ridges, far to the westward, we can see the Wind Elver 
 range, and feel the cool breeze that comes sweeping down the valley, la- 
 dened with the icy chill from the snow-clad summits. Small lakes are also 
 visible in tlie plains, some of Avhich seem to befresh water, while all around 
 
 ^the shores of others there is a thick efflorescence like snow. Far dis- 
 tant to the north and northwest there is another rim of this basin, which 
 I have called the north rim or side. The granites near the Three Cross- 
 ings seem to be somewhat peculiar. There are two principal sets of 
 joints, one of which is horizontal and the other vertical, dividing the 
 granite range into cubical blocks, and giving to the sides of the ridges 
 somewhat the appearance of mason work. Sometimes the very comjjact 
 feldspathic beds separate into columnar forms, which are quite pic- 
 turesque. The peculiar mason-like appearance of the granite v^alley is 
 entirely due to the vertical and horizontal fissures. This feature is more 
 marked at this locality than at any other point we have examined. 
 
 On the 31st we made an examination of the lower range of hills which 
 extend up to the South Pass on the south side of the Sweetwater. We 
 found the granites occupying a very restricted area, and inclining from 
 them a larger thickness of Potsdam sandstone with Oholella nana and 
 aLinguIa. Inclining against the Silurian sJindstone was a massive bed 
 of compact bluish and yellow limestone, with a strike northeast and 
 southwest. At one locality I found the beds had been tipped past ver- 
 
 ^ticality L'Qo. The red beds were also shown here quite well developed. 
 It would seem that the range of hills on the south side of the Sweet- 
 M'ater valley forms one side of the anticlinal, and the axis of elevation 
 is not far from the channel of the stream. A pretty little branch with 
 a considerable volume of water, and crowded with beaver dams, has 
 excavated a valley near this point. It has a fork also, which is fringed 
 with little (iotton woods, a feature quite unusual in the Sweetwater valley. 
 Jutting up against the sides, and penetrating every valley or gorge in 
 the outline of the mountains, are the brown indurated sands of the Wind 
 Eiver deposits; among them are impure seams of lignite or carbon- 
 aceous clay, with layers of coarse sandstone or an aggregate of particles 
 of quartz. The disintegration of the harder beds has covered the sur- 
 fiice with small fragments of rock. A little farther to the southward a 
 huge hill, with almost vertical sides, is composed of light gray sands 
 3 G 
 
34 GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF THE TERRITOEIES. 
 
 and worn crystals of quartz, with a thickness of from four liuudred to 
 six hundred feet. Hero indurated quartzose sands have been weathered 
 into most fantastic columns fifty to sixty feet high, giving to the group 
 in the distance the appearance of white marble monuments in a church- 
 yard. Much of the rock looks like the decomposed gangue of silver and 
 gold lodes as seen in Colorado, that is, small fragments of quartz in a 
 feldspar paste. On the side of this almost perpendicular hill, the summit 
 of which is eight hundred to one thousand feet above the Sweetwater 
 Valley, are enormous granite boulders of all kinds, gray and red feld- 
 spathic massive rocks. Not only the granites but also the sandstones de- 
 compose by exfoliation. In the brown beds are seams of rust-brown 
 pudding-stone, which disintegrates on the low hills and in the valleys, 
 covering the surface with small smooth pebbles and fragments of clay. 
 This entire range of hills has the north side very abrupt and high 
 toward Sweetwater valley, but the south side slopes gently down 
 into the plains. I have no doubt that the nucleus of this range of hills 
 is composed of the older rocks, as Silurian, carboniferous, or red beds, 
 &c. ; but, so far as we can see at this time, the modern tertiary beds 
 seem to conceal them from view. Some of the valleys of erosion parallel 
 to the hills show by the high walls a great thickness of tertiary beds. 
 From the summits the eye extends far southward, fifty miles or more, over 
 a most desolate, barren plain, with here and there a table-top butte to 
 show that the surface was once much higher than at present. It is cut 
 up into innumerable valleys, which give to the surface an irregular, wavy 
 appearance. Not a tree or shrub greets the vision over this vast desert 
 waste. The immense quantities of granite boulders, reel and gray, which 
 literally cover the tops and sides of this range of hills, must have been 
 swept down from the Wind River Mountains. Some of these granite 
 masses are ten to fifteen feet in diameter; others are sunk so deep in the 
 earth that they appear to be in place. Across the plains, at least one hun- 
 dred miles distant to the southwest, two or three low ranges of mountains 
 or hills are visible. Toward the west end and on the north side of the 
 range of hills I noticed a peculiar semicircular depression, about twenty- 
 five feet below the summit, which affords an example of a land-slide on 
 a large scale. This slide covers an area of about a mile in length and 
 a fourth of a mile in width, and is covered with groves of the aspen. 
 
 Above the Three Crossings, on the north side of the Sweetwater, are 
 several quite conspicuous granite ridges, but they soon disappear. 
 Soon the beds of Potsdam sandstone, with carboniferous limestones and 
 portions of the triassic, make their appearance, inclining at an angle of 
 20° to 30° northwest, and, m a short distance, pass beneath the Wind 
 River deposits. We could not ascertain that any rocks older than the 
 miocene tertiary beds occur along the northern rim of the valley from 
 Willow Springs up to this point. 
 
 From the Three Crossings to St. Mary's Station the valley bottom of 
 the Sweetwater is about half a mile in width and looks like a meadow, as 
 usual. Our camp on the night of the 30th was near the point where the 
 stream comes out of the first ridge. Hitherto it has flowed through an 
 anticlinal valley, with the Sweetwater mountains or hills on the soutb 
 side, and the granite ridges, capped with Potsdam sandstone ridges near 
 South Pass. One of the most conspicuous features are the long benches 
 that come down from the Sweetwater hills so regular, so high, and 
 evenly rounded that they strike the eye at once, ^hey are composed of 
 modern tertiary marls, probably pliocene. 
 
 About four 'miles below St. Mary's Station the Sweetwater flows 
 through a ridge of Potsdam sandstone with a trend nearly cast and 
 
GEOLOGICAL SUEVEY OF THE TERRITORIES. 35 
 
 west, inclining north 75^. The rock is rusty, reddish quartzite, or an 
 aggregate of particles of quartz. The Silurian and carboniferous rocks 
 appear here and there, but the tertiary beds are the most conspicuous. 
 Near St. Mary's Station the beds of conglomerate proje(;t out of the 
 blutt's, on both sides of the Sweetwater, quite conspicuously. On the 
 distant hills the arenaceous marls are much exposed in the form of naked 
 l^ills, at the base of which Mr. Elliot discovered some very interesting 
 turtle remains. About a mile above St. Mary's Station the Sweetwater 
 flows out of a deep gorge or canon, cutting the ridges of older rocks at, 
 right angles. The strike is northwest and southeast, dip northeast. 
 
 The limestones and sandstones are very conspicuous. On the north 
 side we pass over the upturned edges of an enormous thickness for three • 
 fourths of a mile, inclining 30° to 40^. These ridges form tlie east side 
 of the anticlinal that runs down from the Wind Eiver Mountains. 
 Indeed it is a portion of the range itself. So far as the east side is con- 
 cerned I have never seen a more perfect anticlinal. The series of ridges 
 of carboniferous limestones and Potsdam sandstones extends across the 
 country in regular lines, and the erosion has been such that the out- 
 cropping edges are but little above the general surface, so that they can 
 be studied with ease. The main road passes across the edges of all the 
 rocks at right angles. Not far distant to the northwest the snowy peaks 
 of the Wind Eiver range rise high above the surrounding country. 
 Here and there, resting npon the edges of the older rocks, are patches of 
 the modern tertiary deposits, remnants of the last i^eriod of erosion. 
 As we approach the base of the mountains there is a sJght dip in these 
 tertiary beds 3^* to 5°, as if the last movements were subsequent to their 
 deposition. There is a deep valley from the base of the mountains to 
 the Sweetwater, which marks the line of separation between the Silurian 
 and carboniferous ridges, completely separates them, but indicates no 
 discordancy. Inside of these ridges is an immense thickness of slates 
 standing nearly vertical, with a strike northeast and southwest, inclining 
 slightly northwest. Extending to the northeast toward the Wind Eiver 
 Valley could be seen ridge after ridge of cretaceous and tertiary beds. 
 
 CHAPTEE III. t 
 
 FROM SOUTH PASS TO FORT BRIDGER. 
 
 Like the Black Hills of Dakota and the Laramie range, the Wind 
 Eiver Mountains form a complete anticlinal. It is so regular that when 
 once the key to its structure is obtained it is studied with great ease. 
 So far as my observations have extended, all the ranges with a north- 
 west and southeast axis are simple and regular in their structure. They 
 may be defined briefly as a nucleus of granite or gneissic rocks, rising 
 step by step on either side toward a central axis, and on each side of 
 the nucleus the various unchanged rocks inclining at a variety of angles. 
 Sometimes extensive erosion and the subsequent deposition of modern 
 tertiary beds or drift obscures the study, and we shall find that this is 
 the case with the Wind Eiver range. The Black Hiils of Dakota is the 
 most complete illustration of an anticlinal, not complicated by other 
 influences, that I have met with in the West. The nucleus is massive 
 feldspathic granite, with a series' of gneissic beds outside of it ; these 
 incline iu every direction from this nucleus, a sort of narrow, ova) 
 quaquaversal, and all the unchanged beds known in tTiis portion of the 
 
36 GEOLOGICAL SUEVEY OF THE TERRITORIES. 
 
 vest froin the Potsdam sandstones inclusive to tlie top of tlie lignite 
 tertiaries. The trend of the Wind Eiver range is northwest and south- 
 east. The portion in which the South Pass is located is about ten 
 miles wide, and is composed mostly of metamorphic slates in a nearly 
 or quite vertical position. It is in these slates that the gold mines are 
 found. The gulch diggings are quite extensive, and although much has 
 been done in that way, yet there is a most extended field open yet for 
 the enterprising miner or laborer. 
 
 The facilities for placer mining are very great on account of the 
 supply of water. The gold-bearing rocks are composed of thin gneissic 
 slates, which occupy a somewhat restricted area about ten miles 
 wide and twenty to thirty miles long. Some of the slates are very thin 
 and might be made useful for building purposes ; others are more silicioiis 
 and fracture into columnar masses. Veins of white quartz run through 
 these slates very frequently, and it is in these the gold is found. The 
 most celebrated lodes in this district are the Cariso and " The Miner's 
 Delight." The Cariso lode is about four feet wide ; the shaft has been 
 sunk one hundred and forty feet ; the quartz yields $50 to $75 per ton. 
 About $75,000 has been taken out of the mine by its owners. The lode 
 has a strike northeast and southwest, and a dip of 70°. It was dis- 
 covered in 18G7, and has been worked two years. The lode itself is 
 mostly composed of white quartz with some iron pyrites, while the 
 country rock consists of gneiss. It will be seen at once that the great 
 value of these ores lies in the ease with which the gold can be extracted. 
 I shall describe these mines more in detail in a subsequent portion of 
 this report, and simply allude to them now in their geological relations. 
 
 The elevations, as taken by Mr. J. W. Beaman, are of some interest. 
 At "St. Mary's Station," on the Sweetwater, G,Jj90 feet. Ascending 
 from ridge to ridge for ten or fifteen miles, G,894, 7,149, 7,356, 7,405, 
 and 7,524 feet, a gradual ascent, and probably approximately correct. 
 At Fort Stambaugh the elevation is 7,7 14 feet; Atlantic City, 7,666 feet ; 
 South Pass City, 7,857. At Washakie's Camp, at the base, main range 
 8,158 feet, and the high rid^s below the central ridge, 10,215 feet. 
 This central portion of the South Pass district, or the area occupied 
 mostly by the metamorphic slates, I have estimated at ten miles in width 
 and twenty to thirty in length. The surface is somewhat rolling, but 
 cannot be called rugged, and bears evidence of remarkable ero- 
 sion. In many places long lines or rounded elevations extend across 
 the surface like the ripples of a lake. The surface has been so worn 
 down by erosion, and the* irregularities filled with a heavy drift deposit, 
 that these ridges or outcropping edges just project above the surface. 
 Usually the surface is well grassed over, and in the valleys of the 
 streams large quantities of hay are obtained. The timber consists 
 principally of groves of aspen here and there, which give a beautiful 
 appearance to the scenery. 
 
 September 1. — We arrived at Port Stambaugh, and by the kind per- 
 mission of Major Gordon, the commander of the post, j)itched our camp 
 near a fine spring, three hundred yards below the fort, and about three 
 miles from Atlantic City. This post was named in memory of a gallant 
 officer. Lieutenant Stambaugh, who was killed by Indians not far from 
 this place during the past year. It is finely located in one of the most 
 romantic spots in this region, surrounded by high hills, with beautiful 
 groves of aspen on their sides. Springs of pure water are abundant. 
 
 Septembers. — We left our camp at this localitj^, with a small pack- 
 train, for a short trip to the Wind Eiver Mountains ; our direction was 
 northwest about ten miles, across the metamorphic slates, until we came 
 
GE,OLOGICAL SURVEY OF THE TERRITORIES. 37 
 
 to the foot-hills ; here the granites prevail. At first they have a fissilo 
 stracture to some extent, but soon become massive, like the ATauitcs of 
 bweetwater Valley, except that the feldspar is white. The uTass of the 
 ^Yud River Moimtanis is gray granite, with here and there some red 
 feldspathic seams; but as 1 found it in 1800, when croasinff the ranoe 
 near the source of Wind Elver, to the head of Lewis' Fork of the 
 Columbia, the central mass is mostly gray granite and wonderfully uni- 
 form in texture. Small masses of black gneiss are distributed through 
 the granite. After entering the foot-hills we moved up the'vallev of 
 one of the various branches of the Sweetwater, Mirough most ruo-o-ed 
 scenery, among- thick pines and over vast quantities of broken rockier 
 debris. At last we reached a high ridge which forms the divide between 
 tbe waters that flow into the Sweetwater and those of the Saudv ind 
 near this ridge, at an elevation of over 10,000 feet above the sea, we had 
 a complete and near view of the Wind River range. Far above us rose 
 the snow-capped ridges of the axis of the range, with FremontVs and Sno w 
 Peaks full in view. Fremont has given in his report the elevation of 
 Snow Peak, which is probably the highest of the range, as 13,570 feet 
 Oneof the peculiar features of these mountains is the dense growth of a 
 kind of "nut-pine," which furnishes food for innumerable birds ftud 
 squirrels, and supplies the Indians with their favorite food 
 
 Washakie's band of Shoshones had been up in the mouiitains only a 
 few days before, and hundreds of the trees had been cut down for the 
 iToon f f «" ^l^\^Se that the limits of arborescent vegetation is about 
 11,000 feet. On the south side of the range there is not much perpetual 
 snow, only here and there a patch ; but on the north side snow-banks 
 are extensive. 
 
 From this high ridge we had a most remarkable as well as instruct- 
 ive view oi^ the southwest side of the range. Far out in the plains the 
 long parallel ridges of the white tertiary marls could be seen, then 
 step by step the ridges of gi-anite rising to the summit. The outline of 
 these granite ridges revealed most clearly the anticlinal character of the 
 range, tbeir sharp summits pointing toward the snowy crest above 
 them. On the east side of the anticlinal the outcropping edges of a 
 high ridge of carboniferous limestone extend down toward the Sweet- 
 water near St. Mary's Station. The Silurian and carboniferous rocks 
 form a conspicuous wall on the east side; on the west side, far up to the 
 head-waters of the Sandy, they seem to be concealed bv modern tertiarv 
 deposits. Not only the sides of the lower ridges, but the top and sides 
 of the central mass are covered so thickly and continuously with frao-- 
 S^^S o""^ granite that this becomes one of the most conspicuous featurel 
 Both Snow and Fremont's Peak are one mass of debris. During the day 
 Mr. Jackson, with the assistance of the fine artistic taste of MrToifibrd 
 secured some most beautiful photographic views, which will prove of 
 great value to the artist as weU as the geologist. ' We made our camp 
 at night near the foot of Fremont's Peak, by the side of a spring of the 
 purest crystal water, surrounded with a thick growth of fi-esh o-reen 
 grass that gave a manifest delight to our animals. We were on the Pa- 
 cific slope and as the waters of the little spring passed by us, within a 
 few feet of our camp-fire, in the stillness of the night, we imagined we 
 could hear in its rippling music the faint echo of that of the great 
 ocean to which it was hastening. Among the numerous plants which 
 grew here, many of them with handsome flowers, I was attracted bv the 
 ^reat abundance of a species of trifolium, with a white blossom, about 
 the size of our domestic red clover of the States. There was also a 
 large species of allium which I have not observed before in the West 
 
38 GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF THE TERRITORIES. 
 
 Althougli tlie geology as well as the mineralogy of the Wind Eiver 
 range is very simple, yet we turned our backs upon it witli regret. I 
 shall always retain in view the hope that I may yet be permitted to spend 
 several months in this interesting range, so prepared that I can work 
 out its topograi^hy as well as geology. In studying these mountain sys- 
 tems, the geology is the anatomy, and we must have the topograi)hy 
 with it to clothe the skeleton and give it an expressive form. 
 
 On our way up the valley we passed several saw-mills which belonge<l 
 to Mr. TV. iST. Hinman, of Atlantic City, one of the old pioneers of the Fax 
 West. Thirteen yeavs ago I met him near the base of Laramie Peak, 
 where he was engaged, as director of a saw-mill, by the commanding 
 officer at Fort Laramie. His experience in the Eocky Mountain lumber 
 business has been more extensive than that of any one else, and from him 
 I obtained some valuable information. He informed me that the Eocky 
 Mountain pines made lumber of about average quality; that the trees 
 were of jouug growth, from two to three feet in diameter ; that the 
 boards dress smoothly and easily', and endure well, and are mostly free 
 from pitch. The lumber can be produced at about $50 per 1,000 feet. 
 He always explores the ravines and canons on the north side of the 
 mountains for the large tall pines, while on the south side they are liable 
 to be scrubb}' and knotty. The agricultural capacities of this mountain 
 region do not differ materially from those of the mining districts of 
 Colorado. The grazing is excellent everywhere. Potatoes, turnips, 
 peas, beans, and all kinds of garden vegetables that do not require a 
 long season grow remarkably well in the valley of the Wind Eiver, and 
 are produced in considerable quantities at the present time. 
 
 At the time of our visit here Washakie's band of the Shoshones was 
 encamped in the valley of one of the branches of the Sweetwater, where 
 it emerges from the foot-hills of the mountains. Through the kind aid 
 of Major Gordon, Mr. Jackson was able to secure a remarkable series 
 of photographic views of these Indians and their cam]) in their native 
 haunts. Most of the views have the Wind Eiver Mountains as a back- 
 grouu(i, and also show the women and children as they are naturallj' 
 distributed about the village. I rfegard this series of views as a real 
 contribution to Indian history. 
 
 On the morning of September 5th we left Fort Stambaugh, and fol- 
 lowed the old emigrant road toward Fort Bridger. We had received 
 every attention, and much assistance that was of gTeat value to us, from 
 the gentlemanly officers of the post. To Major Gregg, the quarter- 
 master, we were especially indebted, not only for many social courtesies, 
 but for that kind of aid which is so indispensable to our success, and 
 which it is in the power of that officer to grant. Major G. kindly caused 
 •ill of our wagons to be repaired, and furnished abundant supplies for 
 our animals and ourselves. 
 
 West of South Pass City we cross over gneissic slates that dip north- 
 east 10° to 25°. A little farther on we come to granites which incline 
 in the same direction. Near the crossing of the Sweetwater are thick 
 beds of reddish feldspar and white quartz imbedded with the gneiss. 
 The white quartz extends across the country in bands, about northeast 
 and southwest. The quartz seams in the massive granites are quite 
 conspicuous, and trend in the same direction. The dip is southwest 20° 
 to 30'°. The granites and gneisses continued nearly to the Pacific 
 Springs. The massive granites intercalated among the stratifi.ed gneis- 
 sic rocks are the same in color and texture as those forming the central 
 mass of the Wind Eiver range, and I regard them as all of sedimentary 
 oriiiin. 
 
GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF THE TEEEITORIES. 39 
 
 Soutli Pass is a gradual elevation, like a divide, between the streams 
 to the plains. Indeed, the whole country is an elevated plain, gently 
 undulating, and the traveler passes the true divide or line of separation 
 between the valleys of the two oceans without observing it. 
 
 On the evening of the oth we arrived at Paciiic Springs, one of the 
 sources of the Sandy, a branch of Green Eiver, a long, low, boggy piece 
 of ground full of springs, and a notable camping place for emigrants. We 
 have spoken of the low ridges of granite and gneiss, which are distrib- 
 uted here and there along our route, from South Pass to Pacific S[)riDgs. 
 Scattered over this surface, forming the water divide or pass, and tilling 
 up the irregularities, is a superficial deposit of modern date, probably 
 l^lioceue, which once covered the area occui)ied by the metamorphic 
 rocks in considerable thickness. This deposit is composed of ^rift un- 
 derlaid by yellowish- white arenaceous marls, with greenish clay. Wells 
 are dug near Fort Stambaugh through a great thickness of this light 
 marly clay, which is undoubtedly the result of the decomposition of the 
 feldspathic granites. Just west of the pass we have several hundred feet 
 of these modern beds, which form long parallel ridges, with rather 
 marked naked white surlaces, evidently denuded of vegetation, by the 
 l)erpetual winds that sweep down from the northwest. Extending 
 nearly east and west, or northwest and southeast, and inclining geutlj- 
 to the south and southwest, is a broken ridge seven hundred feet above 
 the springs, capped with a bed of coarse, rusty sandstone, evidently of 
 modern age. This ridge is covered over with huge granite boulders of 
 various textures, which seem to have come from the northeast. Just 
 south of the ridge is a still higher one, with strata horizontal, and so 
 denuded that the surface resembles " bad lands,'- with red, indurated 
 arenaceous clays at the base, rising up into light j^ellow marly clays, 
 weathering into the usual fantastic forms. The highest point to the 
 southward is Table Eock, or Steamboat Buttes, as they have been 
 named by the emigrants, rising high above the surrounding plains, a 
 monument to perpetuate a portion of the former thickness of the middle 
 tertiar}' formations in this region. The strata are nearly horizontal, 
 and must have reached a thickness of one thousand feet or more, extend- 
 ing over the country far to the south and southwest toward the 
 railroad. I regard the western side of the Wind Eiver anticlinal as 
 the eastern shore of the second series or lower miocene tertiaries, which 
 reach all over the basin drained by the Green Eiver and its tributaries, 
 southward to the junction of Henry's Fork. The northeast side of the 
 shore line is very steep and abruiit, inclining slightly, 3° to 5"^, covered 
 with immense granite boulders, but little worn, wliich evidently came 
 from the Wind Eiver range. The white and yellow marls and clays rest 
 on the metamorphic rocks, are of pliocene age, and they extend far to the 
 northwest, parallel with the range. The same formations occur near the 
 Three Crossings in the Sweetwater Valley, and are rich in remains. of 
 extinct mammals, similar to or identical with those of the Loup Fork 
 group. The reddish or India ocher clays, with leaden gray bands, form 
 the base of the lower miocene group. Above them is an extensive se- 
 ries of yellowish marls and rusty-drab limestone, filled with a species of 
 Bythinella, Yivipanis, and other fresh-water shells, with silicified wood. 
 One of the peculiar features of the lower clays, near this shore line, 
 which does not occur farther inland, is the numerous seams of small 
 rounded pebbles, held together loosely with fine sand. As we descend 
 the valley below Pacific Springs it soon expands into a broad meadow, 
 which yields a vast quantity of hay. Winding through the meadow is 
 a fine stream of water, which increases in size continually from springs 
 
40 GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF THE TERRITORIES. 
 
 until it unites witli the Sandy. On tlie Little and Big Sandy the forma- 
 tions are like those near Bryan and on Green Eiver, and on the denuded 
 hills the remains of turtles were found. At our camj) on the Big Sandy, 
 September 7th, we caught the best view of the Wind Eiver mountains we 
 have yet seen. As the morning sun shone on them and scattered the 
 mist and smoke from their summits, they seemed not far distant, and 
 loomed up along the horizon with a sharp, clear outline, that rendered 
 the view most grand and imposing. Fremont's and Snow Peaks were 
 clearly defined, and the series of sharp peaks that project from the 
 main ridge seemed to diminish in height far toward the sources of Green 
 River. In no country in the world, it seems to me, can such a compre- 
 hensive view be presented to the eye at a glance as at this point, where 
 it can take in one of the loftiest of the ranges which form the main 
 chain of the Eocky Mountains, stretching along the horizon for at 
 least one hundred and fifty miles. I could not ascertain that any of the 
 older sedimentary rocks are exposed along the western side of this 
 range, from the South Pass to the sources of Green River. Ridges of 
 the lower miocene tertiary strata along the western limit of the meta- 
 morphic rocks form an unmistakable shore line of the ancient lake. 
 Between this shore line and the foot-hills of the mountains is a belt of 
 metamorphic slates and gneiss, covered here and there with pliocene 
 marls. The erosion all along the western side of the mountains has 
 been tremendous, sweeping down in a northeast direction to the Sweet- 
 water Valley. In a preceding chapter I described the Sweetwater Val- 
 ley as one of erosion, on a most remarkably grand scale, and that the 
 Sweetwater and Seminole Hills formed the south side of the anticlinal, 
 and that the north side is seen at the present time only in fragments 
 here and there, most of it having been swept away or concealed by the 
 Wind River deposits. I am also inclined to believe that the Sweet- 
 water Valley is only an extension to the east or south of east, of the 
 axis of the Wind River range. 
 
 From the Big Sandy to our camp on Black's Fork, near Granger Sta- 
 tion, we i^assed over the Green River beds, capped here and there with 
 ridges of the leaden-gray, indurated arenaceous clays of the Bridger 
 group. In the Green River beds are quite abundanl; remains of reptiles, 
 as CrococUlusElliotti, and the fragments of fishes, Unios, 3Ielanias, I'alu- 
 dinas, Planorhis, &c., and found in the lower miocenee, and Unios^LymneaSj 
 and remains of turtles and mammals in the Bridger group. On either side 
 of our road we can see in the far distance a high ridge or table-top butte, 
 like the Pilot Buttes which the erosive forces have passed by as remnants 
 of the old surface. Among the rugged liills along the Big Sandy, and 
 in many other localities, are long cylindrical concretions, which look much 
 like silicified wood. They form the central portions of high, rusty-drab 
 concretionary sandstones, and on exposure the sandstone exfoliates from 
 the brown silicified interior, and the latter breaks in jjicces, oftentimes in 
 sections, which show the most perfect concentric rings, like the layers of 
 growth in wood, with cavities filled with chalcedony. Most beautiful spe- 
 cimens can be obtained of what appears to be a thin, woody, exterior 
 shell, covered with bark, and lined inside with beautiful crystals of quartz 
 or chalcedony. Similar concretions occur in the Wasatch group near 
 Piedmont, on the railroad. It is not surprising that Stansbury (see 
 Report, p. 72) should have mistaken these singular concretions for silici- 
 fied trunks of trees, which they very closely resemble. All over the 
 surface, and especially on the tops of the hills, are distributed immense 
 quantities of partially-worn flint rocks, which come from the debris of 
 these concretions. It is from these ro(;ks that the masses of chalcedony, 
 
GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF THE TERRITORIES. 41 
 
 as well as the " moss agnates," liavetbeir origin. Along the railroad and 
 about Church Buttes the surface in many places is literally paved with 
 small fragments of a dark-browu, shiny, flinty ro(,'k, somewhat worn, 
 among which the " moss agates" are found; all these rocks originate 
 in the Bridger group. 
 
 We found our camps on the Sandy Creeks and Green Eiver very 
 pleasant, with abundant grass for our animals. The bottoms are usually 
 quite broad, and though covered with the white alkaline efdorescence 
 so common to this country, the soil has all the elements of extreme fer- 
 tility. Indeed this entire Green River basin, which seems to the eye 
 so utterly desolate and barren, would jiroduce all the crops that the 
 climate will jjermit, most abundantly, if it could be irrigated ; and the time 
 may yet come when this apparently desert region may " blossom as the 
 rose." Whether this state of things can ever occur or not, it is sufticient 
 for me to state, that the soil, whether upland or lowland, contains in 
 greater proportions the elements of fertility than that of Salt Lake Val- 
 ley, which has been found so wonderfully productive. 
 
 The 10th and lltli of September we camped on Black's Fork near 
 Church Buttes, and spent the time most industriously and successfully, 
 exploring the remarkable " bad lauds" for fossil remains, as turtles, mam- 
 mals, and fresh-water shells, of which we gathered great quantities. 
 Mr. Elliott made a tine series of panoramic sketches and sections, and 
 Messrs. Jackson and Gififord procured seventeen beautiful photographic 
 negatives of the most rugged portions of this unique scenery. The ma- 
 terials for the illustration of the different groups of strata are very com- 
 plete, and will add greatlj' to our knowledge of the geology of some of 
 the most interesting regions in the West. 
 
 On the evening of the 12th of September we arrived safely at Fort 
 Bridger, the western terminus of our present explorations. 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 FORT BRIDGER AND THE UINTA MOUNTAINS. 
 
 On the morning of September 16 we left Fort Bridger for the Uintn. 
 Mountains, under the guidance of Judge W. A.Carter, whose long resi- 
 dence at Fort Bridger and intimate knowledge of the surrounding coun- 
 try proved of great value to us in our explorations. 
 
 Our course was a little east of north, across the plateau divide between 
 Black's Fork and Smith's Fork. A distance of six miles from Bridger we 
 crossed over the interval to Little Cottonwood Creek, a branch of Smith's 
 Fork, and passed up that valley to the foot-hills of the mountains about 
 seven miles farther. The valleys of these streams are broad and ex- 
 ceedingly fertile. The soil is a rich vegetable mold, and all the vege- 
 tation reaches a luxuriant growth. Large areas have been under culti- 
 vation by Judge Carter for years. Wheat, oats, barley, and all the roots, 
 can be raised here in great abundance and with ease. Hay can be 
 obtainedjn the meadows or damp places in unlimited quantities, and 
 the grazing cannot be surpassed. That portion of the country between 
 Fort Bridger and the foot-hills of the mountains may be divided into 
 bottom land and table land ; that is, the bottoms are very broad, vary- 
 ing from two to five miles in width, and the table lands are sort of ter- 
 race divides, which look in the distance as level as a table top, and de- 
 scend very gradually from the foot-hills. These plateaus are covered 
 
42 GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF THE TERRITORIES. 
 
 y^ith sage at tliis time, but every acre of tliem could be cultivated by 
 irrigation, and the soil is as fertile as any of the fruitful lands of Salt 
 Lake Valley. The miocene beds of the Bridger Group jut up against the 
 sides of tlie mountains in a nearly horizontal position. Up among the 
 foot-hills I found the bones of a turtle, the teeth and jaws of a mammal, 
 and an abundance. of fresh-water shells, of the genus Planorbis. lam 
 now inclined to think that the long high ridges that extend down from the 
 flanks of the mountains between each main stream or its branches, are 
 composed of modern tertiary beds. Still they are so smooth and so 
 thickly grassed over, and covered with groves of pine and aspen, that I 
 could never find a locality where the rocks were exposed, so that I could 
 obtiiiu a connected section. The surface is covered very thickly with 
 rounded boulders of reddish sandstone and quartzite, with some masses 
 of carboniferous limestone. The ascent is very gradual, and the roads 
 excellent, almost to the summits of the range, at least to an elevation 
 of 11,000 feet above the sea. 
 
 Both Smith's and Black's Forks separate into numerous branches, and 
 between each one is a lofty, precipitous ridge, which extends down from 
 near the summit of the mountains in the fonn of steps or abrupt points. 
 Pheasant Point and Porcupine Point are examples of this kind. It is a 
 curious fact, however, that none of these ridges ever reveal their interior 
 character, being clothed with a dense growth of pine and aspen, or in the 
 open places, on hill or in vallej", thickly with grass and a deep soil. For 
 ten miles at least not a trace of the basis rocks could be found in the 
 channels of the streams. Spruce Eidge, between the sources of the Muddy 
 and the valley of Bear Eiver, revealed the fact that there is an immense 
 deposit of drift covering a belt along the flanks of the mountains from 
 ten to twenty miles in width, extending in some places nearly to the 
 crest of the range. The ujjper portion of this drift is composed of fine 
 arenaceous clays, covered with a deep, rich, vegetable soil. It therefore 
 sustains a luxuriant vegetation up to an elevation of nearly 12,000 feet. 
 The mountain rises in steps, because there are ridges of elevation; 
 hence, Judge Carter has given this range the api^ropriate name of 
 " Terrace Mountains." 
 
 Thus we have two kinds of ridges; those of elevation, which are par- 
 allel vrith the axis, and those of erosion, which are parallel with the 
 valleys of the streams, and radiate from the axis at right angles to the 
 ridges of elevation. The first locality, between Smith's Fork and Black's 
 Fork, that we observed rocks in place was at Photograph ridge; a lofty 
 upheaval of carboniferous limestone, inclining at an angle of 40°. The 
 elevation of the crest was determined by the barometer to be 10,829 feet. 
 This ridge extends across Black's Fork, with a trend about northeast 
 and southwest. From this ridge to the axis of elevation there is a 
 series of sandstone ridges, passing gradually into red and gray quartz- 
 ites. These ridges rise, like steps, to the crest of the range. 
 
 The first ridge is comjjosed of dull, purplish sandstone of various 
 degrees of texture, from a compact sandstone to a pebbly conglomerate. 
 The quantity of broken rocks and debris is wonderful, rising like a wall 
 one hundred to two hundred feet high. Then comes a broad, grassy 
 valley and a second ridge of sandstone, though a portion of this ridge 
 is covered with the drift deposit, so that the sandstones are seen only 
 in the sides of the valleys of Smith's and Black's Forks. The inclination 
 of these sandstones is about 35° northwest. At the foot of the ridge 
 next to the crest of the mountains there is a broad valley like a plateau. 
 This has the appearance of an elegantly prepared lawn, so thickly and 
 evenly is it covered with grass. It is 11,809 feet, and 1,100 feet above the 
 
GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF THE TERRITORIES. 43 
 
 li mit of arborescent vegetation. This also forms one of the radiating ridges, 
 Avhieh extends down from the axis of the range to the phiius, and sepa- 
 rates the A'alleys of Smith's and Black's Forks. Sometimes it is several 
 miles in width, but toward the crest of the range the ridge of separation 
 is not more than two Imndred yards wide. Standing on either side of this 
 ridge, the view that meets the eye toward the sources of these streams 
 can hardly be surpassed for ruggeduess and picturesque beauty. The 
 valley of Smitli's Fork seems to be altogether one of erosion, cutting 
 through the uplifted strata nearly at right angles. The beds are well 
 shown in the sides of the valley for miles, inclining at angles from 20^ 
 to 35°. At the very sources of both Smith's and Black's Forks are 
 pyramidal or conical peaks most distinctl,y stratified, and apparently 
 horizontal, or nearly so, with the summits above the limits of perpetual 
 snow, and from fifteen hundred to two thousand feet above the springs 
 that give origin to the streams below. These peaks or cones are vast 
 piles of purplish compact quartzite, resembling much Egyptian pyra- 
 mids on a gigantic scale, without a trace of soil, vegetation, or water. 
 One of these remarkable structures stands out isolated from the rest, in 
 the middle of the valley of Smith's Fork, which we estimated to rise 
 fifteen hundred feet above its base; and so much lil^e a Gothic church 
 did it appear, that the members of my party gave it the name of Hay- 
 den's Cathedral. 
 
 From Carter's Plateau I descended into the valley of Smith's Fork, 
 and after traveling about three miles over ridge after ridge of sand- 
 stone and quartzite, inclining at various angles from 20° to 30°, I came 
 within a short distance of the base of this cathedral, when I found that 
 it formed the south side of an anticlinal, and that the trend of the 
 valley was northeast and southwest. It would seem that while all the 
 beds on the north side of the anticlinal dip at a large angle, those on the 
 south side were forced up in a nearly horizontal position, inclining 
 southwest only 3° to 5°. The valley is full of little lakes, M^hich form 
 an interesting feature of the scenery of the Uiutas. In most cases they 
 are the result of land-slides, antl occur at different elevations, depend- 
 ing upon the conditions that bring them into existence. Carter's Lake 
 is a beautiful sheet of water, inclosed on one side by a semicircular wall 
 of purplish sandstone and slates, and on the other by a dense growth of 
 spruce trees. The depression for the accumulation of the waters of this 
 lake was formed by an immense mass of rock sliding down from the 
 ridges above. The side of the mass opposite the ridge from which it 
 was detached would be the highest, forming a rim for the depression. 
 Springs of water ooze out of the sides of the ridge, snows melt, and 
 the waters flow down and gather here, and soon a little lake is formed. 
 This one is three hundred and fifty yards in length, and eighty yards in 
 width. 
 
 It is quite i)laiu that these slides have been the chief agency in 
 enlarging these valleys, for even at this time we see the evidences of it 
 everywhere, both at the head of Smith's and Black's Fork. The valley 
 extends from half a mile to a mile above the anticlinal valley, and in 
 the dry season of autumn, far above the existence of water. I am inclined 
 to believe that the origin of the stream and its valley began in. this 
 anticlinal opening, and that the valley has extended up above it by the 
 sliding down of vast masses of rock which were swept downward by the 
 waters. On the west side of the valley of Smith's Fork, near its head, is 
 a vast semicircular notch or indentation, neai'lyhalf a mile deep, which 
 has been wholly formed by these slides. In the valley below, which is 
 five hundred to eight hundred feet deep, are half a dozen lakes, occupy- 
 
44 GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF THE TERRITORIES. 
 
 ing tlie depressions of these slides at different elevations. The day that 
 we explored the valley, was quite warm, and the sides were covered with 
 banks of suow twelve to fifteen feet deep, from the edges of which were 
 flowing streams of water into these little lakes or i)ools. From the sides 
 of the valley issued beautiful springs also, which contributed their portion. 
 From these lakes flowed little streams, which gradually concentrated 
 into the main channel of Smith's Fork. The same descri^jtion will apply 
 to the valley of Black's Fork, except that a portion of the east side seems 
 to be formed of the sloping side of one of the inclined ridges of sandstone, 
 thus showing that it is not altogether one of erosion. The w-est side reveals 
 all the quartzites and sandstones in their regular order of sequence, for 
 several miles, inclining at various angles from 20° to 40^^. From the high 
 peaks of the crest of the range we can look down the deep, almost straight 
 valleys of Smith's and Black's Forks, southward into the plains, and 
 follow the remarkably tortuous course of the little streams that flow 
 down them. There are no real mountain torrents in this range, no 
 picturesque waterfalls or narrow gorges ; but the valleys are deej) and 
 wide, with almost vertical sides, eight hundred to twelve hundred feet 
 high . Yet the lower portions below the quartzitic belt are covered thickly 
 with trees or grass, so that the underlying rocks are concealed. The 
 fall of the water is so slight in the streams that they are not only ex- 
 ceedingly tortuous, but frequently accumulate in little lake-like expan- 
 sions, which add much to the beauty of the scenery, especially as the 
 waters glisten when the morning sunlight falls upon them. In a volume 
 entitled " Sun Pictures of Rocky Mountain Scenery," illustrated with 
 photographs, I have included two views, taken at the head of the west 
 branch of Bear River, by Mr. A. J. Russell, as types of Uinta Mountain 
 scenery. Sun pictures No. 1 and Ko. 14 exhibit Moore's Lake with 
 the quartzite mountain in the background. The stratification can be 
 seen perfectly. This work, though very costly, can be found in most of 
 our public libraries and can be referred to by those who may be inter- 
 ested in the scenery of the Uinta Mountains. Mr. Jackson, photographer 
 to the survey, has taken a large number of views in this range, illustrating 
 every variety of form which the texture of the rocks would admit of, in 
 the i)rocess of erosion or weathering. These views, I hope, will be given 
 to the world in some form at no distant day. As studies of the geologi- 
 cal and geographical features of the country they will prove of great 
 value, and their fidelity to nature cannot be denied. 
 
 We descended the dividing ridge between Black's and Smith's Forks 
 by the same road we passed up, but nowhere below Photograph Ridge 
 did we see any of the rocks underlying the drift. I am confident that, 
 could the immense deposit of drift be stripped off, we should find the 
 regular series of formations, as triassic or red beds, Jurassic, cretaceous, 
 and older tertiary, and possibly coal-beds. Yet so thick a deposit of 
 drift and modern tertiary covers the sides and foot-hills of the range 
 that these formations do not probably affect the outline of the surface. 
 It is quite certain, however, that they will be found cropping out some- 
 where, even on the north side of the range, or perhaps on the south 
 side in the Uinta Valley. I regret very much that my time would not 
 pernjit me to make a thorough exploration of both sides of this most 
 interesting range. Some problems which now are obscure might thus be 
 made plain 
 
 TRIP TO THE HEAD OF BEAR RIVER, UINTA MOUNTAINS. 
 
 We left Fort Bridger on the morning of the 24th of September, 
 with a small pack train, and pursued a north course up the valley of 
 
GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF THE TEKEIT0KIE3. 45 
 
 Black's Fork for fourteen miles. This is a beautiful and fertile valley, 
 varying- from tUree-fourtbs to a mile in width. Every foot of the 
 bottom land could be cultivated with ease, and Black's Fork would 
 supply an abundance of water for irrigation. The soil, like that of all 
 the valleys of the Uinta range, is a rich black vegetable mold, which 
 always sustains a heavy growth of native vegetation. The creek itself 
 is fringed with a handsome border of cottonwoods and aspens ; spruce 
 and pine come in, which, mingled with the deciduous trees, give a pleas- 
 ant variety to the foliage. Each of the streams that flow down the 
 slopes of the Uiutas separate into numerous branches, and between each 
 branch there is a dividing ridge which extends down from the moun- 
 tains and breaks oif abruptly at the base. The Bridger group extends 
 u]) to the base of these ridges and juts up against the foot-hills. Then 
 come the grass-covered and woody ridges, which are composed of strata 
 of yellow and green arenaceous clays, with thin layers of sandstone pro- 
 jecting from the sides. The grass and other vegetation covers the sur- 
 face so uniformly that it is difficult to find a connected section of the 
 strata, but it is probable that there are lower tertiary beds, which form 
 a portion of the coal series. 
 
 Leaving Black,'s Fork we ascended the dividing ridge westward to 
 Muddy Creek, and followed an old trail just under the foot-hills of the 
 mountains. The elevation of the summit of the ridge is 7,857 feet. 
 This ridge is most beautifully diversified with groups of aspen trees. 
 The surface is covered with loose water-worn rocks, mostly the red 
 sandstones and quartzites that must have been drifted from the crest of 
 the mountains. On the west side of this ridge is a singular table-top 
 butte, witli an elevation of 7,977 feet, and five hundred feet above the 
 Avaters of the Muddy, which flows along its western base. It is evidently 
 a fragment of an upheaved ridge of middle tertiary strata, inclining from 
 the mountains at a small angle. The southwest side is very abrupt, and 
 the strata are exposed so that a moderately good section can be studied. 
 The suujmit is covered thickly with water -worn boulders, which seem to 
 have lodged there on their w^ay from the Uintas. The deposit of drift 
 is at least fifty feet thick, and the greatest accumulation of the boulders is 
 on the abrupt edge toward the ranges. Below the driftare alternate layers 
 of light-gray argillaceous limestone, sandstone, and laminated arenaceous 
 clays. In one of the ui^per beds of limestone is a thin seam of black 
 chert or flint, with fresh-water shells, and plants. A thickness of two 
 hundred feet of the base of the hill is composed of arenaceous clays 
 with a light pinkish tinge, which is peculiar to a vast series of beds 
 west of the rim of the basin. From the top of this butte the view is very 
 extended in every direction. To the south are the Uinta Mountains, 
 with the foot-hills or ridges gradually sloping down into the plains, 
 covered with asp'en groves and pines, with here and there grass}', 
 meadow-like openings. To the west and north, as for as the eye can 
 reach, thirty to fifty miles, we see only the modern tertiary beds. These 
 all show a slight inclination from the range, with the southwest side of 
 the projecting ridges abrupt and denuded, and the northeast side 
 sloping gently down and covered thickly with grass. On one of the 
 little branches of the Muddy the carboniferous limestones crop out 
 somewhat obscurely, but sufficient to show that they exist underneath 
 this vast deposit of drift and tertiary strata. I have no doubt that the 
 entire series of unchanged beds known in this region, either do exist or 
 have existed on the flanks of the Uintas, although at this time they 
 may have been eroded away. We know that along the railroad, near 
 Aspen Station, the cretaceous rocks are brought to the surfiice, and in the 
 
46 GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF THE TERRITORIES. 
 
 valley of the "Weber the Jurassic, triassic, carboniferous, &c., are enormous- 
 ly developed. We then ascended the west branch of the Muddy, along 
 one of the most beautiful mountain valleys we have yet seen. It is 
 quite narrow, inclosed between high ridges, the sides descending in 
 step-like slopes to the stream. The little groves of aspen were dis- 
 tributed over it with the most delicate artistic taste, and the varieties of 
 autumn coloring of the foliage surpassed every power of description. 
 One could look for hours upon them, and yet there were no marked 
 salient points, and the charm consisted more in a kind of esthetic 
 feeling which no pen or pencil can portray. The grass is excellent, and 
 the water i:>ure from mountain springs. The sage shrub grows very 
 rank, which also indicates the fertility of the soil. We camped in a 
 little grove of aspens, and all the party were so well pleased that they 
 united in calling it Camp Elliott, in honor of the artist of our expedition. 
 The elevation was ascertained to be 8,194 feet. The next morning, 
 September 2oth, we continued up this branch of the Muddy for about 
 two miles, and then struck across the divide to the west branch, and 
 followed that up to Spruce Eidge, the high divide between the waters of 
 the Muddy and Bear Elver. Here we caught a full view of the range of 
 mountains, with the sharp peaks covered with snow. This was just the 
 point we had desired to reach where we could take a careful survey of 
 the country, and determine our point of destination. I had with me a 
 most excellent field glass, and so useful have I found it in my explora- 
 tions that it has become my inseparable companion. With it I could 
 extend my vision over a vast area. Far to the northward, one hundred 
 and eighty miles distant, the white snow-clad mountains of Wind Eiver 
 were distinctly visible extending along the horizon. The intermediate 
 space resembles in its surface the irregular broken waves of a sea. To 
 the west, not more than fifty miles distant, the Wasatch range can be 
 clearly seen, while the beautiful broad valley of Bear Eiver and its 
 branches are si)read out beneath us. It is diflicult for one to fully 
 appreciate the wonderful extent of country over w^hich the eye can travel 
 through the pure atmosphere in this open country without having 
 visited it. It seems to me that no other i)ortion of the world can present 
 so much surface of country to a single grasp of the vision. Spruce Eidge 
 explains so much that has hitherto been obscure in regard to the foot- 
 hills of the Uintas, that I will describe it more minutely. 
 
 Smith's Fork, Black's Fork, and Bear Eiver take their rise in the main 
 divide of the Uinta range among the snow peaks. Each one of these 
 streams has its smaller branches, which originate from springs issuing 
 from the lower foot-hills. Between Black's Fork and Bear Eiver is the 
 Muddy Creek, which drains a broad valley, and separates into half a 
 dozen branches, most of which extend up to the main range. The range 
 itself consists of a central belt or zone of peaks and ridges, more rugged 
 and inaccessible than most mountain ranges. This belt varies from five 
 to fifteen miles in width, and has a general trend about east and west, or 
 northeast and southwest. Below this zone, the mountains are composed 
 of step like terraces or ridges, which are so covered with drift material, 
 and sustain such a grow^th of grass and timber, that the basis rocks are 
 seldom if ever exposed to the eye. Thus we have two kinds of ridges — 
 the ridges of upheaval, which incline aw^ay from the central axis and are 
 parallel with it, and the ridges of erosion which radiate down into the 
 plains from the rugged belt before described as forming the crest of the 
 mountains. Spruce Eidge extends from this central belt with a some- 
 what irregular outline down into the plains between the drainage of 
 Black's Fork and Bear Eiver. All along the sides of this ridge, nearly 
 
GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF TPIE TERRITORIES. 47 
 
 to the summit, thousands of beautiful springs of water gush out, and, 
 concentrating in some valley, form quite large streams, and really are the 
 main sources of these rivers. Sometimes these ridges are only a few 
 feet in width at the summit, as between the waters of the Muddy and 
 the east branch of Bear Iliver. Here a little further up the mountain 
 it expands out to a width of four to six miles, and is covered with 
 large forests of pine and aspen groves, with meadow-like openings, 
 varying in size from fifty to one thousand acres each. Then again, 
 to the sources of the main branches near the mountain crest, these 
 ridges become very narrow, merely separating the waters of the 
 streams. Upon these ridges are trails or roads, made by men or wild 
 animals, which lead one with comparative ease up the rugged mountain 
 divide. Spruce Ridge is formed of a great thickness of drift conglom- 
 erate. This consists of quite large masses of purplish and gray sand- 
 stone, quartzites, and carboniferous limestones with fossils, with now 
 and then a granitoid or gneissic rock. The boulders are not usually 
 large, varying in size from a small pebble to two feet in diameter. The 
 rocks are mostly the purplish sandstone, quartzites, and limestones from 
 the carboniferous ridges. These rocks are more or less water-worn ; 
 some of them are quite angular, as if they had not been transported fur 
 or rolled in the waters, others are much rounded. They are set in an 
 arenaceous i)uddiug-stone i^aste, mostly decomposed feldspar and quartz 
 of a grayish-white color. The whole mass is not closelj'^ cemented and 
 yields readily to atmospheric agencies. The entire thickness of this 
 modern deposit, as shown by this ridge, must be very great, from four hun- 
 dred to eight hundred feet. It, however, varies much in thickness in differ- 
 .eut portions of the range. I have mentioned the different kinds of 
 rocks in this ridge from the fact that such deposits are almost certain 
 to contain specimens from all the geological formations which come 
 within the scope of the agencies which deposited it. I have found by 
 experience that I can anticipate the existence of nearly all the rocks of 
 different formations or those of different ages, in amountain, by examining 
 the drift materials distributed over the base or foot-hills of the range. 
 This ridge also presents a marked illustration of the influence of land- 
 slides in shaiiing the surface of the sides of this range. These slides 
 are doubtless caused by the numberless springs which ooze out of the 
 sides at every point of elevation from the plains to the main divide. 
 They also give the peculiar, terrace-like, or stex)-like character to the .slopes 
 which has suggested the name of "terrace range" for these mountains. 
 These steps are usually very gradual and smooth, but in some cnses they 
 give an extreme ruggedness to the surface. The east side of Spruce 
 llidge is nearly vertical for two hundred feet or more, and the conglom- 
 erate beds project out of the sides in horizontal layers. The east side is 
 very steep, but slopes down to the i^lains without any very abrupt break, 
 and is covered with grass or forests of aspen or pine ; but the west side is 
 covered, as far as the valley of Bear Eiver, with a series of abrupt steps, 
 which would appear to be of comparatively modern date or of different 
 dates within our i)resent period. These landslides, on the west side of 
 this ridge, extend a width of three to five miles before reaching tlie east 
 branch of Bear Eiver ; and from the summit of this ridge we had a most 
 excellent opportunity to study the effects. An immense mass of the drift 
 conglomerate has slipped off" from the ridge and fallen down ; the detached 
 nmss opposite the main ridge is the highest, forming a sort of sharp, low 
 ridge, sloping toward a depressed center; thus a de])ression is made for 
 the accumulation of waters from the drainage of a small area; and thus 
 others^ — most of the little lakes that have given such celebrity to these 
 
48 GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF THE TERRITORIES. ' 
 
 mountains — have been formed. Carter's Lake, a most beautiful little slieet 
 of \fater attlie bead of Smitb'.s Fork, is formed in tbat way ; it is about 
 three hundred yards long, and fifty to one hundred wide. These little 
 accumulations of water occur at all elevations from the foot of the 
 mountains to the crest; and in looking from the high mountain divide, 
 <lown the valleys of Bear Eiver or Black's Fork, they appear like gems 
 set in the landscape as their waters glisten in the sunlight. In many 
 instances these little lakes are surrounded with tall pines, which cast 
 their shadows across the waters with such sharp outlines that they have 
 become favorite subjects for the photographer; thus we have the 
 beautiful pictures of "shadow lakes." I have described this ridge more 
 in detail from the fact that it supplied me with a key to an important 
 portion of the history of this curious mountainous range which was 
 before very obscure. 
 
 I think the Uinta Mountains might be divided into three belts or 
 zones, parallel with the axis: 1. The tertiary beds at the base laj)- 
 ping on the sides of the foot-hills for a short distance ; 2. A broad belt, 
 fifteen to twenty miles in width, covered with a vast deposit of drift, and 
 so covered with vegetation, and so smoothed down to the water's edge 
 of all the streams, that the basis rocks are entirely concealed from view, 
 and it is only by the accident of a laud slide the character or ex- 
 tent of this modern drift deposite can be ascertained, but inasmuch as 
 it has given the most prominent surface feature to this range it is worthy 
 of our careful study. The third belt comprises the central portion, which 
 is covered with sharp peaks rising eleven thousand to twelve thousand 
 feet above the sea, varying in width from ten to twenty miles. This is 
 the most rugged and inaccessible portion of the range, and is composed 
 of high ridges of upheaval, parallel to the axis of elevation, and the 
 strata inclining from it. These three belts will be described in detail as 
 we proceed from point to point. 
 
 Leaving that portion of the ridge that separates the waters of Bear 
 Eiver and Muddy Creek, v^e passed along a sharp crest to a broad, 
 sloping, plateau-like area between Black's Fork and the east branch 
 of Bear River. AVe thus see at a glance that not only the greater part 
 of the water of the main streams that issue from the mountain origi- 
 nates in this second or middle belt, but that some of the important 
 streams are entirely fed from springs that flow out of these grassy or 
 Avooded slopes. In ascending the " plateau slope " above mentioned we 
 I)ass around thefoantainsof half a dozen branches of IMuddy Eiver, which 
 in the plains become quite important trout streams, varying from ten to 
 thirty feet in width. As we i)assed up this ridge towardthe water divide, 
 sometimes it would expand out three to five miles in width, with thick 
 forests of pine or broad, meadow-like openings covered with a thick growth 
 of grass. Then it would become so narrow that we could look into the 
 magnificent, gorge-like valleys of the rivers on either side. The surface 
 is covered thickly with transported rocks, mostly of reddish sandstones 
 and quartzites of the mountain nucleus. We made our camp in the edge of 
 the spruce forest, at the upper side of a beautiful grassy meadow of about 
 one thousand acres in extent, near a fine spring, ten thousand three 
 hundred and eight feet above tide water. The sky was clear and the 
 weather mild. XVe slept on the ground in the ojien air with a satisfac- 
 tion which we shall not soon forget. Our animals drank the mountain 
 water and cropped the sweet, nutritious grass as delighted as ourselves. 
 We were about ten miles in a direct line from the axis of elevation. The 
 course of Black's Fork is nearlj^ north, while the branches of Bear 
 Eiver flow northwest. Our camp was within a few hundred yards of 
 
GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF THE TERRITORIES. 49 
 
 the M'est bank of the valley of Black's Fork, and from the Hiargiu v^e 
 ohtamed a most instructive view of the third or central belt. Tlie west 
 side of the valley of Black's Fork is very steep, rising from eight hun- 
 dred to oue thousand feet above the channel. It is covered very thickly 
 with transported boulders, most of which are but little worn. Here 
 and there are quite broad terraces, produced by land-slides. On the 
 opposite side are the high ridges of limestone which have been furrowed 
 down the sides by atmospheric forces in a somewhat striking manner. 
 The color antl general appearance of the mass across the valley led me 
 to believe that it was the result of an outburst of igneous rocks, but on 
 closer examiuation I found it was an extension westward of Photo- 
 graph Eidge from Smith's Fork, and was composed of limestones of 
 carboniferous age. About two miles further up the west side of Black's 
 Fork we came to an exposure of the red-beds or triassic, the first dis- 
 play of them I have been able to find in the mountains. They are 
 shown here from one hundred and fifty to two hundred feet in thickness, 
 passing into grey sandstones quartzites and indurated arenaceous 
 clays: then alternate thin beds of gray limestone and sandstone, and 
 finally into the massive limestone that forms one of the most conspic- 
 uous ridges. The inclination of the beds appeared to be 46° northwest, 
 with a trend northeast and southwest. The red-beds being composed of 
 yielding sands and clays, are here worn away so that a low, narrow pass 
 was formed across the ridge between the west branch of Black's Fork 
 and the east branch of Bear River, revealing the beds of sandstone and 
 gray quartzites, the vertical layers projecting above the general level like 
 walls, and their height depended upon the power of the rock to resist the 
 atmosphere. Further up toward the sources of these rivers, where the 
 strata are finely exposed, we could see clearly that the limestones formed 
 a ridge of upheaval parallel with the axis of the mountains, and extend 
 off far to the southwest across all the branches of Bear Eiver toward 
 the Wasatch range. 
 
 Among the numerous fossils that occur here in the limestones are 
 Zaphrentis, Froductus PrattenianuSy &c. Some of the layers of an 
 ashen-grey, compact limestone were mostly composed of fragments of 
 remains. The fossils, therefore, fix the age of the limestones that con- 
 stitute this ridge there, beyond a doubt. The same limestones undoubtedly 
 extend all over the Utah basin, along the western side of the Uintas, 
 along the flanks of the Wasatch range and about Salt Lake. Many of 
 the fossils appear to be identical with those from Salt Lake, described 
 by Hall in Stansbury's Eeport. The succeeding series of rocks I have 
 not found it so easy to locate in the geological scale. They consist of 
 dull,- purplish sandstones, with a series of thin layers of slate and clay, 
 gradually passing down into quartzites. The upper beds are nearly 
 all sandstones of various degrees of texture ; some very fine and com- 
 pact, others an aggregation of small worn particles of quartz ; then a 
 complete pudding-stone, consistin g of water- worn quartz pebbles set in 
 a silicious paste. As w^e proceeded toward the crest of the mountains, 
 the sandstones are very clearly shown in the sides of the valleys of both 
 Black's Fork and Bear Eiver. As these diminish in importance, the 
 quartzites increase until the beds of reddish and gray quartzites are very 
 thick and massive, while the sandstones and slaty clays are thin and- 
 unimportant, until we arrive at the main divide, where the rocks are 
 reddish quartzites alone. Between the east branch of Black's Fork and 
 the east branch of Bear Eiver the ridge is not more than one hundred 
 to five hundred yards in width for a distance of three miles in a straight 
 line. In this distance are ten or twelve ridges of upheaval which both, 
 4 G 
 
50 GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF THE TERRITORIES. 
 
 valleys cut at right angles. Eacli ridge contains a massive bed of 
 quartzite, wliicli in some cases rises to a great height, and between the 
 alternate ridges is a thin series of slates and sandstones, which, yielding 
 more readily to the atmospheric agents, have been worn away, form- 
 ing a narrow depression or pass from one valley to the other. 
 
 At the head of the streams the rocks that form the divide seem to 
 have been elevated in a horizontal position, and they exhibit the most 
 remarkable architectural forms as cones, i)yramids, castles, cathedrals, 
 &c. The strata are clearly shown, and are perfectly horizontal in most 
 cases, sometimes inclining slightly to the southwest. ISIowhere else in 
 the West have I ever seen rocks assuming these peculiar forms. The 
 scenery has an artificial appearance, so uniformly regular is the shape of 
 some of the pyramids. These rocks most effectually shut off all water 
 communication between the north and south side of the Uinta range. 
 The distance from the red-beds or triassic, including the carboniferous 
 limestones, to the crest of the mountains, I estimated at five miles in a 
 straight line, and the inclination varies from 40'^ to 75°. In all this 
 series of strata, from the red-beds to the oldest quartzites, I was able to 
 detect no unconformability. The connection of the sandstones with, 
 the carboniferous limestones was perfect, so far as could be ascertained 
 by the eye, whatever may have been the chasm in time. Not a trace of 
 a fossil was found below the limestones, although I strongly suspect the 
 purplish sandstones to be of Lower Silurian age. The texture of the 
 upper beds of sandstone is so much like the Potsdam sandstones, as 
 may be observed in other portions of the Eocky Mountain region, I was 
 lead to suspect that the upper portion might be Lower Silurian. The sec- 
 tion along the valley of Black's Fork is clear, inasmuch as the rocks are 
 cutthrough at right angles to the strata and they all present an unbroken 
 series from the oldest quartzites exposed to the carboniferous limestones; 
 and close to the oldest quartzites are thin beds of sandstone, apparently 
 unchanged or only partially so, and resembling in texture and color the 
 upper sandstones, which I am inclined to regard as Silurian. I have 
 estimated the entire thickness of stratified rocks exposed here at ten 
 thousand feet. If this is true, about eight thousand feet consist of the 
 sandstones and quartzites rising to an elevation of over twelve thousand 
 feet above tide- water. 
 
 I am inclined to believe that the upper beds are Silurian, that they 
 pass gradually down without any break in the sequence of time to 
 rocks of Huronian age. The purplish quartzites are almost precisely 
 like those which occur at the Sioux Falls in Dakota, and at the Pipe- 
 stone quarry, in color and texture, which Professor Hall regards as 
 Huronian age. At any rate, I have never observed such a series of 
 rocks in any other portion of the West, and am inclined to think they 
 are confined to the Uinta range. The Uinta Mountains are not far 
 from the Wasatch range, and apparently join on to that range ; yet I 
 have passed through the Wasatch range at right angles at different 
 points, and was able to discover no such series of strata. The precise 
 or approximate age of these rocks is a very interesting problem to me, 
 and I regret that my time will not permit me to make a more thorough 
 examination of the range. A careful study of the southern slope, and 
 the intermediate country southward into the Uinta basin, might afford 
 some clue to their age, but I suspect that there are no fossiliferous strata 
 in the series. 
 
 As I have before stated, two of the main branches of Black's Fork 
 and Bear Eiver take their rise in the axis of elevation at precisely the 
 same point, run xjarallel for about five or six miles and then diverge, the 
 
GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF THE TERRITORIES. 51 
 
 former running north toward Fort Bridger, tlie latter northwest. Both 
 have carved out for themselves wonderfully deep and picturesque val- 
 leys. They can hardly he called gorges or caiions from the fact that 
 the sides are not usually A'ertical. In some places there are large semi- 
 circular indentations in the sides of the valley, caused by the sliding 
 down of masses of earth ; and in looking down from the plateau above, 
 the eye meets with beautiful lakes, surrounded by small groves of pine or as- 
 pen. In the sides of the valley the strata may be studied with great clear- 
 ness, usually inclining at a greater or less angle. These valleys are largely 
 those of erosion, but not entirely so. The waters in former times have 
 cut through a vast thickness of strata at right angles, but a portion of 
 the way the valley lies between the ridges of upheaval, which I have 
 termed monoclinals. Some of the smaller branches start in the mono- 
 clinal intervals, and flexing around northward cut through the ridge at 
 right angles to the plains. In one instance a small branch of Black's 
 Fork starts between two ridges of carboniferous limestones, wears out a 
 valley eight hundred feet in depth and an eighth of a mile in width, 
 flows a little north of east into the main branch, which runs about due 
 north. At the same point commences a small branch of Bear River 
 between the same two ridges of limestone, and tlows a little uorthof 
 west into one of the east branches of Bear Eiver, although these two 
 small branches run in opposite directions. The rid^e of separation is 
 not thirty feet above the principal valleys of Black's Fork and Bear 
 Eiver. There is another interesting feature just here which should be 
 noticed. These small branches, four in number, completely isolate a 
 large fragment of the limestone ridge. It rises up in the form of a cone 
 eleven thousand feet above the sea, and seven hundred and fifty 
 feet above the vaUey at its base. The inclination of the limestones 
 is 45° to 50° northwest. 
 
 There are two important thoughts suggested by the study of this 
 ujiper belt. First, the amount of debris found by the broken fragments 
 of the sandstone and quartaites is immense, beyond any instance I have 
 observed before. Not only the ridges, but also the sides of the deep 
 yalleys, are covered to an unknown thickness with fragments of quartz- 
 ite, sandstone, and limestone, of all sizes from that of a pea to several 
 cubical feet. Scattered over the surface of valley and ridges are also 
 great quantities of the same rocks in a more or less worn condition, and 
 the deposit of drift which extends up to the third belt, close to the 
 crest, and varies in thickness from a few feet to 1,000 or 1,200, is 
 composed to a great extent of these rocks. Along the northern slope of 
 the Uinta Mountains, extending into the plains, these worn rocks cover 
 an area at least one hundred miles in length from east to west and fifty 
 from north to south. These stray masses are more worn, the fiu-ther 
 we recede into the plains northward from the mountains. In the 
 region of Echo and Weber Creeks is a vast deposit of conglomerate, 
 probably three thousand to five thousand feet in thickness, the most re- 
 markable group of rocks of that character I have ever seen on this con- 
 tinent. The question has often arisen in my mind from whence the 
 materials were derived. I cannot answer the question even yet, but 
 the debris of the Uinta Mountains, if transported to some lake basin, 
 would make a mass of conglomerate of equal thickness and cover 
 an equal area. 
 
 The second thought suggested is the apparently excellent illustration 
 of the gradual transition from unchanged to changed or metamorphic 
 rocks. We have a thickness of about one thousand feet of carboniferous 
 limestones unchanged. Passing upward to the crest of the mountains, 
 
52 GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF THE TERRITORIES. 
 
 « 
 
 but downward in a geological sense, we observe a series of purplisli sand- 
 stones and slates, perfectly conformable to the limestones, and appa- 
 rently unchanged. These sandstones gradually pass to thick beds of 
 gray and purplish quartzites, which are exceedingly brittle in fracture, 
 and plainly metamorphosed by heat. Intercalated among the beds of 
 Quartzite are thin layers of quartzitic sandstone and clay slate. As we 
 proceed toward the crest of the mountains, where the rocks have been 
 elevated from a great depth, the slates and sandstones become thinner 
 until they disappear. I am therefore inclined to regard this as a re- 
 markable example of the gradual transition of unaltered into meta- 
 morphic rocks. It would seem also that the finer the texture of the 
 rock the more readily is it affected by metamorphic action. 
 
 On the morning of the 27th we descended from the high plateau luto 
 the valley of the small side branches of the east fork of Bear Eiver, with 
 the hio'h steeply inclined limestone ridge on the left, and the gray sand- 
 stone,1ind red argillaceous sandy clays on our left. The surface is so 
 covered with fragments of rocks that the travebng is difficult. Our 
 course was nearly due west for about three miles, when the valley flexes to 
 the northwest. When we left our camp in the morning we were about 
 two miles above the source of this branch. At oiu? noon camp the little 
 stream was two feet wide. For about ten or fifteen nides the stream 
 flows between ridges twelve hundred to fifteen hundred feet above the 
 valley covered with pines and aspens, with no exposures of the under- 
 lyin o- rocks. The same vast deposit of drift covers the valley and ridges 
 all over the drainage of Bear Eiver. As soon as we come out into the 
 plains the valley expands to a width of several miles, and the tertiary 
 beds iut against the foot-hills with a sHght inclination from the range. 
 Sulphur Creek is the most eastern part of Bear Eiver, and rises in 
 Spruce Eidge, flows northwest, and empties into Bear Eiver near Bear 
 Eiver City. On the east side of Sulphur Creek, about two miles north 
 of the railroad, there is a high ridge of sandstone one hundred to one 
 hundred and fifty feet high, with an iiiclination of 20^ to 25^ west to 
 northwest. It extends across the railroad a little east of north, and 
 ioins on to a range of hills, of which Medicine Butte forms a part. On 
 'the summit of this ridge is a layer of rusty brown arenaceous hmestone, 
 composed largely of a species of Ostrea. This ridge is the first ludica- 
 tion'of cretaceous rocks I have seen in the vicinity of the Umta range. 
 
 From Sulphur Creek to the " rim of the basin," a series of modern 
 tertiary beds are deposited unconformably upon the lower tertiary and 
 cretaceous, filling up all the inequalities of the surface, and jutting up 
 ao-ainst the foot-hills of the Uintas. They are mostly horizontal m posi- 
 tion, but sometimes dip 5^. This most characteristic feature is the 
 ' lio-ht pinkish hue by which they are detected as far as the eye can reach. 
 
 In completing our section of the Uinta range and connecting it with 
 the formations of the plains, the only period wanting is the Jurassic, 
 no indication of which has been observed. The geological features of 
 this region will be discussed more fully in a succeeding chapter, in con- 
 nection with the belt of country along the line of, and contiguous to, the 
 Union Pacific Eailroad. The study of the Uinta range has been lull ot 
 interest. It has been sometimes called the Alpine Mountain of America, 
 though we miss the vast masses of snow and the glaciers ; butm an artistic 
 sense, no range that I have ever seen on this continent can compare 
 with it in beauty. There is a far more rugged grandeur about the AVmd 
 Eiver, the Sierra Nevada, or the Coast ranges ; but in none ot theni is 
 there such simplicity of structure, nor the contrasts so pleasing to the 
 eye. 
 
GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF THE TERRITORIES. 53 
 
 As I have before stated, there seem to be three belts or zones of country 
 which one passes over in traveling- south ward from Fort Bridger to the crest 
 of the Uintas. 1. The modern tertiary formations which jut up against the 
 foot-hills, and arc so denuded as to present to the eye an arid, naked appear- 
 ance. We then passsnddeuly tothe second belt, which we ascend by a con- 
 tinued but almost uninterrupted ascent to an elevation of over eleven 
 thousand feet. The lower portion of this zone is covered to a greater 
 or less extent with groves of aspen, mingled with the siiruce and pine. 
 As we ascend the aspens cease and the i)ines become more dense. Here 
 and there we find most beautiful meadow-like openings, with springs of 
 water and a luxuriant growth of grass. Some of these meadows occupy two 
 thousand acres. Looking down from some high peak across the belt, 
 these openings meet the eye continually, and contrast most beautifully 
 by the tawny color of th^ir autumn dress with the dark, sombre foliage of 
 the pines. The great luxuriance of the vegetation reveals the fertility 
 of the soil. The third belt, which forms the crest, contrasts again by the 
 almost entire absence of vegetation or water and the excessive rugged- 
 ness of the surface. In no other portion of our continent have I ever 
 seen such types of scenery. Cones, pyramids, domes, and cathedrals, 
 sometimes as sharply cut as if they had been wrought by art, occur at 
 the sources of all the streams that rise in the anticlinal fissure. 
 
 The height of Gilbert's Peak, at the head of Henry's Fork, was ascer- 
 tained by Mr. Beaman, with the barometer, to be 13,182 feet. Cox's 
 Peak, at the head the middle branch of Black's Fork, rises like an im- 
 mense dome above the surrounding country, 13,250 feet above tide-water. 
 Dawe's Peak, on the dividing ridge between the west branch of 
 Black's Fork and the east branch of Bear Elver, sends its sharj) cone- 
 like summit still higher, 13,300 feet. Logan's Peak marks the source of 
 the middle branch of Bear Eiver anti is 13,250 feet above tide-water. 
 All these are covered to a greater or less extent with x^erpetual snow. 
 From a higher ridge that extends from the crest on the west side of the 
 Uinta range there is one peak still loftier than any of those named, 
 which we estimated to be 13,500 feet. 
 
 ]S"early all the important streams that flow from either side of the 
 range have their origin within a short distance of each other. From 
 the summit of any of these peaks we can see the sources of them all at 
 a glance. Looking at this range from the Union Pacific Eailroad, or 
 from Fort Bridger, thirty-five to forty miles distant, there is a very great 
 difference in the clearness with which the summits can be seen at different 
 periods of the year and upon different days. Sometimes, as the early 
 sunlight falls upon them, they appear so near, through the clear atmos- 
 phere of this region, that they seem almost within our grasp. Again 
 they are obscured with clouds or fog and are so faintly visible that they 
 appear as a dim outline on the horizon. 
 
 An interesting feature in connection with this range is the limit of 
 arborescent vegetation. On the north side of the range we determined 
 the highest point, where low trailing shrubs grew, to be 10,709 feet, 
 and estimated 10,500 feet as the limit of upright trees. As we ascend 
 above this line the pines begin to dwindle until they trail upon the 
 ground, and exhibit all the symptoms of a desperate struggle for exist- 
 ence, and finally disappear entirely. As we i)ass above the borders of 
 upright trees, the stunted pines gather in grouiis, sometimes not more 
 than four to six feet in height, forming the most unique but scraggy 
 forms. In one instance about twenty of these trees formed a complete 
 circle, inclosing a clear space of about fifteen feet in diameter; the tops, 
 leaning toward the center, made a complete shelter. I gave it the some- 
 
 \ 
 
54 GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF THE TERRITORIES. 
 
 wliat poetical name of tlie "Uinta's Bower." At tlie extreme limit the 
 groups of pines spread out along the ground, and always toward the 
 east, showing that the winds in these mountains are mostly from the 
 west. The pines and the aspens constituting nearly all the tree vegeta- 
 tion of the mountains, it becomes an interesting matter to determine 
 the highest limit of the growth of the latter also. Observations with 
 the barometer near the sources of the Muddy Creek showed the highest 
 limit at one point to be 9,623 feet; at another 9,302. Probably 
 an average of the two observations would be the correct one. There is 
 considerable variation in the extreme limits, on account of the differ- 
 ence in position in relation to the sun. A southern exposure is most 
 favorable, and, in consequence, the limit is extended upward. 
 
 I will not close my description of this interesting region without a 
 word in regard to its future prospects. Judge Carter has introduced a 
 bill into Congress asking for a charter for the Fort Bridger and Uinta 
 Moimtain Eailroad, extending from some point on the Union Pacific 
 Eailroad, up the valley of Smith's or Black's Forks, to some point toward 
 the sources of these streams. He also asks the very moderate grant of 
 the alternate sections of land for four miles on each side of the road. It 
 would be hardly possible for CongTess to refuse a request which would 
 be of such inestimable value to this portion of the country. Besides, it 
 would bring into market eventually at least one hundred thousand acres of 
 agricultural, grazing, and timber land for the Government, which would 
 otherwise remain undeveloped for an indefinite period of time. In the 
 valleys of Smith's and Black's Forks and their branches are thousands of 
 acres of very fertile land, which could not fail to be occupied by the 
 farmer; and all the intervening plateaus, comj)rising many thousands of 
 acres of equally fertile soil, could be made fruitful by irrigation. By 
 means of this railroad the vast quantities of timber and wood that 
 cover the slope of the mountains would be accessible. Millions of feet of 
 timber could be obtained for the Union Pacific Eailroad at a trifling cost. 
 The deficiency of wood for fuel over so great a portion of this country could 
 be abundantly supplied from this source. As a summer resort for in- 
 valids, or those desiring rest from laborious duties, these mountains 
 cannot be surpassed. Pure, clear, exhilarating atmosphere, ever-flowing 
 springs of water, streams filled with fine trout, the woods stocked with 
 all kinds of game, the most beautiful scenery in America, and the most 
 accessible, offer attractions for all, and I am convinced that the time is 
 not far distant when this country will be visited by thousands of seek- 
 ers of health and pleasure. To the artist it woukl open a new world of 
 beauty, suppljdng a variety and abundance of material for landscape 
 studies which can be found in no other portion of the West. 
 
 CHAPTEE V. 
 
 FROM FORT BRIDGER TO UINTA MOUNTAINS, HENRY'S FORK, GREEN RIVER, 
 AND BROWN'S HOLE, TO GREEN RIVER STATION ON THE U. P. R. R. 
 
 On the morning of October 1st we left the hospitable post of Fort 
 Bridger for the valley of Henry's Fork, about twenty-five miles to the 
 southward. The principal portion of our party had remained near the 
 fort since September 12, making repairs and recruiting our animals. In 
 the meantime we had made most interesting explorations of the Uinta 
 Mountains, the valleys of Smith's, Black's, and Bear Elvers, with their 
 
GEOLOGICAL SUEVEY OF THE TERRITORIES. 55 
 
 tributaries. We liacl obtained a pretty clear idea of the geology of the 
 north slope of the Uiutas and a part of the shore line of the Bridger 
 basin and this gave us an earnest desire to trace it to Green Eiver, to 
 ascertain its connection with the " Green Eiver beds," and the lignite or 
 lower tertiaries. 1 take great pleasure in acknowledging here my great 
 obligations to t/ieuteuant Shepard, the quartermaster of Fort Bridger, 
 for numerous courtesies and favors which were indispensable to us, and 
 which, in a country like this, money will not purchase. From Captain 
 Clift, the commanding officer, and Dr. J. K. Corson, the surgeon of the 
 l)ost, myself and party were the recipients of many kindnesses. I have 
 already spoken of my obligations to Judge Carter, to whom I was indebted 
 for many lavors and much valuable information. To him this portion of 
 the West has been in the past, and will be in the future, more indebted 
 for its prosperity and development than to all others. I take pleasure 
 here in adding my testimony to the fidelity and truthfulness of his state- 
 ments in regard to its resources. 
 
 Fort Bridger is quite pleasantly located in what appears to the eye a 
 sort of basin inclosed by high, arid table lands, but really in a central 
 l)ortiou of the drainage of Black's Fork. These beautiful valleys, Smith's, 
 Black's, and Muddy, have been carved out the horizontal strata, and be- 
 tween the streams are terraces and flat table lands which give a singular 
 as well as instructive outline to the surface of the country. No forces 
 now in operation in this vicinity could have given the existing features to 
 the surface of the country, and the cause must have been local, proceed- 
 ing from the northern slope of the Uiutas. The beautiful table-top 
 divides between the valleys and streams are extensions into the plains of 
 the radiating ridges of the mountain slope, and are literally paved, in 
 many places, with the water- worn boulders of the purplish sandstones and 
 quartzites, and with the carboniferous limestones that compose the nucleus, 
 of the Uinta range. Here and there we can see a flat-topped butte cut 
 off by erosion from some of the intervening ridges and rising above the 
 surrounding country as a i^artial witness to the extent of the denuda- 
 tion. A little south of west of Fort Bridger is an isolated butte called 
 Bridger's Butte, which forms a prominent landmark to the traveler, 
 and according to the barometer, rises seven hundred and fifty feet 
 above the valley of Black's Fork at the fort. The summit appears per- 
 fectly level, and was estimated to be about two miles in length from 
 nortii to south, and about a fourth of a mile in width from east to west. 
 The upper portion of the butte is composed of the somber brown in- 
 durated arenaceous clays, grey and rusty brown sandstones of the 
 Bridger group, passing down into limestones and marls of the Green 
 Eiver beds. In the brown clays are abundant remains of turtles, with a 
 few fragments of other vertebrate remains. The terraces along the 
 valley of Black's Fork are composed of yellowish and whitish-gray marls 
 and chalky limestones, some of the layers mostly formed of Uuios and 
 other fresh- water shells. A few plants were found in the valley of 
 Smith's Fork, in thin, black flinty layers, mostly ferns and leaves of 
 deciduous trees. Between Fort Bridger and Henry's Fork the indurated 
 arenaceous clays of the Bridger grouj) are w^eathered into remarkably 
 unique forms. The absence of harder layers of sandstone did not admit of 
 the weathering into pinnacles, turrets, steeples, domes, «&c., as we observe 
 near Church Buttes. The surface, though very rugged and almost im- 
 passable except along the valleys of the streams, is uuich more rounded ; 
 the hills are more dome or pyramid shaped, and entirely destitute ot 
 vegetation, except the sage and several varieties of chenopodiaceous 
 shrubs. As w^e passed up the Cottonwood Fork the marls and limestones 
 
56 GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF THE TERRITORIES. 
 
 made their appearance for a short distance in the bhiffs. The divide be- 
 tween the drainage of Smith's Fork and Henry's Fork, is a high ridge of the 
 leaden-browu clays of the Bridger group, which extends up and juts 
 against the base of the Uinta Mountains. Passing over this divide we 
 descended quickly to the valley of Henry's Fork, and camped near the 
 point where it issues from the foot-hills of the Uinta Mountains, 29 
 miles southwest of Fort Bridger. This is a beautiful valley, quite broad, 
 a large portion being meadow, and the surrounding hills, especially on 
 the south side, covered with grass, rendering it a favorite place for years 
 past for procuring hay and grazing stock. Hundreds of tons of hay 
 iiave been cut and cured for winter use in this valley the present year. 
 The time cannot be far distant when it will be occupied by settlers from 
 its mouth nearly to its source. The view of the Uinta range from our 
 camp was as beautiful and inviting as from Fort Bridger. 
 
 On the morning of the 2d I started up the valley with a small pack- 
 train. The geology did not differ materially from that of the portions of 
 the range already described. Up among the foot-hills is an isolated butte 
 about three hundred feet high, capped with the brown clays of the Bridger 
 gToup passing down into the calcareous layers of what I have termed 
 Green Eiver beds, containing an abundance of turtle shells, with teeth, 
 jaws, and vertebra of some extinct mammal. These chalky limestones are 
 also filled with large Plauorbis in a perfect state of preservation. These 
 beds along the flanks of the mountains have been slightly elevated or 
 carried up in the later stages of the elevation of the range. They 
 usually incline about 3° to 5°. The radiating ridge on the north side of 
 the valley is covered with land-slides, which show a heavy deposit of 
 reddish clays with narrow whitish bands, evidently a modern deposit, 
 pliocene or quarternary overlapping the well-defined tertiary beds. 
 These extend up a few miles and are again overlapped with the drift 
 deposit described in the preceding chapters; the same dense groves of 
 pines and aspens, the same open meadows, deep ravines, fallen timber, and 
 great quantities of rocks on the surface occur, rendering traveling exceed- 
 ingly difficult, which we have before noted. We passed the ridge of lime- 
 stone into the belt of sandstone, with the lofty piles of debris, gradually 
 ascending to the banks of i)erpetual snow, where the pines dwindle down 
 and trail upon the ground. We rode our horses up to a point above the 
 limits of arborescent vegetation, toward them, to a point 12,205 feet above 
 the sea, and ascended to the summit of Gilbert's Peak. 
 
 We camped the night of the 3d in a beautiful open meadow, at the 
 sources of one of the branches of Henry's Fork, 9,833 feet. The lime- 
 stone or continuation of Photograph Kidge was 9,986 feet, while the 
 valley between the carboniferous limestone ridge and the inner purplish 
 sandstone ridge was found to be 9,453 feet. We found that the extreme 
 limit of tree vegetation was higher here than farther west, 11,106 feet; 
 and the point where the upright trees break off rather abruptly was 
 about two hundred feet lower. As a general rule the trees dwindle in 
 height to about twenty or thirty feet and then fall off abruptly to the 
 trailing form, which usually extends up two hundred or three hundred 
 feet higher in straggling bunches or groups. From the summit of Gil- 
 bert's Peak with my excellent field-glass I could look far over the surround- 
 ing country and study the principal geological and geographical features 
 in their relations to each other. There are three main branches of 
 Henry's Fork that rise in the axis of the range. The east branch has 
 its source at the base of Gilbert's Peak on the northeast side and ilows 
 nearly north for ten or fifteen miles. The middle branch rises on the 
 Bouth side of the peak, flows west for a short distance, and bends around 
 
GEOLOGICAL SUEVEY OF THE TERRITORIES. 57 
 
 to the nortli. The west branch rises in the axis, rnns parallel with the 
 middle branch, with a sharp narrow rid^e between them. All the 
 branches of all the streams that flow down the Uinta Mountains from the 
 quartzite belt cut the carboniferous limestone ridge at right angles on 
 their way to the plains. At the southeast base rises one of the maiu 
 branches of the Uinta Eiver, runs east for about three miles, flexes south- 
 ward or a little west of south, and flows down the southern slope of the 
 range into the maiu Uinta. On the south side of this branch there is a 
 rather sharp ridge, with six or seven conical points rising one hundred 
 to two hundred feet higher than Gilbert's Peak, and culminating in a 
 rounded, dome-like peak, which I estimated to be 13,500 feet. All the 
 valleys of the streams that rise around this peak are more purely valleys 
 of erosion than any I have seen in this rang'e. The strata of Gilbert's 
 Peak and the ridges and peaks in the immediate vicinity are nearly 
 horizontal or incline southeast 4° or 5°. The principal peaks belong to 
 the southeastern side of the axis. The two sides of the anticlinal are 
 somewhat unequal. A narrow belt, comprising the highest peaks and 
 ridges, with the curves, i)yrainids, and cones, seems to have been lifted 
 up by forces acting nearly vertical, but the strata incline slightly to the 
 southeast side, so that the streams that flow down the north slope of the 
 range really extend their valleys a little past the anticlinal oi^ening. At the 
 sources of Smith's, Black's, and Bear Elvers the strata incline from the 
 northwest side of this axis at a considerable angle. Here they incline 
 slightly for about Ave miles, when they dip 20° to 30°. I have no doubt 
 that these streams originated in this anticlinal opening, gradually cutting 
 their channels through the beds of quartzite and sandstone at right angles. 
 The quartzites as well as the sandstones are divided quite finely by 
 joints, so that they break readily into cubical masses of moderate size. 
 Besides they are very brittle, fracturing easily, as is shown by the vast 
 amount of debris. Probably water accumulating in these fissures or joints 
 would cause the debris to fall down into the anticlinal valley and be 
 swept down the channels of the streams of the northern slope. This 
 process of wearing away the horizontal quartzites from the northwest 
 side of the southeast anticlinal has continued until some of the gorges 
 extend up half a mile to a mile beyond the axis. In the beds of the 
 branches of Henry's Fork the descent is by steps from one layer of quartz- 
 ite to another down to the axis, like the horizontal layers of rock which 
 form the rapids in many of our streams. At the present time there is 
 seldom any great amount of water, in some cases none, above this axis; 
 sometimes there is a little lake, the accumulated waters of the melting 
 snows. 
 
 From this high elevation, with such a vast area of country within our 
 range of vision, one could glance back into the abyss of time, and trace, 
 step by step, the origin and slow erosion of these wonderful, gorge-like 
 valleys, one thousand to twelve hundred feet deep, and speculate upon 
 the beginning and growth of this beautiful mountain itself. The study 
 of the northern slope of the Uintas has been such a source of pleasure 
 and instruction, that I regretted my time would not permit me to ex- 
 amine the southern side also, but a glance over into the the Uinta Val- 
 ley showed quite plainly that the southern side is nearly or quite the 
 counterpart of the other. In all these vallej^s are numerous small lakes, 
 which add greatly to their picturesque beauty. At the base of Gilbert's 
 Peak, in the valley of the east branch of Henry's Fork, is one of the 
 most beautiful of these lakes, which reflects the peak and the surround- 
 ing pines in its transijarent waters. Mr. Jackson succeeded in catching 
 a view of the peak and the lake, with the shadows, with his camera. 
 
58 GEOLOGICAL SUKVEY OF THE TERRITOEIES. 
 
 On account of its exceeding beauty and poetic surroundings, I have 
 called it Lake "Annie." The barometer makes its elevation just 11,000 
 feet. This shows that the summit of the Peak is twenty-one hun- 
 dred feet above the base at the head of this valley. We descended 
 with great difficulty a sort of ravine on the steep sides of this valley to 
 the bottoms, and follov/ed the little stream from its source at the base 
 of the peak to its junction with the main fork in the plains. As I have 
 stated above, the strata of the peak are nearly horizontal, and for sev- 
 eral miles down the valley the sides are six hundred to eight hundred 
 feet high and nearly vertical, with the strata inclining at a very small 
 angle. The bottom of the valley is full of the evidences of huge slides. 
 Immense masses of rock seem to fall down gradually, something like 
 the movement of a glacier, a certain distance each year, until they reach 
 the channel of the stream, and the debris is swept down by the spring 
 floods. Large semicircular notches in the sides or walls of the valley 
 show most plainly how it has been enlarged in process of time. We 
 passed on our way down the valley through a dense growth of pines 
 and aspens, over boulders and among fallen timber, for about ten miles, 
 when we passed through the gorge of Photograph Eidge, and came 
 out into the wide, grassy, open foot-hills which led to our camp in the 
 main valley of Henry's Fork, in the plains. 
 
 Octoher 4. — We started down the valley of Henry's Fork to its junc- 
 tion with Green Eiver. I have previously mentioned the ridge or divide 
 between Smith's and Henry's Forks, which carries the tertiary beds up 
 against the foot-hills of the range. From this ridge to Green Eiver the 
 valley of Henry's Fork forms a remarkable line of separation between 
 the Bridger group and the lower miocene beds. This line of separation 
 is somewhat of a surface one, yet it is so marked as to attract the atten- 
 tion of the commonest observer. The valley is quite broad, and on the 
 south side the surface of the country to the summits of the mountains 
 appear smoothed downward, in part grassed over. A close examina- 
 tion will detect some thin remnants of the Bridger group, underlaid by 
 the lower tertiary beds, which have a tendency to weather into rounded, 
 igently-slopiug hills. On the north side, the arid, rugged, "bad lands" 
 are very conspicuous, and rise up somewhat abruptly like a high wall. 
 On the north side of the creek, there is a great thickness of the indurated 
 clays which I have included in the Bridger group. All the divisions 
 that I make are somewhat arbitrary. I can find no well-defined line of 
 demarkation. There seems to be no unconformability, and the dif- 
 ferent beds pass from one to the other gradually; but to the leaden-gray, 
 sombre, indurated arenaceous clays which cover a large area east of 
 Fort Bridger and weather into such unique architectual forms, and con- 
 tain a large variety of vertebrate remains, I have given the provisional 
 name of the " Bridger group." These beds I shall also regard as upper 
 miocene, and the calcareous laj^ers which underlie the Bridger group 
 are so well displayed lower down on Henry's Fork that I regard them 
 as a portion of the Green Eiver group and lower miocene. Below all 
 these beds, is an immense thickness of sandstone and clays, which I 
 group together as eocene, extending down to the cretaceous clays. 
 Intercalated with the clays of the Bridger group are beds of rusty-brown 
 and gray sandstones, all tending to a concretionary structure, and dis- 
 integrating by exfoliation in thin concentric layers. Sometimes there 
 are beds of sandstone which form an aggregate of concretions. In the 
 whole mass, arenaceous materials predominate. As we descend, the cal- 
 careous sediments prevail, until chalky limestones and marl are greatly 
 in excess. The lower miocene beds are also of a lighter color. By the 
 
GEOLOGICAL SUEVEY OF THE TEEKITORIES. 59 
 
 barometer the liigliest point on the north side of the creek is 8,583 feet. 
 Our camp at the base near the creek is 7,G15 feet, so that we have a ver- 
 tical thickness of the tertiary beds of over one thousand feet. On the 
 summit of the hill is a large accumulation of drift material, cemented with 
 a calcareous cement into a coarse conglomerate. It is composed mostly of 
 the sandstones, quartzites, and carboniferous limestones from the Uinta 
 Mountains. These conglomerates are two hundred to two hundred and 
 tifty feet in thickness, and are weathered into columns, sharp-pointed 
 peaks, domes, «&c., much like the conglomerates in Echo Canou. 
 
 The summit of this high wall is a sort of table land covered with a 
 deposit of fine reddish sand, plainly derived by erosion from the sand- 
 stones and quartzites of the Uiutas. The surface is covered with grass, 
 and slopes geutlj^ northward for several miles. From this high ijoiut I 
 could comprehend to some extent the tremendous erosive forces that 
 had been in operation here at a comparatively modern date. All the 
 tertiary beds probably once extended nninterruptedly across ttie val- 
 ley of 'Henry's Fork and jutted np against the sides of the Uinta range, 
 and this immense deposit of conglomerate which caps the summit 
 passed across and connected with the drift materials high up on the 
 radiating ridges. It is an interesting fact that if we make a careful 
 examination of the country we shall always find some remnants of the 
 formations that may have existed, however great the erosion may have 
 been. They seem to be left as monuments to aid us in reconstructing 
 the surface as it really existed at different periods of the past ; and this 
 fact adds much to the charm of the study of the geology of the West. 
 There is a slight inclination of the beds, which shows that they partook 
 somewhat of the later movements of the mountains. As we descend, 
 following the stream, we pass below the leaden-gray indurated clays of 
 the Bridger group into a series of lighter-colored marls, with layers of 
 laminated chalky limestone. These marls and limestones are somewhat 
 arenaceous at first, but the sand diminishes and the lime increases in 
 the descent. All the beds assume a lighter and more cheerful color, 
 although there is some variety from rusty yellow to white. Henry's 
 Fork flows about fifteen miles from its source nearly north, when it 
 bends around a little north of east for about forty-five miles to its en- 
 trance into Green Eiver. Most of the way it passes through a narrow 
 valley about one-quarter of a mile wide, with abrupt, wall-like terraces 
 on either side. These vary from eighty to one hundred and fifty feet 
 in height. The bottom itself is quite pretty, covered with a thick 
 growth of grass and large bitter cottonwoods. The grass in some places 
 is six feet high and very thick. Hundreds of tons of hay are procured 
 from this valley every season, and it is a favorite resort for herds of 
 cattle and sheep in the autumn and winter. The soil is as rich as any 
 in the West, being formed of the sands and clays of the Bridger group, 
 with the calcareous materials of the Green Eiver beds, as well as con- 
 tributions from the limestones and quartzites of the Uintas. The mix- 
 ture seems to be suitable for the production of a luxuriant vegetation 
 under favorable circumstances. 
 
 At our camp, October 4th, the lower miocene beds rise up on the north 
 side of the creek to a height of four hundred to five hundred feet. l!s"ear 
 tne base are layers of thinly -laminated slate, limestone, and some beds 
 01 cherty limestones with jjlants. There are also several thin seams of 
 earthy lignite. There are several thin layers, especialiy near the lignite 
 seams, which vary from an inch to six inches in thickness, composed 
 mostly of small fresh- water shells, Melanias and Unios. These layers of 
 shells continue nearly to the mouth of Henry's Fork, and masses of them 
 
60 GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF THE TERRITOEIES. 
 
 \ 
 
 are foiinll iu every raviue and creek. No experience of my own among 
 fresli-water shells of the present day has revealed them in such marvel- 
 ous i)rofusiou as they must have existed in or near tl^is great lake in 
 tertiary times. Intercalated in the marly layers are thin seams of fibrous 
 calcite and selenite; some of the seams of calcite are three inches thick. 
 Three principal features appear in the rocks as we descend the creek: 
 1. A large increase of lime 5 2. Silica in the form of black chert or flint ; 
 3. The appearance of impure lignite. There, are also petrified wood, 
 masses of stems of plants aggregated together, yet the beds are all 
 purely fresh-water. The style of weathering of the upper and lower 
 miocene is well contrasted by the character of the surface. The surface 
 occupied by both formations is equally arid and barren, but that of the 
 former is very rugged, forming what is usually termed "bad lands," while 
 that of the latter is more rounded and far less rugged. At the junction 
 of Henry's Fork with Green Eiver the geological structure is very com- 
 plicated and presents one of the most interesting studies I have met 
 with on the trip. At first glance the formations seem to have been, 
 thrown into utter chaos, but a careful examination shows the system of 
 formations to be more complete and consecutive than in any other por- 
 tion of the West. The ildges of upheaval extend from the Uinta Eange 
 across Green Eiver, and seem to have almost entirely escaped erosion, 
 so that they are left for our examination nearly as they were thrown up 
 by the internal forces that elevated the Uinta Mountains. 
 
 All along the northern slope of the Uintas, from Bear Eiver to Hen- 
 ry's Fork, I have sought for the absent members of the geological 
 series, and noted the evidences of erosions which are displayed on such 
 a stupendous scale. Not only are several members of the geological 
 series swept away, but also the surface is covered with an enor- 
 mous deposit of drift. But not until we come to Green Eiver can we 
 realize the vast extent of the erosion along the northern slope of the 
 Uintas. 
 
 About eight miles above the mouth of Henry's Fork the calcareous 
 layers gradually disappear or cap the summits of the hills, and 
 beds with a preclominauce of arenaceous sediments come in. Beds of 
 massive yellow and gray sandstones rise above the water level as we 
 descend, until they reach a great thickness, three hundred to five hun- 
 dred feet. About four miles before reaching the mouth of the creek 
 the valley expands out on either side. On the north side the upper 
 portion of the bluff is a massive sandstone with a reddish tinge, inclin- 
 ing at an angle of 5° to 10°, while at the base the layers seem to have 
 been pushed up abruptly, as if there was some degree of discordancy. 
 The same beds that dip at a small angle on the north side of the stream 
 incline 50° to 70° on the south side and extend southwest toward the foot 
 of the Uintas. Then comes an open area of about four miles, occupied by 
 rather soft beds of yellow and steel-gray indurated clays, which I have 
 regarded as of cretaceous age, although I did not discover a fossil in 
 them. On the south side of Henry's Fork, at its junction with Green 
 Eiver, is a remarkable exhibition of the ridges or hog-backs, which rise, 
 ridge by ridge, to the distant summits of the quartzite nucleus of the 
 Uintas. Tlie formations at first sight seem to have been lifted up in 
 such a chaotic manner that I could not unravel any system for some time. 
 
 We followed the channel of Green Eiver down among the caiions, with 
 the walls on each side rising twelve hundred to fifteen hundred feet, 
 but only triassic and carboniferous rocks were seen. At last we found a 
 deep dry gorge which had been worn through the ridges, on the west 
 side of Green Eiver, at right angles, thus exposing all the beds in their 
 
GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF THE TERRITORIES. 61 
 
 order of sequence, from the triassic to the cretaceous inclusive. In study- 
 in g- the section from the north side, commencing- -with the open area, 
 which we supi)osed to be occupied with upper cretaceous clays, the first 
 ridge is a yellowish-gray sandstone, inclining 35° west-northwest. 
 
 2. A series of steel-gi'ay slaty shales, (Xo. 2 cretaceous section.) The 
 usual scales and other remains of fishes are abundant, fixing this bed 
 as positively lower cretaceous — one hundred and fifty feet in thickness. 
 
 3. The yellow-gray and gray sandstones of the lower cretaceous, (Xo. 
 1,) inclining 35°, two hundred feet, > 
 
 4. A series of layers of remarkably variegated clays, with one of the 
 layers of rusty sandstone. 
 
 5. A bed of fine gray sandstone, weathering brown, four feet, passing 
 into clay, with a slight reddish tinge, inclining 30°. In these beds are 
 some thin layers of siliceous limestone, mostly made up of a species of 
 ribbed Terebratula, undoubtedly Jurassic, eighty feet. 
 
 6. Then comes about one hundred and fifty feet of alternate layers of 
 fine gray sandstone and yellow gray arenaceous clay, dipping 50°. 
 Jurassic fossils abundant. 
 
 7. A singular-looking series of variegating clays, about fifty feet 
 thick, varying from a chalky white gray, ashen graj', light red, deep 
 red, purple, in alternate bauds ; the colors giving a picturesque effect 
 to the eye. They weather into curious rounded ridges, inclining 65°. 
 
 8. A "thick bed, two hundred feet; grayish sandstone, weathering 
 brown, inclining 40°. 
 
 9. A grassy Interval, composed of soft beds, somewhat variegated, 
 with thin layers of limestone, with Terebratula, Ostrea, and other Jurassic 
 fossils. There is a considerable increase of lime in these beds. Just 
 over these marls is a thick bed of somewhat laminated limestone, with 
 fossils — fifty feet thick — dipping 26°. Above the limestone is another 
 series of sandstones, marls, and clays, fifty feet thick, with thin layers 
 of limestone, made up of Jurassic fossils. Then comes a series of sand- 
 stones, massive ; a portion of them weathering with a reddish hue, 
 forming a ridge, which rises one thousand feet above the channel of 
 Henry's Fork, inclining 26°. Above this sandstone is a thin series, 
 fifty feet, of alternate layers of sandstone, limestone, and argillaceous 
 marls, with Terebratula, Ostrea, and other Jurassic fossils. This I regard 
 as the u^jper line of the Jurassic beds. 
 
 10. The gray sandstone, weathering yellow, which form the upper 
 portion of the triassic ridges, is very thick and massive. It is exposed 
 here so as to be studied to the best advantage. I have never seen 
 finer illustrations of oblique layers of deposition. The sandstone shows 
 a vertical slice through it, one hundred feet or more, where all the irregu- 
 larities are as perfect as possible. On the opposite side of the gorge 
 the sandstone has an interesting cave in the side, at least fifty feet in 
 every direction, and showing equally as clear the conditions of the depo- 
 sition of the sediments. The cave is full of holes and crevices, which give 
 shelter to multitudes of bats and other animals. Masses of their excre- 
 ment project from the crevices, and sometimes run down the walls of the 
 cave. In many instances this black excrement of bats has been mistaken 
 for indications of petroleum. This cave has also been a favorite resort 
 for Indians, as is shown by the fires, the walls of stone laid up for de- 
 fense, the chipped flints and arrow-heads scattered about, and the rude 
 images, marked upon the walls. The sides of the ridge are very rugged 
 and i^icturesque, weathered into a variety of architectural forms. The 
 texture of the sandstone is quite soft, yielding readily to the atmos- 
 phere, and the valley is filled with loose sand. This ridge forms the di- 
 
62 GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF THE TERRITORIES. 
 
 viding line between tlie triassic and carboniferous beds. It rises to tlie 
 heiglit of one thousand three hundred feet above the bed of Green 
 Eiver, which runs along its western base. Below the sandstones, well 
 shown in the Green Eiver caiion, is a considerable thickness of the 
 brick-red arenaceous clays which I have so often described in former 
 reports as characteristic of the triassic period in other portions of the 
 West. These red beds pass down into a series of rather variegated aren- 
 aceous clays, with thin beds of sandstone and one or two beds of bluish 
 siliceous limestone. The river sometimes flows for a short distance be- 
 tween the ridges, inclming in the same direction, or, as I have termed it, 
 a monoclinal rift ; then it cuts its way directly through a ridge, forming 
 a narrow channel, with high vertical walls on either side ; then making 
 a flexure and taking a monoclinal valley again. I do not see that the 
 waters made any diflerence in their course, whether they flow through a 
 valley originally prepared for them or cut their way through ridges at 
 right angles. The next ridge to the southwest of the triassic one is 
 composed of limestones and calcareous sandstones of carboniferous age. 
 These rocks in the aggregate really form but one of the ridges of up- 
 heaval, yet it is separated into numerous fragments, but without anj^ dis- 
 tinct and continuous valley of separation, as between it and the triassic 
 ridges. Then comes a series of ridges, of purplish sandstone and quartz- 
 ites, reaching to the snow-covered axis of the range. The southwest ab- 
 rupt face of the triassic ridges, at the entrance of Green Eiver into the 
 canon, exhibits a remarkable example of the flexures of the layers, all 
 the triassic and Jurassic beds forming a bow or arch. Pictorial sections 
 were made of all the ridges, their surface, forms, inclination, and any 
 local peculiarities. These are intended to be engraved for the final 
 reports, and then my descriptions of this most interesting geological 
 region will become more clear. From the summit of the triassic ridge, 
 one thousand three hundred feet above the valley of Henry's Fork, we were 
 able to gather within the limits of our vision a most interesting group 
 of geological facts. This ridge is very tortuous in its outline, but its true 
 trend is about southwest and northeast, parallel with the axis of the Uinta 
 range. The angle or dip varies in different localities, but it is usually 20° 
 to 30°. Taken at different points the strike of this ridge varies from east 
 to west by way of north. At the junction of Henry's Fork with Green 
 Eiver the latter stream flows nearly east, yet it passes through this 
 nearly at right angles. From the summit one can jjass the eye over the 
 upturned edges of an almost endless series of ridges across a rugged 
 and picturesque surface. Far to the south the main range of the Uin- 
 tas cuts off the view, while in the interval the ridges of sandstone and 
 quartzite, with the usual thick growth of pines, rise like steps to the 
 axis. Between the sandstones and the triassic ridge we look across 
 the steep, jagged ridges of carboniferous limestones, inclining at various 
 angles from 10° to 25°. 
 
 Not unfrequently, along the sides of the river where the channel passes 
 through the ridges at right angles, the strata reveal very graceful curves 
 or arches, as they pass down beneath the more recent beds. Looking 
 west we can see how these ridges connect with the Uinta Mountains, 
 and that without doubt all the northern slope of the range from Bear 
 Eiver was once as rugged and bristled with as sharp ridges as this portion 
 on Green Eiver. 
 
 We thus have some standard by which to estimate the extent of the 
 erosion that must have occurred. The eye can run along the sandstone 
 and quartzite ridges, and connect them without interruj)tion far west 
 toward the Wasatch range. The ridge of carboniferous limestone which 
 
GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF THE TEREITOEIES. 63 
 
 crosses Green River to the soutlieast, tliongh interrupted from time to 
 time by portions swept away, is plainly a portion of what we have called 
 Photograph Eidge all along the northern slope of the Uiutas. The dif- 
 ference in the texture of the carboniferous rocks on Green River, and 
 those forming the high ridges on Black's Fork and Bear River, indicates 
 that the latter were partially changed by heat. The lofty triassic ridge 
 facing Green River, from which we take this extended view, reaches oft 
 to the south of west, about fifteen miles, in full size, when it is broken 
 into fragments and disappears on the surface. In descending the valley 
 of Henry's Fork, we noticed a high fragment of a ridge to" the south, 
 rising about two thousand feet above the bed of the creek, which seems 
 to have been cut off from the north side of Photograph Ridge, but is 
 now so covered with drift that no sign of the basis rocks can be 
 detected. The upper portion is covered with a belt of dense pines, and 
 the remainder is smoothed down and covered with a good growth of 
 grass. It is a beautiful ridge to the eye, without a sharp or angular 
 point. I have no doubt that its nucleus is triassic. It is cfbout fif- 
 teen miles in length, and breaks oft' quite abruptly, when the well- 
 defined triassic ridge commences and continues in a somewhat tor- 
 tuous line across Green River near the mouth of Henry's Fork. The 
 only other indications of this ridge are the rather faint traces of it on 
 Black's Fork and Bear River. The Jurassic and cretaceous ridges 
 extend westward onlj^ five to ten miles, and disappear, not to "be 
 seen again until we reach Bear River and beyond. Intermediate be- 
 tween the lower cretaceous ridges and the lower tertiary beds is a 
 broad, open, vaUey-like space, three to five miles wide, which is occupied 
 by yellow and brown indurated clays. This valley-like space extends 
 from the base of the Uinta Mountains, across Henry's Fork near its •. 
 mouth, and over Green River in a southwest and northeast direction. 
 
 It would appear to have been a valley of denudation from forces hav- 
 ing their origin in the Uintas. In this interval are numerous fragments 
 of ridges which must have been once continuous, and which are now 
 left to show the vast amount of rocky material which has been swept 
 away. Over the surface is a considerable thickness of drift, composed 
 of the well-worn boulders of sandstones, quartzites, and limestones 
 which undoubtedly came from the Uintas. Still farther to the west, are 
 the full series of miocene and tertiary beds, not less than three thousand 
 to five thousand feet in thickness, extending to Fort Bridger and beyond. 
 
 If we were to extend this tremendous development of the geological 
 formations from the quartzites to the tertiaries, as shown at Green River, 
 where they appear to have suffered comparatively little erosion, all along 
 the northern slope of the Uintas, far west to the Wasatch range, we 
 should be doubtless reconstructing the former conditions of the surface ; 
 and we may thus form a dim conception of the tremendous erosive forces 
 which have operated in this region. We may thus account for the vast 
 thickness of drift and immense quantities of stray boulders which are 
 scattered over the sides and foot-hills of the mountains far out into the 
 plains. The further these worn rocks are found from the mountains, the 
 smaller and more rounded they are, at once revealing the source from 
 whence they came. 
 
 On the morning of October 8 we left our camj) at the mouth of Henry's 
 Fork taking a small pack-train for a three days' trip down the Green 
 River to Brown's Hole. Crossing Green River we followed an Indian 
 trail, which led us over the high ridge that forms the northern 
 wall of the broad valley or hole at the junction of Henry's Fork with 
 Green River. The general course of the ridge for the first thirty miles 
 
64 GEOLOGICAL SUEVEY OF THE TERRITORIES. 
 
 is about east to the lower end of Brown's Hole, where it seems to bend off 
 south of east. After crossing this high triassic ridge our course was neary 
 east, parallel with the river on the north side, thus passing diagonally 
 across the different formations. We soon have on our left hand a frag- 
 ment of the purplish sandstone, and outside of that a high ridge of 
 carboniferous limestones, rising six hundred feet, and inclining 45°, 
 with a trend about southwest and north(^ast. On our right were the 
 ridges of the purplish sandstones and quartzites, rising step by step to 
 the axis of the mountains, where the strata appear nearly horizontal, as 
 at the source of Henry's Fork. Stunted cedars are quite thick upon 
 the mountain sides, and for the first time this season we met with the 
 "Piiion," {Pinns eclulis,) or nut-pine, so common in New Mexico. The 
 trail was a rugged one, leading over broken rocks, and up and down 
 precipitous hills. 
 
 Brown's Hole is an expansion of the valley of Green Eiver, and is 
 about five miles wide and thirty in length . Just before reaching the main 
 valley tfiere is a small expansion called Little Brown's Hole. These are 
 names given to these localities by the old trappers, forty years ago or 
 more. Far north, in the mountains at the sources of the Columbia, are 
 beautiful valleys of a similar character, called Pierre's Hole, Jackson's 
 Hole, &c. These were all favorite wintering places for the trappers. 
 But little snow fall in them, and they are so surrounded by high moun- 
 tains that the bleak winds of winter can not reach them. Brown's Hole 
 has been a favorite locality for wintering stock for many years, and the 
 day we visited it, twenty-two hundred head of Texas cattle were driven 
 into it from the east, to remain during the winter, and destined for the 
 California market in the spring. It is covered with wild sage and cheno- 
 l)odiaceous shrubs, with scattered bunch-gTass. A small number of 
 cattle or horses could find abundant food for winter, but so large a 
 number as were in it at the time we visited it must consume all the 
 grass in a few weeks. The strata of red quartzite are distinctly shown 
 on each side of the valley. It would appear that there had been 
 originally a sort of monoclinal opening, the beds on the north side dip- 
 ping northwest 20° to 30°. They present their upturned edges, there- 
 fore, to the valley, and here and there beds of gneiss and white quartz 
 have been thrust up, sometimes to a great height, so that the sides of 
 the mountains have a somewhat variegated appearance. At first glance 
 I supposed some of the modern tertiary beds had been lifted high on 
 the sides. On the south side of the valley the quartzites dip gently 
 down to the eastern end of the wall, and apparently pass under the modern 
 tertiary beds. In the process of erosion the waters have cut diagonally 
 across the sides of the quartzite beds, so that they appear somewhat like 
 the opposite side of the anticlinal ; but I am convinced that it is an 
 inner ridge, inclining originally in the same direction, and extended over 
 a l^ortion of the south side of the valley. 
 
 The gorge from which the Green Eiver issues, near the mouth of Ver- 
 million Creek, is very beautiful. The waters have cut a channel directly 
 through the rocks, showing the layers most perfectly on each side, in- 
 clining at a moderate angle. Mr. Jackson was very fortunate in securing 
 an excellent i^hotograph of this caiiou, which wiU express its geological 
 characters perfectly. In this valley there is an extensive modern de- 
 posit, which I suppose to be of pliocene age. It is composed of beds of 
 fine sand or very friable sandstone, light gTay, yellowish gray, with 
 brown sandstone in thin laminae, &c. The whole deposit seems to be 
 sand, with some mixture of clay, and weathering in the usual style of 
 these deposits into rounded hills with deeply and regularly-furrowed 
 
GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF THE TERRITORIES. 65 
 
 sides or " bad lauds," as the surface is usually called. Ou the summit is 
 a thick bed of conglomerate, composed of the rocks of the mountains, 
 purplish sandstones, quartzites, carboniferous limestones, and quartz! 
 Toward the upper end of the valley this drift conglomerate is one hun- 
 dred and titty to two hundred feet thick, and becomes thinner as we 
 descend. 
 
 Along the north side of the valley this drift deposit is quite thick all 
 the way down, bat it is scarcely seen in the immetliate vicinity of the 
 river. The tertiary beds jut up against the sides of the mountains 
 slightly elevated and inclining 3° to 5°. They were borne up to some 
 extent during the later movements of the internal forces that elevated 
 the mountains. 
 
 On the south side there are remnants of the tertiary beds, appareiitly 
 perfectly horizontal. I have estimated these modern tertiary deposits 
 to be six hundred to eight hundred feet in thickness. It is' probable 
 that Brown's Hole formed a sort of '^bay," into which the waters^f the 
 tertiary lake to the west and southwest set up. These modern deposits 
 are not uncommon among the mountain valleys. The Arkansas marls 
 in the valley of the Arkansas, similar deposits in the Middle Park, iii 
 the mountain valleys at the source of the Missouri, in Salt Lake basin 
 &c., are all, doubtless, of similar character and origin. ' 
 
 At one point on the north side of the valley, close to the base of the 
 mountains, these beds are weathered into unusually beautiful architec- 
 tural forms, like the ruins of pyramids, &c. They are usuall v smoothed 
 off ou tXw upper surface into table lands, but this one locality will strike 
 the eye of the traveler at once as a style of weathering of unusual 
 beauty and regularity. There is but little timber along the immediate 
 valley of Green Eiver— only a few bi.tter cotton woods and willows; but 
 ou the hills there is a thick growth of the low piuou and cedars. In the 
 mountains above, as well as in the valley, there is a universal growth of 
 the sage, {Artemisia tridentata,) greasewood, {Sarcohatus vermiculans, ) 
 and Lmosijris. The sage grows to the height of eight and ten feet, and is 
 sometimes six inches in diameter. There were some remarkable clamps 
 of the Elius tnlohata, ten to twelve feet high, growing over the Green 
 Eiver bottoms. 
 
 On our return we passed out of Brown's Hole by way of the Henry's 
 Fork road, as it is called in this country, which led us up the canon of 
 Eed Creek. Here we have the largest display of whitish quartz that I 
 have ever seen in the West. The sides of the caiion rise up eight hundred 
 feet or more, massive quartz. At the entrance, one side of the caiion 
 presents the appearance of a cathedral. This style of weathering, for 
 quartz, is unique. There is here an outburst of old trap, and some 
 beds of gneiss. There are also layers of true mica schists. The incli- 
 nation IS 60° to 750 northwest. The first quartz, gneiss, and trap that 
 I have seen in connection with the Uinta Mountains occur at Brown's 
 Hole, m this portion of the range. The Eed Creek seems to wind its 
 very tortuous way among the monoclinal rifts for about five miles, where 
 the mountains cease abruptly. 
 
 As we pass up the Eed Caiion the sides rise to the height of eight 
 hundred to one thousand feet, composed of white quartz, with a remark- 
 able number of intrusions of trap. The igneous matter has protruded 
 itself into every opening or fissure, in every possible direction, some- 
 times betw^een the strata and sometimes across them, in thin layers or 
 m huge, branching masses. Most of the way for a distance of five miles 
 these high, nearly vertical sides were spotted with the black trap, con- 
 trasting with the white quartz. Nowhere else have I ever seen such 
 5 G 
 
Q6 GEOLOGICAL SUEVEY OF THE TERRITORIES. 
 
 clear, well-marked exhibitions of the trap protrusions, and they deserved 
 a much longer studj^ than I coukl give them. I believe that this igne- 
 ous material was i)rotruded among the quartz beds prior to their up- 
 heaval. At the entrance of lied Canon Creek from Brown's Hole the 
 elevation is 5,897 feet, and very nearly the highest point of the range was 
 8,073 feet, and the bottom of Green River, about ten miles below, was 
 5,175 feet; so that by these elevations we may estimate approximately 
 the heights of these mountains above the surrounding couutry. 
 
 As we emerged from the Red Creek Caiion, we came out into a sort 
 of semicircular area, occupied by yellow-brown clays, the same as those 
 occurring in a similar locality at the mouth of Henry's Fork. The north- 
 east side of this quartz range is very abrupt, and no rocks appear to be 
 exj)osed between the quartz rocks and the cretaceous. Red Creek runs 
 through the widest i^ortion of this semicircular area, about two miles on 
 the south side. The ridges of cretaceous and tertiary soon close up 
 against the sides of the mountains, and about four miles up a little 
 branch of Red Creek, which flows parallel with the range between the 
 ridges, the same beds jut up against the range in the same manner. The 
 southeast wall of this semicircle is formed by a massive bed of tertiary 
 (lower) sandstones, one hundred to one hundred and fifty feet thick, 
 south of the Red Creek, dipping about 10°. The soft clays are shown 
 under the sandstones for thirty to fifty feet in thickness. 
 
 As far as the eye could reach from the summit of the highest moun- 
 tains these ridges of tertiary extend off ridge after ridge, each one 
 inclining at a moderate angle, and having an open valley or space 
 between, which seems to be composed of soft beds. We have, therefore, 
 the cretaceous clays occupying the first open semicircular space ; this is 
 walled in by a ridge of lower tertiary sandstone one hundred and fifty 
 to two hundred feet, inclining northeast 10'^ to 15°; then an interval of 
 a quarter of a mile, which is occupied by variegated clays, with thin 
 layers of soft sandstone. The whole weathers smoothly and is covered 
 with grass. The next ridge is composed of sandstones, pudding-stones, 
 and conglomerates, rising two hundred to two hundred and fifty feet, 
 inclining 10°. The rocks of this ridge have a reddish tinge and remind 
 one of the conglomerates and sandstones of Echo Cafiou. 
 
 I find it difficult to account for this tremendous development of quartz 
 with gneiss at the eastern end of the Uinta range. The white quartz 
 beds rise abruptly from beneath the red quartzites, occupying a belt five 
 to nine miles in width, and end as abruptly as they commence. I do 
 not know why they should appear at this locality, when further to the 
 west, at the sources of Black's Fork and Bear River, where the rocks 
 rise to an elevation of over 13,000 feet, no trace of them can be seen. 
 Here the red quartzites and the white quartz beds seem to conform, aud 
 on the side fronting Brown's Hole the red quartzites present an enorm- 
 ous thickness. On the summit, toward the outer portion of the white 
 quartz belt, there is only a thin remnant remaining. I could not spare 
 the tinie to study this portion of the range to my satisfaction, but I am 
 inclined to believe that the immense thickness of quartz was thrust up 
 beneath the red quartzites, carrying the latter so high up that they 
 have been swept away by erosion, except the remnant now remaining. 
 
 When we passed over the high ridges on our way to Brown's Hole 
 from Henry's Fork we spoke of a high carboniferous limestone ridge on 
 our left or north side. This extends down the river about five miles 
 and juts up against the quartz ridges and disappears. Below this 
 point there is a space of ten miles or more, where all the formations from 
 the cretaceous to the quartzites, inclusive, seem to have been swept 
 
GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF THE TERRITORIES. 67 
 
 away, and as I bave previously stated, the cretaceous clays jut up 
 ao'ainst tlie sides of tiie quartz rid,i4es. Tlie geology of this portion 
 of the Uinta range is very complicated and interesting. To have solved 
 the problem to my entire satisfaction would have required a week or 
 two. To understand the whole structure clearly- my examinations 
 should bave been extended to Bear lliver and beyond. I have no doubt 
 that after a little interval these quartz ridges connect with the rajige 
 of mountains south of the Vermillion Creek. 
 
 Green River cuts a channel through the eastern end of the Uinta Moun- 
 tains diagonall3^ At the upjxn' end the unchanged rocks oidy lie on the 
 east side of the river, but before reaching Brown's Hole the river cuts 
 through the great thickness of the red quartzites. We thus have here a 
 most interesting semi-quaquaversal, on a large scale, including within it 
 several smaller ones. South of Henry's Fork, and east of Green liiver, 
 the principal ridges incline to the northwest. They gradually ilex around 
 until at lied Greek they dip to the northeast, thus forming nearly a 
 semicircle from west to east by way of north. 
 
 , Red Greek passes directly through one small semicircle or semi-qua- 
 quaversal, the general dip of which is northeast. Each end bends 
 around so as to jut up against the mountains. At the head of the little 
 branch that flows into Eed Greek from the north, between the massive 
 ridges of brown tertiary sandstones and the quartz beds, there is a singular 
 feature, which is an apparent non-conformity — for about four miles up 
 the stream, on the left or east side rising at lirst one hundred and lifty 
 to two hundred feet, and dipping about 10°. As we approach the head 
 of the bench, this ridge slopes down to the valley and apparently passes 
 beneath the softer beds. At this point commences a series of nearly 
 vertical ridges trending to northwest, and growing thicker and thicker 
 until the lower and middle tertiary ridges are included. The distance 
 between the northern end of the ridge, dipping 10°, and the south end 
 of the same ridge, holding a vertical position, and in some cases passing 
 a vertical 10°, is not more than one hundred yards. • There is a similar 
 illustration about five miles up the valley of Henry's Fork. On the north 
 side of the Greek the beds dip at a small angle, while on the opposite 
 side they extend up to the westward, inclining at an angle of 00° to 75°. 
 
 On the high ridges at the head of the little branch of Red Creek, 1 found 
 in a rusty sandstone impressions of deciduous leaves, among them a Plata- 
 m(s ; also a species of poplar, and a Sabal, the same species probably 
 winch occurs in the coal-bearing beds near Point of Rocks, on the Union 
 Pacific Railroad. There are also some thin seams of coal here, but the 
 indications of coal are nowhere very marked in the vicinity of this por- 
 tion of Green River. On the east side of Green River, opposite the 
 mouth of Henry's Fork, there is another fine example of a series of semi- 
 circular ridges on a small scale. At this point all the formations from the 
 quartzite nucleus of the Uinta range, far to the northward until the 
 middle tertiary beds become horizontal, follow each other in perfect order 
 of sequence. The angle of inclination varies much, but the change is so 
 gradual, and the ridges follow each other with such regularity, that no 
 want of conformity can be detected. The geological structure of this 
 portion of the Green River country is very complicated, but interest- 
 ing. 1 have already' shown that members of all the formations of the 
 geological scale, known to exist in this portion of the West, are largely 
 developed here ; that the erosion has been so slight, comparatively, that 
 they are all turned up to the scrutiny of the geologist. 
 
 Before leaving this portion of the country I will say a word in 
 regard to its supposed mineral resources. So far as the physi- 
 
68 GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF THE TERRITORIES. 
 
 cal evidence is concerned the practical miner would pronounce the 
 quartz range of Green Eiver one of the richest localities for gold and 
 silver in the West. About a year ago a large number of men prospected 
 it with the usual enthusiasm, but most of them returned disappointed. 
 At the present time a few miners are exploring the range near Vermillion 
 Creek with some success. The following lodes have been located near 
 Vermillion Creek, in what is called the Brown's Hole district: 
 
 1. '■' Lone Star Lode," twenty-five feet wide. Both walls composed 
 of gneiss. Dip 75°, strike north of west, or nearly northwest and south- 
 east. 2. "Bull of the Woods." South wall well defined. Crevice 
 * twelve inches wide on the surface, increasing to three feet as the shaft 
 was sunk twenty feet. 3. " Miner's Glory." Neither wall known. 
 Crevice six feet wide at present. 4. " Green Oil Lode." Soath wall 
 well defined, six feet wide. An analysis of some of the ore from one 
 of the lodes showed the existence of $12 in silver, and $1 50 in gold. 
 That there is enough of the '[)recious metals here to attract the miners 
 for a time, there seems to be no doubt ; but my impression is that they 
 will never prove rich enough to reward the expenditure of much labor , 
 or capital. Still, only the most superficial examinations have been made 
 up to this time, and the future may show richer developments. 
 
 Although the tertiarj^ beds are so well exposed in the vicinity of this 
 portion of Green Eiver, there are very few indications of coal, and these 
 are quite obscure. On a branch of Eed Creek are two or three seams 
 of dark clay or carbonaceous shale, which might lead to thin beds of 
 coal, but no marked signs, as are seen along the railroad at Rock 
 Springs, Point of Rocks, &c. 
 
 October 11. — Vv'e left Henry's Fork for Green Eiver Station, on the 
 Union Pacific Railroad. It had been our intention to cross the country 
 on the east side of Green River to the head of Bitter Creek, but the reports 
 of its extreme ruggedness and the lateness of the season prevented us. 
 We. concluded that it would "be safer to take our teams over a well-trav- 
 eled road, on the west side of Green River, which led us to the old stage 
 road near Bryan. As we ascend the hills on the west side of Green River 
 from our camp on Henry's Fork, we pass over the outcropping edges of 
 the tertiary beds, forming a splendid section. The lower hills, which rise 
 in terraces and are underlaid with dark brown clays, I believe to be of 
 upper cretaceous age, though I was unable to find a single fossil in them. 
 This opinion is strengthened hy the fact that the first upheaved ridges 
 south of Henry's Fork, which must lie geologically directly under these 
 clays, is plainly lower cretaceous. The first hard bed above the creta- 
 ceous clays is a rusty yellow sandstone, then comes a series of alternate 
 beds of drab-brown indurated clay, with thin beds of rusty-brown sand- 
 stone ; some of the rocks slightly calcareous, inclining at an angle of 
 60° to 75°, and extending across Green River, with a trend east and 
 west. The sandstones vary in thickness from a few inches to several feet, 
 while the clays vary from a few feet to fifty or one hundred feet in thick- 
 ness. Then come beds of massive sandstones, reddish-gray, with seams 
 of clay between, one hundred and fifty feet thick ; then a light- gray, fine- 
 grained, massive sandstone, weathering by exfoliation — fifty feet ; then 
 a harder bed of iron-rust-yellow sandstone, projecting above the other 
 rocks, with a tendency to a concretionary structure, and weathering into 
 grotesque forms — with cavities one hundred feet ; then a series of thin 
 beds of yellow drab sandstones, with a reddish layer, with j)artings of 
 clay. These sandstones, as they stretch across the country, present a 
 marked banded appearance. All these beds incline at various angles 
 at different localities. Here they are nearly vertical, but on the east 
 
GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF THE TERRITORIES. GO 
 
 side of Green River the same beds incline at an angle of 15^ to 20°, 
 The scries of beds above described are plainly lower tertiary, and are 
 separated from a sncceeding series by a valley about one-fourth of a 
 mile in width. On the border of this valley, some of the npper beds of 
 this first series incline past a perpendicular 45°. This excessive dip is 
 not uncommon among' all the stratified rocks in the vicinity of the moun- 
 tain ranges, but I suspect it is conthied to the surface, and that some dis- 
 tance in the earth the beds have their normal dip. I was unable to find 
 any fossils in this series of beds, nor any indications of coal. Crossing the 
 valley we come to a second series of variegated sandstones, mostly yel- 
 low and rusty brown, standing nearly vertical with the same strike as 
 the first series, and about five miles up Henry's Fork. This interesting 
 valley is filled up with beds which show a perfect conformity. Thefi-rst 
 bed is a yellow-brown, rather fine-grained sandstone, dipping 75°, a lit- 
 tle west of north. Then comes a series of yellow and light-gray arena- 
 ceons or marly clays, ^ith beds of yellow-brown and light-gray sand- 
 stones projecting somewhat above the surface. Alternating with these 
 layers of saud.4tone, are quite thick beds of pudding-stone and conglom- 
 erate, composed of rounded pebbles of all the older formations. But 
 what surprised me most were the large masses of purplish sandstones 
 and quartzites, and the carboniferous limestones, sometimes forming the 
 greater i)ortion of thick beds of the conglomerate, four feet in diameter, 
 somewhat worn, evidently derived from the nucleus of the Uinta 
 Mountains. These conglomerate beds are intercalated among the sand- 
 stones through three hundred or four hundred feet in thickness, and 
 are probably of upper eocene age. Above them are at least five hundred 
 feet of sandstones, which have a diminished dip 20° to 30°, and then 
 j)ass up into the calcareous layers of the middle tertiary or Green Eiver 
 group. We thus see that the aqueous forces that deposited the sedi- 
 ments of the upper eocene beds were broughi to bear on the summits of 
 the Uintas, and we can form some conception of the vast period of 
 time they have been subjected to erosion. Since that time all the mid- 
 dle and tertiary beds, comprising many thousands of feet of strata, have 
 been deposited in this region. At the base of this second series of sand- 
 stones is a thin bed of carbonaceous clay, and above and below it are 
 layers of sandstone a foot thick or more, composed almost wholly of 
 Blelanias, Paludinas, and Unios, with some reptilian remains. We thus 
 reach a point downward where we can decide that the waters in which 
 these sediments were deposited were i^urely fresh-water. Green Eiver 
 flows between high vertical walls of these beds, and the opportunity to 
 follow them, step by step in their order of sequence, is excellent. 
 
 We pass gradually up to the Green Eiver beds, where lime forms a 
 large constituent. About two miles north of Henry's Fork the strata 
 become nearly horizontal, and continue so far up Green Eiver toward 
 its source. 
 
 As we pass over the uplands on our way northward toward the railroad, 
 we have on our left hand or west side a long, high, broken ridge of the 
 brown indurated clays of the Bridger group, three hundred to four hun- 
 dred feet high, which seems at the present time to form the eastern limit 
 of this group. That it continued eastward at one time, perhaps far across 
 Green Eiver, I have no doubt, because remnants of it are seen high up 
 near the banks of Green Eiver ; and on the Big and Little Sandj' Creeks, 
 which rise in the Wind Eiver Mountains, are quite extensive develop*- 
 ments of this group, with an abundance of the xieculiar vertebrate fos- 
 sils. It is quite iwssible, also, that the long, high ridges, which so closely 
 resemble them, south of the old stage-road near La Clede and Dug 
 
70 GEOLOGICAL SUEVEY OF THE TERRITORIES. 
 
 Spring Statiou, wliicli extend off toward Muddy and Bear Elvers, of 
 ■which Hay Stack Butte forms a part, are portions of the same group 5 
 if so it is a matter of great interest to trace the results of the denuding 
 forces, which have operated so energetically all over this country in 
 geological times. It forms one of the greatest charms of the study of 
 the geology of the West to trace the connections of different groups of 
 beds across intervening spaces, where they have been removed by 
 erosion alone or by the upheaval of mountain ranges, to take up the 
 broken links in the history and unite them together. As I have before 
 stated, we gradually pass up through the second series of sandstones to 
 a third series of laminated marls, with thin layers of chalky limestone. 
 JS'ear the middle of these marls are some layers of chalcedony, composed 
 mostly of Goniohasis, masses of which are strewed over the surface in 
 great quantities. Fragments a foot square are covered on both sides 
 "with beautiful specimens of Goniohasis^ while about ten feet below is an- 
 other layer of limestone filled with Unios, with a few Goniohasis. Frag- 
 ments of turtle shells are quite abundant in the marly clays. These 
 laminated marls reach a thickness of two hundred or three hundred feet, 
 and weather into very symmetrical rounded hills or buttes, contrasting 
 quite strongly with the stjde of form of the Bridger clays, though sim- 
 ilar in tyx)e. Their shaly character is always noticeable, and their radi- 
 ating furrows, so characteristic of indurated clays, are wanting. 
 
 Before reaching the crossing of Green Eiver, nineteen miles north of 
 our camp near the mouth of Henry's Fork, a thick bed of rusty-yellow 
 sandstone makes its appearance. This sandstone is well shown on the 
 banks of Green Eiver. It caps the high bluffs along the river near the 
 station on the railroad, and assists in giving the i)eculiar forms to the 
 hills. On'Black's Fork the disintegration of this sand bed, as it comes 
 to the surface, has produced large banks of loose sand. The surface of 
 the country along Black's J^ork and up to Green Eiver Station is quite 
 sandy. ISTo portion of the country over which we have traveled seems 
 to be so entirely destitute of vegetation as that between Henry's Fork 
 and the railroad, and yet the soil possesses all the elements of extreme 
 fertility. If it could be well irrigated it would produce forty bushels of 
 wheat per acre. The bottoms of the streams produce good grass, and 
 are now occui^ied by numerous herds of cattle. 
 
 CHAPTEE YI. 
 
 FROM GREEN RIVER STATION, VIA BRIDGER'S PASS, TO CHEYENNE, 
 
 'WYOMING TERRITORY. 
 
 From this i)oint to Black Buttes, a distance of seventy miles, we fol- 
 low the valley of Bitter Creek, along the immediate line of the Union 
 Pacific Eailroad. The geological features of this region are of great in- 
 terest, and, inasmuch as the detailed account of them is included in the 
 chapters on the third belt, along the road from Cheyenne to Salt Lake, I 
 shall pass over this portion with only a few general remarks, sufficient 
 to connect the geological formations of the two i^oiuts. 
 
 The Green Eiver group can be studied to the best advantage along 
 the valley of Green Eiver, where the sides of the bluff banks rise to a 
 perpendicular height of five hundred feet or more. The " cuts'' along 
 the railroad, from Eock Springs to Bryan Station, aid us very much in 
 reading the true history of the strata and securing their fossil remains. 
 
GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF THE TERRITORIES. 71 
 
 Ten miles east of Green Eiver Station, tlie Green Eiver group disappears 
 abruptly on the south side of Bitter Creek, and the coal formations come 
 up to view. On the north side, the eastern limit of the Green Eiver 
 beds is most sharply marked by a long', high, white blutf, that extends 
 off, lar to the northeast, toward the South Pass. 
 
 The dip varies from 3'^ to 5°, and the laminated calcareous shales 
 gradually pass down into yellow, gray, and brown indurated arenaceous 
 clays, sands, and sandstones, until the well-detiued coal strata are ex- 
 posed, without the least appearance of discordancy. 
 
 Both the middle and the lower tertiary beds incline to the northwest. 
 At Eock Springs the extensive and valuable mines of the AVyoming 
 Coal Company are located. The lignite coal beds continue for a dis- 
 tance of about six miles east of Eock Springs, with a dip of 10^, where 
 a series of yellow and drab-brown indurated clajs rise up from beneath 
 the sandstones, and continue for eight miles, to a point about two miles 
 east of Salt Wells Station. This interval forms a sort of low, valley- 
 like space, which is well marked, on account of the rounded and far less 
 rugged style of weathering which extends off to the northeast of the 
 railroad, on one side, and southwest on the opposite side. East of Salt 
 "Wells the coal-bearing beds appear again, with an opposite incli- 
 nation, about 10° to the southwest, proving this interval to be a true 
 anticlinal valley. Xot a fossil was discovered in these clays to fix their 
 age with certainty, but I have no doubt that they belong to the upper 
 cretaceous period, and are an extension, to the north or northeast, of 
 those cretaceous clays already noticed as occurring near the mouth of 
 Henry's Fork, on Green Eiver. I believe it to be the extension north- 
 eastward of the axis of elevation of the Uinta Mountains. I think, how- 
 ever, that it dies out, or is concealed by more modern tertiary beds, be- 
 fore reaching the Sweetwater Valley. 
 
 Continuing eastward from Salt Wells Station, the gradual inclination 
 of the strata exposes a splendid section of the eocene coal beds. ]S"ot 
 less than 1,000 to 1,500 feet of sandstones and clays are passed over 
 before we come to the valuable coal beds near Black Buttes. At this 
 point the old stage road diverges to the south of the railroad, follow- 
 ing up the south branch of Bitter Creek. 
 
 Soon after leaving Black Buttes we cross the western rim of the series 
 of middle tertiary beds, which I have named the " Washakie group." 
 The transition from the coal beds is through a series of indurated are- 
 naceous clays, with beds of sandstones of all colors and texture, bearing 
 upon their surface the evidence of their more modern date. The in- 
 clination is in the same direction and in accordance with the lower 
 tertiaries, but the dip is not more than 3° to 5^*. 
 
 At Big Pond Station, fourteen miles east of Black Buttes, the deserted 
 buildings of the old stage station are entirely built of rocks composed 
 of fresh-water shells. There are two kinds of rock, viz, a calcareous 
 sandstone, formed of an aggregate of Unios, Viviparas, Goniobatiis, &c., 
 but all casts, the sandstone being so porous that the calcareous shell 
 has been entirely dissolved away ; still the rock itself eflervesces very 
 briskly on the application of hydrochloric acid. Another bed, varying 
 in thickness from six to twelve inches, is a very compact limestone, 
 somewhat siliceous. This is simply an aggregate of Goniobasis cemented 
 with a little lime and silica. The texture of the rock is so close that 
 it is difficult to obtain any i)erfect shells. 
 
 Table Eock is a high. Hat-topped " butte" north of this point. The 
 underlying yielding clays are protected from erosion by these beds of 
 shell rock. All the rocks used for building purposes along the railroad 
 
72 GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF THE TERRITORIES. 
 
 at Table Eock and Ked Desert, and ou the old stage road at Big Pond 
 and La Clede, were taken from tliese shell beds. These layers of rock 
 extend over hundreds of square miles, and all the buildings for large 
 cities might be constructed from the aggregate remains of these little 
 fresh-water animals. Marine limestones of great thickness, composed 
 entirely of organic remains, are not uncommon in various portions of 
 our own county, but I have never known such extensive beds of rock 
 made up entirely of a few species of fresh-water shells. At the present 
 time both fresh-water and land shells are very rare in this country; 
 the physical conditions seem to be very unfavorable, except at the 
 sources of some of the tributaries of the Missouri Eiver that come in 
 from the north, as the James, Yermilliou, and Big Sioux Elvers. These 
 streams are filled with Unios, Viviparas^ Lynmeas, Planorhis, Physas, 
 &c. ; and yet the conditions seem to have been more favorable in years 
 past for tliis kind of life than at present. In the fine vegetable matter 
 that accumulates along the Missouri Eiver from the annual floods, I have 
 seen bushels of minute Helices, Pupas, Succineas, &c,, and yet I have 
 looked in vain for any of these shells alive in the little streams in the 
 vicinity. In the banks of the streams that flow into the Lower Missouri, 
 as Big Sioux, Vermillion, and others, large accumulations of fresh-water 
 and land shells are found buried fifteen to twenty feet beneath the sur- 
 face ; yet it seems to me, that if all that have ever existed in this region 
 were gathered together, they would not cover a large area. In the Mis- 
 souri Eiver, from the base of the mountains to its entrance into the 
 Mississippi, scarcely a shell can be found, and very few ever are seen in 
 any of the iDranches that flow in from the south. The inference is, that 
 the impurity of the waters over the greater portion of the West is such 
 at the present time that this class of life cannot exist. How favorable, 
 then, must have been the conditions for the increase of molluscous life in 
 these old tertiary times! Not only were the waters pure, but through- 
 out all the vast thickness of middle and upper tertiary deposits in the 
 beds of clay and sandstones, there is more or less calcareous matter, as 
 is shown by the application of an acid ; iiroving that lime, which is so 
 essential to these animals, must have existed in the waters of that period. 
 About six miles east of Big Pond Station, a well-marked bed of reddish 
 clay is exposed, which can be seen extending across the country, over 
 the sides of the bluft'-like hills, for many miles. I call attention to 
 this red band of clay, from the fact that it seems to mark the appear- 
 ance of the lower portion of the middle tertiary, and increases or dimin- 
 ishes in importance in different localities. On the east side of Green 
 Eiver, opposite the mouth of Henry's Fork, these clays, with a reddish 
 tinge and bands of light brown, reach a thickness of one hundred to one 
 hundred and fifty feet, and weather into quite regular and picturesque 
 forms. 
 
 Ou the west side of the South Pass these light-red clays are well dis- 
 played near the base of the middle tertiaries, and in some calcareous 
 layers above them are multitudes of fresh-water shells. This band is 
 also seen at the eastern terminus of the Green Eiver group, near Eock 
 Springs, and near the sources of the Muddy west of Bridger's Pass. It 
 also gives name to the station ou the Union Pacific Eaikoad, "Eed Des- 
 ert," from the fact that the contiguous hills receive their color from it. 
 
 Whether these formations are connected geographically or chrono- . 
 logically with the vast series of red beds west of the eastern rim of 
 the Great Salt Lake Basin, a more extended Gxploration must determine. 
 The shell beds lie above this in all the localities that I have examined 
 except near the South Pass, where a bed of very porous sandstone 
 
GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF THE TERRITORIES. 73 
 
 occurs near the base of the series, made up of casts of Unios, Lym-neas, 
 &c. 
 
 Between LaClede and Barrel Springs the strata are very nearly hori- 
 zontal. The surface is less rng'ged ; still to the south of the road are high, 
 rather abrupt ridges, and in the distance are quite pointed ridges three 
 hundred feet high, composed of the somber, hard, indurated, rusty 
 arenaceous clays which characterize the Bridger groui). Indeed, from its 
 form and style of weathering, and the color of its sediments, it could not 
 be distinguished from the high ridges of Bridger beds west of our road 
 from Henry's Fork to Green Itiver Station. Although I have hitherto 
 regarded the group of beds which I have denominated the " Washakie 
 group," as separated from those of Greeen Eiver and to the westward, 
 yet I am now inclined to believe that the upper series is either an exten- 
 sion eastward of the Bridger group or synchronous with it. Fragments 
 of turtles and other vertebrate remains are not uncommon. 
 
 Near Barrel Springs a, very good section of the laminated, chalky 
 clays is exposed in the valley of the Muddy ; seams of shells as Unio tel- 
 linoldes, Goniohasis tenera, G.nochdifera, and G. Carteri, four inches thick, 
 occur above and below thin layers of rotten vegetable matter. These shells 
 occur through fifty to one hundred feet of these chalky beds. Eemains 
 of turtles, also vertebra? of fishes and reptiles, are found ; a few obscure 
 plants, like blades of grass, stems of rushes, &c., occur in the clays 5 still 
 higher on the tops of the hills that border the stream, are some thin, 
 chalky clays, crowded full of plants, as ferns, rushes, grasses, palms, «&c., 
 finely preserved. ' Fragments of palm-wood and those of deciduous trees 
 are scattered over the surface in great profusion. I think I have never 
 seen vegetable remains more abundant or more easily obtained in any 
 portion of the West than at this locality. There was about two feet of 
 strata composed of them, and they split into very thin regular layers, 
 as light as dry vegetable matter could be, and each side of the thin 
 layers was covered with beautiful impressions of leaves in a remarkably 
 fine state of preservation. Upon these weathered hills were literally 
 bushels of very pretty Goniohasis and Unios, which one could gather to his 
 entire satisfaction. I regretted very much that my party could not 
 remain a day in this interesting region ; but the almost eutire absence 
 of grass and the alkaline water compelled us to hasten on with our half- 
 starved animals. 
 
 From Barrel Springs we descend geologically, the dip of the rocks being 
 reversed, and the same beds rise to \'iew that we saw in traveling east- 
 ward from Black Buttes. As we descend into the valley toward Duck 
 Lake, the pinkish bed makes its appearance, and on the left of the road is 
 an isolated mass of sandstone, about twenty feet cube, which forms a sort 
 of landmark. Although this red layer is a conspic*ious feature in this 
 region for miles along the valley of the Muddy, yet this isolated mass is 
 the onlj^ example of liardened rock connected with the red baud in this 
 region. There must have been some local cause originally for the greater 
 tenacity of the cementing material in this restricted locality. 
 
 The water divide of this region is undoubtedly Bridger's Pass, but the 
 geological divide I regard as located between La Clede and Dug Spring 
 Station. Here the strata are nearly horizontal, or from what might be 
 called a synclinal. Along the Union Pacific Eailroad at Dodge's Sum- 
 mit, the water and geological divide are identical. The strata west of 
 this divide incline slightly northeast, and on the east side southwest. 
 As I have already stated in a preceding chapter in describing the tertiary 
 formation fi-om Bridger to Green Eiver, they may be separated provision- 
 ally into four series. 
 
74 GEOLOGICAL SUEVEY OF THE TERRITORIES. 
 
 First series. — The coal strata, lower eocene, cLaracterizecl by numerous 
 impressions of deciduous leaves, marine and fresh-water molhisca. 
 
 Second series. — Arenaceous, upper eocene, characterized by a profusion 
 of fresh-water shells, as Unios, Goniohasis, Viviparas, Lynmeas, &c. ; a 
 portion of these being casts. 
 
 Third series. — Calcareous, lower miocene, 'containing the greatest 
 abundance of fresh-water shells, plants, fishes, &c. 
 
 Fourth series. — Arenaceous clays — upper miocene — turtle shells ; no 
 other fossils observed. The third series of beds contains the plants and. 
 shells that were found in such profusion near Barrel Springs on the 
 Muddy. 
 
 Continuing our, way eastward, we descend across valleys and over 
 ridges, with the outcropping edges of bed after bed of sandstone and 
 clay rising to view, until we come to the coal strata near Washakie 
 Station, on a branch of the Muddy flowing down from Bridger's Pass. 
 The dip is hardly i)erceptible at first, but gradually it reaches 5°. 
 
 Through the eocene and cretaceous beds, even to the granites, 
 the inclination may increase, or iu some cases diminish. In some 
 instances the eocene beds are vertical, while the carboniferous strata 
 beneath, incline at a small angle. There is no apparent discordancy 
 between the four series of tertiary beds noted above. Along Green 
 River, at Eock Springs, Black Buttes, and west of Bridger's Pass, 
 no want of conformability could be ascertained. Yet there must be 
 some discordance between the upi)er tertiaries and the older beds, 
 from the fact that the Bridger group and the Monument Creek group, 
 as well as the upper portions of the White Eiver group, jut up against 
 the older beds in many places in a horizontal position or incline at an 
 angle of 3° to 5°. This is the case along the eastern flanks of the Laramie 
 range, and ou the sides of other mountains in numerous localities. Near 
 Fort Laramie the White Eiver beds, which may possibly be of pliocene 
 age, have been deposited high up, in the ravines, on granites, or on the 
 upturned edges of carboniferous limestones, and yet in the plains these 
 same beds seem to conform perfectly to the old tertiaries, and the latter 
 conform perfectly to the cretaceous, Jurassic, triassic, carboniferous, and 
 Silurian beds. 
 
 After passing Duck Lake Station we ascend barometrically, although 
 we descend geologicall}', lower and lower beds rising to view continu- 
 ally, and just before reaching Washakie Station the lower tertiaries or 
 lignite beds make their appearance, with a dip of about 10^. I think 
 the fresh- water shells that occur here in sandstones so abundantly be- 
 long to the third series of upper eocene beds that gradually pass down into 
 the coal strata. About a mile west of Washakie the beds of coal are ex- 
 posed, and the examples of the baking, and even the melting, of the 
 adjacent rocks by the spontaneous ignition of the coal-beds, are very 
 common. The ridges are covered with these red or burnt i)laces, which 
 look like piles of cinders. In some beds of gray calcareous sandstone 
 over the coal I collected great quantities of large deciduous leaves of 
 trees belonging to the genera Platamis, Foptdus, Tilia, &c., evidently the 
 same species as those found in other localities connected with the coal 
 formations. The coal strata reach a great thickness around Bridger's 
 Pass, and are composed of alternate beds of sandstone with layers and 
 concretions of calcareous sandstone. In the upper i^ortious the clays 
 predominate and contain the coal seams, which vary in thickness from 
 a few inches to ten or twelve feet. As we descend toward the creta- 
 ceous beds, the sandstones begin to predominate, until they rise on our 
 left hand, as we ascend the " pass," in lofty, nearly vertical walls. The 
 
GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF THE TERRITORIES. 75 
 
 trend of the ridges is about northeast and southwest. The branch of 
 the Muddy, wliich rises in* the " pass," seems to form the line of separa- 
 tion between the coal-beds and those of well-known cretaceous age. 
 A bed of massive sandstone forms a wall on the north side nearly to the 
 head of the JMuddy, where the softer clays of the cretaceous seem to rise 
 from beneath it. On the south side of the road is a high, rugged group 
 of hills, which weather into rounded forms, which are plainly upper 
 cretaceous. Since leaving Washakie there has been a decided im- 
 Ijrovement in the vegetation ; grass grows quite abundantly' on the hills 
 and in the valleys, and the shrubs and trees have the healthy growth 
 peculiar to the foot-hills of the mountains. 
 
 Between Bridger's Pass and Pine Grove the wall on the north side 
 continues much the same, but the cretaceous clays seem to underlie the 
 sandstone ; but on the south side the cretaceous beds rise up abruptly 
 to the height of about eight hundred feet above the road ; and on the 
 summit is a broad plateau, covered with a deposit of drift material, and 
 well grassed over. Here and there we see beautiful groves of aspen 
 and pine. The belt of cretaceous beds is very wide. In the vicinity of 
 Bridger's Pass there is an enormous thickness of the coal strata, which I 
 have estimated at three thousand to live thousand feet. The inclina- 
 tion is 10° to 15°. The cretaceous clays are also very largely developed 
 fifteen hundred to two thousand feet. Near Aspen Grove I found Baac- 
 lites ovatKS and some undetermined marine shells. At Pine Grove the wall 
 on the north side extends across the country, towards Eawlings' Springs, 
 in one of the most handsome and symmetrical anticlinals I have ob- 
 served in the West. The valley is about four miles wide between the 
 outcropping walls, and forms a sort of rolling prairie, which shows the 
 style of surface weathering when underlaid by the soft, yielding, creta- 
 ceous clays. The trend of the valley is northeast and southwest, and 
 forms an extension of the axis of elevation of some range of moun- 
 tains near Bear Eiver. 
 
 About northeast of Pine Grove there is a small lake in this valley, 
 half a mile long and nearly the same width, the shores of which are 
 covered with an alkaline elSorescence. This anticlinal valley is of the 
 same character as the one that forms the extension of the axis of the 
 Uinta range at Salt Wells, on the Union Pacific Eailroad. Here we see 
 the same smooth, rounded aijpearauce to the surface from Rock Springs to 
 a point about two miles east of Salt Wells, where the outcropping 
 edges of the coal-bearing rock appear. Passing up the South Fork of 
 Bitter Creek, we have the more modern tertiary beds inclining at a 
 small angle. Near La Clede Station is a high ridge, extending across 
 the country like a low range of mountains, composed of the somber indu- 
 rated, sandy clays of the upper miocene, of which Haystack Butte forms 
 a part. Continuing our way eastward, we descend again across the edges 
 of the same beds we saw on Bitter Creek, and gradually passing through 
 a tremendous thickness of eocene coal strata, reach the soft clays of 
 the cretaceous group. The exact line of separation between the true cre- 
 taceous and tertiary beds in this region I cannot positively determine. 
 We know that fossils, brackisli and sometimes purely' fresh-water, char- 
 acterize the upper eocene above the thickest coal beds ; that at Hallville, 
 in the dark clays or slates, abo\'e one of the most valuable coal beds, there 
 is a profusion of Cyrenas and other brackish- water fossils 5 that, as we de- 
 scend in the coal strata, beds of several species of Ostrca are found 5 
 showing clearly that the great lake at this time had access to the salt sea. 
 I am not able to draw the exact line of separation between the tertiary and 
 the cretaceous beds in this region, and I am inclined to believe that there 
 
76 GEOLOGICAL SUEVEY OF THE TERRITOEIES. 
 
 is a considerable thickness of what may properly be called transition beds, 
 or beds of passage, which will probably remain a long time in doubt. 
 
 From Piue Grove we continue on our course to the eastward, with the 
 high wall of sandstone on the left and the plateau on the right. Nearly 
 opposite Pine Grove Station the anticlinal that extends off toward 
 Bawlings' Springs forms a notch or triangular area, in which the cre- 
 taceous clays are worn into three singular, terrace-like ridges on the 
 west side, with a strike southwest and northeast, and on the" east side, 
 northwest and southeast. 
 
 The valley of Sage Creek is three to six miles wide. On the North 
 Platte there is a fine exhibition of the sandstones or transition beds. 
 Near the crossing of the old stage road there are vertical bluffs eighty 
 to one hundred feet, composed of grayish-brown sandstone, which exhib- 
 its, in the most remarkable degree, the various signs of shallow-water 
 depositions, as ripple, rain, and mud-markings, with what appear to be 
 trails of worms, &c. Broad, flat masses of sandstone lie at the base of 
 the bluff fifteeu or twenty feet square, with the surface covered with 
 these peculiar markings; oblique layers are not uncommon. The in- 
 durated clays of well-known cretaceous origin are well shown here, ex- 
 tendiug up the North Platte for fifteen or twenty miles to the south- 
 ward, while, to the north, ridge after ridge extends as far as the eye can 
 reach. There are alternate beds of sandstone and a steel-brown indu- 
 rated clay. In the second bed of sandstone from the bottom are great 
 quantities of a species of Ostrea. As we pass up in the series we find 
 irregular concretionary beds of rusty calcareous sandstone, with some 
 fossils, especially Ostrea, and a few other marine or brackish-water spe- 
 cies. Everywhere in the West the oldest or lowest coal beds contain 
 more or less marine fossils, most of which belong to the genus Ostrea. 
 They are found, in about the same position, from latitude 49° to New 
 Mexico. Where the beds are studied with some care, in a favorable 
 locality, we soon find that the marine evidences disappear, and the 
 organic remains are purely fresh-water or terrestrial. 
 
 On the morning of October 23 we left our camp on the North Platte 
 and wound across the plains a little north of east to Pass Creek. To 
 the west and southwest, as far as the eye can reach, there is a rolling 
 or partial plain country, occupied by cretaceous beds. From the high 
 ridges on the east side of Platte we can cast a glance back along the 
 route we have traveled, over one of the most comprehensive views I have 
 observed in the West. On the north side is the continuous wall of sand- 
 stone, from Bridger's Pass to Medicine Bow, extending up the Platte 
 Eiver, and retreating with a gentle dip northeast, like descending steps, 
 or rather like chopped waves. The clays underneath the sandstone 
 ridges are undoubtedly of cretaceous age ; but I have been inclined 
 to regard the group of alternate beds of sandstones and clays, which are 
 so consi)icuous from Bridger's Pass to Medicine Bow Eiver, and give 
 the characteristic surface features to a very large area, as transition 
 beds or beds of passage from the true cretaceous era to the tertiary. 
 It is true that we find here and there a specimen of Inoceramus or BacuUte 
 and numerous beds of several species of Ostrea; yet the time AA^hich 
 must haA^e been required to bring about the changes in the sediments 
 and animal life, from a i^urely marine condition to that of purely fresh- 
 water, must haA^e been immense. That a few of the more hardy marine 
 forms of mollusca should have lingered on up into the period of the 
 coal, would not and need not surprise geologists. So consecutiA^edothe 
 different beds appear to be, that I am of the opinion that, however 
 minutely they may be studied hereafter, the line of separation between 
 
GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF THE TERRITORIES. 77 
 
 the true cretaceous aud tertiary beds will be arbitrary. There are 
 many localites in the West where the line of demarkation is so well 
 defined by the absence of some beds that it cannot be mistaken, but I 
 will discuss this (juestion more fully hereafter. 
 
 Through the broad valley winds the North Platte Eiver with re- 
 markably picturesque beauty, with grassy bottoms, and here aud there 
 a group of large bitter cottouwoods. To the south and southeast is a 
 snow-covered range of mountains, walling in the North Park, and form- 
 ing a portion of the water-shed of the continent. Far up the Platte 
 Valley, for thirty*or forty miles, the surface is slightly broken, with the 
 ap]>earance that the soft cretaceous clays would give it. 
 
 There is a broad belt of the cretaceous beds extending along the base 
 of the mountains and running across the course of the Platte. To the 
 eastward rise the four rounded mountains of the Medicine Bow range, 
 of which Elk Mountain forms a part. To the north and west the ridges 
 of transition sandstone pass into the true tertiary toward Fort Steele on 
 the Union Pacific Railroad. 
 
 The bottoms of the North Platte are quite fertile, and produce excel- 
 lent grass. The timber is not abundant, but taken in the aggregate 
 there is enough to supply the sparse population that will be likely to 
 settle in this region. The mountains would furnish a most abundant 
 supply. 
 
 The sandstones as seen along the Platte are somewhat variable in 
 color and texture. The three lowest and most massive beds, fifty to 
 eighty feet in thickness, are drab brown ; the fourth one is yellowish 
 gray, very friable, separated into thin layers, and weathered into some- 
 what fantastic forms, one of which resembles a human face. This bed 
 of sandstone is full of large, rusty-brown, concretionary masses, which 
 are also divided into thin layers, but are calcareous, really arenaceous 
 limestones. In looking at the surface features of this portion of the 
 country, these four beds of sandstone mentioned above stand out in 
 relief, and give force to the scener^^ Between them are some thin 
 layers of sandstone and arenaceous limestone, with seams of dark-brown 
 siliceous clay, more or less' slaty. The dip of these beds is persistently 
 northeast. 
 
 Leaving the North Platte we traveled in a northeast direction over 
 ui)lifted ridges for a time. Soon they are so worn down that they are 
 only faintly shown above the surface, and for about twelve miles before 
 reaching Pass Creek our road was over a level plain covered with a 
 thick deposit of drift. The evidences of erosion are very conspicuous 
 between the North Platte and Pass Creek. The broad, level plain was 
 once covered with ridges of cretaceous beds inclining at a large angle. 
 On the east side of the plain the ridges dip west and northwest from 
 the mountains. On the southwest side of Elk Mountain are very higli 
 ridges of sedimentary rocks, but they are only a few miles in extent. 
 The main ridge, which lies next to the granite, is comi^osed of carbonifer- 
 ous limestone. The valley near it, is formed by the scooping out of the 
 soft, red, arenaceous clays of the triassic; then comes Jurassic, cretace- 
 ous, and lastly the tertiary beds, gently inclining toward the plains. 
 
 These formations are more or less conspicuously shown, depending 
 upon the texture of the materials. The granite mountains rise up about 
 two thousand feet above the base ; the ridge of carboniferous limestone 
 is fi.ve hundred to eight hundred feet; the third ridge is cretaceous, one 
 hundred to one hundred and fifty feet, while the drab sandstones of the 
 transition group pass oft* northward in a series of low ridges. 
 
 Leaving Pass Creek, W'C enter Rattle Snake Pass, with the drab sand- 
 
78 GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF THE TERRITORIES. 
 
 stones, luulerlaid by ^ell kuowri upper cretaceous clays, outcropping on 
 the left baud, and tbe rather curious, mound-like ridges of the dark plastic 
 clays of tbe lower cretaceous, on tbe right. Along tbe Hanks of the 
 mountains it is quite seldom that all the formations are clearlj" shown. 
 Sometimes portions have been removed by erosion or concealed by drift 
 deposits ; or all the beds are so crushed together that only two or three of 
 them are exj)osed to the eye. At tliis locality for a short distance, 
 perhaps one or two miles, the lower cretaceous clays are remarkably 
 well shown, lying on the sides of the mountains; while the Jurassic, red- 
 beds, and carboniferous are scarcely seen or are concealed entirely. We 
 know that they must exist here in their full development, for just west 
 of Eattlesnake Creek all these formations are very clearly shown in 
 lofty, well-defined ridges, inclining at an angle of 20° to 40°. These facts 
 show the importance of careful detailed study of the geology of all the 
 mountain districts, and the necessity also for the construction of a suita- 
 ble topographical map on a sufiiciently large sc'ale to show these changes 
 clearly. 
 
 Near Fort Halleck the carboniferous limestones rise high up on the 
 sides of the mountains, resting upon the granite. All the more recent 
 beds are worn away or so concealed as not to be visible. East of 
 Fort Halleck the ridges of sandstone bend oft' to the northwest, while 
 to the east and southeast the sedimentarj' rocks jut up against the sides 
 of the foot-hills of the mountains. 
 
 From Elk Mountain to Little Laramie River there are no remarkable 
 exhibitions of the uplifted sedimentary rocks. For the most part the 
 foot-hills near the base of the mountains are quite smoothly rounded 
 off, and covered with grass ; and only here and there are any of the beds 
 exposed. High up in the mountains, toward the sources of the Big and 
 Little Laramie rivers, are some fine exposures of the entire series of sed- 
 imentary beds ; but these will be described more fully in a subsequent 
 portion of this report. 
 
 Along the flanks of Elk Mountain there is exposed, in one or two 
 localities, a vertical ridge of gray sandstone and quartzite, which I have 
 regarded as No. 1, or lower cretaceous. The rock does not differ in tex- 
 ture from the same formations as seen along the eastern slope of the 
 Laramie range from Eed Buttes to Cache a la Poudre and southward ; 
 but in this instance it forms, for a short distance, a high vertical wall, 
 pressing up close to the granite nucleus, while the carboniferous lime- 
 stones are carried up on the tops of the granite to the summit of the 
 mountain. 
 
 Our camp on the Medicine Bow Creek was a pleasant one, with an 
 abundance of timber, and the greatest supply of grass for our animals. 
 The bottoms are wide and of inexhaustible fertility. The vallej's of all 
 the little branches furnish the most extensive and valuable pastoral 
 districts for stock. Beaver dams occur everywhere, and sometimes flood 
 a space half a mile in width. In the branches of the Medicine Bow the 
 plastic clays of the lower cretaceous prevail, in a horizontal position. All 
 the formations seem to jut up agaiust the mountain sides with very 
 little inclination. The river emerges from a sort of jog in the range, 
 ten miles or more south of Elk Mountain, and the cretaceous beds, nearly 
 horizontal, extend down into the plains in long, grassy, bench-like ridges. 
 On the Wagon Hound Creek are some beds of sandstone in a nearly 
 vertical position, or inclining at a high angle from the mountains, which 
 are intercalated with beds of clay and coal seams, evidently the beds of 
 passage to the tertiary. 
 After passing the Medicine Bow Creek eastward, the country assumes 
 
GEOLOGICAL SUEVEY OF THE TEKrwITOEIES. 79 
 
 a more clieerful aspect; tlic water is as pure as crystal, and grass covers 
 the surface very thickly. Dense groves of aspeu are abundant among 
 the foot-hills, and the little streams are all fringed with timber. From 
 the summit of a high hill on the west side of Kock Creek we have the 
 finest view of the Laramie Plains I have ever seen. We reached Ixock 
 Creek on one of those clear days after a raiustorm, when the sun shines 
 out with that Avonderful brightness which is pecnliar to this country. 
 The entire area of the Laramie Plains was spread out before us like a pan- 
 orama. The Laramie range forms a perfect wall on the east and north 
 side, and marks the horizon from the east, around to northwest, and 
 apparently dies out. To the north, Laramie Peak is as plainly visible as 
 it is from Fort Laramie ou the opposite side of the range, and rises high 
 above any other portion. The entire surface of the phains east of the 
 Medicine Bow, encircled by the main Rocky Mountains ou the south, 
 and the Laramie range ou the east and north, has been smoothed oft' by 
 deuudation and grassed over, so that it forms one vast pasture-ground 
 about sixty miles in extent from east to west, and nearly the same dis- 
 tance from north to south. From the mountains on the south side de- 
 scend, parallel with the valleys of the streams, beautiful benches, 
 with smooth, table-like summits; while forming a iiortion of the foot-hills 
 of the mountains are numerous rounded hills, grassed over, and paved 
 ou the tops and south side with the differeut kinds of rocks which con- 
 stitute the nucleus of the mountain rauge, as garnetiferous gneiss, 
 quartzites of all colors, red and gray granites, with quartz, trap rocks 
 of various textures, fibrous gneiss, &c. These rocks are quite well worn, 
 and they seem to lie ou the summits of the hills as they were dropped 
 by an iceberg, and present the appearance of leaning to the northward 
 as if ou the move. The shape of the hill and the position of the stray 
 masses impresses one with the thought that they were only delayed for 
 a time on their way from the mountains to the plains. These examples 
 of local drift or erratic blocks are very common and well defined in the 
 Laramie Plains. Indeed, I have never seen any evidences in the Eocky 
 Mountain region of any foreign drift. All the superficial deposits belong- 
 ing to the quarternary period, seem to me to be local in their origin. 
 
 Eock Creek Valley is very beautiful and picturesque. The stream 
 emerges from a very narrow gorge in the mountains, which is tiovered 
 with a dense growth of pines. As we look down the stream from the 
 gorge the valley seems to expand to two or three miles in width, and there 
 are three belts of trees winding through it as if there were as many 
 separate streams. The other portions of the valley are like a meadow. 
 About half a mile, along the old stage road, on Eock Creek, the meta- 
 mori)hic rocks are well shown, holding a nearly vertical position. There 
 are gray and reddish feldspar beds, inclining 60°. There are also beds 
 of what ap])ears to be ancient trap. These ridges form steps which lead 
 up to the Snowy rauge. o^o sedimentar}" rocks older than the creta- 
 ceous are seen in the vallej" of Eock Creek. The valley is literally cov- 
 ered with water-worn boulders of all kinds, mostly metamorphic, and 
 hence its name. These boulders diminish in size as we descend the 
 creek until they nearly or quite disappear. All the hills ou either side 
 show accumidatious of these worn rocks on the side facing the moun- 
 tains. On the east side of Eock Creek the yellow sandstone which un- 
 derlies the long bench is undoubtedly cretaceous No. 5, and contains a 
 few fossils, among which are the usual Inoceramus and BacuUtes ovatus. 
 
 On the east side of Cooper's Creek there is a long, high ridge, with its 
 abrupt side toward the mountains, and covered thickly with the rounded 
 boulders — a marked illustration of the direction from which the bould- 
 
80 GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF THE TEERITOKIES. 
 
 ers were derived. The valley of Cooper's Creek is a broad, meadow-like 
 expansion, and produces a thick growth of grass, which supplies an. 
 abundant provision for stock in the winter. All these streams emerge 
 from the mountains through narrow cafious. From Elk Mountain to 
 Big Laramie I doubt whether any rocks older than the cretaceous are 
 exi)osed on the flanks of the mountains, and these in many places are 
 obscured by heavy deposits of drift. 
 
 The valley of the Little Laramie is now mostly occupied by ranches. 
 Thousands of cattle wander over its broad meadows and on the up- 
 land plains, and hundreds of tons of hay are prepared every year. It 
 is probable that this region is destined to become celebrated as one of 
 the finest pastoral districts in America. 
 
 Leaving Big Laramie we ascended the western slope of the Laramie 
 range by way of Cheyenne Pass, across the cretaceous, Jurassic, and 
 triassic or red beds. The latter gives a bright brick -red appearance to 
 a wide belt along the east side of the road for 30 to 40 miles. A bed 
 of bluish limestone covers the western slope of the Laramie range with 
 remarkable uniformity, like the roof of a house, inclining 10° t'o 15°. 
 Underneath this, toward the summit, a bed of yellowish-white limestone 
 appears, with well-marked carboniferous fossils. Toward the summit 
 of the range we pass over a depression or valley of considerable depth, 
 which seems here to separate the changed from the unchanged rocks. 
 We then come to reddish micaceous feldspathic granites. Indeed, all 
 varieties and textures of granitic rocks occur on the summit of this 
 range. We continue to travel over ridge after ridge of metamorphic 
 rocks — some very fine in texture, others quite coarse, — until we come to 
 the smooth, plain-like area which forms the central portion. This grassy 
 belt constitutes the real crest or divide, and after passing this we travel 
 over ridge after ridge of metamorphic rocks similar to those on the 
 west side, but with a reversed dip, showing a distinct anticlinal ; and 
 at the east end of the pass, at the sources of Lodge Pole Creek, the 
 metamorphic rocks rise up from beneath the red sands and limestones 
 in perfect conformity, so far as they are visible to the eye. On the 
 east slope are broken ridges, which show the carboniferous limestones 
 inclining 3° to 10°. Curiously rounded ravines, carved out of the 
 ridges by water, separate them into picturesque fragments. The road 
 through Cheyenne Pass is excellent, and is paved with crystals of feld 
 spar. The soil is fertile and the grass is good. 
 
 South of Laramie Peak there is a great scarcity of timber on this 
 range, so that it does not deserve the name of "Black Hills," which is 
 often applied to it. 
 
 Just south of Crow Creek there is an illustration of the granite rocks 
 carrying up the carboniferous limestones on their summits in a nearly 
 horizontal position. The tertiary beds jut up against the base of the 
 range, entirely concealing all traces of older rocks, so that larger areas 
 of older formations are broken oft and lifted up far above the plains on 
 the summits of the mountains. This is not an uncommon occurrence 
 along the flanks of all the mountain ranges. It only shows how interest- 
 ing and complicated are the details of the study of these ranges, however 
 simple their structure may seem to be in the aggregate. 
 
 Leaving Cheyenne Pass, we cross over a remarkable parallel valley, 
 or one which has been scooped out near the base of the mountains and 
 extends along parallel with it. It extends from the ridge south of the 
 drainage of Crow Creek to the Chugwater. The modern tertiary beds 
 extend down to Cheyenne, a distance of fifteen miles. 
 
 We ha.ve now (November 1,) reached our point of departure on the 6th 
 
GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF THE TERRITORIES. 81 
 
 of August last. Two belts of country have been explored : 1. North of 
 the railroad by way of North Platte, Eed Buttes, Sweetwater, South Pass, 
 to Fort Bridger. 2. South of the railroad, from Fort Bridger via Henry's 
 Fork, Green River, Bitter Creek, Bridger's Pass, Medicine Bow Moun- 
 tains, Cheyenne Pass, to Cheyenne again. 
 
 We shall occupy ourselves next with a description of the third or mid- 
 dle belt connecting the two already described, extending from Cheyenne 
 to Salt Lake Valley along the line of the Union Pacific Eailroad. 
 
 We shall also gather up some of the fragments from point to point 
 which may have been omitted, or not fully explained, in the preceding 
 portions of this report. 
 6 G 
 
I>_A.IIT II. 
 
 Chapter— 
 VII. GENERAL VIEW OF THE GEOLOGY OF THE MISSOUEI VALLEY. 
 Vm. FROM OMAHA TO CHEYENNE. 
 IX. OVER THE FIRST RANGE. 
 X. THE LARAMIE PLAINS. 
 XL WESTWARD TO BEAR RIVER. 
 XII. BEAR RIVER TO GREAT SALT LAKE VALLEY. 
 Xni. GENERAL REVIEW OF THE GEOLOGY OF THE COUNTRY FROM OMAHA 
 
 TO SALT LAKE VALLEY. 
 XIV. OBSERVATIONS ON MINES.— ANALYSES OF COALS, ORES, AND SAI.TS. 
 
GflOLOGY OF THE MISSOURI VALLEY. 
 
 CHAPTER yn. 
 
 GENERAL VIEW OF THE GEOLOGY OF THE MISSOUEI VALLEY. 
 
 Ill order that our description of the geology of that belt of country 
 bordering the line of the IJnion Pacific Eailroad may be more clearly 
 understood, we may in this chapter take a somewhat hasty glance at the 
 l)riucipal geological features of the vast area drained by the Missouri 
 Elver and its tributaries. The geologist is dependent for his knowledge 
 of the earth's crust, either on natural sections formed by the channels 
 of rivers, or the upheavals of mountain chains, or on the artificial cuts 
 along railways, or artesian borings. The great Missouri cuts a section 
 from its source in the mountains to the Mississippi, a distance of nearly 
 3,000 miles, affording an excellent opportunity for studying the various 
 geological formations which occur in the ISTorthwest. The branches also, 
 which make their way from distant points on either side of the Missouri, 
 cut the country up in every direction, so that it is hardly possible to fail 
 in obtaining at least, an approximately correct interpretation of the 
 records. The cuts along the line of the railroad are, as it were, slices 
 in the earth's crust which often reveal the nature of the underlying 
 formations with wonderful clearness, throwing a flood of light upon ob- 
 scure points. Many of the observations also, which were made for prac- 
 tical purposes by the engineers, as well as the exploration for useful 
 minerals in the vicinity of the road, may be brought into the service of 
 science. Thus the elevations which have been taken with great care 
 across the continent from Omaha to San Francisco are very useful. 
 Along a well-known line of travel, the attention of the student of 
 geology will most likely be attracted toward the principal geological 
 features, and on this account I hope to make the succeeding chapters a 
 sort of guide in this respect. My observations, which have extended 
 over a period of about three years, may be regarded as correct in the main, 
 though eveiy year new facts will be added. 
 
 Before starting on our westward tour let us study for a little time the 
 wonderful section which is revealed to us along the channel of the Mis- 
 souri Eiver. It has long been known that the northeastern portion of 
 Nebraska is underlaid by rocks of the upper coal measures. These 
 rocks are well shown from the south line of the State to the mouth of 
 the Platte Eiver, where they are partially concealed by a great thick- 
 ness of recent deposits. They gradually disappear beneath the water- 
 level near De Soto, about thirty miles aboveOmaha. If we ascend the 
 Platte River for a short distance we shall find the carboniferous lime- 
 stones finely exposed, and the opportunities for their study are very 
 much aided by the numerous quarries which have been opened. They, 
 in their turn, pass beneath the water-level of the river, near the mouth 
 of the Elkhorn, and are not again visible until they are exposed along 
 flanks of the mountain ranges. So far as Nebraska is concerned, the 
 carboniferous rocks seem to be directly overlaid by the rusty sandstones 
 of the lower cretaceous, No. 1. In the valley of the Big and Little Blue 
 
86 GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF THE TERRITORIES. 
 
 Elvers some yellow and buff magnesiau limestones occur, which are sug- 
 gestive of permian relations, but it is quite doubtful whether rocks of 
 that age extend up into Nebraska, although they occur in Kansas. On 
 my geological map I have usually colored a small strip of permian 
 extending up into Southern Nebraska, but our present knowledge would 
 indicate that it might be omitted. Although some of the fossils seem 
 to possess permian affinities, they all extend down into the coal measures, 
 and therefore are not peculiarly characteristic. As we have before re- 
 marked, the carboniferous rocks along the Missouri Eiver are immediately 
 overlapped by formations of cretaceous age. These rocks as revealed 
 along the Missouri, have been separated into five well-marked divisions, 
 which have been designated by numbers 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5, and by groups, 
 as Dakota Group, Fort Pierre Group, and Fox Hills Group. Inasmuch 
 as we shall have occasion to refer to these groups in describing rocks in 
 the cretaceous epoch in other portions of the West, we will introduce here 
 a general section of the cretaceous rocks along the Missouri Eiver, as pre- 
 pared by Mr. Meek and the writer several years since, and published in 
 previous reports. There are so many students of western geology 
 scattered over the country at the present time, most of whom cannot 
 gain access to the memoirs in which these sections have been pub- 
 lished, that this will be a sufficient reason for reproducing them in 
 this connection. Not only in this report, but also in subsequent reports, 
 we shall have constant occasion to refer to these sections, and the differ- 
 ent groups of rocks. The sections were based on characters obtained 
 from a careful study of the groups as exposed along the Missouri Eiver, 
 and it is here that their typical characters are found. As we depart 
 from this center in any direction these characters are modified more or 
 less. As we go southward into the Laramie Plains, Colorado, or New 
 Mexico, these divisions are not as well defined,' and Drs. Newberry and 
 Leconte have very properly divided the whole cretaceous group, as 
 there developed, into upper, middle, and lower cretaceous. Yet, to 
 one familiar with the typical divisions as seen on the Upper Missouri, 
 geographical extension never modifies them so that they do not still 
 possess some traces of their original characters. 
 
 Formation No. 1, as seen all along the flanks of the mountains from 
 the Big Horn and Wind Eiver ranges to New Mexico, has never yielded 
 a single characteristic fossil, and the lithological characters are quite 
 different in many respects from those which are peculiar to the group, 
 as shown near Sioux City and southward into Kansas. Again, in their 
 southward extension, the division into upper and lower cretaceous 
 groups would probably best accord with the facts as we know them at 
 the present time. 
 
GEOLOGICAL SUEVEY OF THE TERRITORIES. 
 General section of tlie cretaceous rocJcs of the Northwest. 
 
 87 
 
 Divisions aucl subdivisions. 
 
 Localities.* 
 
 8^ 
 
 1^ 
 
 
 f^a 
 
 CS.2 
 
 ^Ig 
 
 ^1 
 
 O a 
 
 J o 
 O rt 
 
 fGray, ferruginous, and yellowish sandstone, 
 
 I and arenaceous clays, containing Bdemni- 
 
 ' tella bulbosa, Nautihis Bckaxji, Ammonites 
 
 1 placenta, A. lobatus, Scaphites Conradi, S. 
 
 I Nicollctti, BacuUtcs firandis, Busyeon Bairdi, 
 
 Fusus Culbertson, F. Neioberryi. Aporrhais 
 
 Americana, Pseudo-bucclnum, yebrascetisis, 
 
 Mactra Warrenana, Cardium subquadra- 
 
 turn, and a great number of other molluscoua 
 
 fossils, together with bones of ITosasaurus 
 
 Missouriensis, die. 
 
 Dark-gi-ayahd bluish plastic clays, containing, 
 
 near the upper part. Nautilus Dekayi, Ain- 
 
 monites placenta, BacuUtcs ovatus, B. com,- 
 
 presstis, Scaphites nodosus, Dentalium gra- 
 
 die, Crassat-illa Evansi, Cucullcea Ncbrascen- 
 
 sis, Inoceramus Sagensis, I. Ncbrasccnsis, I. 
 
 Yanuxevii, bones of Mosasaurus Missouri- 
 
 ensis, <£c. 
 
 Middle zone nearly barren of fossils 
 
 Lower fossiliferous zone, containing Ammon- 
 ites complcxus, Baculites ovatus, B. compres- 
 sus, Helioceras Mortoni, H. tortum, H. um- 
 bilicatum,, H. cochleatuni, Ptychoceras Mor- 
 toni, Fusus vinculum. Anisomyon borealis, 
 Amauropsis paludiniformis, Inoceramus 
 . sublcevus, I. tenui-lineatus, bones of Mosa- 
 saurus Missouriensis, die. 
 Dark bed of very fine unctuous clay, contain- 
 ing much carbonaceous matter, with veins 
 and seams of gypsum, masses of sulphuret 
 iron, and numerous small scales, fishes, 
 local, filling depressions in the bed below. 
 ' Lead-gray calcareous marl, weathering to ayel- 
 lowish or whitish chalky appearance above, 
 containing large scales and other remains of 
 fishes, and numerous species of Ostrea con- 
 
 festa attached to fragments of Inoceramus. 
 'assing down into light yellowish and 
 whitish limestone, containing great num- 
 bers of Inoceramus problematicus, I. pseudo- 
 m,ytiloides, I. aviculoides, and Ostrea con- 
 gesta, fish scales, &c. 
 'Dark-gray laminated clays, sometimes alter- 
 nating "near the upper part with seams and 
 layers of soft gray and light-colored lime- 
 stone, Inoceramus problematicus, I. tcnuiros- 
 tratus, I. latiis, I. fragilis, Ostrea congesta, 
 Yenilia Mortoni, Pholadomya papyracea, 
 Ammonites Mullani, A. percarinatus, A. 
 vespertinus, Scaphites Warreni, S. larvce- 
 formis, S. ventricoaus, S. vermiformis, Nauti- 
 lus elegans, (?) &c. 
 
 'Yellowish, reddish, and occasionally white 
 sandstone, with, at places, alternations of 
 various colored clays and beds and seams 
 of impure lignite; also silicified wood and 
 great numbers of leaves of the liigher types 
 of dicotyledonous trees, with casts of Phar- 
 ella (?) Bakotensis, Axinaca Siouxensis, and 
 Cyprina arenarea. 
 
 Fox Hills, near Moreau Riv- 
 er, near Long Lake, above 
 Fort Pierre, along base 
 Big Horn Mountains, and 
 on ^N'orth and South Platto 
 Kivers. 
 
 Sage Creek, Cheyenne Elver, 
 and on White Eiver above 
 the Mauvaises Terres. 
 
 Fort Pierre and out to Bad 
 Lands, down the Missouri, 
 on the high country, to 
 Great Bench 
 
 Great Bend of the Missouri, 
 below Fort Pierre. 
 
 Near Bijou Hill, on the Mis- 
 souri. 
 
 BlujBfs along the Missouri, 
 below the Great Bend, to 
 the vicinity of Big Sioux 
 Kiver; also below there 
 on the tops of the Mils. 
 
 Extensively developed near 
 Fort Benton, on the Upper 
 Missouri ; also along the 
 latter from ten miles above 
 James River to Big Sioux 
 River, and along the east- 
 ern, slope of tile Rocky 
 Mountains as well as at 
 the Black Hills. 
 
 Hills back of the town of 
 Dakota ; also extensivelv 
 developed in the surround- 
 ing country, in Dakota 
 County, below the mouth 
 of Big Sioux River, thence 
 extending southward into 
 northeasteyn Kansas and 
 beyond. 
 
 Feet. 
 500 
 
 70tt 
 
 200 
 
 800 
 
 2ba 
 
 
 
 The names which are given to these groups, both in the cretaceous 
 and tertiary rocks, are always provisional, and are intended as specific 
 points around which to group such facts as may add to our own knowl- 
 edge from year to year ; and when it shall have been found that any of 
 theui have served their purpose, and are no longer needed, they will be 
 dropped from the list. Objections may be made to the use of local geo- 
 graphical names, but they have been found by experience to serve our 
 
GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF THE TERRITOEIES. 
 
 purpose best. lu Nebraska the sandstones of the Dakota Group rest 
 directly upon rocks of the age of the coal measures. Although they do 
 not appear in full force until we reach a point near De Soto and beyond, 
 yet remnants of the sandstones make their appearance within five or 
 ten miles of Omaha at any point north of the Platte Eiver. It is quite 
 probable that they once extended all over Nebraska, passing across into 
 Iowa, and how much further eastward we have not definite data to de- 
 termine. The coal-measure limestones are thus exposed in northeastern 
 Nebraska by the erosion of the cretaceous rocks. This is a very import- 
 ant matter in a practical point of view, for the sandstones of the cretace- 
 ous group are seldom of much value for building ijurposes, aud the ex- 
 posure of large areas of the carboniferous rocks in the most fertile por- 
 tions of the State is a fact of inestimable value. 
 
 Fig. X. 
 
 Chalk Bluff?, Cretaceous No. 1, near Blackbird Hill, Nebraska. 
 
 Along the banks of the Missouri Eiver, on the Indian Eeserve, is a 
 lofty escarpment of yellow, rotten, coarse-grained sandstone, sometimes 
 called Chalk Bluffs, from their whitish chalky appearance in the dis- 
 tance. They are from one hundred to one hundred and fifty feet in 
 height, and about half way up, or at least fifty feet above the water, and 
 as much from the toj) of this peri)endicular wall, are carved out numer- 
 ous Indian hieroglyphics, as pipes, canoes, various kinds of animals, rude 
 representations of the Indians themselves, &c. The question at once 
 arises, who carved them here 1 The Indians now living cannot account 
 for them, and call the rocks "Medicine," a term which they apply to 
 all things that are mysterious to them. The characters closely resemble 
 those on their robes worn at the present day, and are doubtless emblem- 
 atical of some important event in Indian history. These figures must 
 have been carved here many centuries ago, when that portion of the 
 escarpment was accessible from beneath in someway, all trace of which 
 has been effaced by the water. Similar ones are still to be seen in other 
 localities, especially in the mountains. A small creek, whicli flows into 
 the Missouri a few miles below the " Eunning Water," has an Indian 
 name which signifies " Where the dead have worked," from the fact, 
 that upon the high chalky walls that form its banks are some of the 
 
GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF THE TERRITORIES. 89 
 
 same mysterious carviugs. These soft sandstones, or chalky limestones, 
 are well adapted for recording tlieir bieroglyphical history. 
 
 But these rocks bear upon them far plainer characters than those de- 
 scribed above, and characters which carry the history of events infi- 
 uitely farther back into the past than any ever carved upon stone by hu- 
 man hands. Near the Blackbird Mission, and in other localities above 
 and below this phice, has been found a remarkable series of fossil plants 
 embedded in the sandstones and quartzites, which has thrown much 
 light upon the ancient tiora of this region. These sandstones all belong 
 to the lower cretaceous or chalk period, and it is now well ascertained 
 that with the beginning of that era, began upon our continent the dawn 
 of existing deciduous fruit and forest trees, as did also the present race 
 of edible "fishes, as the herrring, perch, &c. We find impressions 
 of leaves in rocks, remarkably well preserved, representing the genera 
 Platanus, Po2)ulus, Fagus, Liriodendron, Sassafras, Magnolia, Ficus, and 
 others. Some of these plants indicate a warmer climate at one time in 
 this region than at present, though hardly tropical, or, as Dr. Newberry 
 has shown, not even sub-tropical, although on the Pacific coast species 
 of the palm and cinnamon, indicative of a tropical climate, are found. 
 It may be that when these rocks are more thoroughly studied, plants 
 of a tropical or sub-tropical character will be found. I take pleasiu-e 
 in transcribing the following paragraph from Dr. Newberry's able report 
 on these plants: 
 
 At tlie base of the cretaceous series in New Jersey, occiir a, coarse, soft saudstone 
 aud beds of saudy clay which coiitaiu a lart;-e uumber of fossil leaves, niauy of which, 
 collected by Professor George H. Cook, of New Briinswick, by Messrs. Meek, Haydeu, 
 and others, have been submitted to me for exaniinatiou. Unfortuuatcly most of these 
 leaves are inclosed in a material so coarse and friable that they have been much broken 
 and are scarcely susceptible of accurate study. They form, however, quite a rich flora, 
 which includes a number of species not yet obtained from the cretaceous beds of the 
 West, with others that are apparently identical with some obtained by myself on the 
 banks of the Whetstone Creek in Western Kansas. Among these plants is a beautiful 
 conifer, generieally new, as indicated T)y its cones, which are in a good state of preser- 
 vation. The plants from this district have not as j'et been carefnily studied, and they 
 form an attractive subject for future investigation. In the circumstances of their fos- 
 sihzatiou they resemble the plants of the We.st, and a^jparently indicate an invasion 
 of the ocean, occasioned by a subsidence by which the limits of tlie continent Avere con- 
 tracted, but to what extent on its eastern margin, we have no means of determining 
 accurately. 
 
 By referring to the list of plants on a preceding page it will be seen that the cre- 
 taceous strata of the west coast include some forms not yet discovered in the Kansas 
 and Nebraska beds. Among these, SaUsl}iiria, SahaJ, Ci.iDiamomum, &c., are indicative 
 of a warm climate. Possibly these genera may hereafter be detected in the plant beds 
 of Kansas, Nebraska and New Mexico, but as yet we have no intimation of their exist- 
 ence, and there is nothing now known in the cretaceous flora of that region which 
 gives it a tropical or even sub-tropical character. 
 
 It will be remembered that this vegetation grew upon a broad continental surface 
 of which the central portion was considerably elevated. This would give us a physical 
 condition not unlike that of the continent at the present day, and it would seem to be 
 inevitable that the isothermal lines should be curved over the surface somewhat as 
 they are at present. It may very well hax>peu, therefore, that we shall find the palms 
 aud cinnamons restricted to the western margin of the cretaceous continent. It will 
 be seen by the notes now given of the tertiary flora of out continent that at a later 
 date palms grew in the same region where these cretaceous plants are found, but cin- 
 namon and other tropical plants seem to be entirely wanting in the tertiary flora of the 
 central parts of the continent, while on the west coast both palms and cinnamons 
 lived during the tertiary period as far north as the British line. Wo have, therefore, 
 negative evidence from these facts — though it may be reversed at an early day by 
 further observations — that the climate of the interior of our continent during the 
 tertiary age was somewhat warmer than during the cretaceous period, aud that during 
 both the same relative differences of climate prevailed between the central and western 
 portions that exist a-t the present day. 
 
 Near the entrance of the Big Sioux Eiver into the Missouri the 
 
90 GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF THE TERRITORIES. 
 
 Dakota Group disappears beneath the water-level, and is succeeded by 
 a series of black, plastic, laminated clays, with lighter-colored arenaceous 
 partings and thin layers of sandstone. Near the mouth of the Ver- 
 million Eiver the upper portion becomes more calcareous, and gradually 
 passes up into the next group. This formation has been called No. 2, 
 or Fort Benton Group. It is often immensely thickened in the vicin- 
 ity of the mountains from the north line to New Mexico, but on the 
 Lower Missouri, where it was first observed by geologists, it never 
 reaches a thickness of more than one hundred and fifty or two hun- 
 dred feet. In New Mexico it occurs as the most conspicuous of the 
 cretaceous divisions, and along the line of the Kansas Pacific Eailway, 
 in Kansas, it has yielded large quantities of the most remarkable rep- 
 tilian remains. In the chapter on the geology of that route I shall 
 have occasion to dwell more minutely on the interesting facts connected 
 with this group. On the Missouri Eiver it has yielded a number of 
 species of Inoceramus, Scaphites, Amonites, and some thin layers are 
 made up of remains of the scales and teeth of fishes. Farther up the 
 Missouri Eiver, near the mouth of the Niobrara, and resting on these 
 sandstones and clays, is a thick bed of chalky limestone, containing 
 vast quantities of a small species of oyster, and a large bivalve, Ino- 
 ceramus problematicus^ which is identical in species, or closely allied 
 with one found in many portions of Europe. Some remarkable forms of 
 fishes, not unlike our shad or herring, also sharks' teeth, have been 
 found in abundance. A few other shells have been described in various 
 localities in this chalk, and all of them are of a strictly marine charac- 
 ter Much of this limestone, though colored extensively with oxide of 
 iron, is soft, and leaves a mark on a blackboard or cloth like our com- 
 mon chalk of commerce. It is also composed largely of infusorial 
 remains, as distinctly shown under the microscope. This formation, as 
 well as the sandstone, is very widely distributed over the plain country 
 in Nebraska, Dakota, and Kansas, and its influence on the agricultural 
 prosperity of these regions is very great. The fertility of the soil is 
 largely due to the calcareous matter of the one mingled with the silica 
 derived from the other. The bluff-like character of these chalky lime- 
 stones, as shown along the channel of the Missouri from the mouth of the 
 Niobrara to the mouth of White Eiver, is well illustrated by Figure 2. 
 
 Fijr. 2. 
 
 Bluifs of Niobrara Group, or Cretaceous No. 3. 
 
 This is one of the most interesting of the cretaceous divisions. It is 
 found in some form wherever the cretaceous beds occur, from the north 
 
GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF THE TEREIT OKIES. 91 
 
 line to New Mexico, and probably much farther. As it is developed on 
 the Lower Missouri, and southward through I^Tebraska, Kansas, into 
 Texas and the Indian Territory, it coctains thick, massive beds of 
 chalky limestone. On the Kansas Pacific Railway, at Forts flays and 
 Wallace, this limestone is sawed into blo(;ks of any desirable size with 
 a common saw, and used for building purposes ; but along the flanks of 
 the mountains, or in the far West, it never reveals its chalky character. 
 It is found in thin, slaty, calcareous layers, but universally character- 
 ized by the presence of the oyster, Ostrca congcsta, and also some 
 form of Inocerarmis, or a few fish remains, but the little oyster is 
 ubiquitous. We have spoken briefly of the lower series of cretaceous 
 rocks, as shown in the section. In these three divisions there seems tp 
 be no well-marked line of separation, and the more we study them the 
 more intimately do they seem to be blended together. We shall here- 
 after refer to the seams of coal that have been found in the Dakota 
 Group ; and we will state just here that one local bed of carbonaceous 
 clay, which was used to some extent as fuel, was found in No. 2, on the 
 Nebraska side of the Missouri, about thirty miles above Sioux City. 
 In no other portion of the West have we ever seen anything that ap- 
 proached coal in this group. 
 
 The Fort Pierre Group begins to overlap the Niobrara Group below 
 the mouth of the Niobrara, and above that point, although the river cuts 
 deep down into the chalk limestone, and long lines of cone like bluffs 
 extend up nearly to the Great Bend, yet the distant hills on either side of 
 the river show plainly the dark, shaly clays of No. 4. This formation cov- 
 ers a vast area of country, perhaps fifty thousand square miles or more, 
 and wherever it prevails it gives to the surface the aspect of desolation. 
 The entire thickness of the grouj) is filled with the alkaline material 
 which is so well known in the West, and wherever the water accumulates 
 in little depressions and evaporates the surface is covered with a deposit 
 of the salt varying from an inch to several inches in thickness. The 
 water that flows through these clays is usually impregnated with these 
 salts and thus rendered unfit for use. Although these clays seem to be 
 so sterile, and in the dry season are typical of extreme aridity, yet they 
 are by no means destitute of vegetation. The various species of cJien- 
 opodiaceous shrubs and herbs that are peculiar to the West find their natu- 
 ral habitat in these clays, and grow most luxuriantly. The sarcobatus 
 reaches its highest growth in this region. It is probable, however, that 
 the country underlaid by rocks of this grouj) will prove fertile when 
 it can be irrigated. The somber appearance given to the country by 
 the black clays is unfavorable to it. Nowhere except on the Upper 
 Missouri have I seen this formation so well defined or so fruitful in or- 
 ganic remains. The two zones mentioned in the section may be said to 
 exist geographically as well as geologically. At the Great Bend there 
 is a large thickness of the strata filled with concretions that are made 
 up mostly of an aggregate of fossils, as Ammonites, Baculites, &e. Near 
 Chain de Roche Creek these concretions have been swept down into the 
 Missouri by the swift current during the sjmng floods, and in the low 
 water of autumn they present a picturesque appearance, as is shown in 
 Fig. 3. 
 
 This fossil zone extends across the country in a nearly east and west 
 direction. Passing above this point very few fossils, except here and 
 there a baculite or bones of the Mosasa^iriis, are found for one hundred 
 and fifty to two hundred miles, when another belt or zone of fossils ex- 
 tends across the country in the same direction. These zones undoubtedly 
 represent certain depths of the waters in the great cretaceous sea, which 
 
92 
 
 GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF THE TERRITORIES. 
 
 were peculiarly favorable for the production and existence of animal 
 life. Although the rivers cut deep channels through the different forma- 
 tions, we do not meet with the Fox Hills Group along the Missouri until we 
 reach nearly up to the mouth of Cannon Ball Eiver, yet fifty miles or 
 
 Fig. 3. 
 
 Concietions in Mi'-'^ourn River, ucar Chain cle Roclic Creek. 
 
 more before reaching that point it has overlapped the Fort Pierre 
 Group. In traveling across the plain country westward from Fort 
 Pierre we find it occupying the entire area. Very soon after passing 
 west of the Big Cheyenne Eiver the traveler will readily recognize 
 its i)resence by the more cheerful appearance that it gives to the surface, 
 as well as by the greatly increased growth of vegetation. The water is 
 jjure and good, and springs become quite common in the hills. In this 
 group also there is a remarkable zone of fossils, exending across the 
 country in either direction from the Missouri Eiver. Near the mouth 
 of the Cannon Ball Eiver, the surface is covered with rounded concre- 
 tions of rusty-brown arenaceous limestone, crowded with beautiful mo- 
 luscous fossils. This belt is quite narrow and extends* eastward toward 
 the Coteau de Prairie, and westward between the Big Cheyenne and 
 Grand Elvers, along the north side of the Black Hills. I have thus 
 given the typical features which those groups assume on the Missouri 
 Eiver. As we recede from this region southward there are many 
 modifications, especially lithologically ; yet to one familiar with them 
 they never lose all their characters, so that they cannot be detected. 
 Like the human face, neither time nor distance can so change it that 
 it does not retain some trace of its original features. In my explora- 
 tions I have traced these groups over hundreds of miles in every direc- 
 tion, and I have no doubt that they extend from the Arctic Circle to 
 the -Isthmus of Darien; and that at some future period they will be so 
 carefully studied at different points that thcj^ may be connected into 
 one harmonious group. All the facts that I have been able to gather 
 up to this time tend toward the unity and simplicity of the geology of 
 the entire Eocky Mountain system. 
 
 If the reader has the patience and interest to follow me through this 
 report, he will find frequent allusions to all these groups in the descrip- 
 tion of the geology of various localities. Some of these groups come 
 
GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF THE TERRITORIES. 
 
 93 
 
 to the surface very often, not unfrequently in unexpected localities, as 
 is observed on the Yellowstone, where the fossiliferous beds of No. 4 are 
 exposed in the channel of the stream for a distance of sixty miles. 
 Nowhere south of the Missouri Eiver have I seen any locality where a 
 distinct line of separation could be drawn between the upper and lower 
 series, and it is probable that this line will be best shown on the Upper 
 Missouri of any portion of the West. The break here is qnite plain, 
 lithologically, and so far as the organic remains are concerned, our ex- 
 plorations have not yet been able to secure a single species that passes 
 from one to the other. The next important feature in the geology of 
 the West are the great lake basins, which seem to set in the older forma- 
 tions and in each other like dishes, and these are most properly called 
 basins. The principal one is the Fort Union, or Great Lignite Group, 
 which forms the transition group from the strictly marine condition of the 
 cretaceous period to the epoch of the numerous fresh- water lakes which 
 were scattered all over the country west of the Mississippi. Now that 
 the attention of explorers has been called to this remarkable system of 
 lakes, I have no doubt they will be found to have existed all over the 
 western portion of the continent, from the extreme north to the far 
 south. In the chapter by Dr. Newberry on the ancient lakes of the 
 West there is a most graphic description, to which the reader is referred. 
 The following general section conveys a clear idea of the different groups, 
 so far as they were known, up to the time of its first publication in the 
 proceedings of the Academy of Natural Sciences, December, 18G1. As 
 these groups will be frequently referred to in this report as well as suc- 
 ceeding reports, and as each year's explorations extends their area or 
 adds new facts to our knowledge of them, it will be a matter of interest. 
 
 Genei'al section of the tertiary rocks of Nebraska. 
 
 
 
 CO 
 
 o 
 
 
 4 
 
 Names. 
 
 Subdivisions. 
 
 a 
 
 p 
 
 3 
 
 H 
 
 Localities. 
 
 11 
 
 1 
 
 
 
 Feet. 
 
 
 
 Loup River 
 
 Fine loose sand, -with some layers of lime- 
 
 300 to 400 
 
 On Lonp fork of Platte Eiver, 
 
 1 
 
 beds. 
 
 stone; contains bones of Ca?us, Felis, Cas- 
 
 
 extending north to Niobrara 
 
 o 
 
 
 tor, Equus, Mastodon, Testudo, <£c., some 
 
 
 River, and soutli to an un- 
 
 ^ 
 
 
 of which are scarcely distinguishable 
 
 
 known distance beyond the 
 
 V ^ 
 
 
 from living species. Also Helix, Physa, 
 
 
 Platte. 
 
 o 
 
 
 Succinea, probably of recent species. 
 
 
 
 s 
 
 
 All fresh-water and land types. 
 
 
 
 
 White Riv- 
 
 White and lisht-drab clays, with some 
 
 1,000 
 
 Bad Lands of White River, 
 
 
 er Group. 
 
 beds of sandstone and local layers of 
 
 or more. 
 
 under the Loup River beds. 
 
 
 
 limestone. Fossils: Oreodon, Tiianotlie- 
 
 
 on Niobrara, and across the 
 
 6 
 
 
 rium, Charopotamus, Hhinoccros, Anchi- 
 
 
 country to the Platte. 
 
 g 
 
 
 therium, Hycenodon, Machairodus, Tri- 
 
 
 
 o 
 
 
 onyx, Testudo, Helix, Planorbis, Limnoea, 
 
 
 
 ii 
 
 
 petrified wood, <fcc. All extinct. No 
 brackish-water or marine remains. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 "Wind River 
 
 Light-gray and ash-colored sandstones. 
 
 1,500 
 
 Wind River Valley; also west 
 
 
 deposits. 
 
 with more or less argillaceous layers. 
 Fossils : fragments of Trionyx, Testudo, 
 with largo Helix, Vivipara, petrified 
 wood, &c. No marine or brackish-water 
 types. 
 
 to 
 2,000 
 
 of Wind River Mountains. 
 
 1 
 
 1 
 
 >.? 
 
 Fort Union 
 
 Beds of clay and sand, with round ferru- 
 
 2,000 
 
 Occupies the whole country 
 around Fort Union, extend- 
 
 
 or Great 
 
 ginous concretions, and numerous beds. 
 
 or more. 
 
 
 Lignite 
 
 seams, and local deposits of lignite, great 
 
 
 ing north into the British 
 
 
 Group. 
 
 numbers of dycotyledonous leaves. 
 
 
 possessions to unknown dis- 
 
 C 
 
 
 stems, ttc, of the genera Platanus, Acer, 
 
 
 tances; also southward to 
 
 o 
 
 
 TJlmus, Populus, die, with very largo 
 
 
 Fort Clark. Seen under the 
 
 >g 
 
 
 leaves of true fan palms. Also Helix, 
 
 
 WhiteRi ver Group on North 
 
 o 
 
 
 Melania, Vivipara, Corbicula, JJnio, Os- 
 
 
 * Platte River above Fort 
 
 N 
 
 
 trea, Corbula, and scales of Lepido- 
 
 
 Laramie. Also on west side 
 
 
 
 tus, with bones of Trionyx, Emys, Comp- 
 
 
 of Wind River Mountains. • 
 
 
 
 temys, Crocodilus, ttc. 
 
 
 
 
94 GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF THE TERRITORIES. 
 
 " The passage from tlie brackish to the fresh-water beds in the oldest 
 member of the tertiary of this region seems not to be marked by any 
 material alteration in the nature of the sediments. Nor have we, so 
 far as is yet known, any reasons for believing that any climatic or other 
 important physical changes beyond the slow rising of the land, and the 
 consequent recession of the salt and brackish water, took i^lace during 
 the deposition of the whole of the oldest member of the tertiary here, 
 since we find a considerable proportion of the species of fresh- water 
 mollusca ranging through this whole lower member. The i)rincipal dif- 
 ference between the fossils of its upper and lower beds consists in the 
 gTadual disappearance of strictly brackish-water types as we ascend from 
 the inferior strata. The entire series of Nebraska tertiary rocks con- 
 sists of three or four groups, three of which, at least, (and probably 
 four,) evidently belong to separate and distinct epochs. They usually 
 occur in isolated basins, but have, with one exception, all been seen in 
 such connection as to leave no doubts in regard to their order of super- 
 position." 
 
 The most important thought evolved from the study of this Fort 
 Union Group is the fact, which we now believe is well established, that 
 it contains the history of the growth, step by step, of a most important 
 period of our continent. The area which it occupies is not yet known, 
 but every year it is extended north, south, and west. It is also charac- 
 terized by numerous beds of coal, or lignite as it was formerly called, 
 and, so far as the Upper Missouri is concerned, most of the coal is true 
 lignite. It is quite probable that the coal-making period began in the 
 latter portion of the cretaceous era, and extended up into the tertiary. 
 The observations of geologists in New Mexico and Utah j)oint to the 
 conclusion that large deposits of excellent coal occur in the upper cre- 
 taceous series. The field for minute study in this direction is immense, 
 and we must await the results of future explorations before we can de- 
 cide positively. Another interesting feature connected with this group 
 is the splendid series of fossil plants which it has yielded, showing the 
 existence during the early tertiary ijeriod, on these now treeless j)lains, of 
 forests of almost subtropical character and luxuriance. Dr. Newberry, the 
 celebrated geologist and botanist, has already described more than fifty 
 species of x)lants from this gToup, which were collected on the Yellow- 
 stone and Missouri Elvers, many of them indicating forests of huge 
 growth. Among them are not less than eight species of Popiilus, (pop- 
 lars,) four species of Platanus, a sycamore, and a species of fan palm, 
 the leaves of which must have had a spread of nearly twelve feet. The 
 very interesting remarks of Dr. Newberry in this connection will be read 
 with pleasure and instruction by every student of geology : 
 
 TJiese fossils are generally well preserved in a calcareo-argillaceous rock of a light- 
 drab color, upon -wliich the leaves are delineated with a distinctness that renders them 
 pleasant objects of study, as well as attractive specimens for the cabinet. They are 
 usually detached with their petioles in such numbers and forms as indicate maturity, 
 and a common cause of fall, such as an annual frost. The mollusks associated with 
 them show that they were deposited in the sediment which accumulated at the bottom 
 of some fi-esh-water stream or lake, aud tliey are generally spread out so smoothly and 
 so entire, that it is evident no violence, not even the action of a rapid current, could 
 have been attendant upon their deposition. The sediment which inclosed them was 
 usually very fine ; a fact also indicative of a tranquil state of the water in which they 
 were suspended. 
 
 The explorations of Dr. Hayden prove that this miocene lignite formation occupies 
 the beds of extensive lakes, which filled deep basins on the surface of the continent 
 when it had but recently emerged from the cretaceous sea. As has been remarked 
 elsewhere, the lower members of the series contain a few estuary shells, showing the 
 access of salt water at the period of their formation ; but during the deposition of by far 
 the greater portion of these beds, the water of the ocean was entirely excluded &om 
 
GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF THE TERRITORIES. 95 
 
 the basins in wliicli they aeciimnhiteil. By tracing tlie ontliuo of these deposits, Dr. 
 Haydeu has demonstrated that sheets of fresh water once covered surfaces in this por- 
 tion of the continent which, in extent, rivaled the great chain of fresh-water lakes 
 which exist elsewhere in our country at the present day. There is, therefore, every rea- 
 son to believe that the remains of ligneous plants which compose this collection were 
 derived from trees which grew along the shores of the lakes and streams of the tertiary 
 continent ; that then, as now, alternations of seasons prevailed, by which the foliage 
 of these trees was periodically detached, and that, falling into the waters beneath, or 
 near them, and sinking to the bottom, they were enveloped in mud precisely as leaves 
 of our sycamores, willows, oaks, &c., accumulate at the bottom of our streams and 
 lakes at present. 
 
 In comparing the group of plants here presented to us with those now living upon 
 the surface of the earth, any one will be at once struck with the resemblance Avhicli 
 they present to the flora of the temperate zone, and more particularly with that of our 
 own country. In their study I have constantly found that on making comparisons 
 with the plants of remote, and especially tropical countries, an entire want of resem- 
 blance or affinity at once discovered itself, and the only instj'uctive comparisons made 
 have been with the present vegetation of our country, that of the miocene tertiarics of 
 Europe, and with the living iilauts of China and Japan. There is every reason to be- 
 lieve that future observations will make immense additions to' this flora, and satis- 
 factory comparisons and generalizations will only be possible when a far more com- 
 jilete series of its plants can be subjected to study. It is also true that as yet little 
 other than the leaves of these plants have been collected and enijiloyed in the deduc- 
 tions made from them. From the character of the sediments which inclose these leaves, 
 it is quite certain that the fruit and seeds are also preserved in the strata from which 
 they were derived ; but as they are less conspicuous and noticeable than the leaves, they 
 are little likely to be found unless especially sought, and it will only be when they are 
 made the special objects of search that they will be discovered, and lend their import- 
 ant assistance in the solution of the problems which the leaves present. For the 
 want of such information as these organs would supply, some of the material included 
 in the collection does not now admit of satisfactory classificatiou, and the references of 
 some of the leaves to the genera under which they are jilaced must be regarded as pro- 
 visional and liable to modification by further research. Quite a number of these plants 
 are, however, so largely represented in the collection, so well preserved, and so clearly 
 allied to the genera and species with which we are fiimiliar, that they constitute fair 
 material from which to infer the general characters and affinity of the flora of which 
 they form a part. In this list may be mentioned the Ghiptostrobus, of which the stems, 
 bearing the leaves of different forms, the cones and the sterile capitula are all present, 
 and so closelj- resemble the siiecimens described by Professor Heer from the miocene of 
 Europe, that they might also be considered the originals from which his figures were 
 taken. The living analogue of this is G. heterophyUus of China. 
 
 The Taxodium now described is evidently a close analogue of Taxodium dnUum of the 
 miocene of Europe ; difi'ering from that well-known species only in the uniform round- 
 ing of the bases and summits of the leaves. 
 
 The fossil which has been doubtfully referred to Sequoia, Langsdorfii would probably 
 be regarded by foreign botanists as identical with that species, but for the reason given 
 in the remarks upon that i^lant, it seems to me quite doubtful whether it was a Sequoia, 
 and more i>robable that it was a Taxodium allied to our deciduous cypress. 
 
 The great fan palm (Sahal CampheUi) collected by Dr. Hayden seems to be a repre- 
 sentative oi Sabal major of the European tertiaries, and Sahal palmetto of our Southern 
 States. From both these, however, it is distinguished by the large number of folds in 
 the leaves, and from S. major by its flat, unkeeled petiole. The plate now given of this 
 species represents the under surface of the leaf and petiole, but the collection also con- 
 tains fragments showing the upper surface ; and in the collections of the northwestern 
 boundary commission are specimens obtained from the coast near Frazer's River, which 
 exhibit in fine preservation the upper surface of the base of the leaf and a large jDortion 
 of the petiole. From these latter specimens the si^ecies was originally described in the 
 journal of the Boston Natural History Society. 
 
 The numerous species of PopuJus, of which figures are now given, will not fail to 
 attract the attention of those whose interest runs in this direction. Several of them 
 seem to be new to science, and show, for the most part, a greater affinity with the for- 
 eign poplars, P. alba, &c., than with the specimens more common on this continent, 
 though a single one, F. gcnatrix, evidently belongs to the group of which our balsam 
 poplar may be taken as a type. The little species described under the name F. roiun- 
 difoJia presents some anomalies in form and structure as compared Avith most of our 
 poplars, but its resemblance to another species contained in this collection, F. eUipiica, 
 ?md one contained in the collection of the Northwest Boundary Commission, which I 
 described under the name P.flahellum, have induced me to class them together. Among 
 living species it has a striking analogue in Fopulus pruinosa now growing in Songaria. 
 
 The several species oi Flatanus which the collection contains form a striking and in- 
 
96 GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF THE TERRITOEIES. 
 
 teresting portion of this group of plants, and. all seem to be quite (listincfc from the 
 fossil species hitherto described, or any now living. Of our American sycamores, the 
 leaves of P. occidentalis are much more toothed, Avhile those of P. raccmosa are more 
 deeply lobed than any of these. P. aceroides, a species from the tertiaries of Europe, is 
 more closely allied to our living ones than these seem to be. The largest and finest of 
 those now described (P. nohlUs,) in its smoothness of surface, crowded and parallel 
 nervation, departs more widely from the typical species of Platanus than the others, 
 and has more the appearance of a tropical plant. An extensive series of comparisons 
 has, however, suggested no affinities closer than those with the living Platanus, and 
 I have little doubt that in these leaves, of Avhich the collection contains a large num- 
 ber, we have representatives of the noblest and most beautiful species of the genus. 
 
 Two of the species of Corylm present no characters by -which they can bo distin- 
 guished from the two now distributed over the temperate portions of our continent ( C. 
 rostrata and C. Americana,) and I have, therefore, not felt justified in considering them 
 distinct. The Carya, figured, seems to mo clearly to belong to this genus, and to be 
 closely allied to one of our living species. The Tilia also is not far removed from T. 
 Tieteropliylla, one of our southern living species ; while the Negundo, Sapindus, &c., seem 
 to be the representatives of the genera and species now growing near the regions from 
 which these fossils come. 
 
 From this flora, considering it the analogue and progenitor of that which now occu- 
 pies our territory, we miss some important elements, and such as we may confidently 
 expect will bo supplied by future collectors. Among the most striking of these 
 deficiencies may be mentioned Acer, Quercus, Magnolia, Liriodendron, Liquidamhar, Sassafras 
 &c., some of which, as we know, began their life upon the continent during the creta- 
 ceous period, and all of them were'members of the miocene flora of the Old World. 
 Liquidamhar, Quercus, and Magnolia occur in the pliocene beds of New Jersey, Magnolia 
 and Quercus in the miocene strata of the Mississippi Valley ; Fagus also, which is want- 
 ifng in the collection, has been obtained from the eocene by Mr. Lesquereux. 
 
 On comparing this flora with that of the miocene rocks of the west coast, we find 
 Smilax, Quercus, Salix, Oreodaplme, Acer, and Cinnamomum — all of which are represented 
 there — to be wanting here, while the Saial, Glyptosh'ohus, and Taxodium are common to 
 the two floras. 
 
 Until further collections shall be made from the plant beds of the Upper Missouri, it 
 is evident that the deductions from the negative evidence of absent genera and species 
 must be regarded as unsatisfactory, but it is a fact, not without its significance, that 
 the genus • Cinnariomum, which was largely represented in both the cretaceous and ter- 
 tiary deposits of the west coast, and in the eocene of the eastern portion of the conti- 
 nent, should bo entirely absent from the large amount of material collected by Dr. 
 Hayden.* 
 
 We are at least justified in saying that from the evidence now before us, wo must 
 conclude that the flora of the banks of these inland lakes of the miocene period was 
 that of a temperate climate, not warmer than that of the middle portion of our South- 
 ern States, and somewhat less warm than that of the eastern portion of our continent 
 during the eocene period, or the western during the miocene age. 
 
 The notes on some of the species contained in the collection made by Dr. Hayden, 
 Sequoia Langsdorfii, Sahal camphelUi, Onoclea sensihilis, &c., have a bearing on the general 
 questions to which reference has been made in the preceding pages, but the occurrence 
 of an Onoclea among these miocene plants, and a species which I cannot distinguish 
 from the living one, seems to me a fact of so much importance as to require some addi- 
 tional comments. 
 
 The fern frond found by the Duke of Argyle in the leaf beds of the Island of MuU, 
 and. figured by Professor E. Forbes in the Journal of the Geological Society of London, 
 (vol. vii, 1851, p. 103 ; PI. II, Figs. 2a, 21),) and named by him Fclicites (?) hebridictis, is 
 unquestionably identical with this. The specimen from which the figures I have re- 
 ferred to were taken seems to have puzzled Professor Forbes somewhat, for he doubted 
 if it was a fern ; and Professor Heer, in his reference to the fossil plants of the Island 
 of Mull, (Flor. Tert., Helvet., vol. iii, p. 314,) says: "The most remarkable species is 
 Felicites (?) hebridicus, a fern which by its nervation differs greatly from those of the 
 continent." All these facts give this fossil special interest, for, in addition to its rela- 
 tions to its living representatives — of which we cannot but consider it the progenitor — 
 it adds another to the list of plants common to the miocene strata of Europe and 
 America. 
 
 Of these — either representative or identical species — the number is now so great that 
 they plainly indicate a land connection between the continents at that period ; and 
 since many genera, and this, with probably some other species, at that time common 
 to the Old and New Worlds, have disappeared from Europe while they continue to 
 flourish here, it would seem to follow that these were American types which had colo- 
 
 *I£ it is true, as now seems probable, that a large part of the Bellingham Bay deposits are cretaceous, 
 that would account for this marked differenco between the plants collected by Dr. Evana, Mr. Gibbs, 
 &c., from those collected by Dr. Hayden. 
 
GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF THE TERRITORIES. 97 
 
 nizccl Enropo l)y niigratiou ; avd that when tlicir connection vriih their mother conutry 
 was severed they were OA'^erpowered and exterminated by the present tlora of Europe, 
 which, as Professor Gray has shown, is mainly of North Asiatic origin. 
 
 The fact to Avhich reference has just been made, viz, the occurrence of Onoclea senai- 
 bilis on the Ishxnd of Mull, otf the west coast of Scotland, while it has not been found 
 in the tertiary beds of other parts of Europe, is indicative, so far as it goes, not only 
 of an American connection during the mioceuo period, but of an American origin for 
 that species ; and so, by inference, of the other genera and species common to the two 
 continents during that epoch. 
 
 If this inference should be confirmed by future observations, we should then see how 
 the eocene tropical or subtropical tlora of Europe was crowded oft' the stage by the 
 temperate flora of the miocene, which latter, accompanying a depression of tempera- 
 ture, had migrated from America, while the eocene tlora retreated south and east, and 
 is now represented by the living Indo-Australian liora — characterized by its Haheos, 
 Diinandroc, Uealjipii, &c., &c., which form so conspicuous an element in the eocene flora 
 of Europe. This theory would account for the presence of these tropical forms in 
 the lower miocene of Europe, while, so far as yet observed, they are entirely absent 
 from the miocene flora of America. In Europe a tvw of the eocene forms lingered be- 
 hind in the grand exodus of that flora, and mingled with the more boreal and occi- 
 dental barbarians by which the country was overrun, while in America these which 
 wo now call Asiatic forms never had an existence. 
 
 That this bridge between America and Europe was in a temperate climate is jiroved 
 by the character of the plants which passed over it. On referring to a terrestrial globe 
 it will be seen that by way of Greenland, Iceland, and tho Hebrides, there are no very 
 wide ga^is to be spanned ; but a connection by that rotate would carry ns so far into the 
 Arctic ^one that none of the plants Avhich we suppose to have made that journey could 
 have withstood the cold if the climate bad been the same as at present. We have con- 
 clusive evidence, however, that it was not so, for on McKenzie's River, Disco Island, 
 on Iceland and the Island of Mull, we have, in the recurrence of parts of the very flora 
 under consideration, proof, not only of a warmer climate at the far north during the 
 miocene epoch, but that a part of the plants which formed the miocene flora of Europe 
 actually did traA^l that road; at least, that they visited all these localities, and, in the 
 buried remains of generations which were never to see the x^romised land, left us imper- 
 ishable records of the reality of this migration. 
 
 That wo cannot, without further study, assign a cause for this great change of climate 
 in the northern j)art of our continent, is no proof against its existence, for the facts 
 still remain ; the cause of the phenomena is simply a thing to be learned. Several pos- 
 sible causes might be mentioned, but of those which suggest themselves, the deflection 
 of the Gulf Stream seems to mo the most natural, simple, and best to account for an 
 elevation of the temperature of Greenland, Iceland, &c. Whether this cause would be 
 sufficient to account for all the phenomena is at least doubtful. A diminution of the 
 land surface at the north, if it could be proved, Avould help to solve the enigma. Prob- 
 ably several causes conspired to produce this etfect, but they were apparently local, or 
 at least terrestrial, as a cosmical cause, producing a general elevation of temperature 
 on the earth's surface, would have given us a tropical flora on the Upper Missouri, 
 whereas we find in the miocene flora there, as yet, really no tropical j)lauts. 
 
 There is one other basiu near the sources of the Missouri River which 
 has ah^eady yielded many fossils of great interest, but which seems to be 
 isolated from the others. This is what 1 have called the Judith basin, 
 and inasmuch as it seems to be one, of the ancient lake deposits, and 
 characterized by a i)eculiar group of organic remains, I will designate 
 the strata as the Judith Group. The sediments do not differ materially 
 from those of the Fort Union Group, and they contain impure beds of 
 lignite, fresh water mollusca, and a few leaves of deciduous trees. But 
 the most remarkable feature of this group is the number and variety of 
 the curious reptilian remains, of which we have only yet caught a 
 glimpse. There is probably no portion of the West that furnishes such 
 a harvest of fossil remains and instructive geological facts as the coun- 
 try bordering on the Missouri Eiver, from the mouth of the Yellowstone 
 to the foot of the mountains above tlie great falls of the Missouri; and 
 as this country is reserved for examination the coming season, 1 
 will leave the obscurity which now invests it to be cleared in the next 
 annual report. 
 
 All the groups of rocks now known to occur iv the Northwest are well 
 shown along the flanks and among the foot-hiUs of the mountains. The 
 7 G 
 
98 GEOLOGICAL SUEVEY OF THE TERRITORIES. 
 
 smaller ranges, as the Little Eocky, Judith, Bear's Paw, and Belt ranges, 
 form the most interesting studies. As a rule, a central mass or nucleus 
 of metamorphic rocks is elevated above the surrounding plain, and 
 around these nuclei are exposed the Jurassic, triassic, carboniferous, and 
 Potsdam rocks, in their order of sequence. But nothing short of a topo- 
 graphical survey, in connection with the geology, will make the struc- 
 ture of this region clear to the scientific world. 
 
 The Black Hills of Dakota will form one of the most interesting 
 studies on this continent. There is so much regularity in the upheaval 
 that all obscurity is removed and all the formations known in the West 
 are revealed in zones or belts around the granitic nucleus in their fullest 
 development. A careful detailed topographical and geological survey 
 of this I'ange would be a most valuable contribution to science. In all 
 the western country I have never seen the cretaceous, Jurassic, triassic, or 
 red-beds, the carboniferous and Potsdam rocks, so well exposed for study 
 as around the Black Hills. 
 
 CHAPTER YIII. 
 
 * FEOM OMAHA TO CHEYENNE. 
 
 In the preceding chapter I have given a brief review of the geologi- 
 cal formations of the Northwest, as revealed by that grand natural sec- 
 tion, the valley of the Missouri Eiver. We are now prepared to pro- 
 ceed on our journey westward. 
 
 The city of Omaha is most beautifully located on the western bank of 
 the Missouri River, on a second terrace, about fifty feet above the water- 
 level of the riveri Terraces of the kind alluded to form a peculiar fea- 
 ture along the Missouri River and its tributaries, and are found from 
 the foot of the mountains to its mouth, and in many instances they seem 
 to afford most beautiful natural sites for cities. I will not, at this time, 
 enter into an explanation of the causes which produce these terraces, 
 but simply remark that they perhaps indicate oscillations of level in 
 the surface, or the gradual recession of the waters toward the sea, 
 and that, far back in the past, each one of them has at one time formed 
 the bed of the river. They also seem to indicate that formerly the Mis- 
 souri carried to the ocean a vastly greater volume of water than at pres- 
 ent. Another feature ^v'ill at once catch the eye of the observing trav- 
 eler, and that is the marvelous fertility of all this region. The wide 
 grassy bottoms are black with rich vegetable matter to an almost inde- 
 finite depth, while the upland terraces and hills are covered Avith a de- 
 posit of yellow marl, varying from twenty to one hundred and fifty feet 
 in thickness. There seems to be evidence that the ocean or a lake once 
 extended up the valley of the Mississippi, and up the Missouri beyond 
 the reach of tidal influences nearly to Fort Pierre, and that the myriads 
 of mountain streams poured their fresh waters into the great arm of 
 the sea, or estuary. These numerous streams, flowing through the soft 
 marls, sands, and clays of the great plain country, mingling their sedi- 
 ments in the waters, and deposited them in the bottom of this estuary. 
 
 * lu cliai)ters VHI to XIII inclusive, nninerous extracts have been taken from tlie 
 text of a volume entitled "Sun-Pictures of Eocky Mountain Scenery," and an article 
 published in the jtroccedings of the American Philosophical Society, Philadelphia, Feb- 
 ruary 19, 1869, by the writer. These papers necessarily have a very limited circulation, 
 and as these official reports are designed for distribution far and wide among the people, 
 this "will be a sufficient excuse for introducing them in this connection. 
 
GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF THE TERRITORIES. 99 
 
 The charinels of all the larger rivers had been marked out prior to this 
 time, for ^e fiud that these superficial deposits reach their greatest 
 thickness in the immediate valley of the Missouri River and thin out as 
 we pass up the valleys of its tributaries on the east and west side, while 
 they almost cease to appear near the mouth of White Earth River. 
 
 The question at on(;e occurs, at what time did this geographical con- 
 dition of the country exist ? We believe that it forms a part of what 
 is called the quarternary period in geology, which, though very modern, 
 geologically speaking, really extended far back in the past before the 
 existence of man on this continent, judging from the evidence we have 
 been able to secure up to the present time. If we examine the numer- 
 ous cuts, or washed bluffs, Avhich we find everywhere, we shall discover 
 a great variety of fresh-water and land shells, as Helices, Paludinas, 
 Succinueas, &g., and here and there the remains of the mastodon and 
 elephant. In the year 1807, while prosecuting the geological survey of 
 Nebraska, under the General Government, I obtained from these marls 
 fine specimens of the molar teeth of the Eleplias americamis or Ameri- 
 can elephant, and the mastodon, M. americamis. These remains of 
 gigantic extinct animals are mingled with those of animals existing in 
 this region at the present time, such as rabbits, mice, gophers, beavers, 
 buffaloes, deer, &c., which have been found in great quantities. Nearly 
 all the shells are identical with living species which are abundant in 
 some of the streams flowing into the Missouri and the Mississippi. In 
 the banks of some of the little streams, oftentimes buried ten to twenty 
 feet beneath the surface, are large accumulations of shells, as snails, fresh- 
 water mussels, &c., while very few and j)erhaps none exist at the present 
 time in the immediate vicinity. Sometimes, in the fine vegetable matter 
 that accumulates along the Missouri River from the annual floods, can 
 be seen bushels of minute snail shells, yet not a snail can now be found 
 alive anywhere in that region. We account for this by some change 
 in the physical conditions Avhich were once very favorable for their exist- 
 ence and increase. The waters of the little streams were far clearer 
 and purer tban at present. Now, at certain seasons of the year, they 
 become so charged with sediment that molluscous life cannot exist. 
 This is the case with the Missouri River from the foot of the mountains 
 to its mouth, and scarcely a shell can be found in its waters ; but in 
 some of its tributaries, as the Big Sioux, James, Vermillion, &c., that 
 flow in from the north, there is the greatest abundance. 
 
 The traveler will very naturally inquire, why, with all this wonder- 
 ful fertilitj^ of soil, these broad, grass-covered iflains do not contain a 
 suitable su^Dply of forest trees. We will endeavor to answer this ques- 
 tion in another place. He will find, as he travels over the State of Ne- 
 braska, that the time is not very distant w^hen i)ortions of the country 
 will be covered with beautiful artificial forests, and we will attempt to 
 show that this is only a restoration of conditions that once existed far 
 in the geological i)ast. 
 
 Before leaving the Missouri River I will refer briefly to an interesting 
 phenomenon which I shall work up in detail at some future time. The 
 proofs of glacial action in the West are not common or very remarka- 
 ble in their character; still they are shown to a certain extent, not only 
 in the mountains but also in the plains. Along the Platte River, below 
 Omaha, and on the Missouri, near the city, the carboniferous limestones 
 have had their upper surface so thoroughly smoothed by glacial action 
 that they can be quarried out and used for ca])s and sills without any 
 further finish to them. And the process seems to have been carried on 
 with wonderful uniformity, for the upper surface seems to be as level as 
 
100 GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF THE TERRITOEIES. 
 
 if it had been wrought with a i)Uimb line. There are a few small gTOovea 
 or scratches, aud by means of a compass I ascertained the direction to 
 be about 27° west of north, or about northeast and southwest. There 
 seem also to be two sets of scratches crossing each other at different 
 angles. 
 
 It would appear, from the evidence we have, that all the limestones 
 underneath the yellow marl and pebble deposits around Omaha, and 
 south to the Platte Eiver, were smoothed or planed oif by imniense 
 masses of ice passing over them, for wherever these suiDerficial deposits 
 have been strijjped, the upper rocky layers are i)laned off with remark- 
 able smoothness. In the mountains proper, the evidences of glacial 
 action are not uncommon, especially on the sides of the deep valleys and 
 gorges, but the causes were local and operated when the temperature of 
 the climate was much lower than it is at present. 
 
 Westward from Omaha we wend our way among the rounded grassy 
 hills which rise in wave like undulations as far as the eye can reach in 
 every direction. The first glance at such a scene strikes the stranger 
 with astonishment at its wonderful beauty, but it soon becomes so mon- 
 otonous that any flat plain or rugged mountain is a relief. About thirty 
 miles to the westward the road passes out of the hills into the valley of 
 the Platte, and the journey westward is one gradual ascent to the moun- 
 tains, walled on either side by more or less abrupt hills or bluffs. Here 
 we may stop for a while to discuss some of the more important geologi- 
 cal features for the first one hundred miles of our route. The surface 
 deposits over this area possess no small degree of interest, both in an 
 economical as well as scientific i^oint of view, bnt I have already suffi- 
 ciently explained their character. They seem, however, to occupy a 
 very large area in this portion of Nebraska, concealing almost entirely 
 the underlying or basis rocks. The geology, therefore, becomes some- 
 what obscure, and can be studied only at a few ontcro^ipings, from point 
 to point. The principal exposures are along the Platte, where the river 
 has cut a wide and deep channel through the surface of the country. 
 The fact, however, that the strata are very nearly horizontal, that there 
 are no upheavals nor mountain elevations to disturb the original posi- 
 tions of the beds, aids us much in our investigations. We believe that 
 the whole of Douglas County is underlaid by the limestones of the ui>per 
 coal measures, with i)erhaps a moderate thickness of the rusty sand- 
 stones of tlie lower cretaceous or Dakota Group lying above them in the 
 western portion of the county. At the mouth of the Platte these coal- 
 measure limestones are very conspicuous,, and supply the greater ])ot- 
 tion of the building stones of this region. The dip, if any, is quite gen- 
 tle toward the northwest, and at the mouth of the Elkhorn Eiver the 
 carboniferous limestones have passed beneath the water-level of the 
 Platte, not to be seen again until we arrive at the eastern margins of 
 the Eocky Mountains. Overlying these are the ferruginous sandstones 
 which contain the imi^ressions of deciduous leaves. Near the mouth of 
 Elkhorn are some of the abrupt bluffs of this sandstone, and the soft, 
 yielding nature of the rock has enabled the Indian to record on it his 
 curious hieroglyphical history. 
 
 Fig. 4 illustrates the sandstone bluffs as they occur on Little Blue 
 Eiver in the southern portion of Nebraska. 
 
 The question often arises in the minds of visitors to this region, how 
 the law of compensation suj)i3lies the want of fuel in the absence of trees 
 for that use. Many persons have taken the position that the Creator 
 never made such a vast country, with a soil of such wonderful fertility, 
 and rendered it so suitable for the abode of man, without storing in the 
 
GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF TPIE TERRITORIES. 101 
 
 earth beds of carbon for bis needs. If this idea could be shown to be 
 true in any case, we wonld ask why are the immense beds of coal stored 
 away in the mountains of Pennsylvania and Virginia, while at the same 
 time the surface is covered with dense forests of timber? We now know 
 
 Fig. 4. 
 
 Cretaceous No. 1, ou Little Blue River, Nebraska. 
 
 that this law does not apply to the natural world, and if it did, this 
 western countrj^ would be a remarkable exception. The State of Ne- 
 braska seems to be located on the western rim of the great coal basin 
 of the "West, and only thin seams of poor coal will probably ever be 
 found. But in the \Ticiuity of the Eocky Mountains, in Wyoming and 
 Colorado, coal in immense quantities has been hidden away for ages, 
 and the Union Pacific Railroad has now brought it near the door of 
 every man's dwelling. 
 
 These Eocky Mountain coal beds will one day supply an abundance 
 of fuel for more than one hundred thousand square miles along the Mis- 
 souri Eiver of the most fertile agricultural laud in the world. Every 
 acre of land in Eastern ISTebraska is already in possession of the thriv- 
 ing farmer, and some of the most beautiful farms in the West can now 
 be seen there. Although comiDaratively new, it looks like an old settled 
 country. Farm-houses and small villages meet the eye in every direc- 
 tion, and the great interest which the more intelligent and enterprising 
 citizens have taken in tree-planting is covering the once naked hills with 
 the most elegant artificial groves. The time is not far distant when 
 Nebraska will be noted all over the world for the grandeur and beauty 
 of its agricultural portions. Being composed entirely of plain country, 
 with rocks of comparatively modern age, all holding a horizontal posi- 
 tion, or nearly so, without a single mountain range within its bounda- 
 ries, Nebraska can never be remarkable in any way for its mineral re- 
 sources. It is true that it has its salt springs, which are annually be- 
 coming more important and valuable. These springs are located near 
 Lincoln, the capital of the State, and the saline water flowing froju them 
 into Salt Creek has given character to quite an important tributary of 
 the Platte for thirty miles or more. This stream flows through a most 
 beautiful, rolling, fertile region, covered with splendid farms, and has a 
 
102 GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF THE TEERITOEIES. 
 
 deep channel, with steep muddy banks, a kind of forbidden object. Kot 
 a being can drink its waters, nor until near its entrance into the Platte 
 do they, by accession of little streams and springs, become sufficiently 
 freshened for the use of animals. 
 
 The valley of the Platte is a natural avenue through the country, 
 from the foot of the mountains to the Missouri, and all the earthy mate- 
 rials which could possibly have existed over this vast area, from the 
 summits of the highest hills on either side, and I know not how much 
 more, have, in the lapse of ages, been swept down into the Missouri 
 Eiver aid then conveyed to the ocean, to be distributed over its bottom 
 to form layers for the study of future geologists. We may arrive ap- 
 proximately at the number of square miles of sediment which have been 
 removed from this valley. It is at least five hundred miles in length, 
 and from bluff to bluff will average more than four miles in width for 
 the entire distance. Taking this low estimate as a basis, we have two 
 thousand square miles of area literally carved out and carried away. 
 We cannot compute the thickness of the sediment at less than one thou- 
 sand feet, and it is altogether probable that it was much more. This vast 
 change gives evidence of the tremendous forces of nature that have been 
 continually at work all over this region. West of the mouth of the Elk 
 Horn Eiver the valley of the Platte expands widely. The hills on either 
 side are quite low, rounded, and clothed with a thick carpet of grass. 
 But we shall look in vain for any large natural groves of forest trees, there 
 being only a very narrow fringe of willows or cottonwoods along the 
 little streams. The Elk Horn rises far to the northwest in the prairie 
 near the Niobrara, and flows for a distance of nearly two hundred miles 
 through some of the most fertile and beautiful lands in Nebraska. 
 Each of its more important branches, as Maple, Pebble, and Logan 
 Creeks, has carved out for itself broad, finely-rounded valleys, so that 
 almost every acre may be brought under the highest state of cultiva- 
 tion. The great need here will be timber for fuel and other economical 
 purposes, and also rock material for building. Still the resources of 
 this region are so vast that the enterprising settler will devise plans to 
 remedy all these deficiencies. He will plant trees, and thus raise his 
 own forests and improve his lands in accordance with his wants and 
 necessities. 
 
 These valleys have always been the favorite places of abode for nu- 
 merous tribes of Indians from time immemorial, and the sites of their old 
 villages are still to be seeu in many localities. The buffalo, deer, elk, 
 antelope, and other kinds of wild game, swarmed here in the greatest 
 numbers, and as they recede farther to the westward into the more arid 
 and barren plains beyond the reach of civilization, the wild nomadic 
 Indian is obliged to follow. Geese, ducks, and other kinds of wild fowl, 
 with now and then a stray antelope or red deer, may yet be seen, and 
 the enterprising hunter may treat himself to a large amount of toil and 
 a small amount of game. The underlying rocks, as far west as Colum- 
 bus and beyond, though very seldom visible, are well known to belong 
 to the chalk period, and consist of yielding sands, clays, and chalky lime- 
 stones. These soft rocks, so readily crumbling under the atmospheric 
 influences, have given a very gently -undulating and rounded appearance 
 to the entire surface. One may travel for days in this region and not 
 find a stone large enough to toss at a bird, and very seldom a bush suf- 
 ficient in size to furnish a cane. Yet this region is settling up with 
 emigrants with great rapidity ; railroads are now in progress of con- 
 struction, or are in contemplation, and villages are springing up in nu- 
 merous localities. The principal ones at the present time are Fremont 
 
GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF THE TERRITORIES. 103 
 
 and Columbus. The latter, from its supposed central geographical posi- 
 tion, has been regarded as the possible seat of the capital of the United 
 States in case of its removal to the West. 
 
 Soon after leaving Columbus we cross Loup Fork or Wolf Eiver, an 
 important branch of the Platte, which rises in the Sand Hills, one hun- 
 dred and fifty to two hundred miles to the northwest, and drains a large 
 area of country. In the summer of 1857 I had the opportunity of fol- 
 lowing it up from mouth to source in connection with an expedition 
 under the command of Lieutenant (now General) G. K. Warren, United 
 States Army. Its lower portion passes through an extremely fertile 
 region, but above the Pawnee Eeservation the Sand Hills begin to mo- 
 nopolize the country and render it unfit lor settlement. 
 
 We now pass the eastern shore of one of the most interesting and 
 most wonderful of those great lake basins which are found all over the 
 West from the Missouri Eiver to the Pacific coast; there is no water 
 in it at the present time, and its existence is only known to the student 
 of geology. During the tertiary period it occupied an area of at least 
 one hundred thousand, and very possibly one hundred and fifty thou- 
 sand, square miles. It will thus be seen that our greatest northern 
 lakes, of which we so proudly boast, are but ponds in comparison with 
 some that once existed in this mountain region. The close observer 
 will notice at once that he is passiug into a district the rock formations 
 of which are quite different from any that he has seen before. He finds, 
 also, that he is passing beyond the signs of great fertility, luxuriant 
 vegetation, fine farms, and fields of grain, to a comparatively arid, sterile 
 region; still, the broad bottoms of the Platte are covered with a fair 
 growth of grass, but the chances for the successful cultivation of crops 
 of any of the cereals are very small. The soil becomes too thin, sandy, 
 and arid for the growth of anything more than a scanty vegetation. 
 
 We might linger bere for a moment and inquire into some of the 
 causes that have produced this scantiness of vegetation and almost 
 entire absence of trees over so large an area. There is quite a remark- 
 able belt or zone of country along the eastern base of the Eocky Mount- 
 ains, extending from the Arctic Sea far south to Mexico, upon which 
 but a small amount of moisture ever falls. This has often been denom- 
 inated the Great American Desert. In years past this belt was sup- 
 posed to comprise the greater portion of the area lying between the Mis- 
 souri Eiver and the foot of the mountains, but every year as we know 
 more and more of the country this belt becomes narrower and narrower, 
 and as a continuous area it has already ceased to exist, even in imagina- 
 tion. There are, however, large portions of the country that are com- 
 paratively worthless and arid, which may be called barren or sterile. 
 It is now ijretty well understood that the cause of the absence of timber 
 in this great region is want of moisture. A very clear explanation of 
 this sulyect, and one which seems in accordance with the facts, is given 
 by Professor Dana in Silliman's Journal, vol. 40, page 393. If we were 
 to examine a rain chart we should find that where the forests are most 
 luxuriant, as along the Atlantic coast in the southern portion of the 
 Mississippi Valley, the greatest amount of rain falls annually — say fifty 
 to sixty-five inches ; and as soon as we approach any of the interior basins 
 of the western continent, or any portion of this dry belt, we observe that 
 the amount of moisture diminishes to thirty, twenty, fifteen, ten, and in 
 some cases to as low as five inches, annually. Again, along the Mis- 
 souri Eiver, where the vegetation is quite extensive and the forest trees 
 abundant, we have twenty to thirty inches of rain ; but as soon as we 
 pass to the westward three hundred miles we have but ten or fifteen 
 
104 GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF THE TERRITORIES. 
 
 inches. Ou tlie Pacific coast of Oregon and Washington, whose gigantic 
 forests are celebrated all over the world, we find that from fifty-iiv* to 
 sixty-five inches of rain fall annually. We might multiply these illus- 
 trations, but the evidence seems to be conclusive. 
 
 There is another point that may be worthy of note here, and that is 
 the ijrevailing impression among all the inhabitants of the West of a 
 gradual change of climate by settlement and the cultivation of the soil. 
 It is true, that over a width of one hundred miles or more along the 
 Missouri liiver the little groves of timber are extending their area; that 
 springs of water are continually issuing from the ground where none 
 were ever known before; and that the distribution of rain throughout 
 the year is more equable. Such being the case, time may work import- 
 ant changes, and settlements may at some time cause a large i^ortion 
 of that belt which has hitherto been regarded as given up to sterility to 
 become of value for the abode of man. 
 
 The valleys of the Loup Fork and the Niobrara Eivers, although 
 largely uninhabitable, are full of interest to the geologist. Located 
 along these rivers is one of those grand cemeteries of extinct animals 
 whicb have excited the wonder of intelligent men all over the world. 
 Further to the northwest, on White Earth Eiver, is another of these* 
 far-famed bone deposits. These two interesting localities bear such a 
 relation to each other in the order of time and the relationship of the 
 animals preserved in them, that they should be described in the same 
 connection. I will therefore take the reader at once to the valley of 
 White Earth Eiver, near the southwestern base of the Black Hills, and 
 there we shall behold one of the wildest regions on this continent. It 
 has always gone by the name of "Bad Lands;" by the Canadian 
 French as '■'■ Mauvaises Terres ;'''' in the Dakota tongue, '■'• Ma-lcoo-si-tclia.^'' 
 These words signify a very difficult country to travel through, not only 
 from the ruggedness of the surface, but also from the absence of any 
 good water and the small supply of wood and game. In the summer 
 the sun pours its rays on the bare white walls, which are reflected on the 
 weary traveler with double intensity, not only oppressing him with the 
 heat, but so dazzling his eyes that he is not unfrequently affected with 
 temporary blindness. I have spent many days exploring this region 
 when the thermometer was 112° in the shade and there was no water 
 suitable for drinking purposes within fifteen miles. But it is only to 
 the geologist that this place can have any permanent attractions. He 
 can wind his way through the wonderful canons among some of the 
 grandest ruins in the world. Indeed, it resembles a gigantic city fallen 
 to decay. Domes, towers, minarets and spires may be seen on every 
 side, which assume a great variety of shapes when viewed in the distance. 
 Not unfrequently the rising or the setting sun will light up these grand 
 old ruins with a wild, strange beauty, reminding one of a city illumin- 
 ated in the night when seen from some high point. The harder layers 
 project from the sides of the valley or canon with such regularity that 
 they appear like seats, one above the other, of some vast amphitheater. 
 It is at the foot of these apparent architectural ruins that the curious 
 fessil treasures are found. In the oldest beds we find the teeth and 
 jaws of a Hyopotamus, a river horse much like the Hippopotamus, which 
 must have si>orted in his pride in the marshes that bordered this lake. 
 So, too, the Titauotheriam,a gigantic pachyderm, was associated with a 
 species of hornless Ehinoceros. These huge rhinoceroid animals ap))ear 
 at first to have monopolized this entire region, and the plastic, sticky 
 clay of the lowest bed of this basin, in which the remains were found, 
 seems to have formed a suitable bottom of the lake in which these thick- 
 
GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF THE TERRITOEIES. 105 
 
 skinned monsters could wallow at pleasure. As we pass higher up in 
 the sediments, we find the remains of a great variety of land animals 
 mingled with those that were aquatic in their nature. In a bed of flesh- 
 colored marl which is visible for a great distance, hke a broad band in 
 the sides of these washed hills, thousands of turtles wore imbedded, and 
 are preserved to the present time with surprising perfection, the hard 
 portions of them being as complete as when they were swimming about 
 in these tertiary waters hundreds of thousands of years ago. They 
 vary in size from an inch or two in length across the back to three or 
 four feet. But one species has ever been discovered in this basin, and 
 so far as we Ivuow these reptiles made up in numbers what they lacked 
 in variety. Associated with the remains of the turtles, are those of a 
 number of ruminants, all belonging to extinct genera, and possessing 
 peculiar characters which ally them to the deer and the hog. Indeed, 
 Dr. Leidy calls them runiinatiug hogs. Like the domestic species, they 
 were provided with cutting teeth and canines, but the grinding teeth 
 are constructed after the same pattern as those of all living ruminants. 
 The feet of these animals were also provided with four toes as in the 
 Jiog, and none of them possessed horns or antlers. They appear to 
 have existed in immense numbers, and to have lived in great herds like 
 the bison of the West. Kemains of more than seven hundred individuals 
 of one species have been already studied and described by Dr. Leidy* 
 Their enemies were numerous wolves, hy?enodons and saber-tooth tigers. 
 
 If we pass for a moment southward into the valleys of the Niobrara 
 and Loup Fork, we shall find a fauna closely allied, yet entirely distinct 
 from the one on White River, and iilainly intermediate between that of 
 the latter and of the present jteriod; one appears to have lived during 
 the middle or miocene tertiary i^eriod, aiul the other at a later time in 
 what is called the pliocene. In the later fauna were the Temains of a 
 number of species of extinct camels, one of which was of the size of the 
 Arabian camel, a second about two-thirds as large, also a smaller one. 
 The only animals akin to the camels at the present time in the western 
 hemisphere are the llama and its allies in South America. Not less inter- 
 esting are the remains of a great variety of forms of the horse family, 
 one of which was about as large as the ordinary domestic animal, and 
 the smallest not more than two or two and a half feet in height, with 
 every intermediate grade in size. There was still another animal allied 
 to the horse, about the size of a Newfoundland dog, which was provided 
 with three hoofs to each foot, though the lateral hoofs were rudimeutal. 
 Although no horses were known to exist on this continent prior to its 
 discovery by Europeans, yet Dr. Leidy has shown that before the age of 
 man this was emphatically the country of horses. Dr. Leidy has re- 
 ported twenty-seven species of the horse family which are known to have 
 lived on this continent prior to the advent of man — about three times 
 as many as are now found living throughout the world. 
 
 Among the carnivores were several foxes and w^olves, one of which 
 was larger than any now living ; three species of Hytenodon — animals 
 whose teeth indicate that they were of remarkably rapacious habits; 
 also five animals of the cat tribe were found, one about the size of a 
 small panther, and another as large as the largest wolf. Several of the 
 skulls of the tiger-like animals exhibited the marks of terrible conflicts 
 with the cotemporary Hytenodons. 
 
 Among the rodents were a porcupine, small beaver, rabbit, mouse, &c. 
 
 The pachyderms, or thick-skinned animals, were quite numerous and 
 of great interest, from the fact that none of them are living on this 
 continent at the i^resent time, and yet here we find the remains of sev- 
 
106 GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF THE TERRITORIES. 
 
 eral animals allied to the domestic hog, one about the size of this animal, 
 another as l?.rge as the African Hippopotamus, and a third not much 
 larger than the domestic cat. 
 
 Five species of the Khinoceros roamed through these marshes, ranging 
 from a small, hornless species, about the size of our black bear, to the 
 largest, which was about the size of the existing unicorn of India. jSTo 
 animals of the kind now inhabit the western hemisphere. 
 
 Among the thick-skinned animals were the remains of a mastodon 
 and a large elephant, distinct from any others heretofore discovered in 
 any part of the world. Dr. Leidy says that "it is remarkable that 
 among the remains of mammals and turtles there are none of crocodiles. 
 Where were these creatures when the shores of the ancient Dakotan 
 and Nebraskan waters teemed with such an abundant provision of sa- 
 vory ruminating hogsf During the tertiary i)eriod Nebraska and 
 Dakota were the homes of a race of animals more closely allied to those 
 inhabiting Asia and Africa now, and from their character we may sup- 
 pose that during that period the climate was considerably warmer than 
 it is at present. The inference is also drawn that our world, which is 
 usually called the new, is in reality the old world, older than the easterly 
 hemisphere. 
 
 Ever since the commencement of creation, constant changes of form 
 have been going on in our earth. Oceans and mountains have disap- 
 peared and others have taken their place. Entire groups of animal and 
 'vegetable life have passed away and new forms have come into exist- 
 ence, through a series of years which no finite mind can number. To 
 enable the mind to realize the physical condition of our planet during 
 all these past ages is the highest end to be attained by the study of 
 geological facts. It has been well said by an eloquent historian that 
 he who calls- the past back again into being, enjoys a bliss like that of 
 creating. 
 
 We may attempt to form some idea of the i)hysical geography of this 
 region at the time when these animals wandered over the country, and 
 to speculate as to the manner in which their remains have been so beau- 
 tifally preserved for our examination. We may suppose that here was 
 a large fresh- water lake during the middle tertiary period ; that it began 
 near the southeastern side of the Black Hills, not large at first nor deep, 
 but as a marsh or mud-wallow for the gigantic pachyderms that lived 
 at the time ; that as time passed on it became deeper and expanded its 
 limits until it covered the vast area which its sediments indicate. We 
 cannot attempt to point out in detail all the changes through which we 
 may suppose, from the facts given us, this lake has passed, during the 
 thousands of years that elapsed from its beginning to its extinction, time 
 long enough for two distinct faunce to have commenced their existence 
 and passed away in succession, not a single species passing from one 
 into the other. Even that small fraction of geological time seems infi- 
 nite to a finite mind. We believe that the great range of mountains 
 that now lies to the west of this basin was not as lofty as now ; that 
 doubtless the treeless plains were covered with forests or grassy meadows 
 upon which the vast herds of gregarious ruminants cropped their food. 
 Into this great lake on every side poured many little streams from broad 
 valleys, fine ranging ground for the numerous varieties of creatures 
 that existed at that time. Large numbers of fierce carnivorous beasts 
 mingled with the multitudes of gregarious ruminants, constantly devour- 
 ing them as food. As many of the bones, either through death by vio- 
 lence or natural causes, were left in the valleys, they would be swept 
 down by the first high waters into the lake and enveloped in the sedi- 
 
GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF THE TERRITORIES. 107 
 
 ments at the bottom. As the gregarious ruminants came down to the 
 little streams or by the shores of the lake to quench their thirst, they 
 would be pounced upon by the flesh-loving Hyiienodon, Drepanodon, or 
 Diuictis. It was probably near this place also that these animals would 
 meet in fierce conflicts, the evidences of wliich remain to the present 
 time in the cavities which the skulls reveal ; one of these, of a huge 
 cat, shows on either side the holes through the bony covering which had 
 partially healed before the animal perished, and the cavities seem to 
 correspond in form and position with the teeth of the largest Hyseuodon. 
 
 The remains of those animals which, from their very nature, could not 
 have existed in great numbers, are not abundant in the fossil state, 
 while those of the ruminants occur in the greatest abundance and are 
 widely diffused in the sediments not only geographically, but vertically. 
 The chances for the preservation of the remains of a species seem to 
 depend upon the number of individuals that existed. The remains of 
 ruminants already obtained comprise at least nine-tenths of the entire 
 collection, while of one species, portions of at least seven hundred indi- 
 viduals have been discovered. We might take examples from the ani- 
 mals that exist in this region at the present time that would illustrate 
 the point. The wolves watch the deer, antelope, and other feebler ani- 
 mals as they go down to the little streams for water, and all over the 
 wide bottoms their skeletons are distributed in a more or less perfect 
 condition. Whenever a bison becomes too feeble by disease or age to 
 offer a successful resistance, the wolves soon dispatch him, and his bones 
 are left bleaching on the ground. In most cases these animals when 
 pursued betake themselves to the water, where they are not unfrequently 
 drowned, or dispatched on a sand-bar or island. Annually, thousands 
 of buffaloes, in attempting to cross the Missouri Eiver and some of its 
 large tributaries on the ice as it is breaking up in the spring, are 
 drowned. For many days their bodies are seen floating down the river 
 by Fort Union or Fort Clark, and lodging on some of the islands or 
 sand-bars fill the air with the stench of their decay. In the spring of 
 1857 thousands of their bodies floated down the Kansas Eiver past Fort 
 Eiley and were carried into the Missouri Eiver. These animals are often 
 mired in the marshes or the muddy shores of lakes or streams in great 
 numbers. We know what vast numbers of the mastodon have been 
 preserved in the Big Bone Licks of Kentucky, and of the Irish elk in 
 the bogs of Ireland. We might instance hundreds of examples to show 
 how easily these animals, roaming and feeding along the numerous 
 streams flowing into some great lake, could be transported in part or 
 entire into the lake, and sinking to the bottom would be enveloped in 
 the muddy sediments. 
 
 There is another interesting feature in regard to these remarkable 
 fossils, and that is the beauty and perfection of their preservation ; the 
 bones are so clean and white and the teeth so perfect that, when ex- 
 posed upon the surface, they present the appearance of having bleached 
 only for a season. They could not have been transported from a great 
 distance, neither could the waters have been swift and turbulent, for 
 the bones seldom show any signs of having been water worn, and the 
 nice sharp points and angles are as perfect as in life. I have dwelt thus 
 long on the details of this great lake basin, not only on account of the 
 universal interest that invests it, and the wonderful treasures of the 
 past which it has revealed to the world, but because its history is ap- 
 plicable in the main to the numbers of the other fresh- water lake basins 
 of the geological past which are distributed throughout the Eocky Moun- 
 tain region. 
 
108 GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF THE TERRITORIES. 
 
 Before leaving this subject, there is another interesting topic of in- 
 quiry : why such a beautiful series of vertebrate remains should be so 
 j)erfectly preserved in this Like deposit, and yet the remains of other 
 forms of animal and vegetable life be almost entirely absent. The sedi- 
 ments seem to be peculiarly adapted to the preservation of a full series 
 of documents bearing upon the history of those times. And yet in the 
 older beds, where the mammalian remains are most abundant, only one 
 small species of snail, a land shell, is found preserved. Where is the 
 evidence of the swarms of fishes that must have filled the streams and 
 lakes of that time? Of the vegetable life, if any existed, only now and 
 then a fragment of silicified wood is found, and that, too, in the latest 
 deposits. I am prepared to believe that the broad x)lains were, even at 
 the time of the existence of these animals, as treeless as at present, yet 
 I am quite unprepared to explain the almost entire absence of vegetable 
 remains. We know that fresh-water shells, much like those existing in 
 the little clear streams of the present time, as well as some remains of 
 fishes, are found in some limestones on the summits of hills near Pinos 
 Spring on the northern rim of the lake. 
 
 Another interesting question occurs to me in this connection, how' 
 was it that a complete fauna, comi)rising more than forty species of ani- 
 mals, was introduced upon the earth, lived through its legitimate period, 
 entirely perished or was swept out of existence, and an entirely new 
 fauna, comprising about the same number and variety, was again intro- 
 duced in the same region ? It, too, lived out its period of existence, 
 which must have been hundreds of thousands of years, and yet every 
 one of this grouj) of animals disappeared from the globe, leaving no- 
 thing behind to tell the tale but fragments of their bony skeletons, acci- 
 dentally enveloped in the sediment at the bottom of an estuary or lake. 
 
 It will be seen at a glance that this is a fruitful topic for speculation, 
 and I leave it with the reader. Some of the species of animals found 
 in the latest deposits seem to have lived very nearly up to our present 
 period. The horns of a deer and the bones of a sand-hill crane have 
 such a modern aspect that the thought arises, where was man when 
 these animals were roaming over this region? Eecent investigations 
 show quite conclusively that man was an inhabitant of Europe cotem- 
 poraneously with many of the extinct animals of the quarternary period, 
 but it is doubtful whether we have ever found any evidence that he lived 
 at a very remote period on this continent. Indeed, so far as we know 
 at present, the West is singularly silent as to the existence of man in 
 what are now understood as prehistoric times. 
 
 But let us move our camp further south and toward the Platte Valley 
 again, and on our way just glance at a desolate and almost barren but 
 interesting region called the Sand Hills. They cover an area of about 
 twenty thousand square miles on both sides of the Niobrara Eiver, and 
 are composed of loose, moving sand, which is blown by the winds into 
 round, conical hills with considerable regularity. As far as the eye can 
 reach the surface presents the appearance of a multitude of round tops, 
 some of them scooped out by the whirling winds so as to resemble era 
 ters. These sand hills have been from time immemorial a favorite resort 
 of the bufililo, which feeds upon the scanty but very nutritious grasses 
 in the little valleys and intervals among these hills. There is, for the 
 most part, an abundant supply of water in the little lakes that are scat- 
 tered throughout this region. Some of them are alkaline in the highest 
 degree, and the fresh can be detected from the salt lakes by the pres- 
 ence or absence of vegetation in and around the borders. These hills 
 are sometimes protected from the winds by a considerable giowth of 
 
GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF THE TERRITORIES. 
 
 109 
 
 v^eg'etation on their sides, especially the "Yuccas, or Spanish Needles," 
 which seem to grow Inxuriautly in these almost soilless regions. No 
 portion of the country is so barren or soilless as to be destitute of its 
 peculiar vegetation, and even those i)ortions that appear most sterile 
 
 Fis. 5. 
 
 Sand Hills on the Niobrara River. 
 
 have some forms which flourish there best, and would X5erhaj)s perish 
 if transported to a richer district. In the "Bad Lands" the soft, suc- 
 culent cactus, which draws most of its nourishment fi'om the atmos- 
 phere, often covers the bald, dome-like hills as if it would conceal their 
 nakedness and sterility. These large moving bodies of sand are not 
 uncommon in the West ; in the North Park there is quite a large area 
 completely covered with them, and as the surface reflects the light of 
 the sun's rays, they appear in the distance like some extensive lake. 
 Near the Mosca Pass in the San Luis Valley is another group of sand 
 hills which is quite conspicuous. The winds seem to delight in i)laying 
 their antics in these places, throwing up the sand in the most beautiful 
 wave-like furrows. Sometimes the strong' winds that sweep over these 
 vast plains -^rill fill the air with a storm of sand so as to impede the 
 traveler's progress for the time, and again they whirl it in circular col- 
 umns far out of sight. 
 
 We shall now continue our way up the valley of the Platte with a 
 good deal of rapidity. The country is monotonous, and yet now and 
 then a fact of some interest might be gathered. We soon pass into what 
 is called the alkali district, where the ground is covered in places with a 
 white efflorescence, which looks in the distance like snow. If the traveler 
 were to ascend the high hills that border the valley and cast his eyes 
 in every direction, he would see nothing but a gently rolling prairie, 
 without a tree or shrub as far as they could reach. No cozy farm-houses, 
 with all the signs of cultivated fields, greet the eye ; no groves of timber 
 dot the landscai)e. For more than two hundred miles along the valley 
 of the Platte it would be difficult to find wood enough to kindle a fire. 
 Fuel for the supjjly of Fort Sedgwick and the city of Julesburg, during 
 the winter of 18(35-'6, when it was in its glory, was hauled from the moun- 
 tains near Denver, Colorado, a distance of more than two hundred miles, 
 at a cost from one to two hundred dollars per cord. 
 
110 GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF THE TERRITORIES. 
 
 The surface of the country is sometimes weathered by atmospheric 
 agencies into peculiar fantastic shapes. The rock formations are en- 
 tirely composed of the whitish and yellowish-white clays, marls, and 
 sandstones of the more recent beds of the great tertiary lake basin. 
 
 Fig. 6. 
 
 "'f^iw^?^':^nr'^""n-i''nVi'^TIfTW*TmTT(ri'^) 'n 
 
 
 Fort Mitcliell— Scott's Bluff. 
 
 The most striking examples are in the vicinity of Scott's Bluff and 
 Chimney Eock, which have been noted landmarks for years. The 
 surface is here washed out into the form of domes, towers, churches, and 
 fortifications, and it is hardly possible to persuade oneself that the 
 hand of art has not been busy here. Chimney Eock shoots up its 
 tall, white spire from one hundred to one hundred and fifty feet. The 
 strata are perfectly horizontal, and, therefore, we may infer that the 
 surface of the whole country was originally on a level with the summit 
 at least, and that these landmarks are monuments left afteY erosion. 
 These picturesque views south of White Eiver are not extensive, although 
 on both sides the north and south forks of the Platte they occur in cer- 
 tain localities. A few fossil turtles and the bones of some huge animal, 
 probably the elephant or mastodon, have been washed from the bluffs. 
 At Antelope Station, near Pine Bluffs, about four hundred and seventy 
 miles west of Omaha, a collection of curious bones was taken out of a 
 well sixty-eight feet below the surface, which were at once regarded by 
 the people in the vicinity as human remains. These bones were dis- 
 tributed throughout the country and furnished many a sensational par- 
 agraph for the daily press. About two years ago. Professor Marsh, in 
 visiting this country, made inquiry for them, and succeeded in obtaining 
 a few fragments, from which he determined the existence of a small 
 species of horse, which must have been originally about two or two and 
 a half feet high. 
 
 From a mass of sediment sixty-eight feet below the surface, ten feet in 
 diameter and six feet thick, Professor Marsh obtained a quantity of 
 fragments of bones belonging to seventeen different species of animals. 
 In it were those of four varieties of the horse family, one of which was 
 as large as the living domestic horse ; one or two species of rhinoceros ; 
 
GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF THE TERRITORIES. Ill 
 
 an animal allied to a camel, and one resembling a hog ; two carnivores, 
 one about as large as a lynx, tbe other greater than any living carnivore, 
 even the lion. Such a quantity of remains, so varied in species and 
 stowed away in so small a space, has never been found before. 
 
 "What a world of fossil treasures could be gathered if the whole area 
 south of the Platte and between the Platte and White Elvers were care- 
 fully examined by men of science ! And even then, only those which are 
 exposed to the eye of the geologist by atmospheric agencies would be 
 found, while the great mass of rock material which underlies the entire 
 surface is equally filled with them, and uudoubtedlj' contains some forms 
 that will never be recorded in the annals of science. 
 
 If we now take the cars we shall pass over a similar i>laiu country until 
 we reach Cheyenne, an important and rather remarkable city, near the 
 foot of the mountains, five hundred and sixteen miles west of Omaha, 
 one thousand two hundred and fifty nine miles east from Sacramento, 
 and one hundred and ten miles north from Denver. This citj' is located 
 in the open plain, near Crow Creelc, a branch of the Platte, the hills as- 
 cending geutlj^ back to the mountains proper, which are plainly visible 
 from the town. On the 4th day of July, 18G7, there was but one house 
 in this place ; within three months there were at least three thousand 
 inhabitants, with the bustle and confusion of a city of ten thousand. It is 
 now improving rapidly, and promises a successful future. Again, looking 
 at the profile section of the railroad, we find that Omaha is nine hundred 
 feet above the sea-level. At Cheyenne we have reached an elevation of 
 five thousand nine hundred and thirty-one feet, yet the ascent has been 
 so gradual over an apparently level plain, that we have not for a moment 
 realized that we were ascending at the rate of nearl}^ ten feet to the mile. 
 If the traveler has observed closely, he will have seen that nature had 
 already performed most of the work of the road, and that there was not 
 much more to be done but to lay the track, and that for the entire dis- 
 tance of move than five hundred miles there were no rock beds to blast. 
 
 Before concluding this chapter, we will throw a momentary glance 
 back upon the ground over which we have just passed. Nebraska may 
 be divided into two portions — agricultural and pastoral. The eastern 
 .part contains some of the most beautiful, gently-rolling, fertile agricul- 
 tural lands in America, the very garden spot of the country. But the 
 western part is a treeless, almost waterless plain ; yet, thick, low, sweet, 
 nutritious grasses cover the entire surface, and for the raising of large 
 herds of stock, as horses, cattle and sheep, this country is admirably 
 adapted. Not more than fifteen to twenty inches of moisture fall here 
 annually ; the snows of winter are very light and soon pass away, the 
 winds rapidly gathering them into the valleys or gorges, leaving vast 
 areas entirely bare. The grasses, instead of decaying as in all countries 
 with a humid climate, slowly dry up, retaining all their nutritious quali- 
 ties, and thus continue until April or May, so that all kinds of stock 
 thrive throughout the winter in the open fields without other care than 
 that of the herdsman. The time cannot be remote when Western Ne- 
 braska, also Wyoming and Colorado, will be appreciated as a wool- 
 growing region far surpassing any portion of the East. 
 
 In the autumn many of the streams of the i)lains dry up for the most 
 part, although at long intervals water may be found. In ascending the 
 valley the water of Lodge Pole Creek will appear and disappear almost 
 like magic. Here we find it a swift-running stream several yards in 
 width, and then for a considerable distance nothing is to be seen but its 
 dry and dusty bed. Even the broad Platte has so far forgotten itself 
 for several seasons as to cease to be a running stream. It is not uncom- 
 
112 GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF THE TERRITORIES. 
 
 mon for a river to be considerably larger toward its source than at its 
 mouth. Many of the imi)ortant streams that flow from the Black Hills 
 into the Missoiui are lost on their way through the plains. This is 
 especially the case with rivers in the arid regions of New Mexico and 
 Arizona. 
 
 CHAPTEE IX. 
 
 OVER THE FIRST RANGE. 
 
 In the preceding chapter I have endeavored to convey some idea of 
 the remarkable character of the great fresh- water lake basin which 
 occui)ies so great an area in Nebraska. We have seen that the carbon- 
 iferous limestones pass beneath the lower cretaceous sandstones near 
 the mouth of the Elk Horn, about thirty miles west of Omaha; that the 
 cretaceous rocks extend westward about eighty miles farther, where 
 they are overlapped by the marls and clays of the White River Group. 
 These form an unbroken mass to the very margins of the first range of 
 mountains west of Cheyenne. Up to this point our ascent has been so 
 gradual that it is hardly perceptible to the common observer, and yet 
 the grade has been upward at the rate of nearly twelve feet per mile. 
 If we examine the excellent profile of the Union Pacific Eailroad con- 
 structed under the supervision of the distinguished engineer. General 
 G. M. Dodge, we shall find that Omaha, the eastern terminus of the 
 road, is nine hundred and sixty-six feet above tide-water. At Cheyenne, 
 which is five hundred and seventeen miles west of Omaha, the eleva- 
 tion is six thousand and seventy-two feet ; west of Cheyenne the as- 
 cent increases with great rapidity; at Sherman Station, near the 
 summit of Laramie range, the height is eight thousand two hun- 
 dred and forty-two feet; so that within a distance of thirty -three 
 miles we have a difference of elevation of two thousand one hun- 
 dred and seventy feet, or an ascending grade of nearly sixty-six 
 feet per mile. A profile section across the country east and west 
 from the Missouri River, from the north line to Mexico, would show, 
 the same graded ascent, illustrating with great clearness the long- 
 continued but regular upheaval of the great original plateau west of 
 the Mississippi. If we were to stand on the spot where the city of Den- 
 ver is located, five thousand four hundred and thirteen feet above the sea, 
 and look to the north, south, or east, we shall see only a broad, appar- 
 ently level plain, with no perceptible ascent ; but turning our eyes to the 
 westward, the ranges of the main Rocky Mountain chain seem to rise 
 abruptly out of the i^lain, showing very clearly that when the crust of 
 this great original plateau had been stretched to its utmost tension, these 
 lofty ranges burst through the sui^eriucumbent sedimentary strata as the 
 germ breaks through the hard-trodden earth above it. The series of 
 ridges which are so well exposed along the base of the mountains show 
 plainly that all the formations from the summits of the lignite tertiary to 
 the granites extended uninterruptedly across the area now occupied by 
 tliese ranges prior to their elevation, and probably up to the close of the 
 cretaceous epoch, and possibly somewhat later. This important fact is 
 better illustrated near Denver tban at any point north along the main 
 traveled routes, because the mountains form a iDortion of the great water- 
 shed of the continent, while the Laramie range west of Cheyenne is a 
 detached portion, seldom rising over eight thousand feet above the sea. 
 This range, however, forms a perfect anticlinal, and must be studied in 
 
GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF THE TERRITORIES. 113 
 
 detail in order that its beauty and regularity may be understood ; and 
 altlioguli I regard it, as well as the Black Hills of Dakota, a more perfect 
 illustration of my theory of the elevation of the Rocky Mountain liystem, 
 yet it is not as conspicuous an example to the casual observer as he lofty 
 ranges west of Denver. 
 
 From Cheyenne to Granite Canon, near the summit of the first range, 
 the grade of ascent is greater than between any other points along the 
 Union Pacific Railroad. The distance is about nineteen miles, and the 
 ditt'erence of elevation between the two places is one thousand eight 
 hundred and sixty-seven feet, or a grade of more than ninety feet per 
 mile. The recent tertiary beds lie close up to the flanks of the moun- 
 tains, over a belt of several miles, affording accomparatively easy transi- 
 tion from the newer formations to the granite nucleus. 
 
 For hundreds of miles either north or south of this line it would 
 be difficult or fierhaps impossible to build a railroad across the 
 mountains, but here nature seems to have provided an easy inclined 
 plain to the very margin of the mountain summit. The ridges are very 
 nearly concealed, while on either side they can be seen as formidable 
 as anywhere along the eastern base. 
 
 Close up to the sides of the mountains this more recent formation is 
 composed of water-worn boulders and pebbles, varying much in size, 
 but as we recede eastwaid toward the plain they disappear for the 
 most part. The same is the ease with the drift, which shows clearly 
 that the causes which led to the deposition of these beds operated in the 
 vicinity, and the materials are derived from the mountains near by. 
 
 On either side of this inclined plain, north or south, we can see the 
 upturned edges of the different sedimentary rocks in this region. 
 Between Granite Caiion and Cache la Poudre, about forty miles along 
 the foot of the mountains, not only is the scenery rugged and grand to 
 the eye, but the complications of geological structure are very interest- 
 ing. There seems here to have been a jog in the minor ranges wbich 
 compose the aggregate range, and several of these smaller ones disap- 
 pear in the plains. The belt of upheaved ridges is here ten to fifteen 
 miles wide, revealing all the sedimentary rocks, from the carboniferous 
 limestones to the most recent tertiary beds. The peculiar brick-red 
 color of the sandstones, which are supposed to be of the triassic age, 
 gives a singular appearance to the scenery. We have here the carbon- 
 iferous limestones resting upon the granites ; then a series of brick-red 
 sandstones inclining at different angles, with beautiful grassy valleys 
 between the ridges, and little streams cutting through nearly at right 
 angles; then a thin group of sand and marls, which maybe Jurassic; 
 then the whole series of cretaceous beds with their characteristic 
 remains ; then the lignite tertiary beds with coal, all conforming to each 
 other, and all inclining from the mountains at different angles. All the 
 beds just alluded to perfectly conform to each other, but the light-colored 
 rocks, which most attract the eye of the traveler at Cheyenne, do not 
 conform, and were of course deposited subsequent to the uplifting of 
 the mountain ranges. We can see, therefore, that the eastern flanks of 
 these mountains formed a shore line for a great fresh-water lake. 
 
 If we make our investigations still north of this line, we shall find, for 
 two hundred miles or more, that these recent beds jut up against the older 
 sedimentary beds, and in many places rest upon the granites. Sometimes 
 the whitish rocks have been removed by erosion, so as to expose the 
 older ones, but near Laramie Peak they entirely conceal all but the 
 granites. In many places these recent beds are found high up on the 
 flanks of the mountains, in a nearly horizontal position, as if many of 
 8 G 
 
114 GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF THE TERRITORIES. 
 
 the outer peaks were mere islands in this great lake, much like those in 
 Salt Lake at the present time. I have said enough here to show the 
 reader that from Cheyenne to the summit of the first range he is passing 
 over a thick shore deposit of an ancient lake, which once covered a vast 
 area very much larger than that of any of onr fresh-water lakes of the 
 present dav. The cuts along the road do not show all the formations 
 in this vicinity. The traveler must stop a day and wander away from 
 the line of the road, if he would make his geological observations com- 
 
 nlete. 
 
 The recent beds rest directlv on a stratum of while limestone of car- 
 boniferous ao-e. This limestone is very usetul to the citizens of the 
 Territory inasmnch as it can be burned into lime of the finest quahty. 
 The walls of houses plastered with it are as white as snow, and it is a 
 great favorite with masons. The supply is inexhaustible, although it 
 is not exposed anywhere along the mountains in any very great thick- 
 
 Tliese limestones are regarded as of the same age as those we saw at 
 Omaha and along the Platte, and if so, they must have been concealed 
 over this long distance, at least five hundred miles, and had it not been 
 for the upheaval of these mountains, would never have been exposed to 
 
 the eve of man. ^ . -, • i t ^ ^ 
 
 Before leaving that portion of Wyoming Territory which lies east ot 
 the first range I will say a word in regard to its aaricnltural and pas- 
 toral resources. The soil is fertile and must l)e quite productive where 
 it can be irrigated. Better pasturage does not exist in the known world, 
 and sooner or later this portion of the Territory must become celebrated 
 not only for the quantity but the quality of its stock. Along under 
 the mountains and in the yalleys of the little streams that flow there- 
 from, as the Lodge Pole, Chugwater, and others, very little snow talis 
 all winter, and the grass remaius very nutritious until late in the spring. 
 All the roots and most of the cereals can be raised on the east side ot 
 the mountains. The city of Cheyenne cannot hope for a permanency 
 until the surrounding country is settled by a thriving fanning popula- 
 tion, and the time is not far distant when the valleys of Crow Creek, 
 Pole Creek, and others will be occupied with tarm-honses and the bot- 
 ■ toms covered with excellent crops. Plans have already been made by 
 the citizens for irrigating large areas of the upland. The healthtul change 
 which will at once be produced in the country will encourage others, until 
 all the available farming land will be brought under cultivation, aud the 
 prosperity of the Territory will be rendered certain. However valuable 
 rivers may be to a country, and however great the impulse a railroad may 
 give to the first settlement of a region, the basis of all permanent pros- 
 perity seems to rest upon the products of the soil. 
 
 The science of geology continually shows how entirely dependent upon 
 causes which were in operation many ages ago are the most practical 
 results of man. Like the ripe fruits which so many pluck from the tree, 
 and eniov without a further thought, so these important benefits are 
 accepted by mankind, and how few are thoughtful enough to inquire 
 from whence they come ! 
 
 The stupendous erosive agencies which have m most cases scoopert 
 out deep valleys inst at the tbot of the mountains, have left this portion 
 remainin.o' of the inclined plain which I have described as extending troni 
 Cheyenne to Granite Canon, and underlying the-^-estern shore ol a great 
 lake, and therobv rendered it possible for the Pacific liadroad to pass 
 over the range, saving to its ent-erprising builders millions of dollars. 
 We shall endeavor \o show along the line of the route that this great 
 
GEOLOGICAL SUEVEY OF THE TEERITORIES. 
 
 115 
 
 road was really constructed iu far past geological times, aud it was left 
 for man to discover and avail himself of the advantages of the secret 
 workings of nature. The summit of this range presents some scenery 
 which is quite unique and remarkable, differing in many of its features 
 from that at any other point along the road. It would well repay the 
 tourist, and especially the artist, to spend several days here ; the air is 
 delightfully exhihiratiiig and cool, the water i)ure as crystal, and all 
 ])arts easily accessible. The little streams are fall of hsh, especially 
 trout, aud game is moderately abundant ; black-tailed deer, red deer, 
 and antelope are yet found, though becoming less abundant every year, 
 and with two or three kinds of grouse and woodcock will reward the 
 sportsman. • 
 
 The rooks which compose the nucleus of this range are granites, or, 
 inasmuch as they present a great variety of texture, I have chosen to call 
 them grauitoid. Sometimes the rocks are made of large crystals of feld- 
 spar and quartz, with very little or no mica, forming a coarse feldspathic 
 granite; sometimes the constituents will be quite uniform, and a fine- 
 grained, compact, aud most durable rock will be the result. Again, some 
 constituent of iron will i)revail, and disintegration is rapidly effected by 
 atmospheric agencies. The surface of this range is literally paved with 
 small fragments of rock, and the natural roads that are made in the 
 mountains are macadamized with feldspar. Building materials are 
 abundant, and as extensive as the mountains themselves. On each 
 side are massive hills of syenite, which look in the distance like the ruins 
 of some gigantic old castle. This is a close, compact, massive granite, 
 rather fine-grained and susceptible of polish, much like the Scottish 
 Bvenite. 
 
 Fie. 7. 
 
 Granite Cauon, near Syenite Station, Union Pacific Railroad. 
 
116 
 
 GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF THE TERRITORIES. 
 
 The directors of the Uuiou Pacific Raih^oad contemijlate transporting 
 this beautiful rock to Omaha, to construct with it the piers of the bridge 
 across the Missouri Eiver. I believe it will prove as durable and far 
 more elegant, on account of its brighter color, than Quincy granite. 
 
 The cuts along the road furnish excellent opportunities for rock study. 
 They are, as it were, portions carved out of the crust, and Ave can thus 
 obtain more accurate notions of its geology than in any other way. The 
 surface has often been so changed by erosion that the loose material 
 that has fallen down the sides of natural gorges, in almost all cases, ob- 
 scures, to a greater or less extent, the true character of the rocks, and I 
 have found these excavations of the greatest importance in my exami- 
 nations, correcting many an erroneous view. 
 
 Figure 7 is an excellent illustration of a caiion through the different 
 kinds of granite. On the right side of the tract the rock has been dis- 
 integrated for a considerable distance down by moisture, and the feld- 
 spathic crystals project from its sides with great distinctness. A heavy 
 vein of quartzite is also distinctly shown. In the distance we catch a 
 faint glimpse of one of these massive granite piles, which are so well 
 shown in Figure 9. The character of the surface of this range of moun- 
 tains, which is about twenty to thirty miles in width, is also well shown. 
 Large areas are comparatively level, and covered with a thick growth of 
 grass, with here and there a thin grove of pines. These trees are hardly 
 ever more than from fifty to sixty feet high, and seldom more than two 
 feet in diameter at the base. Further up in the higher ranges the white 
 spruce and several other species of coniferous trees are found. 
 
 Fisr. 8. 
 
 Virginia Dale, Summit Laramie Mountains. 
 
GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF THE TERRITORIES. 
 
 117 
 
 Figure 9 forms an excellent rock study, and it is a fine illustration 
 of the style of weathering of the feldspathic granites. These massive 
 pik's, like the ruins of old castles, are scattered all over the summit of 
 the Laramie range, and the difference in texture of the rock is such as 
 to give a most pk^ising variety, hardly any of these ])iles being alike. 
 These rocks were once angular masses, probably nearly cubical i)locks, 
 and they have been rouiuled to their present form in the ])rocess of dis- 
 integration by exfoliation. Nature seems to abhor jjU sharp corners or 
 angics, and with her the curve is the line of beauty. Time wears oil" 
 all the sharp i>oints in thin, spherical layers year after year. Skull Eock 
 is another example of the tendency to wear into singular shapes. This 
 rock, which has given name to one of these striking rock masses, has been 
 peeled off, coat by coat, by the fingers of Time until it presents a very 
 close resemblance to a human cranium. If we were to descend the 
 beautiful valley of Dale Creek we should find the scenery even more 
 romantic, and the granites worn into more fantastic forms. There is one 
 l)ortion of this valley which has long been celebrated for the beauty of 
 its scenery, and known to the country as Virginia Dale. 
 
 The swifrly-liowing stream winds its way through the over-hanging 
 rocks, which sometimes run up a thousand feet or more, with nearly 
 vertical sides, and among these massive granite jules are grassy, oval, 
 park-like areas, which must become at some future period favorite 
 places of resort. The character of the scenery and the style of weath- 
 erine" of the rocks are well shown in 
 
 Fiff. 9. 
 
 
 
 Granite Rocks, Sherman Station, Laramie Mountains. 
 
 Sherman Station, situated on the summit, is well known as the highest 
 point over which the railroad passes between Omaha and Salt Lake Val- 
 ley, and appropriately bears the honored name of tlie Commander-in- 
 chief of the Armies of the United States, 
 
 We might linger for a time here and admire the beautiful and unique 
 scenery which is unfolded to us on everv side. We shall not meet with 
 
118 GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF THE TERRITORIES. 
 
 its like again in any otlier part of the West. Long's Peak, with its double 
 spires, rises a1)ove the limits of vegetation into the regions of perpetual 
 snow, more than fourteen thousand feet above the level of the sea. All 
 around are less lofty cones, many of them so covered with pines that 
 they look black and somber in the distance. Far to the southwest are 
 the snowy ranges that surround the Nortli Pai k, and in the interme- 
 diate space are groups Of lower peaks or coues, risnig-like steps to the 
 higher ranges. There is an interesting thought just here as to the real 
 origin of these granitic, ruin-like piles that give the peculiar distinction 
 to the plateau surface of the Laramie Mountains. I believe it is entirely 
 due to erosive forces, which have operated here on a gigantic scale, and 
 these cones and natural temples are the monuments that are left to tell 
 the tale. I am convinced that the surface was at one time at least on 
 a level with the highest of them. How much more has been removed 
 it is now impossible to tell, but I am convinced that comparatively few 
 geologists have fairly estimated the immensity of the time required and 
 the vastness of the amount of material removed from the surface by 
 erosion. 
 
 Three miles west of Sherman we cross the head of Dale Creek, a 
 small stream which flows through a wide, gorge-like valley in the gran- 
 itic rocks. Spanning the valley is a bridge six hundred and fifty feet in 
 length, and one hundred and twenty-six feet above the little stream. 
 This bridge, which is well worthy of examination, forms one of the most 
 beautiful structures of the kind along this road, and always attracts the 
 attention of the traveler, who looks down from it upon a beautiful 
 grassy valley, through which winds a small stream, the Vvhole walled in 
 with massive granite, like that before described. After crossing the 
 Dale Creek bridge we descend rapidly to the plains. On the west side 
 of the mountains we pass across the inclined edges of foiinatious which 
 appear to be counterparts of those already alluded to on the east side. 
 We find the sandstones resting upon the granite, and inclining at a 
 greater or less angle westward ; we also find the whitish and yellowish- 
 white limestones of the carboniferous i:>eriod ; also the red sandstones, 
 which have usually been regarded as Triassic, though I suspect that the 
 upper portion, at least, is Jurassic; then come loose red sands, extend- 
 ing a considerable distance into the plains. If we continue on toward 
 the Big and Little Laramie Elvers, we shall find the cretaceous beds, in 
 full development, in a nearly horizontal position, and about thirty miles 
 still farther west the coal beds of the tertiary period are seen. 
 
 But before we commence our general remarks in regard to this 
 mountain range let "us linger for ft time among the singular and gro- 
 tesque forms which nature has hewn out of the sandstones on this 
 western slope. Here we may study some excellent iIlu.stratious of the 
 wearing away of sandstones through atmospheric agencies. We wish 
 as far as possible to i^resent to the reader type examples of the influence 
 which the atmosphere, in its varied phases, has in shaping the features 
 of the landscape. 
 
 We have illustrated some of the granitoid rocks of the mountain's 
 nucleus which have been metamorphosed by heat. Figure 9 is 
 exceedingly instructive in many points of view. The rock itself is a 
 moderately fine-grained sandstone, and varies in color from a yellowish 
 white to a light brick-red, and is jirobably of Jurassic age. No organic 
 remains have ever been found in the sandstones, althougli I have traced 
 them along the mountain sides from our north line to Santa Fe. The 
 reason why I call them Jurassic is, that a bed of limestone, which 
 inclines from the flank of the mountain higher up, seems to hold a lower 
 
GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF THE TERRITORIES. 
 
 119 
 
 geological positiou, and coutains the remains of crinoids, wliieli Pro- 
 fessor Agassiz reftvis to the genns Apiocrinites, which is Jurassic-. To this 
 place lias been given the name of Dial Rock, on account of the peculiar 
 dial-shaped form into which one of the columns has been worn. We see 
 at a glance that these rocks are stratified ; that they hold a nearl}' hori- 
 zontal position ; that they stand out in the plains nearly isolated, 
 although in the immediate vicinity are other equally fantastic fV)rms, 
 covering quite an extensive area. Where are the intermediate portions 
 of the rock out of which these singular monuments have been carved 
 by the chisel of time ? These level plains, covered now with grass and 
 wild sage, were once on a level with the summits of these sandstones at 
 least, while the vast mass of sandstone which filled np the general level 
 has been swept away, Avho knows where "? Who can estimate the forces 
 that liave wrought this mighty work, or the immensity of the time that 
 it required? Dow many myriads of ages have the winds and storms 
 beaten against the sides of these rocks, gnawing out the cavities and 
 giving them the fantastic shapes they now possess ? Every year smaller 
 portions crumble off and are mingled with the soil below, and in time all 
 these remnants of the past will be removed. It will be noticed that the 
 larger mass is worn into a form that can easily be imagined a human 
 face, and an American might fancy he saw in it some resemblance to 
 that of the Father of his Country. 
 
 It is not an uncommon thing for the rocks of all textures in this coun- 
 try to weather into the forms which call to mind human beings and 
 animals. 
 
 Finr. 10. 
 
 
 Triassic sandstones, west slope, Laramie range. 
 
 These sandstones also afford a fine illustration of what is called irreg- 
 ular layers of deposition, and the materials are supposed to have been 
 brought here and deposited in turbulent waters. If we were to study 
 the actions of currents of water along our streams, or of the waves of 
 the sea shore, we should continually find examples of the deposition of 
 
120 GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF THE TERRITORIES. 
 
 sandy material over au iiiclined plain ; sometimes on one side of a ridge 
 or elevation, and sometimes on the other. Now, if tliis sand were 
 molded into rock, these layers of deposition would show distinctly 
 this same irregularity, i^ot far distant from this point is another group 
 of these weathered sandstones which show still more clearly these irreg- 
 ular layers. The eofter portions have been worn away, causing each 
 thin layer to stand out of the sides of the rocks with great distinctness. 
 Sometimes the thin layers incline in one direction, sometimes in another. 
 These sandstones vary in height from fifty to one hundred and fift3' feet. 
 On their summits the eagles are fond of building their nests, where they 
 will be inaccessible to their human enemies. Before closing our descrip- 
 tion of Figure 10, 1 ought to allude to the wild sage bush, which so pe- 
 culiarly characterizes these almost treeless plains. We are here more 
 than seven thousand five hundred feet above tide-water; at this eleva- 
 tion we find a species of sage which takes the place of the one on the 
 plains east of the mountains. It is called Artemisia tridentata on account 
 of its small, three-coothed leaf. It grows about the same size and very 
 much resembles the other species. This sage, as well as two or three 
 kinds of shrubs peculiar to the high places, are well shown in the figure. 
 
 We have now described briefly the different sedimentary formations 
 as they incline on each side of this mountain range. It may be well to 
 remind the reader that this range is an excellent illustration of the plan 
 of development of these mountains. We find a series of formations 
 inclining from the eastern slope of the mountains ; we pass over the 
 range and we again find the corresponding portions dipping in an oppo- 
 site direction over the western slope. We at once come to the conclu- 
 sion that these formations at some former period extended uninter- 
 ruptedly across the area now occupied by the granitic rocks, and that 
 the intermediate portions have been removed by erosion. Then the 
 query arises, at what time were these events brought about*? It seems 
 to me it must have occurred as the surface was slowly emerging from 
 the waters of the ocean. As the bottom of the ancient sea along the 
 line of this mountain range slowly arose, the waters became shallow, 
 and they would be more easily disturbed by the winds and the erosive 
 forces be pro[)ortionately increased, and if the rocks arose above the sur 
 face the waves would dash against their sides and jirove still more effec- 
 tive. The sediments would be wafted away and deposited in some other 
 part of the ocean, to enter into the composition of more recent rocks. 
 
 The Laramie range, extending from a jjoint near Long's Peak north- 
 ward to the Red Buttes on the North Platte and the Black Hills of 
 Dakota, form the most simple and complete examples of true auticlinals 
 on a gigantic scale that I have ever met with in my explorations. These 
 ranges are less complicated with basaltic outbursts than any others. 
 Some of the peaks, like Laramie Peak, are quite lofty, but as a general 
 rule they are low mountains, and for the most part composed of a nuclei 
 of massive red feldspathic granites inclosed on each side with true 
 gneissic strata. All these mountain ranges require a few more detailed 
 examinations than I have ever been able to give them, but the statements 
 that I have here made will, I think, prove to be mainly correct. 
 
GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF THE TERRITORIES. 121 
 
 CHAPTEE X. 
 
 THE LARAMIE PLAINS. 
 
 I'll our last chapter we desceucled the western slope of tlie first moun- 
 tain range to a broad, open expanse of mountain prairie known as the 
 Laramie Plains. This great area might be called a park; it is enclosed 
 on three sides by extensive mountain ranges, but on the west its limits 
 are not well defined, inasmuch as no mountain ranges of any importance 
 intervene until we come to the Wasatch range, in Utah. It is usually 
 understood to extend westward almost to the Metlicine Bow River, and 
 thus comprises an area about fifty miles from east to west, and one 
 hundred from north to south, the Laramie range or Black Hills forming 
 the eastern boundary. As we ride on the cars through the plains, these 
 mountains, v>ith their comparatively uniform and gently sloping sides, 
 seem for many miles to bend around so as to inclose us within their 
 walls. On the south side are the Medicine Bow Mountains, which are 
 far more formidable and lofty than the others; indeed, the ranges this 
 side are quite irregular and fragmentary, and are known by different 
 names, as Sheephead Mountains, Elk Mountains, &c. Many of these 
 lofty peaks and ranges have not yet been explored geologically or geo- 
 graphically, and these magnificent JB.elds are ripe and waiting for the 
 harvest of science. The far West is vast, but the laborers are few. 
 
 Before proceeding, we n\ight for a moment trace to their sources in 
 the mountains some of the beautiful rivers that wind their way through 
 the plains. We shall find to our surprise that, although we have crossed 
 a range of mountains the highest along the line of the road, we are still 
 in the great valley of the Platte in which we started on our journey. 
 
 The main branch of the North Platte rises iu the range of mountains 
 which forms the north side of the Middle Park, very near Long's Peak. 
 It takes a course a little west of north, flows through the middle of the 
 North Park, cutting its way through immense caQons between the 
 North Park and the Laramie Plains. It then continues nearly a north 
 course, through tertiary as well as cretaceous rocks, to its junction with 
 the Sweetwater, where it bends around to the east, so that near the Eed 
 Buttes its course is nearly southeast until it reaches the main Platte, 
 near longitude 101°. 
 
 The Sweetwater, which is the principal branch of the North Platte, 
 rises in the southern end of the Wind Kiver ]Mountains, and flows nearly 
 east and unites with the North Platte near Independence Kock. These 
 streams flow through nearly every variety of geological formation 
 which occurs in the West. Erom the junction of the Sweetwater to the 
 Eed Buttes it flows through granite, carboniferous limestone, red beds, 
 Jurassic marls, and White liiver tertiary beds; and from the Eed 
 Buttes through lignite tertiary to a point about one hundred miles 
 northwest of Eort Laramie. There the White Eiver tertiary beds over- 
 lap the lignite tertiary, and then continue to the forks of the Platte. 
 
 The Medicine Bow and the two Laramies are important branches of 
 the North Platte, and take their rise in the lofty, snow-capped mountains 
 on the south side of the Laramie Plains. The region north of the North 
 Platte is mostly a vast sage plain, and but few small branches flow in 
 from that direction, but a multitude of small streams cut deep channels 
 through the sides of the Laramie range and flow into the North Platte. 
 
 From Eed Buttes to Fort Laramie, a distance of one hundred and fifty 
 miles, many beautiful little streams rise in the Laramie range and pour a 
 good volume of water into the Platte. These creeks occur every few 
 
122 GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF THE TERRITORIES. 
 
 miles, and iu their passage from the mouutain they have not only worn 
 a deep channel in the steep side of the mountain, sometimes one thou- 
 sand feet or more in depth, but they have also scooped out a wide, deep 
 valley, which affords the best of pasture-ground for stock iu summer, 
 and warm, sheltered places in winter. 
 
 The main branch of the South Platte rises in the range of mountains 
 which bounds the west side of the South Park, and flows about northeast 
 to Cache a la Poudre, and there bends around slightly toward the east and 
 joins the main Platte. The little branches that flow from the mountain 
 sides are very numerous, and each one cuts a tremendous channel through 
 the sides of the mountain, affording most excellent sections of the strata 
 for the geologist. Nearly all the branches that rise in the plains have 
 very wide valleys, but are mostly dry, especially in the latter part of 
 suiumer and autumn. Although the Platte Eiver is never navigable at 
 any season of the year, yet the area drained by it is immense, being 
 nearly three hundred thousand square miles ; and yet it is one of the 
 minor branches of the Missouri Elver. 
 
 The South Platte flows through the different formations along the 
 flanks of the mountain ; and in its course through the plains cuts the 
 lignite tertiary for fifty miles or more, when the White Eiver tertiary 
 overlaps the i)lains to the junction. 
 
 These brief remarks are intended principally to show by the geography 
 the gigantic scale upon which everything in this western country is 
 planned ; that even the district drained by the Platte and its branches 
 is larger than all Xew England, ISI^ew York, and Pennsylvania. 
 
 Myriads of little streams rise in springs on the summits of all the 
 . mountain ranges, and, flowing down the sides, gash out deep gorges, which 
 afford most splendid sections of the rocks for the study of the geologist. 
 And as for beautiful scenery, there is no limjt to it. If we were to trace 
 these streams to their source in the mountains, through gorges and 
 chasms, into beautiful oval grassy, valleys, up the precipitous flanks 
 where they expand in numerous little branches, rushing and tumbling 
 over the rocks, we should involuntarily pronounce each one at the time 
 more grand, more beautiful, and more instructive than any we had ever 
 seen before. It is impossible to describe to the reader the pleasure one 
 enjoys in wandering among these mountain valleys, climbing the almost 
 vertical cliff's and studying the almost unlimited variety' of forms which 
 the masses of rock present. Then, too, the vegetation, seen in summer, 
 has the green, fresh appearance that is so inviting and grateful; the 
 grass, flowers, and trees, all wear that healthy look which is only to be met 
 in the mountains. Although the Laramie plains are at too high an eleva- 
 tion ever to become noted for their agricultural resources, yet the few 
 attempts to raise certain crops have met with moderate success. 
 
 In the summer of 1868 a few farmers in the valley of Eock Creek, 
 along the line of the old stage road, succeeded in raising some very good 
 vegetables, as potatoes, turnips, cabbage, &c., and they would have 
 remained there contented, had they not been driven away by the Indians. 
 But it is doubtful if these plains will ever become a favorite abode for 
 farmers, though for the raising of stock I believe they are unsurpassed. 
 Horses, cattle, and sheep have already been raised here of the finest kind, 
 and in the beautiful sheltered valleys they find the most secure retreats 
 from the severity of the winter's cold. Thousands of tons of excellent 
 hay can be cut every year along the bottoms of any of these streams. 
 
 Ther^is a beautiful view of the ])lains proper, as seen iu the valley 
 of the Little Laramie, near Sheephead Mountain. We see here the 
 meanderings of the little stream; the fringes of cotton woods, willows, 
 
GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF THE TERRITORIES. 123 
 
 aud a- few shrubs in the immediate bottom, the level, lawn-like terraces 
 covered with a thick carpet of grass, and gradually ascending to the hills 
 oil either side. The. entire surface has been so perlectly softened down 
 by time that the beauty of the scene is perfect. It is true, the plaius are 
 not at all times as uniforinly smooth as this view would indicate. Not 
 unfrequeutly the surface is rugged in places ; masses of sandstone or 
 limestone with steep sides rising in the midst of the plains — monuments 
 left after the action of the waters that have smoothed down these beautiful 
 landscapes. It would seem that they are left to aid us iu reconstructing 
 the geography of past geological times. 
 
 Near the middle of these plains, on Cooper's Creek, are some quite re- 
 markable exhibitions of thechalli: clifts of the middle cretaceous period, in 
 which are oyster-shells, fish scales, and the bones of a huge Saurian rep- 
 tile. A little farther to tbe west is a long line of yellow sandstone blutfs 
 two hundred to tbree hundred feet high, forming beds of transition or pass- 
 age between the cretaceous and tertiary periods; and still farther west are 
 more rugged hills in which are found beds of coal. We see, too, everywhere 
 indications of the action of water on the surface of the plains. In many 
 j)laces rounded boulders of all sizes, from the minute pebble to a mass two 
 or three feet in diameter, are found scattered profusely over the ground. 
 Sometimes these rocks accumulate in vast quantities on the side of a hill, 
 literally paving it; then again in long lines or rows, as if they had been 
 carried by swift water or dropped from an iceberg. Everywhere in the 
 vicinity of the mountains are abundant indications that the last act in 
 the drama was the existence of large bodies of water everywhere among 
 the mountains, which must have come from the mountains themselves, 
 inasmuch as the drift material indicates a local origin. We may suppose 
 that prior to the present period the temperature of the climate was very 
 much lower; that vast bodies of snow and ice accumulatedin the mount- 
 ainous portions of our continent, and as the climate became more mild, 
 the ice and snow slowly melted, transporting icebergs filled with rocks all 
 over the plains, and when one of these vast icebergs would lodge and 
 melt, the accumulations of worn rocks and debris would be great. In 
 almost all cases the slope of the hill opposite the mountain range is the 
 one covered with the debris, as if the mass of ice in floating down passed 
 over the summit of the ridge and lodged on the opposite side. But it 
 would be impossible for us to linger in ail these pleasant places; entire 
 volumes could be written illustrating the details of the geology of these 
 plaius; our only object is to gather along our route such facts as will 
 illustrate our views and link our story together. 
 
 Before we again start on our way westward, Ave ought to take a glance, 
 at the North Park, which is only about fifty miles to the southwest of 
 Fort Sanders. The journey is quite easily made in two days, and even 
 in one day on horseback, which is by far the best method of traveling in 
 this mountainous region. In August, 1868, I made a tour to the North 
 Park with a small party of Army officers, and I shall not soon forget the 
 scene of beauty that was opened to my vision from the summits of the 
 mountains surrounding the park. I was the more desirous of visiting 
 this region because so little was known iu regard to it, and, although my 
 visit was short and my examinations necessarily limited, I had the sat- 
 isfaction of giving to the world the first accurate knowledge ever obtained 
 by personal investigation of the geology of that interesting region. 
 
 Our course from Fort Sanders was nearly southeast, up the^ig Lara- 
 mie Eiver, toward its source in the mountains. The geology or the plain 
 country through which the Big Laramie flows is very similar to that of 
 the Little La'ramie, about fifteen miles to the westward. There are 
 
124 GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF THE TERRITORIES. 
 
 comparatively few exposures of tbe basis roclis, on account of the super- 
 ficial drift Tvbich covers all tbis country. Still we find along tbe banks of 
 tbe river, near tbe stage station, tbe same black plas.tic cretaceous clays 
 with Ostrea coiif/csta and a few remains of flsbes; also tbe cbalky marls; 
 and about two miles above, tbe long bigb ridges, on eitberside, extend- 
 ing up for several miles, composed of tbe rusty yellow sands and sand- 
 stone of tbe lower cretaceous. Tbe dip of tbese beds is very gentle, 
 hardly perceptible to the eye. 
 
 Tbe Big Laramie is a very clear stream, about fifty yards in width and 
 averaging about two feet in depth, easily forded in most places. Like 
 most of the western streams, the difference between bigb and low-water 
 mark is very great. In spring and early summer, when tbe snows of tbe 
 mountains melt, these streams become formidable rivers. Tbe soil along 
 tbe bottoms appears to be very good ; tbe grass grows quite heavily, and 
 hundreds of tons of hay are cut here by the settlers for winter use. Tbe 
 grazing is excellent, and numerous ranches have been started all through 
 the valley for tbe purpose of raising stock. Even at this season of tbe 
 year a great variety of flowers covers the surface. Tbe ComposiUc and 
 Leguminosce prevail in numbers, and yellow is the dominant color. As 
 we approached the foot-hills of the mountains the transition beds appeared 
 on the ridge, rocks of more recent date having been swept awayby erosion. 
 Fragments of pudding stone and rusty-colored masses of sandstone were 
 scattered here and there 5 then beneath them were exposed about four 
 hundred feet of variegated arenaceous layers of uncertain age, perhaps 
 Jurassic ; then a little higher up the side of the mountains were revealed 
 the red beds, fifteen hundred feet or more in thickness, presenting won- 
 derfully picturesque scenery. All tbese beds seem to have been lifted up 
 in a nearly horizontal position, so that they present lofty escarpments, 
 sometimes cone-like or pyramidal in shape, revealing each layer in the 
 order of succession. The harder laj^ers yielding less readily to atmo- 
 spheric influences, project out from the sides, adding much to tbe nov- 
 elty of the view. Most of tbe beds incline from tbe flanks of the moun- 
 tains at various angles, 3°, 8°, 15°, and then continue along the river, 
 winding for twenty-five miles among tbe mountains almost to the foot 
 of the snow-covered peaks. 
 
 On either side can be seen a number of syenitic nuclei, but I did not 
 find the unchanged rocks so clearly in contact with tbem that I could 
 define their relation to each other. 
 
 Before reaching the mountains we passed a series of alkaline lakes, 
 which are simply shallow depressions, receiving tbe drainage of a small 
 area without any outlet. From these shallow lakes tbe water is evapo- 
 rated, so that in tbe autumn tbe bottoms are dry and covered with a white 
 incrustation which looks much like water in the distance. One of these 
 lakes still contained water and seems to have a fair supply at all seasons. 
 It is almost a mile in length and half a mile in width. In the spring 
 tbese lakes are quite large and are filled by the overflow of the branches 
 of the Big Laramie, which are greatly swollen by the melting snows. 
 Great quantities of fish are swept into tbese lakes from the neighbor- 
 ing streams, and in the autumn tbe water becomes so alkaline by evap- 
 oration that tbe fish die in great numbers along the shore. It is a 
 curious fact that not a single trout has ever been taken in any of the 
 branches of tbe North Platte, unless a few have been caught in the 
 Sweetwater, while tbe branches of the South Platte are filled with 
 them. 
 
 After entering the foot hills of tbe mountains, the Big Laramie and 
 its branches wind their way through tbe narrow valleys or gorges 
 
GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF THE TERRITORIES. 125 
 
 formed by the antidiuals and synclinals produced by the upheaval of 
 the unchanged rocks. 
 
 All the lower beds arc more or less arenaceous and of a brick-red 
 color, Avith only three layers of a light-gray sandstone. No fossils can 
 be found in any of the rocks, so that it is difficult to determine their age 
 Avith certainty. We believe that the lower beds are carboniferous, and 
 have recei\ed their red color from the sediments which were doubtless 
 derived from the disintegration of the red sieuitic rocks upon which they 
 rest. It is also quite possible that a portion of the red beds are triassic, 
 and also that the j'ellow, gray, and rusty sands and sandstones above, 
 are Jurassic. 
 
 Lying above the supposed Jurassic and beneath the well-defined cre- 
 taceous, there is a large thickness of sandstone whicli I have called 
 transition strata, because they occupy the position of the lower creta- 
 ceous, as shown on the Missouri Eiver and in Middle Kansas. These 
 beds are well developed and quite uniform in their lithological character 
 all along the mountain sides from latitude 49° to the Arkansas, yet 
 they hare never yielded a single characteristic fossil that would deter- 
 mine their age. I have, therefore, called them provisionally lower cre- 
 taceous, or beds of transition from one great period of geological history 
 to another, and the characters of the sediments which compose them 
 jastify the name. 
 
 Near our camp on the Big Laramie, whicb was about thirty-five miles 
 southwest of Fort Sanders, and about fifteen miles above the foot of 
 the hills, are some singular illustrations of the dynamics of geology. 
 On the southwest side of the stream, and inclining eastward or south- 
 eastward, the entire series of red and variegated beds are shown in their 
 order of succession one thousand five hundred to two thousand feet in 
 height. At the foot of this escarpment is a low ridge of the red material, 
 Avhich is so grassed over that the connection with the sienitic nucleus can- 
 not be seen. This covers a belt of sienite about two hundred yards 
 wide and three to five miles long, the jagged masses of rock reaching a 
 height of one thousand feet or more, and standing nearly vertical or 
 dipping slightly to the southeast. Between 'the sienitic beds and the 
 river are the two low ridges of cretaceous Nos. 2 and 3, which seems to 
 have been lifted up with the sienite, but to have fallen back past a ver- 
 tical position, so that they now incline from the sienite ridge, while on 
 the opposite side the beds "have a regular dip from the ridge. This pecu- 
 liarity seems to be common in various localities, owing to the fact that 
 the inetamorphic beds which compose the central portion of all the moun- 
 tains have suffered upheaval, prior to the deposition of the unchanged 
 beds. Therefore, in the quiet elevation of the mountain ranges,' tlie 
 beds are merely lifted up in the direction of the dip of the older rocks 
 on one side, while they are, as it were, pushed away from the opposite 
 side, forming Avhat may be called an abrupt or incomplete anticlinal. 
 
 On the opposite or south side of the river there is a gradual slope of 
 two thousand feet above the bed of the stream, the strata iucUning 5° 
 until we reach the nucleus of another mountain range; so that we have 
 here, as it were, two huge monoclinals. These monoclinals form local 
 anticlinals, inasmuch as, in some places, all the beds incline for a short 
 distance from a common axis. 
 
 On the north side of the river, and east for ten to twenty miles, the 
 flanks of the mountain ranges are covered with the unchanged rocks, 
 which give comparatively gentle grassy slopes, owing to the readiness 
 with which they yield to atmospheric agencies. Through these slopes 
 
126 GEOLOGICAL SUEYEY OF THE TERRITORIES. 
 
 many little streams cut their yvay, forming huge canons, which exhibit 
 along their sides the series of beds in their order of succession. 
 
 From a point near the source, for twenty or thirty miles, the river 
 Hows tlirough a synclinal valley, the conspicuous red beds dipping from 
 either side. Along the valley of the river are marked deposits of drift, 
 the result of glacial action ; but the most beautiful feature is the well- 
 defined terraces, about fifty feet high and smoothed off like a lawn. 
 These terraces are covered with a considerable deposit of drift ; but 
 when they are cut through by streams the basis rocks are shown. 
 
 The scenery on either side of this valley is beautiful beyond descrip- 
 tion. On the west side are the snow-clad peaks of the Medicine Bow 
 range in the distance, with numerous intervening lower ranges ascend- 
 ing like steps. The snowy mountains are mostly destitute of vegetation 
 and are covered with eternal snow, but the lower mountain ridges are 
 covered mostly Avith what may be called groves \of pine. Indeed, the 
 pine groves and grassy openings are so arranged and proportioned 
 that the whole scene appears as if it might have' been x)artially the work 
 of art, and the traveler imagines himself in a sparsely-settled mountain- 
 ous district instead of the unexplored Eocky Mountain region. These 
 openings and grassy slopes will make excellent pasture grounds, for the 
 grass is good, and they are watered with the Quest of mountain streams 
 and springs. I would again remark that the inne forests of these 
 mountains must at some period be an object of earnest pursuit. Two 
 years ago the mountaiu sides were full of tie-cutters, who cut and floated 
 hundreds of thousands of ties down the mountain streams, fifty, to one 
 hundred miles, to the Union Pacific Eailroad, whence they were trans- 
 ported by railroad to any desired point'. 
 
 In the moist ravines of the mountain sides are patches of the aspen, 
 Fopulus trenndoides, which, from its peculiar mode of growth, forms a 
 striking feature in the landscape. It grows very thickly, seldom at- 
 taining a height of more than forty or fifty feet, and not more than 
 twelve to eighteen inches in diameter. The body is very smooth and 
 nearly wBite, and the top forms a rounded, cone-shaped mass of foliage. 
 These aspen groves are the favorite resort of deer, elk, grouse, and all 
 kinds of game. 
 
 On the east side, also, is the snow-clad range, which, in its southward 
 extension, includes Long's Peak and numerous other peaks in the 
 vicinity. On each side of these lofty ranges, which often rise above 
 the limit of vegetation, are a number of successive lower ridges which 
 descend like steps. There is such a wonderful uniformity iu the struc- 
 ture of the mountains that a detailed description of a portion applies 
 for the most part to all. 
 
 Our course along the Cherokee Trail was about southwest from the 
 Big Laramie Eiver, over ridge after ridge, and after traveling twenty- 
 five miles we entered the North Park through some of the most beau- 
 ful scenery of that interesting region. From the summit of the high 
 ridges on the north we look to the southward over a series of lofty cones 
 or p^-ramids, as it were, all clothed with a dense growth of pine. The 
 metamorphic rocks of which these juountaius are composed, disinte- 
 grate so easily that the surtace is covered with a deposit of loose mate- 
 rial, as fine earth and fragments of rock. The hills have, theretbre, 
 been so smoothed down that it is difficult to see the bass rocks in con- 
 tinuous lines. We saw enough, however, to show us that red sienite in 
 its various forms constitutes the principal rocks, while now and then a 
 bed of horublendic gneiss, white quartz or greenstone, occurs. All 
 thi'ough the mountain region are small open areas, sometimes on the 
 
GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF THE TERRITORIES. 127 
 
 bills and sometimes in tlie lower grounds, forming meadoAv-like spots, 
 which the various kinds of animals love to frequent, to feed on the 
 abundant grass. The Old Cherokee Trail derives its name from the 
 fact that a party of those Indians cut its way through the thick pines, 
 about thirty years ago, with a train of three hundred wagons. 
 
 The traveling was difficult at this time, owing to the ruggeduess of 
 the surface and the obstrnction from the fallen pines. 
 
 So far as I could ascertain, the trend of the upland mountain ridges 
 of sienite is nearly east and west, and the dip nearly north. The North 
 Park is oval or nearly quadrangular in shape, about fifty miles in extent 
 from east to west, and thirty from north to south, occupying an area of 
 about one thousand five hundred square miles.' Viewed from one of the 
 high mountains on its border it appears to be a vast depression which 
 might once have formed the bed of a lake. Its surface is rather rugged, 
 yet there are broad bottoms along the streams, especially the Korth 
 Platte and its branches. Scarcely a tree is to be seen over the whole 
 area, while the mountains which wall it in on every side are dotted with a 
 dense growth of pine. The grass grows in the park quite luxuriantly, 
 often yielding two tons of hay to the acre. Streams of the purest water 
 flow through it, a few of them forming good-sized streams where they 
 issue from the ground, and I am quite confident that this entire park 
 would make an excellent grazing region for at least six or eight months 
 of the year. Myriads of antelope were quietly feeding in this great 
 pasture ground like flocks of sheep. The soil is very rich, but the sea- 
 sons are too brief for the successful cultivation of any crops. Indeed, 
 there is frost here nearly every night, and snow falls every mouth of the 
 year. 
 
 As I have before stated, the park is surrounded with lofty ranges of 
 mountains as by gigantic walls. On the north and east sides may be 
 seen the snow-covered ranges rising far above all the rest, their sum- 
 mits touching the clouds. On the west side there is also a short snowy 
 range. The snowy ranges on its east border have their north sides 
 abrupt; the south sides are less so as seen from a distance, and the mas- 
 sive, rocky, lower hills appear inclining southward. All along the north 
 side the hills incline south westward, while the higher ranges are quite 
 steep, and correspond in the apparenc dip of the beds to the lofty snow- 
 clad mountains on the east, which incline south or south westward. The 
 inclination of the metamorphic beds composing the higher ranges is 
 from 60° to 80°. On the west side of the park long ridges seem to slope 
 gradually down, so that they die out in the plain, forming a sort of en 
 echelon arrangement. It is due to this fact that the area. inclosed 
 receives its oval shape. 
 
 The general trend of all the continuous mountain ranges is nearly 
 northwest and southeast on all sides, but there are many local dips and 
 variations from this direction. 
 
 I was much interested to know whether any of the unchanged rocks, 
 which are so well developed in the Laramie Plain, occur in the North 
 Park. I found that the entire series of red and variegated beds, includ- 
 ing a portion of the cretaceous strata, were fully represented, all in- 
 clining from the flanks of the mountains and gradually assuming a hor- 
 izontal position, or nearly so, toward the central portion of the park. 
 The transition beds or lower cretaceous, form quite conspicuous ridges, 
 inclining 10° to the southwest. They are composed of a very beautiful 
 pudding stone of small rounded pebbles, most of them flint, cemented 
 together with a silicious paste. On the north side are quite large areas 
 covered with loose sand, which is blown about by the wind, resembling 
 
128 GEOLOGICAL SUEVEY OF THE TERRITORIES. 
 
 the Saud Hills on the Niobrara Eiver. A close examiiiatiou of the sand 
 shows, that it is composed mostly of worn particles of quartz and feld- 
 spar. The surlxice contains little or no vegetation, presenting a peculiar 
 barren appearance, the sand moving readily with the wind. 
 
 Hitherto it has been impossible to color on any geological map the 
 geological formation of any part of this mountain region, and no infor 
 mation has ever been given in regard to the structure of the North Park. 
 It will be impossible even now, with the imperfect Jopography of any 
 of the maps, to color the geology in detail, but these explorations will 
 enable a geologist to fix the outline of the formations in a general way 
 with a good degree of accuracy. 
 
 During the summer of 18G8 an excitement was created at Laramie 
 City by the supposed discovery of rich placer mines far up in the moun- 
 tains, near the Snowy ranges, to the southwest of the plains. A large 
 party was formed at Fort Sanders, directed by Generals Gibbon and 
 Potter of the United States Army, and accompanied by Professor 
 James Hall of New York, to visit the region and ascertain the truth of 
 the reports. The time was most favorable, in midsummer, when the 
 mountain vegetation presents a spring aspect. 
 
 Camping with our wagons at the base of the main range of mountains, 
 near the source of the Little Laramie, we prepared to ascend the moun- 
 tains on horseback to the gold mines. We rode a distance of about ten 
 miles before we came in view of the " diggings," and to reach them 
 made an ascent of about t^yo thousand feet above the bed of the creek. 
 We wevQ, then between 10,000 and 11,000 feet above the sea, very near 
 the elevation of per})etual snow, and where frost occurs every night of 
 the year. On the summits of these lofty mountains are some most beau- 
 tiful open spots, without a tree and covered with grass and flowers. 
 After jiassing through dense pine forests for nearly ten miles we sud- 
 denly emerged into one of these park-like areas. Just in the edge of the 
 forest which skirted it were banks of snow six feet deep, compact like 
 a glacier, and within a few feet were multitudes of flowers, and even the 
 common strawberry seemed to flourish. These mountains are fall of little 
 streams of the purest water, and for six months of the year good pas- 
 turage for stock could be found. 
 
 The gold is sought after in gulches, formed by the little streams that 
 flow from the Medicine Bow and other snowy mountains, most of which 
 empty into the North Platte. We labored for two days to discover the 
 (quartz seams, which we supposed to be the source of the stray lumps of 
 gold, but the great thickness of superficial drift which covers all these 
 mountains concealed them from our view. The gold, as far as known 
 in this district, seems to be confined to the lower glacial drift. That 
 valuable mines will be found in these mountains at no distant day seems 
 very probable. The geological evidence is quite conclusive, and the 
 mountains are a continuation northward of the same range in which 
 the rich mines of Colorado are located. 
 
 Not only in the more lofty ranges, but also in the lower mountains, 
 are large forests of pine timber, which will eventually become of great 
 value to this country. Vast quantities of this pine in the form of rail- 
 road ties are floated down the various streams to the Union Pacific Eail- 
 road. One gentleman alone contracted for 550,000 ties, all of which he 
 floated down the stream from the mountains along the southern side of the 
 Laramie Plains. The Big and Little Laramie, Eock Creel;:, and Medicine 
 Bow Eiver, with their branches, here literally filled with ties at one time, 
 and I was informed that in the season of high water they can be taken to 
 the railroad from the mountains, after being cut and placed in the water, 
 
GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF THE TERRITORIES. 129 
 
 at tlie rate of from ouc to three cents each. These are im})ortaiit facts, 
 iuasmuch as they show the ease with wliich these vast bodies of timber 
 may be brought to the phiiiis below and converted into himber, shoukl 
 future settlement of the country demand it. 
 
 There are several species of pine trees and one spruce or balsam fir, 
 Abies Doiiglassi. The latter is a beautiful and symmetrical tree, rising 
 to the height of one hundred to one hundred and fifty feet, and as 
 straight as an arrow. The ties that are made from this spruce are of 
 the best quality. 
 
 We will now return to Fort Sanders, and continue on our westward 
 way. From Fort Sanders to Cooper's Lake Station tlie distance is about 
 twenty-eight miles. On our right hand we can see, with great distinct- 
 ness, the Laramie Mountains as they flex around Avestward, i)reserving 
 a remarkably symmetrical appearance. A heav}^ bed of limestone, 
 which appears not to have sufiered greatly from erosion, covers the 
 flanks high up to the margins of the summit, and seems to have pro- 
 tected their rounded sloping form. Here and there may be seen a deep 
 gorge cut through at right angles by some little stream, that has its 
 source in a spring on the summit. Along the base of the mountains, 
 on the east side of the road, patches of the brick-red beds are very 
 abundant, giving a picturesque appearance to the view. After crossing 
 the Big Laramie the surface is quite uniformly level or rolling, and cov- 
 ered with thick grass or sage. The country is underlaid with upper cre- 
 taceous rocks, and possibly in some places there may be small patches 
 or remnants of tertiary beds. AVe seem to be gliding along over a nearly 
 level, monotonous country, with scarcely anything to intercept the vision. 
 Far to the westward the dim outlines of the Medicine Bow range can be 
 seen, reminding us that we are walled in by lofty mountains. But the 
 road is fine, and sometimes for long distances the track seems as straight 
 as an air-line. These broad, grassy plains are not yet entirely destitute 
 of their former inhabitants; flocks of antelope still feed on the rich nu- 
 tritious grasses, but the buffalo, which once roamed here by thousands, 
 have disappeared forever. No trace of them is now left but the old trails, 
 which pass across the country in every direction, and the bleat-hed skulls 
 which are scattered here and there over the ground. These traces are 
 fast passing away. The skulls are decaying rapidly, and this once pe- 
 culiar feature of the landscape in the West will be lost. Two years ago 
 I collected a large quantity of these bleached skulls and distributed 
 them to several of our museums, in order to insure their preservation. 
 
 There is also a singular ethnological fact connected with these skulls. 
 We shall observe that the greater part of them have the forehead broken 
 in for a space of three or four inches in diameter. Whenever an Indian 
 kills a buffalo he fractures the skull with his tomahawk and extracts the 
 brains, which he devours in a raw state. 
 
 Indians or old trappers traveling through the enemy's country always, 
 fear to build a fire, lest the smoke attract the notice of the foe. The 
 consequence is that they have contracted the habit of eating certain 
 parts of an animal in an uncooked condition. I have estimated that 
 six men may make a full meal from a buffalo without lighting a fire. 
 The ribs on one side are taken out with a knife, and the concavity serves 
 as a dish. The brains are taken out of the skull, and the marrow from 
 the leg bones, and the two are chopped together in the rib-dish. The 
 liver and lungs are eaten with a keen relish, also certain portions of the 
 intestines, and the blood supplies an excellent and nutritious drink. 
 Both Indian and buffalo have probably disappeared forever from tljese 
 plains. Elk, black-tailed deer, red deer, mountain sheep, wolves, and 
 9 G 
 
f 
 
 130 GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF THE TERRITORIES. 
 
 the smaller animals are still quite abundant, especially in the valleys of 
 the small streams, where they flow clown through the mountains ; Elk 
 Mountain and Sheephead Mountain have always been noted localities for 
 these animals. 
 
 The traveler will have his attention called to Carmichael's Cut, an 
 excavation through the arenaceous clays and sandstones of the upper 
 cretaceous deposit, which has become noted for the wonderful fossils 
 found there. Baculites, Ammonites, Inocerami, and a great variety of 
 mariue shells, glistening with the iridescent hue of mother-of-pearl, are 
 found in aggregated masses, as if this had been a portion of the creta- 
 ceous sea. Farther on, at Miser Station, these beautiful fossils occur 
 again in the greatest abundance, and thousands of them have been gath- 
 ered and carried away by curiosity-seekers. Near Medicine Bow the 
 lower cretaceous clays prevail, and in the hills bordering the Medicine 
 Bow Creek a large singularly tuberculated ammonite is found associated 
 with a species of scaijhites or boat-shaped shell, looking very much like 
 a large worm coiled up, and hence its name, &. Larvccformis. These 
 shells have received all sorts of names in the country, and the most 
 wonderful tales are related of petrified snakes, &c. 
 
 All over this Rocky Mountain region, from the Arctic Circle to the 
 Isthmus of Darien, these remarkable marine shells are found, and in 
 some instances upon the summits of the loftiest ranges. 
 
 The valleys of- the Upper Missouri and Yellowstone Eivers have 
 already yielded nearly four hundred varieties of these sea-shells. We 
 have, therefore, the most ample evidence that in past geological times 
 the great ocean rolled all over the area now occupied by the mountain 
 ranges. 
 
 After passing Cooper's Creek Station we come into the black clays of 
 the lower cretaceous, and the appearance of the country becomes 
 dreary and sterile in the extreme. The waters are alkaline, and there 
 is no timber along the creeks except stinted willows, and very little 
 grass or vegetation except chenopodiaceous shrubs, which are fond of 
 this alkaline soil. As far as the eye can reach nothing can be seen but 
 these somber, plastic clays. The surface also presents the characteristic 
 monotonous appearance which is common wherever these clays prevail. 
 Six miles before reaching Como we come to an interesting quarry of 
 sandstone, from which the materials for the construction or the exten- 
 sive railroad buildmgs at Laramie City and Cheyenne are obtained. 
 The rock is gray, coarse, and friable, and one would suppose not durable 
 enough for such important structures, but it is easily wrought into any 
 determinate form. This is a locality to which I call the special attention 
 of the geologist as one in which there is an interesting problem to work 
 out, viz : What is the exact position of this sandstone in the geological 
 series 1 It is filled with fragments of vegetable impressions, with some- 
 times quite distinct deciduous leaves, much like those already noticed 
 in Chapter II as occurring at Blackbird Hill, on the Missouri River. 
 The leaves of the willow and poplar are quite distinct, reminding one 
 of those growing along our little streams at the present day, and yet 
 they are all of extinct species. These sandstones are local and seem to 
 have been deposited over a small area, inasmuch as they occur nowhere 
 else on the plains, so far as I have observed. 
 
 The black shales filled with remains of fishes and marine shells occur 
 above and below the sandstones, showing very clearly that they are of 
 lower cretaceous age. Still it would be a matter of interest to attempt 
 the construction of the physical conditions which were necessary in 
 those old cretaceous times, myriads of ages ago, for the ocean waters to 
 
s 
 GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF THE TERRITORIES. 131 
 
 deposit such an accumulation of sandy material in this locality. The 
 scenery is somewhat changed also ; the little stream which cuts through 
 the rocks flows through vertical walls of the sandstone one hundred to 
 two hundred feet high. 
 
 Farther on toward Como we see on our right hand the brick-red beds 
 ■which are so common along the slopes of the first range. At Como 
 Station the road runs through a curious anticlinal valley, the strata 
 inclining in opposite directions about northeast and southwest. The 
 southwest side displays the most complete series of the beds They 
 are composed for the most part of alternate layers of sands and some 
 harder beds of sandstone, but there are a few of these beds of marl, or 
 limestone, in Avhich are found great quantities of fossil shells, Osfrea 
 Penfacrinus asfcriscus and Belemnites densus. The oyster is a very 
 small one ; the star-fish is very beautiful but imperfect ; and the Bclcm- 
 nite or ancient cuttle-fish is more abundant and more characteristic than 
 the others. They are all of well-known Jurassic types. All around the 
 shores of the pretty little lake thousands of these sharp-pointed Belem- 
 nites have been gathered and given to travelers. These fossils are very 
 abundant in some parts of Europe, where they are called " Ladies' Fin- 
 gers," from their long, slender, symmetrical shape. These fragments 
 are all that remain of an animal that was probably quite large and 
 complicated in its structure, much like the cuttle-fish of our present 
 seas. It undoubtedly had the power to secrete a black liquid, a sort of 
 ink or sepia, which it could emit at pleasure, and thus i^rovide a i^lace 
 of concealment when pursued by foes. 
 
 There are other attractions here, of which the traveler will be in- 
 formed long before he reaches the locality. The " fish with legs" are 
 the only inhabitants of the lake, and numbers of jiersons make it a 
 business to catch and sell them to travelers. During the summer sea- 
 son they congregate in great numbers in the shallow water among the 
 weeds and gi^ass near the shore, and can be easily caught, but in cold 
 weather they retire to the deeper portions of the lake and are not seen 
 again imtil spring. These little animals are possessed of gills, and w^re 
 it not for the legs, would most nearly resemble a miniature cat-fish. 
 But when warm weather comes, a form closely resembling them, but 
 entirely destitute of gills, may be seen in the water swimming, or creep- 
 ing clumsily about on land. Sometimes they travel long distances and 
 are found in towns, near springs or wet places, usually one at a time, 
 while those with gills are never seen except in the alkaline lakes which 
 are so common all over the West. Professor O. 0. Marsh, of Yale Col- 
 lege, Connecticut, an eminent naturalist, while on an excursion along 
 the line of the Union Pacific Eailroad two years ago, observed a num- 
 ber of the gilled forms or Siredons, and taking them to New Haven, 
 watched their remarkable transformation into the more mature condi- 
 tion without gills. These animals belong to the family of tialamandcrs^ 
 a group allied to the frogs, and the first form bears about the same re- 
 lation to the last that the tadpole does to the mature frog. Professor 
 Marsh's very interesting and detailed account of these singular animals 
 can be found in the ''American Journal of Science" for November, 18GS, 
 and from his article I have taken the following extracts : 
 
 " The first indications of any change were observed in one of the smaller specimens, 
 about six inches in length; and the metamorphosis had apparently commenced during 
 the journey from Lake Como to New Haven, which lasted about a week. Small round 
 spots of dark brown were fii'st noticed on the sides of the tail, and the color of the en- 
 tire animal gradually assumed a darker hue. The broad thin membrane along the 
 back, and above and' below the tail, gradually began to diminish by absorption ; the 
 external branchial appendages soon became similarly aflected, especially at the ends, 
 
132 GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF THE TERRITORIES. 
 
 aud the animal came more frequently to the surface of the water for air. As the change 
 •went on, the dark spots increased in number and size, and gradually extended over the 
 whole upper part of the body. The membrane on the back aud tail entirely disap- 
 peared, leaving in its place in the dorsal region a sharp groove. The branchi;« also 
 continued to diminish, and at tlie same time the internal branchial arches began to 
 be absorbed, and shortly after the openings on the neck closed r.p. In the me.an time the 
 head became more rounded above, and more oval in outliue, the muzzle narrower and 
 more pointed, and the eyes more convex and prominent. The body also decreased in 
 bulk, aud the costal grooves became more distinct. The thin external skin was shed, 
 and the secretion of mucus from the surface sensibly diminished. During these 
 changes the animal showed an increasing desire to leave the water, often remaining for 
 some time with its external nostrils above the surface, andoccasionally making violent 
 struggles to esca^ie. Aided by a heavy rain at night it at last succeeded, and thus put 
 an end to further observations, just at a time Avhen it had lost the generic characters of 
 Siredon, and become a true Amhlystoma, two forms of batrachians usually regarded hith- 
 erto as belonging to distinct families." 
 
 Fortunately, a few days later, several other specimens of various sizes began, nearly 
 at the same time, to show unmistakable indications of a similar transformation, and 
 this afforded an opportunity of noting the successive phases of the change more fully, 
 as well as observing the physical conditions which seemed to promote or retard it. 
 Two of the specimens were placed in a glass jar, and loft in a strong light, and five 
 others were kept in a cooler place in the shade, the temperature of the two, however, 
 differing but a few degrees. At the end of three weeks those in the glass vessel had 
 apparently completed their metamorphosis, while of the others less favorably situated 
 three only were partially altered, and at the present time, or nearly three weeks later, 
 they still retain tubercular remnants of the external branchiae, although in most other 
 respects the change appears to be complete. The two remaiuing specimens, laowever, 
 which had throughout been kept with the tliree last, showed no distinct signs of chang- 
 ing, although the probability of their doing so, aud the importance of retaining some 
 tangible evidence of the original condition, led to the transfer of one of them to a jar 
 of alcohol after the first week, a precaution, as the result showed, quite unnecessary in 
 the case of the other, which at the time of writing (October 5) still remains a typical 
 Siredon, with no alterations more important than a single appearance in a new epi- 
 dermis. 
 
 Similar observations had already been made by a celebrated French 
 naturalist, Professor Dnmeril, on an allied species, found on the table- 
 lands of Mexico ; aud it was a matter of no small interest to Professor 
 Marsh to ascertain whether this species would undergo a similar change 
 when placed under different physical conditions, hence these creatures 
 wore watched with great care. 
 
 Among the more important changes which occurred during the metamorphosis may 
 be mentioned the decrease in the size of the entire body, which was very marked, a 
 perceptible increase in the distinctness of the costal grooves corresponding to the ver- 
 tebrae, and the gradual ossification of the carpus aud tarsus. The feet also became less 
 palmate, and the toes less depressed. During the transformation, moreover, and espe- 
 cially after its completion, all the specimens shed the thin, transparent epidermis, some 
 of th(;m very frequently ; one, indeed, which had been kept in a strong light, lost this 
 covering three times in the ten days immediately following the metamorphosis. 
 
 The change in the habits of the Siredon in passing into the Amhlystoma state waa 
 scarcely less marked than the alteration in its physical characters. As soon as the ab- 
 sorption of the external branchiae commenced, the animal came more frequently to the 
 top of the water and took a mouthful of air; and not long afterwards would occa- 
 sionally float for some time at an angle of about 45°, with the external nostrils above 
 the surface. Frequent efforts to leave the water soon followed, and a\i opportunity of 
 so doing was in most instances speedily improved, and the change then seemed to pro- 
 gress more rajjidly. One or two specimens, however, showed for some time, especially 
 in cool weather, much less inclination to desert their native element, apparently suf- 
 fering little or no inconvenience from remaining under water, if allowed to come t© 
 the surface about once iu five minutes. The pugnacious propensities of the Siredons 
 which at first led to occasional assaults on one another, appeared to diminish as the 
 change progressed, and the more sluggish nature of salamanders at last i^redominated ; 
 although the altered forms at times showed no little celerity of movement, and when 
 irritated, especially when held by the tail, would often turn and snap at the hand with 
 a rapidity that would have done no discredit to a reptile of much higher organization. 
 
 The eft'ect on the metamorphosis of a variation in light aud temperature has already 
 been alluded to. During a succession of very warm days, about the first of September, 
 the change progressed with great rapidity, but it apparently ceased, or made verj"^ slight 
 jirogress, iu the cool week that followed. While, moreover, the two s])ecimeus most 
 
GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF THE TERRITORIES. 133 
 
 favoiod in regard to light and warmth passed apparently through the entire trans- 
 formation in about twenty days, those which commenced at the same time, but were 
 less lavorably sitiiated, required at least twice that time for its completion. Tlie only 
 living specimen still remaining unchanged has twice shown slight indications of an 
 approaching metamorphosis, but with the exception of some spots, these have appa- 
 rently soon disappeared after a transfer to a dark and cooler place. 
 
 As we i>ass on westward we come into the eastern border of the great 
 coal fiekls of the Rocky Mountains, and inasmuch as they are of vast 
 importance to this great thoroughfare, as well as to the country, I will 
 make them the subject of the next chapter. 
 
 CHAPTEE XL 
 
 WESTWARD TO BEAR RIVER. 
 
 Soon after iiassiug Medicine Bow Station, the dark, somber appear- 
 ance of the surface of the country ceases, and the more cheerful aspect 
 produced by the overlapping of the tertiary beds is seen. We move un 
 rapidly through inclined ridges of sandstone and shaly clays, dipping 
 westward from 30^ to 50°. Here we begin to discover indications of 
 coal in the black bantls of carbouaceons clay that crop out on either side 
 of the road. But the most marked development of the coal beds will be 
 observed at Carbon Station, about one hundred miles west of Laramie. 
 The first openings were made about three hundred yards from the lail- 
 road track, where a bed of coal was discovered nine feet in thickness. 
 The demand for the coal was such that it was thought advisable by the 
 company to sink a shaft close by the track, and now the coal is taken 
 out in large quantities daily for the use of locomotives. A thriving little 
 town has been built up here by the coal trade alone. 
 
 The coal which is taken out of this mine is of the best quality of the 
 tertiary brown kind, and is very coDipact and pure. It is not as hard 
 as anthracite, but the miners informed me that it was more difficult to 
 work than the bituminous coals of Pennsylvania. The engineers speak 
 in high terms of it as fuel for locomotive use. 
 
 Just over the coal is an earthy bed of what the miners call " slate,'' 
 which breaks into slabs, showing a woody fiber, and much of it looks 
 like charred wood or soft charcoal. A little higher up we find thin 
 layers composed almost entirely of fragments of deciduous leaves, and 
 above these come various kinds of clays and sands. Beneath the coal 
 there are indurated clays and rocky strata, in wiiich occur thousands of 
 impressions of leaves much like those of our common forest trees, but 
 belonging to species long since extinct. They belong, however, to 
 genera such as Popnlus, PJatamis, Tilia, with many others, most perfectly 
 preserved, and all plaiidy pointing to a period far back in the geologi- 
 cal past when these vast, treeless regions of the present time were cov- 
 ered with dense forests, surpassing even those now growing in Ohio and 
 Kentucky. Some of the layers of rock, two to four inches in thickness, 
 are almost entirely made up of these leaves, and the condition in which 
 they have been i)reserved shows that they could not have been trans- 
 ported any distance, but must have fallen from trees that grew in the 
 vicinity. Indeed, there is no doubt, for myriads of ages in the past, 
 gigantic poplars, sycamores, lindens, oaks and others spread their 
 broad branches over the shores of some little streams or lakes, and shed 
 their foliage in the shallow waters in the same manner as they do at the 
 present day. In the autumn I have seen the sandy bottoms of the little 
 
134 GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF THE TERRITORIES. 
 
 streams that flow into tlie Missouri and Yellowstone Eivers filled with 
 the leaves of the cottonwood and elm in a perfect state of j^reservation, 
 and had the conditions been favorable for compacting these sediments 
 into rocky layers, the geologist might have split them open with his 
 hammer, and revealed the leaf impressions as perfectly ])reserved in 
 every part as if they had been carefully i^ressed in a lady's herbarium. 
 The traveler will find it profitable and instructive to remain at this 
 locality a day. 
 
 The coal is not confined to the neighborhood of the road. It crops 
 out in many localities for twenty or thirty miles on either side, so that 
 we see there is an abundant supply of fuel stored away for future use 
 beneath this apparently barren surface. When we reflect that nearly 
 all the wood or timber that is used along the line of the road has to be 
 transported a distance of twenty to forty miles, and that even this scant 
 supply will be exhausted within a few years, we shall at once arrive at 
 the conclusion that the future success of this great thoroughfare is 
 entirely dependent on the supply of mineral fuel, and that its importance 
 for all time to come cannot be too highly estimated. 
 
 The coal formations extend along the line of the road to St. Mary's 
 Station, a distance of twenty-five miles west of Carbon ; from thence to 
 Eawlins's Springs, about thirty miles, the road passes over strata which 
 are mostly of cretaceous age. To the geologist this entire region is one 
 of gTeat interest. Even up to the j)resent time it is invested with much 
 obscurity. Probably no rocks older than cretaceous or tertiary occur ; 
 but the beds are so complicated by the forces that have elevated the 
 neighboring mountain ranges that it is difficult to unravel their rela- 
 tions. 
 
 Soon after leaving Carbon we pass through several cuts which show 
 the strata, sometimes inclining nearly west, and soon again in the op- 
 posite direction. We seem to be continually i)assing across a series of 
 anticlinal and synclinal axes. Just before reaching the North Platte 
 Eiver we pass along the valley of one of the most remarkable anticliuals 
 in the West. On either side of the road the rusty-gray sands and 
 sandstones incline at an angle of 10° to 15°. The strata rise like walls 
 on both sides to the height of seven hundred or eight hundred feet in 
 graduated ridges or steps. I have been informed that thin beds of coal 
 have been discovered within a few miles of Fort Steele ; if this be so, 
 they must occur high up on the summits of these ridges. Near the 
 bridge over the North Platte the black, plastic clays of the lower creta- 
 ceous are distinctly seen, but following up the exposed edges of the 
 inclined ridges we find an oyster and an Inoceramus which are peculiar 
 to the upper cretaceous beds. Passing up still higher, we shall dis- 
 cover thin layers made nj) wholly of a small species of oyster, which 
 seems to be characteristic of what I regard as transition or beds of pas- 
 sage between the strictly marine sediments of the cretaceous era, and 
 the brackish and the fresh water which characterize the tertiary period. 
 
 We can see here a marked instance of a vallej^ of erosion, or a long 
 natural opening, as if prepared in ages past for the passage of the road. 
 We can reflect with what ease comparatively it has been constructed 
 across what would seem to be an impassable country, by following the 
 water-courses and their valleys of erosion, admiring the energy and 
 consummate skill of the engineers who first located the road throngh 
 this wild and rugged region. 
 
 We have not alluded to the scenery in this vicinity from the fact that 
 to the ordinary traveler there is little that is attractive. To most 
 persons the whole country would appear like a barren waste. But if 
 
GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF THE TERRITOKIES. 135 
 
 we look far away southward toward the sources of the Korth Platte in 
 the North Park, we shall seesouie lofty ranges of mouutaiiis with peaks 
 that loom up in solitary grandeur. Elk Mountain is a noted landmark, 
 and seems to rise out of the plain as if it were an isolated peak. It is, 
 however, a portion of the Medicine Bow range, partially cut off from 
 the northern end. It is surrounded by rolling prairie, which is covered 
 the greater portion of the year with splendid grass. Ileuce all the 
 river valleys in this portion of the mountains have been noted places 
 for game of all kinds, as elk, deer, mountain sheep, &c. Fabulous sto- 
 ries are also told of the mines of gold and silver which have been dis- 
 covered. As yet the geology is little known. The sides of these moun- 
 tains are covered with dense forests of pine, spruce, and hemlock ; and 
 during- the construction o^ the railroad thousands of ties were floated 
 down the branches of the North Platte into the main stream and thence 
 taken to their destination. The little streams that flow from the moun- 
 tains have in many places quite broad valleys, which afford an abun- 
 dance of hay and pasturage for all kinds of animals, wild and domestic. 
 The wild animals often descend into the beautiful grassy bottoms to 
 feed in large herds, and at the least approach of danger retire to the 
 almost inaccessible ravines and gorges of the mountains. The big- born 
 or mountain sheep may often be seen in flocks, peering from some 
 mountain peak upon the traveler below. Early in the morning these 
 animals descend into the valleys to crop the moist grass, but during 
 the greater portion of the day they will be found, if discovered at all, 
 upon the most precipitous crags and ridges of the mountains. The 
 little streams are full of fine trout, which are easily caught, they not 
 having learned as yet the cunning arts of self-protection, like their east- 
 ern relatives. These ravines and gorges afford most excellent shelter, 
 both for Indians and animals, during the cold season of winter. The 
 close proximity of this delightful region to the railroad must make it a 
 desirable place of resort for sportsmen during the summer. 
 
 There is another interesthig feature connected with the North Platte 
 and its tributaries, as well as with most of the mountain streams, to 
 which I would call the attention of the inquiring traveler ; and that is, 
 the abundant signs of the existence of that most sagacious animal, the 
 beaver. These mountain streams seem to abound with them at the 
 present time, ahd their dams are very numerous, not unfrequentl}^ pro- 
 ducing a rise of the water, three to five feet. Extensive dams and 
 ponds are caused by these industrious animals, and sometimes quite 
 large areas in the valleys are overflowed, rendering the crossing diffi- 
 cult and dangerous. They sometimes strip off' the usual fringe of Cot- 
 tonwood and willows along the streams so completely that they are 
 obliged to emigrate to some other locality to secure food and materials 
 to repair their dams. 
 
 Not far from Fort Steele may be seen at this time cottonwood trees, 
 eighteen and twenty inches in diameter, which have been cut down by 
 them, and I have seen stumps in the valley of the Yellowstone thirty 
 inches in diameter. Their fur is of so little value at the present time 
 that they are not much sought for by trappers or Indians. 
 
 From St. Mary's to Eawlings" Springs, a distance of about thirty miles, 
 the railroad passes over rocks of cretaceous age. No coal beds need be 
 sought for in the immediate vicinity of the road, although it is quite 
 possible that on the north side of the road isolated patches of tertiary 
 containing coal may be found. The railroad from a point about eight 
 miles east of Benton to Eawlings' Springs passes through one of the 
 most beautiful anticlinal valleys I have seen in the West. On either 
 
136 GEOLOGICAL SUEVEY OF THE TERRITORIES. 
 
 side the rusty-gray sands and sandstones dip away from the road at an 
 angle of 10^ to 15°. This anticlinal valley is most marked near Fort 
 Steele at the crossing of the Xorth Platte. 
 
 About five miles east of Fort Steele I made a careful examination of 
 a railroad cut through a ridge of upheaval, which inclined about south 
 or a little east of south. We have exposed here, commencing at the 
 bottom — 
 
 1. Gray, fine-grained sandstone, rather massive and good for building 
 purposes, and easily worked, eighty feet thick — dip 25°. 
 
 2. A seam, two feet thick, of irregular, black, indurated slaty clay, 
 with layers of gyi^sum all through it, then two feet of arenaceous clay. 
 
 3. Ten feet of rusty-gray, compact sandstone. 
 
 4. Eight feet of clay and hard, arenaceous layers, very dark in color, 
 passing up into harder layers, which split into thin laminae, the surfaces 
 of which are covered with bits of vegetable matter. 
 
 5. About fifty feet of rusty, yellowish-gray sandstone. All these sand- 
 stones contain bits of vegetable matter scattered through them. 
 
 6. One hundred to one hundred and fifty feet of steel-brown indurated 
 clay with some iron concretions. The clay is mostly nodular in form. 
 
 i. A dark-brown arenaceous mud rock, quite hard, thirty feet. 
 
 From bed five, I obtained numerous species of marine shells, among 
 them a species of Ostrea and Inoceramus in great numbers. ' The upper 
 surfaces of the hard clay layers appeared as though crowded with im- 
 pressions of sea-weeds or mud markings. In another railroad cutting 
 about four miles east of Eawliugs' Springs I obtained the same Inocera- 
 mus and a large species of Ammonite. These fossils are important in es- 
 tablishing the age of these rocks." Fort Steele is located on the north side 
 ot the railroad, "and presents a pleasant and quite pretty appearance to 
 the traveler. I intended to make a more careful examination of the geo- 
 logical features of this interesting region, but failed for want of time. 
 The officers at this post have always manifested great interest in hav- 
 ing the scientific as well as the practical resources of the surrounding 
 country examined, and their favors to my party have been very gener- 
 ous, i take great pleasure in thanking the commandant. Colonel L. A. 
 Bradley, of the Ninth Infantry, also Captain James Jackson, quarter- 
 master, for favors extended to me in time of need. 
 
 In the channel of the oSTorth Platte, near Fort Steele, the black clays 
 of the upper cretaceous are most distinctly shown, then gradually pass 
 up into the series of sandstones and clays that form the lofty walls or 
 ridges on the north side of the railroad. We can count from six to ten 
 beds of yellowish-brown sandstone, with inclining beds of arenaceous 
 clay. In the lower j)ortions the Inoceramus or Baculite is rarely found, 
 the arenaceous character of the sediments seeming to have been unfavor- 
 able to abundant animal life. Higher up a seam of oyster-shells of an 
 unknown species occurs. They are probably what I have regarded as 
 the transition or beds of passage from the cretaceouiS to the tertiary. 
 They are even better displayed from the west side of Bridger's Pass to 
 Elk Mountain, along the old overland stage road. Beds of coal are 
 known to crop out among the distant hills on either side. There is 
 imdoubtedly a mingling of the two formations to such an extent that a 
 careful detailed survey of this district is necessary to clear up all the 
 obscure points. It is probable, however, that the North Platte cuts 
 down into the cretaceous beds most of the way, and possibly entirely, 
 from the mountains to the south, far north of the railroad. 
 
 Fig. 11 may be introduced in this connection to illustrate the style of 
 the erosion of the lower tertiary coal formations in the Laramie plain. 
 
GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF THE TERRITORIES. 137 
 
 The view is taken from the tertiary hills bordering the Missouri Eiver, 
 near the mouth of the Yellowstone, but is typical of the "bad lauds" 
 all over the West where this formation prevails. The little streams 
 formed from the draiuage of the hills cut deep gorges into the soft 
 superficial deposits at their base, and frequently produce great obstruc- 
 tions to trains of wagons. 
 
 Fiji. n. 
 
 As we move on west of Fort Steele, we can see on the north side the 
 outcropping beds of sandstone. About three miles west of the North 
 Platte this ridge gradually bends off toward the northwest. The cre- 
 taceous clays of No. 4 are weathered so that the surface has a smoothly 
 rounded appearance, and the anticlinal beds expand out into a broad 
 plain. The anticlinal extends a little east of south toward Pass Creek. 
 The erosive forces seem to have come from the southeast, between the 
 detached fragments of the Medicine Bow range, and extended across 
 the country toward the northwest. West of Fort Steele the road passes 
 along- an anticlinal valley for about two miles ; it then enters a mono- 
 clinal valley and continues for six or eight miles ; then it cuts througli 
 cretaceous ridges which incline northeast. Before reaching- Eawliugs's 
 Springs the red beds are exposed on the north side of the road about a 
 mile distant. These anticliuals seem to pass across the intervening- 
 country, connecting the ranges of mountains south with those far to the 
 north. It is only here and there that rocks older than the cretaceous 
 or tertiary are exposed by them, until we come into the vicinity of 
 some important range. But at Eawliugs' Springs all the formations 
 are exposed over a restricted area, fi'om the granites to the cretaceous 
 inclusive. The elevating- forces were exerted more powerfully here than 
 at any other point aloog the railroad from Laramie Station to the 
 Wasatch Mountains. To the south of the road are variegated gray, 
 brown, and reddish siliceous rocks dipping 5° to 10° southwest. A very 
 hard, bluish limestone resting upon them I have no doubt is carbonifer- 
 ous, although I was unable to find any fossils in this region. North of 
 the road ridges of upheaval stretch away toward the northwest, and at- 
 tain a height of twelve hundred to fifteen hundred feet above tlie road. 
 On careful examination the red syenite may be found exposed in a num- 
 ber of places, and gives us the opportunity of studying the relation 
 which the unchanged rocks sustain to the metamorphic. The syenite 
 beds dip 70° about southeast, the unchanged beds resting upon them 
 in nearly a horizontal position. The layers immediately on the syenite 
 
138 GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF THE TERRITORIES 
 
 are a beautiful pudding-stone of rounded quartz pebbles and feldspar, 
 and above it layers of fine siliceous rock, with thin intercalations of clay, 
 the whole having the position and appearance of Potsdam sandstone. 
 I am inclined to believe that we have here Lower Silurian representatives. 
 In all cases these rocks repose on the upturned edges of the syenite, 
 sometimes nearly horizontal; again inclining 3° to 10°. In one or two 
 places these Lower Silurian beds are lifted a thousand feet or more into 
 the air, still maintaining a nearly horizontal position. On the mountain 
 sides the beds are broken off so as to incline 50°, 60^', up to nearly 90°. 
 
 These siliceous rocks, covered with ripple marks, «&c., afford excellent 
 building stone, and are much used by the railroad company. They 
 reach a thickness of five hundred to eight hundred feet. Upon them 
 rests the blue limestone, thirty to forty feet thick; then variegated 
 sandstones ; and the red beds in the distance. 
 
 From the tops of these ridges one can see numbers of both synclinal 
 and monoclinal valleys. There is one monoclinal valley, three to five 
 miles wide, which stretches far into the northwest, a smooth and level 
 grassy prairie. All these ridges have suffered great erosion, and the 
 Silurian beds are planed and grooved even to a greater extent than the 
 more recent beds. Everywhere the evidences of erosion during the 
 drift period are on a gigantic scale. 
 
 A fine sulphur spring from under the bed of blue limestone gives 
 name to the station. The water is clear and possesses excellent medi- 
 cinal properties. 
 
 Some very interesting specimens of native copper have been found in 
 this ridge, which at one time produced no small degree of excitement 
 among the inhabitants. The copper ore was found, on more careful 
 investigation, to be of no special economic value. It seems to occur as 
 a sort of chemical precipitate in the reddish triassic quartzite near the 
 summit of the ridge ; sometimes it is diffused through the rock in green 
 streaks in the form of green carbonate; sometimes coating large 
 masses of calcspar ; there are also very pretty dendritic impressions. 
 Near the copper mines are some heavy beds of red oxide of iron, which 
 must at some period become of great value to the country. The beds 
 are four to six feet thick, and though they appear to be local, yet a 
 great amount of ore could be taken out at comparatively small cost. 
 
 It is an interesting fact that, although we are continually traveling 
 across what is usually regarded as the summit of the great Eocky 
 Mountain range, six thousand to seven thousand feet above tide-water, 
 yet this is the only locality along the road, between the Laramie Mount- 
 ains and the Wasatch Eange, in Weber Valley, where we meet with 
 rocks older than Jurassic, and, except for a few miles near Lake Como, 
 none older than cretaceous. Eocks of ancient date seem to be the ex- 
 ception, while those of quite modern age, geologically speaking, prevail. 
 
 Leaving Eawlings' Springs Station, the road passes through an anti- 
 clinal opening in the ridge, the south side inclining southeast 10° to 12°. 
 The lowest beds are yellowish-gray quartzose sandstones, overlaid by 
 carboniferous limestones. Still farther, south of the road, may be seen 
 the rounded hills composed of the cretaceous and tertiary beds, but the 
 intermediate formations, Jurassic and triassic, which are exposed on the 
 north side, are concealed. Perhaps the best example of an anticlinal 
 is seen soon after passing through the opening in the north side of the 
 road. The valley trends a little west of north, or northwest. It does 
 not show as distinctly on the north side of the road, with the exception 
 of the fragment of a ridge which is conspicuous on the south side of the 
 opening. Very soon the coal beds of the lower eocene appear on either 
 
GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF THE TERRITORIES. 139 
 
 side, inclining at a moderate angle, at first 15°. On the north side 
 there is a plain, synclinal valley, extending off to the sonthwest. Pass- 
 ing across this anticlinal, we come ont into an expansive, valley-like 
 plain, with a long cretaceons ridge extending off" to the southeast, while 
 on the north side there is a low ridge of sandstone, with the strata again 
 inclining to the northeast and trending to the northwest, thus forming 
 an open sage i)lain. The formations on the north side are mainly the 
 coal-bearing strata, with cretaceous clays cropping out at the base. On 
 the south side the cretaceous beds seem to extend oft" to the southward 
 as far as the eye can reach. In the distance the ridges which form the 
 high hills near Bridger's Pass are distinctly visible, so that it is easy 
 to connect our south belt of exploration with the middle one. It be- 
 comes still easier west of Separation, where the beds of the Washakie 
 group are nearly or quite horizontal, and extend undisturbed across the 
 country for nearly one hundred miles, from the Seminole and Sweetwater 
 ranges on the north to the high hills of Bridger's Pass and the ranges 
 to tlie southwest. The lower eocene, or coal beds, seem to dip from the 
 mountains to the southward, if we glance across the country south of 
 the road ; and gradually to the north of the road they flex around so 
 as to incline from the Seminole and Sweetwater Mountains. As usual, 
 the lower tertiary beds are quite variegated in color — yellow, rusty-yel- 
 low, rusty -brown, and drab — presenting an exceedingly uncomely look. 
 In the distance to the north the Seminole range can be seen quite clearly, 
 with a trend about northwest and southeast. 
 
 Near Separation, about ten miles west of Eawlings' Springs, a coal 
 bed eleven feet thick has been opened, probably the same as the one 
 opened at Carbon, and near Eock and Cooper Creek. The dip is nearly 
 west about 10°. The opening being at the summit of the hill, all the 
 coal will have to be drawn up a slope, and the difficulties of drainage 
 will be greatly increased. The coal is of excellent quality. Above and 
 below the coal is the usual drab indurated clay. Below the clay is a bed 
 of gray ferruginous sandstone. 
 
 On the summits of the hills in the vicinity are layers of fine-grained 
 siliceous rocks with arenaceous concretions, some of them containing 
 impressions of deciduous leaves. 
 
 The tertiary beds lie in ridges running across the country. The beds 
 are uplifted in every direction. A more desolate region I have not seen 
 in the West. Nothing seems to grow but sage bushes, and in some of 
 the valleys they grow very large. All over the surface of the hills and 
 in the plains are great quantities of water- worn pebbles. Mauj^ of these 
 valleys were scooped out by an amount of waters far in excess of any 
 known at the present day in this region. Some of the widest and deep- 
 est do not now contain any running stream. 
 
 The layers of fine-gTained sandstone on the hills in this vicinity con- 
 tain more or less imjiressions of leaves, like Poimlus and Flatamts, in a 
 good state of preservation. 
 
 West of Separation the dip of the tertiary beds diminishes. Before 
 reaching Creston, about thirteen miles west of Separation, they lie nearly 
 horizontal, and all the surrounding country presents more the api)ear- 
 ance of a i)lain. At that station the Union Pacific Eailroad Company 
 have nnk a well one hundred feet or more deep. At a depth of eighty- 
 three feet, the workmen passed through four feet of excellent coal 
 and four feet of coaly shale. The coal was of about the same 
 quality as that near Separation, probably from the same bed. If so, 
 coal at a depth of about eighty feet must underlie an area of at least 
 one hundred square miles. In this well, beds of bluish, arenaceous clay 
 
140 GEOLOGICAL SURREY OF THE TEREITORIES. 
 
 were passed throiigli first, then black clay, with carbonaceous matter 
 throughout. Just over the coal was fine, bluish, indurated clay, with 
 very distinct impressions of leaves, among which the most abundant 
 were Populus and Platanus. The railroad cuts and the valleys them- 
 selves show very distinctly the character of the intermediate softer beds. 
 The erosion has been so great in this country, and all hills and caiious 
 are so covered with debris, that it is almost impossible to obtain a clear 
 idea of the color and composition of the intermediate softer beds. The 
 harder sandstones, &c., project from the surface, and are accessible to 
 the eye without much excavation. Marine and fresh-water tertiary 
 formations occupy the whole country along the line of the railroad to 
 Quaking Asp Summit, west of Fort Bridger, and also to Salt Lake to 
 a greater or less extent. 
 
 From Creston to Bitter Creek Station, a distance of forty-five miles, 
 the beds are mostly fresh-Avater, and hold a nearlj^ horizontal position. 
 West of Bitter Creek we come again upon marine tertiaries, dipping 3° 
 to 6° nearly east. We have, therefore, between Eawlings' Springs and 
 Green Eiver, a sort of synclinal basin, the marine tertiary dipping west 
 about 10° on the east side, and the same marine beds inclining east 3° 
 to 6° on the west side ; while at Table Eock, Eed Desert, and Washa- 
 kie, a considerable thickness of purely fresh-water beds are filled with 
 fresh- water shells Unio Washcikeei^GoniohasisSimpsoni^'Mid Vhnj)arus. 
 
 Table Eock is a square butte lifting itself about four hundred feet 
 above the level of the road, composed of the beds of a sandstone which 
 in many instances is little more than an aggregation of fresh-water 
 shells. 
 
 After leaving Bitter Creek Station the hills approach nearer to the 
 road, and show the characteristic features of the marine tertiary again. 
 Seams of coal appear in many places, while yellow arenaceous marls, 
 light-gray sand with indurated clay beds, and more or less thick layers 
 of sandstone occur. The dip varies from 3° to 6° east or nearly east. 
 
 At Black Butte Station, on Bitter Creek, about fifteen miles west of 
 Bitter Creek Station, there is a heavy bed of yellow ferruginous sand- 
 stone, irregular in its thickness and in part concretionary, and full of 
 rusty concretions of sandstones of every size, from an inch to several 
 feet in diameter, mostly spherical, and when broken revealing large 
 cavities filled with oxide of iron loam. This sandstone, one hundred 
 and fifty to two hundred feet in thickness, forms nearly vertical bluffs, 
 and is worn by atmospheric agencies into the most fantastic shapes. 
 Above it are sands, clays, sandstones of every texture, and coal beds, 
 one of which, near the summit of the hills, has been burned, baking 
 and melting the superincumbent beds. I found in several layers the 
 greatest abundance of deciduous leaves, and among them a fine palm 
 leaf, probably the same species which occurs in the coal beds on the 
 Upper Missouri, named by Dr. Newberry, -80001 Coniphelli. There is 
 also a thin seam near one of the coal beds made up of a small species 
 of Ostrea. 
 
 The railroad passes down the Bitter Creek Valley, which from its chan- 
 nel through the tertiary beds, and on each side high walls can be seen 
 inclining at moderate angles. As we pass down the valley toward Green 
 Eiver, the inclination brings to view lower and lower beds. These are 
 all plainly marine tertiaries, while an abundance of impressions of plants 
 are found everywhere. No strictly fresh- water shells occur, but seams 
 of Ostrea of various species. 
 
 In the final report, some detailed sections of these tertiary beds will 
 be given. Yet I am convinced that local sections are not very import- 
 
GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF THE TERRITORIES. 141 
 
 ant. The character is so cliaugeable that two sections taken ten miles 
 apart would not be identical, and in some cases not even very similar. 
 The more recent the age of formations the less iiersisteut .se<?m to be 
 their lithological characters over extended areas. 
 
 From Black Buttes to Point of Rocks the dip is southeast. About 
 five miles west the principal bed of gray-brown sandstone rises to the 
 surface. The railroad runs through -what I have termed a monoclinal 
 valley, that is, an interval between two upheaved ridges inclining in 
 the same direction, the high outcropping hills on the north side, and 
 the sloping portion on the other. The principal coal beds lie above the 
 massive bed of sandstone, which forms a line of separation between the 
 clays above, which are full of beds of coal, and the alternate beds of 
 sandstone and clay beneath, in which there are few seams of coal. 
 
 The tendency of this sandstone to weather into curious forms and 
 cavities has given peculiar names to localities, as "Hermit's Grotto," 
 " Caves of the Sand," " Water- washed Caves of the Fairies," all of which 
 exhibit most singular, rounded cavities worn out of the sandstone, 
 sometimes extending into the bluff walls several feet. We may suppose 
 that most of these cavities originally contained a spherical concretion 
 which first determined their present rounded shape, and that the long- 
 continued action of the wind and storms has enlarged them to their 
 present dimensions. Perhaps, also, the triclding of water, or the process 
 of freezing and thawing, may have performed a part in disintegrating 
 the particles of sand. Here, too, we find preserved in the rocks the 
 greatest abundance of deciduous leaves of the poplar, ash, elm, maple, 
 &c., and among tliem some species which are found in the coal forma- 
 tions on the Upper Missouri. Among the fossil plants found is a spe- 
 cies of fan-palm, which, at the time it grew here, displayed a leaf of 
 enormous dimensions, sometimes having a spread of ten or twelve feet. 
 These gigantic palms seem to have formed a conspicuous feature among 
 the trees of these ancient forests. 
 
 At almost every station, from Bitter Creek to Rock Springs, coal 
 mines are opened, and an abundant supi)ly for railroad purposes can be 
 easily obtained. At one locality, near Point of Rocks, five beds were 
 opened in the same bluft', within a vertical height of eighty feet. These 
 beds are respectively five, one, four, three, and six and a half feet in 
 thickness. Kear the summit of the hill, just over the coal, is a seam of 
 oyster shells six inches in thickness. The oyster is of an extinct and 
 undescribed species, about the size of our common edible one. 
 
 There are also in this range of hills extensive beds of hard, tabular 
 layers of rock, which would make excellent flagging-stones. On the 
 surface are fine illustrations of wave and ripple markiugs, and at one 
 locality impressions which appear like the tracks of a mule on the soft 
 bottom ground. There are others that might be attributed to a huge 
 bird, and others to some four-toed pachyderm. Scattered all through 
 the coal strata are seams and concretionary masses of brown iron ore, 
 sometimes local and sometimes persistent over exteuded areas ; it occurs 
 mostly in a nodular form, and if the coal proves to possess sufficient 
 heating i)ower to smelt it, the ore must become eventually of immense 
 economic value. There are also numerous chalybeate and sulphur 
 springs in the vicinity. 
 
 About ten miles east of Salt Wells Station the high hills or bluffs on 
 either side disappear, and it is plain that we are passing across an anti- 
 clinal valley in which only the yielding clays of the upper cretaceous 
 period are seen. These clays have permitted the surface to be so 
 rounded off that a distinct anticlinal valley can be seen extending 
 
142 GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF THE TERRITORIES. 
 
 across the country northeast and southwest. This valley is about six 
 miles wide. Then the lower tertiary beds arise to the surface with a 
 reversed dip and gradually pass up through a series of sandstones, clays, 
 and arenaceous clays to the Green Eiver shales. At Rock Springs the 
 Wyoming Coal Company, under the direction of Mr. Thomas Wardell, 
 an' experienced coal miner, has opened a very valuable coal bed, w^hich 
 is now furnishing large supplies of fuel to the railroad. 
 
 Very soon after leaving Rock Springs Station the Green River Group 
 is seen on the bluff hills on either side of the road to the entrance of Bitter 
 Creek into Green River. In the Green River Valley are seen remarkable 
 sections of strata. I have called this group the Green River shales, 
 because it is composed of thin layers, varying in thickness from that of 
 a knife-blade to several inches. The rocks all have a grayish-buff 
 color on exposure, sometimes with bands of dark brown. These darker 
 bands are saturated with an oily substance, which causes them to 
 ignite readily. At one time this material was used as a fuel in stoves, 
 and burned well, giving off" a good supply of heUtj but it was found 
 that the bulk of earthy matter, after the combustible portion was 
 burned out, was as great as the original mass, and rendered it too in- 
 convenient. One of the cuts along the railroad passes through a layer 
 of the cream-colored chalky limestone. There were one or two beds of 
 this petroleum earth. 
 
 During the progress of the excavations the workmen built a fire 
 by the side of one of the walls, and this oily earth ignited and burned 
 for several days, giving light to the workmen by night, and filling 
 the valley with a dense smoke by day. The best display of the Green 
 River shales is near the station on the railroad. At the base of the 
 bluffs we have thin layers of arenaceous clay, with laminated sandstone, 
 with mud markings and other indications of shallow water or mud flats ; 
 color ashen brown, 100 feet. Above, lighter-colored layers with alterna- 
 tions of a greenish layer, fine white sand, the whole weathering a light 
 gray. As we pass uj) we find a large increase of clay, and some lime, 
 with now and then a thin layer of pebbles or small nodules. The layers 
 vary from the thickness of a knife-blade to twelve inches, split easily 
 and regularly. There are also local beds, four to ten feet thick, of porous 
 limestone, which have the appearance of having been deposited from 
 springs during the tertiary period. There are also seams of very fine 
 limestone that are quite black, so thoroughly is the rock saturated with 
 l)etroleum. The combustible shales vary in thickness, from two to several 
 feet. Near the summit of the hill, under the yellow calcareous sandstone, 
 there are fifty feet of the shales that contain more or less of the oily 
 material. The hills all around are capped with a deep rusty-yellow cal- 
 careous sandstone, which weathers into the peculiar castellated forms 
 which have given so much celebrity to the scenery in this region. The 
 different shades of color in the thin layers give to the vertical walls a 
 distinct banded appearance. 
 
 About two miles west of the station there is an excavation which has 
 been called the Petrified Fish Cut, on account of the thousands of beau- 
 tiful and perfect impressions of fishes which are shown on the surface 
 of the thin slabs, sometimes a dozen or two on an area of a square foot. 
 Impressions of insects and water plants are also found, as well as of a 
 remarkable specimen of a feather of a bird, which Professor Marsh 
 regards as a unique specimen, forming a most interesting addition to 
 the bird remains of North America. " It is the distal portion of a large 
 feather, with the shaft and vane in such excellent preservation that it 
 may perhaps indicate approximately the nature of the bird to which 
 
GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF THE TEERITOEIES. 143 
 
 it belonged." My collection of fossil fishes from this cut is very large, 
 aud my success was mostly due to the kind aid of Mr. A. W. Hilliard, 
 a geutlemau of iutelligeuce, who superintended the excavation along the 
 line of the railroad, and preserved from time to time such specimens of 
 value as came in his way. If the example of Mr. Ililliard had been 
 imitated all along the line of this railway thousands of most valuable 
 specimens would have been preserved which are now lost to science. 
 The existence of such vast quantities of animal life, dnring this period, 
 as those shaly layers would indicate, may account for the oily nature of 
 much of this rock. In a portion of this cut there is an apparent dip 
 northwest about 18°, but I am disposed to regard it as local. At the 
 w^est end of the cut are some singular, dike-like openings, filled with loose 
 material from the rusty sandstone near the top of the hill. These fis- 
 sures are evidently due to joiutage, and appear like regular mineral 
 lodes with well-defined walls. In most cases they extend up through the 
 shaly layers to the rusty-yellow arenaceous marls, and these fissures 
 have been so closely filled with this material that it must have occurred 
 from deposition, that is, the fissures were formed before the deposition 
 of the calcareous sandstone above. 
 
 For a most interesting account of the fossil fishes of this group the 
 reader is referred to the essay of Professor Cope in Part IV of this 
 report. 
 
 About a mile west of the " Petrified Fish Bed" is a cut along the rail- 
 road which passes through a moderate thickness of buff, chalky lime- 
 stones, filled with impressions of leaves of deciduous trees. These rocks 
 hold a position about one hundred feet above the petroleum shales 
 which contain the fish remains, and therefore the date of their exist- 
 ence may be regarded as subsequent, though belonging to the same 
 basin. Professor J. S. Newberry, our l3est authority on the fossil vege- 
 tation of America, has given these plants a hasty examination, and com- 
 municated the following interesting notes in the form of a letter : 
 
 I have examined the plants from the Green River beds with as much care as the 
 limited time at my command would permit, and am surprised in not tindiuf; among 
 them a single species contained in any of your other great collections at the far West. 
 They thus far afl'ord no certain criteria for collating the Green River tertiaries with 
 those of other localities where you have studied them. The plants from the rocks 
 inclosing the coal at Marshall's miue are more significant, as they include species (Pla- 
 taniis Jiaydem, which is certainly different from Platanus aceroides) such as were found 
 by you at Carbon Station aud at the mouth of the Yellowstone. Every collection of 
 fossil plants received from the tertiary of the West brings to light many new species, 
 aud the great diversity which they exhibit proves either a number of plant-beariug 
 horizons, or great localization of the species in the tertiary flora. 
 
 Among your Green River plants are only some half dozen species so well preserved 
 as to be capable of satisfactory identification or comparison, but they form a very 
 interesting group. Among them I find two palms, both quite unlike anything before 
 found on this continent. One is a new Phenidies, resembling Heer's Manicarla formosa. 
 The other but an imperfect fragment, yet altogether new and strange to me. The most 
 abundant species contained in the collection is a Mafinolia, allied to M. tenuinervis, 
 Lesq.^ but more elongate aud acute ; also an oak resembling Quercus Saffordi of Lesq. 
 There is another oak in the collection, a laurel, (probably,) and fragments of two ferns, 
 too imperfect for determination. On the whole, these plants resemble most those 
 described by Lesqueruex, from Mississippi, aud I am inclined to suspect are of the same 
 age. This would make the Green River beds older than you have thought them, and 
 I should want more material before venturing anything more than a suggestion to 
 that effect. I trust you will be able to make other collections from these jilaut beds 
 during the present season. 
 
 The specimens contained in the buff, marly limestones of the Green River series are 
 generally not well preserved, aud yet, I th'irdv, careful search at the locality where 
 these plants sent me were obtained would result in the discovery of some fine" things. 
 I Avould especially urge a search for fruits. 
 
 The aspect of the small group of plants now before me from Green River is more 
 tropical than any you have brought from the West, and as we have reason to believ* 
 
144 GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF THE TERRITORIES. 
 
 that our eocene climate was warmer than the mioceue, and that from the eocene epoch 
 to the glacial j^eriod a progression of temperature took place, the Green River beds 
 would seem to me to prove earlier than late mibcene. 
 
 Geologists have as yet explored this interestiug region only in the 
 most superficial way, and we have caught but a glirDi)se of the "wonder- 
 ful treasures which will some time be brought to light. The strata are 
 nearly horizontal, and the rivers have cut such deep channels in them 
 that they can be studied with comparative ease. Professor D^iton, 
 who made an exploration of the country about one hundred miles south 
 of the railroad, has given a graphic account of his discoveries, which 
 shows very clearly the geographical extension of this formation. Near 
 the junction of White and Green Rivers, partly in Colorado and i^artly 
 in Utah, he describes an immense tertiary deposit, composed of a series 
 of petroleum shales, one thousand feet in thickness, varying in color 
 from that of cream to tlie blackness of cannel coal. The shales abound 
 in the impressions of leaves and of various species of insects. Mr. Sam- 
 uel H. Scudder, of Boston, published in the American ISTaturalist for 
 February, 1808, a most interesting account of the insects collected by 
 Professor Denton. He says : 
 
 The masses of rock were crowded with remains of insects and leaves of deciduous 
 trees. Between sixty and seventy species of insects were brought home, representing 
 nearly all the different orders ; about two-thirds of the species were Hies, some of them 
 the perfect insect, others the maggot-like larvse, but in no instance did the imago and 
 larv£B of the same insect occur. The greater part of the beetles were quite small. 
 There were three or four kinds of Homeoptcra, (allied to the treehoppers,) ants of two 
 different genera, and a poorly-preserved moth. Perhaps a minute Thriiis, belonging to 
 a group which has never been found fossil in any part of the world, is of the greatest 
 interest. 
 
 At the present day these tiny and almost microscopic insects live among the petals 
 of flowers, and one species is supposed by some entomologists to be injurious to the 
 wheat ; others believe that they congregate in the wheat as well as in the flowers, in 
 the hope of finding food in the still smaller and more helpless insects which are found 
 there. It is astonishing that an insect so delicate and insignificant in size can be so 
 perfectly preserved in these stones ; in the best specimens the body is crushed and dis- 
 placed, yet the wings remain uninjured, and every hair of their broad but inicroscopic 
 fringe can be counted. 
 
 Professor Denton also discovered in this region a deposit of petro- 
 leum coal, which appears identical with and would yield as much oil as 
 the Albertite coal of New Brunswick. Another bed, resembling cannelite, 
 was noticed, ten to twenty feet in thickness, which Professor Denton 
 believes would produce fifty or sixty gallons of oil to the ton. If so, a 
 single bed here would yield twenty million barrels of oil, or a thousand 
 times as much as America has produced since petroleum was discovered 
 in Pennsylvania. It is clear that these shales, with the fossil insects, 
 leaves, and petroleum, are only a southern extension of the beds which 
 we have so fine an opportunity to study around the Green River Station. 
 Dr. Palmer has brought fresh water shells, as Goniohasis Carteri, and 
 others from White River, which tends to strengthen this conclusion. 
 
 From Bryan we pass over a peculiar region, differing again in its 
 surface features from any previously seen on our route. Far distant to 
 the southward the singular, dome-like appearance of what we have usually 
 styled tlie " bad lands" is visible, their brown and indurated sands and 
 clays having weathered into remarkable forms. One of these singular 
 hills forms a noted landmark along the old stage road, which has received 
 the name of " Church Buttes," from its supposed resemblance to a chiu'ch. 
 To this formation I have given the name of the " Bridger Group," and 
 1 am convinced that this region was occupied by a vast fresh-water 
 lake nbout the same time that the one on White River existed. From 
 the indications derived from the fossil remains already discovered, this 
 
GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF THE TERRITORIES. 145 
 
 group of beds is destined to yield a fauna second only to that of the 
 "bad lands" of Dakota. So far as yet known, all the remains appear 
 to be of middle tertiary age. Among these fossils those of turtles are 
 especially numerous. A multitude of fragments, together with several 
 forms, nearly entire, have been collected and sent to Professor Leidy, 
 of Philadelphia, for examination. The specimens have been referred to 
 three extinct species ; the greater number pertain to a fresh-water tur- 
 tle which has been named Trionyx guttaius. The genus to which it 
 belongs is found at the present time living in the rivers of America, 
 Asia, and Africa. It is represented in our country by the Trionyx ferox, 
 or great soft shelled turtle of the Mississippi and its tributaries. The 
 animal is noted for its voracity and feeds on fishes, snakes, and young 
 alligators. Its ancestor of the Bridger tertiary period no doubt was 
 equally predaceous in its habits. 
 
 Another turtle, of which a nearly complete specimen was discovered, 
 was more like our marsh terrapins in character. It, however, belongs 
 to an extinct genus and species, to which Professor Leidy has given the 
 name of Baptemys ^yyominge7ms, fi-om the habit which it no doubt pos- 
 sessed, in common with most of its tribe, of at least taking an occasional 
 plunge in some convenient bathing place. Some of the nearest living 
 relatives to this turtle are now found in Central America, the so-called 
 Dermatemys and Staurolypus of Vera Cruz and Tobasco. The third spe- 
 cies of turtle indicated by fragments Professor Leidy has referred to at 
 terrapin which he has named Emys tStevensonensiis^ in honor of James 
 Stevenson, the companion and able assistant of the author during his. 
 geological explorations of the interior of our continent. 
 
 From other fossil remains from the Bridger Group of rocks. Professor 
 Leidy reports the former existence of an animal presenting an affinity 
 to the hyena and panther. It was larger than our species of the latter,, 
 and was evidently a predaceous animal of great strength and ferocity. 
 It has been named Pafriofelis uUa, which signifies the ancestral cat that 
 hath revenged itself. The remains of a small animal discovered by Mr. 
 J. A. Carter, of Fort Bridger, and sent to Professor Leidy, were referred 
 by him to an insect-eater related to the European hedgehog, to which 
 he has given the name of Omomys Carferi, in honor of its disco^rerer. 
 
 It will thus be seen that all the animals indicated by the fossils from: 
 the Bridger bed, compri.sing three different turtles, a carnivorous and 
 an insectivorous mammal, are of species and genera previously imknown 
 to science. They, therefore, indicate an especial fauna, accompanied by 
 a pecftliar flora, of which thus far we have seen but a trace. Further 
 researches will most probably give to us an interesting history of the 
 lost race of animals, of the former existence of which we now have an 
 intimation. Figure 13 presents a most excellent view of the "bad 
 lands" as seen on White Eiver, Dakota. This illustration may be 
 regarded as a typical one of the style of surface erosion of tlie White 
 Eiver and Bridger Groups. The original sketch was taken on the spot 
 by Mr. F, B. Meek in 1853, and is published by permissiou of Professor 
 James Hall, of Albany, New York. 
 
 There are also beds of limestone, composed entirely of a small species 
 of Cypris which gives to the rock a beautiful oolitic structure. Of fresh- 
 water mussels, Unios, GoniobaseSj Yiviparas, Planorbis, several species 
 are found at different localities. Sometimes the Gojiiobases and Unios are 
 tbund on a slab of limestone in great numbers, filled with chalcedony. 
 All the evidence that we can secure, points to the conclusion that all the 
 sediments of *he Bridger Group were deposited in the bottom of a purely 
 m^esh-water lake, with no access to salt or even brackisli water from any 
 10 G 
 
146 
 
 GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF THE TERRITORIES. 
 
 voint In regard to the extent of this great and most interesting lake 
 basin very little is known. All the explorations have been, hithei^to, ot 
 a hurried and superficial character. We believe that the Umta Moun- 
 
 Fig. 12. 
 
 tains form the southern shore, and that it extends down to the valley 
 of Green Eiver, at least to the entrance of White Eiver, and probably 
 further. Professor Denton's graphic description satisfies us tfiat tne 
 formations are identical with those around Church Buttes : 
 
 T ooTiiiiff from the summit of a higli ridge on the east, a tract of conntry containiug 
 fi^^ or sihiindred square miles is dfstinctTy visible. Over the ^vhole sur ace is rock, 
 hLe rock c,riuto ravines, canons, gorges, and valleys, in magnilicent rehel-terrace 
 nSu terrace, A-rannd beyond pyramid, rising to monntam heights; amphitheaters 
 Xt would hold a ndllion spectators; walls, pillars, toNvers, castles everywhere It 
 looksTike some ruined city of the gods, blasted, bare, desolate, but grand, " beyond a 
 morti Vs tellU -." Originallv an elevated country, composed of a number of sott beds 
 S- sandston"^^^^^ by immense beds of shale, 
 
 l^t has been worn doln and cut out by rills, creeks, and streams, leaving this strange, 
 weird country to be the wonder of all generations. 
 
 But we must not leave this singularly interesting region without a 
 word in reirard to the "moss agates" which cover the country trom 
 Oreen lliver to Fort Bridger in the greatest profusion. The ground in 
 many places seems to be literally paved with nicely-rounded pebbles 
 and small boulders, mostly of agate fiiut, the largest not more than our 
 or five inches in diameter; there is a belt of about ten miles m width, 
 from east to west, including Church Buttes, and extending an nnknowii 
 distance, froui north to south, over which these geins are found in the 
 gSJlest'abundance and variety. I am inclined ^o thuik they originate 
 in this modern tertiary formation. About six mi es west ot C.iitei s 
 Station a cut in the railroad reveals a bed ot tough, dark-gray, plastic 
 elavs and at the top a layer of fiinty concretions filled with small seams 
 of chalcedony. In the^-bad lands" of White River are abundant 
 seams of fine" chalcedony, which only need the oxide of iron or manga- 
 nese to make the choicest of moss agates. I am inclmed to belle^ e that 
 these a-ates originate in irregular seams in the tertiary beds somewhere 
 south of CM?rch Buttes. The origin of all the drift material which 
 strikes the eye everywhere I regard as local, and that it was probably 
 transported from the direction of the Uinta Mountains. 
 
GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF THE TERRITORIES. 147 
 
 Some of tbese gems, are very beautiful, aiul the spraiigles or dentritic 
 delineations are wonderfully like the stems of moss, ami it is quite dif- 
 licult for most travelers to believe that tbey are not actually i)lants im- 
 prisoned in tbe flinty nmss. Most of the a.uates are of little value, bat 
 occasionally one is found of jireat beauty that will sell for $50 or ^7~i. 
 They are also found in the JMiddle and South Parks to some extent ; 
 those in the Middle Park being rcjiarded as by far the b^st. Beautifnl 
 specimens of opal, semi-opal, or opaline, occur, and when found are 
 especially attractive. A variety of opal of a nulky-white color, and very 
 traiisparent, was found in a lode of j;old-bearing quartz, near Idalio, 
 Colorado, and was much sought after for a time. 
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 
 BEAR RIVER TO GREAT SALT LAKE VALLEY. 
 
 For more than two huudred miles we have passed over what appears 
 to be one of the most desolate regions of the West. Even the most enthu- 
 siastic of our companions in travel will not hesitate to pronounce it a 
 desert. Yet a careful analysis of the soil will show that it possesses the ele- 
 ments of fertility. If streams of water could be made to circulate through 
 these broad, treeless, and almost ])lantless plains, and the same amount 
 of humau industry employed as has been so remarkably exhibited by 
 the Mormons in Salt Lake Valley, there is no doubt they would become 
 productive. Whether in the great future this state of things can be 
 brought about by artesian wells and cheap labor is a question for the 
 people of that future to determine. It is my duty simply to present the 
 facts as I read them. As we proceed westward from Fort Bridger, we 
 note at once the favorable change that takes place in the aspeclJ of the 
 country and of the vegetation. Broad plains and sloping hills, crowded 
 thickly with grass, with an almost entire absence of the wild sage, are 
 now tiie rule. Patches of the quaking asp appear here and there, and 
 along the streams are fringes of the cottonwood. 
 
 Soon after leaving Carter Station, toward the west, the pinkish beds 
 come in suddenly. They seem to rise from beneath the Bridger Group. 
 Their dip is about northeast 3^ to 5^, and they have evidently been dis- 
 turbed slightly by the later movements which elevated the Uinta range. 
 This series of strata, to which I have given the provisional name of t lie 
 Wasatch Group, are composed of red, indurated, arenaceous clays, vrith 
 beds of grayish and reddish gray sandstones alternating. Pinkish and 
 l)ur])lish clays are the dominant features, and give the lithological charac- 
 ter to the groups as far west as Echo Canon, when the conglomerates pre- 
 vail. The latter group is full of beds of sandstone, largely concretionary, 
 but the sandstones or harder layers are seldom of a reddish color. Be- 
 fore reaching- Bridger Station the strata on either side of the road are 
 horizontal, or nearly so. A long flat ridge extends down a little east of 
 north from the Uinta Mountains, between Black's Fork and the Muddy. 
 This may be regarded as the geological divi<le between the vvaters of 
 the Great Salt Lake Basin and the drainage of Green Biver. The 
 Muddy is one of the branches of Black's Fork, which flows into Green 
 River, and west of this stream we have what is called the eastern rim 
 of the Great Basin of Salt Lake. If we were to travel southward to 
 the foot of the Uinta Mountains from the railroad alojig this divide, we 
 should be able to detect no well-marked line of separation between the 
 
148 GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF THE TERRITORIES. 
 
 Green River Group and the Wasatch Group. Bridger's Butte, as well 
 as the entire eastern portion of this divide fronting tlie valley of Black's 
 Fork, exhibit a large thickness of the somber, indurated sands, clays, 
 and sandstones of the Bridger Group, passing down into light, buft", 
 chalkj^ layers, with Planorhis, Unio, Helix, Goniohasis, &c. Within 
 a distance of ten miles to the west of this butte the little streams cut 
 through the pinkish beds of the Wasatch Group, then pass up into 
 whiter, indurated, marly clays, with numerous concretionary layers, dif- 
 fering from the chalky i)eds of the Bridger and Green River Basin. I 
 am inclined to the opinion that this divide forms the junction of the 
 shores of two great fresh-water-lake basins which existed during the 
 upper miocene period ; that here the sediments of the western shore 
 of one were so mingled witli those of the eastern shore of the other 
 that they cannot now be separated. 
 
 The two great basins may have been connected with each other at 
 different points at some stages of their growth, but there is an abrupt, 
 persistent, very marked difference in the character of tlie sediments of 
 the two basins. That the two great basins must have been synchronous 
 is inferred from the fact that the strata of both have been l3ut slightly 
 disturbed by the elevation of the mountain ranges in the vicinity. The 
 want of conformity of the Wasatch Group with thecretaceous and eocene 
 beds will be shown hereafter to be well marked in a number of locali- 
 ties. Both the Bridger and Green River Groups have yielded many or- 
 ganic remains, but the Wasatch Group, although it occupies a very large 
 area, and has been excavated to a great extent along the line of the 
 railroad, has never, to my knowledge, afforded any distinct paleontolog- 
 ical evidence of its age. Near Piedmont Station, in some arenaceous 
 clays which had been taken out of a cut, I found a few fragments of 
 turtle shells, which do not differ from those so common in the Green 
 River district. It seems that, throughout the West, rocks which are 
 characterized by this brick-red coloring matter are destitute of organic 
 remains. The red beds, or supposed triassic, which are so conspicuous 
 all along the flanks of the mountain ranges, are also singularly destitute 
 of fossils. It seems that wherever this ochreous color prevails in the 
 vsediments, the physical conditions were not favorable for the existence 
 of animal life, for if life existed, 1 can see nothing in the composition of the 
 rocks why the remains should not have been preserved. At Bridger 
 Station, and from Bridger to Aspen, which is about twenty-four miles west 
 from Bridger Station, the ochreous beds of the Wasatch Group are well 
 exposed on both sides of the road, and will attract the attentioti of the 
 traveler. A few stunted cedars grow upon the hills and in the valleys 
 and plains. The alkali is as abundant as ever. There are also localities 
 where heavy deposits of drift occur, especially in the valleys of the 
 streams. This is shown along the road wherever extensive excavations 
 have been made, and these deposits will be simply mentioned from point 
 to point, to be referred to hereafter in another connection. 
 
 The valley through which the road passes from Piedmont to Aspen 
 is carved out of the beds of the Wasatch Group, and varies somewhat, 
 but seldom over a mile in width. The little stream that flows through 
 the valley is not more than ten or fll'teen feet wide. Prom Aspen to 
 Evanston the change in the general a)>i)earauce of the surface of the 
 countrj' will be noticed at once. The hills are more rounded and more 
 thickly grassed over, presenting an older appearance. At Aspen the 
 cretaceous makes its appearance. The high hills on either side are 
 composed of cretaceous strata which seem to have been higher points 
 before the deposition of the sediments of the Wasatch Group, and also 
 
GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF THE TERRITORIES. 140 
 
 to have been elevated to some extent since that time. For some 
 distance west of Aspen the red beds till up the irrej;iihirities of the 
 cretaceous surface, but do not conform. About half a mile west of 
 Aspen Station the road cuts through a large exposure of the lower cre- 
 taceous shaly clays of Ko. 2, revealing abundant fish scales and fragments 
 of Inoceramns. These cretaceous beds are well shown for about four or 
 live miles, when the coal beds umke their appearance near Uear liiver. 
 Kear Sulphur Creek there is a ridge of sandstone which the road passes 
 through nearly at right angles. This ridge, wliich 1 have called Oyster 
 Eidge, trends about northeast and southwest, and the dip is west 
 northwest 20° to 25°. It is composed mostly of gray and yellow 
 gray sandstone, capped with a calcareous sandstone, Idled with a small 
 species of Ostrea, and belongs, I think, to the upper portion of the 
 cretaceous group — i^robably No. 5. On the north side of the road there 
 is a high range of hills which are made up of the black clays of No. 4. At 
 Bear Eiver City, which is not more than four miles to the west, the 
 strata are nearly vertical and trend nearly northeast and southwest, 
 with a dip northwest. There is here a seiies of strata, which are stijl 
 invested with a good deal of obscurity. On the north of Sulphur Creek, 
 for three miles before it unites with Bear Eiver, the black clays of No. 
 4 are extensively exposed, and above them a series of sandstones with 
 partings of clay, gradually passing up into the strata which contain 
 coal. That a portion of these sandstones belongs to the upper cretaceous 
 group I cannot doubt, but where the line "of separation should be 
 drawn between the cretaceous rocks and those of tertiary age I am 
 unable to decide. In the bed of sandstone which rests upon the well- 
 marked cretaceous clays are found a species Ostrea and a few other 
 marine species of shells, none of which are really peculiar to the creta- 
 ceous, but from their entirely marine character we regard them as such. 
 We then have from three hundred to five hundred feet of sandstones and 
 clays, with thin beds made up of marine shells, and among* them a 
 species which sometimes reaches a length of twelve inches, which Mr. 
 jMeek has described under the name of 0. soleniscns. In this group are 
 a few thin seams of impure coal. The dip of these beds is northwest' 
 about 50°. Then comes a large thickness of arenaceous clays with thin 
 layers of sandstone, with three or four seams of impure coal and large 
 quantities of brown iron ore or limonite. The seams of coal are from 
 one to three feet thick, with the usual clays above and below. Then 
 comes the bed of coal which is well known in this region, seven feet 
 thick, nearly vertical or with a dip of 82° northwest. The inclination 
 of the entire series of rocks from the Uinta range is quite plain. 
 This coal bed has been wrought for several years, and is so convenient 
 to the railroad that it ought to be of considerable value. The coal ap- 
 pears to be of good quality. Above and below it are thick beds of clay. 
 In the clay above the coal there is a seam of 03'ster shells, a species dis- 
 tinct from any that occurs below it, about 4 inches thick. Above the 
 clay there is a thick bed, two hundred feet, of gray sandstone, with irreg- 
 ular layers of deposition inclining at a very high angle — 70° to 80°. 
 Then a valley intervenes to the westward, in which Bear Eiver City is 
 located, one-fourth to half a mile in width, which must have once been 
 occupied with a considerable thickness of isoft material, which is now 
 quite concealed by grass and other vegetation. Still further west we 
 have a wonderful series of fresh-water beds, which hil^ve been tilted and 
 flexed in a most remarkable manner. These are shown in a railroad 
 cut a little west of the city, about two hundred or three hundred feet 
 long', where nearly two hundred layers are exx^osed, of almost every 
 
150 
 
 GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF THE TERRITOEIES. 
 
 <• ariety of texture, from sandstone, clay, and fine sands, to earthy lignite, 
 and many of these sands are so crowded with fossil shells that they may 
 be gathered by the bushel. The sides of the cut are so peculiarly banded 
 that they look like the stripes of a zebra. At the east end these layers 
 are nearly vertical, but at the west end they seem to have been lapped 
 or bent down so as to form an abrupt cone, as if there had been tremen- 
 dous pressure from above. A little further to the westward we see a 
 ridge of the red beds and conglomerates, iuclining gently to the west, 
 and resting unconformably upon the upturned edges of the rocks 
 in the cut. But along no other portion of our route have I ever seen so 
 rich a locality for fossil shells, of a few species. In the cut and on the 
 hills on either side of Bear River the ground is literally paved with 
 them, and the collector may gather them as he would the shells on the 
 seashore. They are mostly* land and fresh-water species, many of them 
 as yet undescribed. Mr. F. B. Meek has made out a partial list, and he 
 finds several species of fresh-water shells, as Unio iwiscus^ U. bcllipUcatus, 
 Goniohasu chrijmUs, Melania humcrosa, &c., and some interesting estuary 
 forms which indicate brackish water, or partial access to the ocean in 
 those times. The conclusion, however, is that all these rocks are of 
 tertiary age. 
 
 The following sections of these curiously variegated strata were made 
 at my request, by Mr. H. R. Durkee, a civil engineer of great skill in his 
 profession, and an excellent geologist. They were wrought out with much 
 care. The diagram will also assist in rendering more clear the position 
 of the strata. The second cut has been exposed by the excavations for 
 gravel made by the workmen on the railroad ; so that both of them 
 may be considered as artificial exposures. 
 
 COMMENCING AT THE EASTERN EXTREMITY OF THE CUT. SECTION 1. 
 
 No. 
 
 Description. 
 
 Clay, grayish-black, contains frag- 
 ments of sandstone 
 
 Limestone, blue 
 
 Clay, firayish-blaek 
 
 Clay, bro'wn, hard, and in large frag- 
 ments 
 
 Clay, black, hard, and in small frag- 
 ments 
 
 Limestone, blue, fossiliferous 
 
 Clay, grayish-black 
 
 Sandstone, fragmentary 
 
 Clay shale, gray 
 
 Clay, grayish-black, very compact. .. 
 
 Clay shale, black 
 
 Mail, shelLs in fragments 
 
 Clay shale, black - - - 
 
 Lin'iestono, much shattered, and in 
 angular pieces 
 
 Clay shale, black 
 
 Liinestone, angular fragments 
 
 Clay shale, brown 
 
 Limestone, slightly fossiliferous 
 
 Gypseous earth, contains crystals of 
 seleuite 
 
 Whiti^ marl, shells fragmentary 
 
 Limestone, very fossiliferous 
 
 Clay shale, black 
 
 Limestone, very fossOiferous 
 
 Clay slialo, bro\vn 
 
 Sandstone, fragmentary 
 
 Clay .sliale, gray-black 
 
 Gypseous eartli, layer of crystals of 
 selenito on east side 
 
 Clay shale, contains streak of coal 
 and gypseous earth 
 
 Gypseous eaith. contains streaks of 
 brown bitumiuous shale 
 
 Thick- 
 ness. 
 
 Ft. In. 
 
 10 
 2 
 6 
 
 10 
 8 
 C 
 
 2 
 10 
 6 
 
 6 
 2 6 
 8 
 
 No. 
 
 Description. 
 
 Limestone, fossiliferous, fossils small 
 
 Gypseous earth, white 
 
 clay, stony, bluish-gray 
 
 Clay shale, black 
 
 Limestone, fossiliferous 
 
 Clay shale, black 
 
 Limestone - 
 
 Marly clay, black 
 
 Marl, liglit gray 
 
 Clay shale, gray 
 
 Clay shale, black 
 
 Clay shale, gray 
 
 Clay shale, black 
 
 Gypseous earth, yellow 
 
 Clay shale, black 
 
 Gyi^seous earth, yellow 
 
 Limestone 
 
 Clay shale, blue 
 
 Limestone 
 
 Clay shale, blue 
 
 Limestone 
 
 Marl, gray 
 
 Shale, black 
 
 Sandstone 
 
 Marl 
 
 Shale, black 
 
 Mail 
 
 Shale, bituminous 
 
 Marl 
 
 Limestone 
 
 Marl 
 
 Limestone 
 
 Marl 
 
 Shale, black 
 
 Coal and shale 
 
 Limestone 
 
 Marl 
 
 Thick- 
 
 ness. 
 
 Ft. In. 
 
 1 
 
 8 
 
 
 
 2 
 
 2 
 
 6 
 
 
 
 10 
 
 
 
 8 
 
 
 
 3 
 
 
 
 4 
 
 
 
 2 
 
 
 
 2.V 
 
 
 
 4 
 
 
 
 4 
 
 
 
 fi 
 
 
 
 o 
 
 
 
 o 
 
 
 
 4 
 
 3i 
 
 1 
 
 6 
 
 1 
 
 
 
 
 
 8 
 
 
 
 8 
 
 1 
 
 8 
 
 
 
 6 
 
 
 
 2 
 
 
 
 3* 
 
 
 
 3 
 
 
 
 4 
 
 2 
 
 
 
 
 
 1 
 
 
 
 2 
 
 
 
 8 
 
 
 
 .5 
 
 
 
 6 
 
 1 
 
 
 
 1 
 
 
 
 
 
 2 
 
 11 
 
 
 
 6 
 
GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF THE TERRITORIES. 
 
 151 
 
 Description. 
 
 Clay shale, brown, very hard 
 
 Clay shale, bhick, bituiniuous 
 
 Mail, gray 
 
 Limostoue 
 
 Clay, full of fossils 
 
 Clay shale, gray 
 
 Clay shale, blue 
 
 •Sand, yellow 
 
 Clay shale, gray 
 
 Clay shale, gray, bitnminous 
 
 Limestone, t'ossiliferous 
 
 Clay shale and marl, fossiliferous, 
 less fossils on west side 
 
 Bituminous shale, contains streaks 
 of black coal 
 
 Clay shale, blue 
 
 Gyiiseous earth 
 
 Clav shale, blue 
 
 Mail 
 
 Clay shale, bine 
 
 Mai'l, yellowish-white 
 
 .Saiidstdne, fussiliferous 
 
 Clay shale, blue 
 
 Sandstone, fragmentary 
 
 Clay shale, blue and yellow 
 
 Limestone, very fossiliferous 
 
 Clay, full of fossils 
 
 Baiids, black, bituminous shale and 
 marl 
 
 Marl 
 
 Slaty shale, black 
 
 Limestone, very fossiliferous 
 
 Slaty shale, gray 
 
 Shale, full of fossils 
 
 Clay shale, black 
 
 Clay shale, yellowish-brown 
 
 Clay shale, blue 
 
 Coal and yellow shale in streaks 
 
 Limestone, A-ery fossiliferous 
 
 ilarl 
 
 Limestone, slightly fossiliferous, fos- 
 sils fragmentary 
 
 Nodular clay and shells, streaks of 
 bituminous shale on the west side 
 
 Marl, yellow, bard 
 
 Marl, black, soft 
 
 Clay shale, black, bituminous 
 
 Gypseous earth, yellow and white. . 
 
 Marl, hard 
 
 Marl, soft 
 
 Clay shale, gray 
 
 Clay and shale in bands 
 
 Marl 
 
 G.^-pseous earth, yellow 
 
 Marl 
 
 Clay shale, black and blue, in bands 
 
 Clay, stony, gray 
 
 Gypseous earth, yellow 
 
 Thick- 
 ness. 
 
 Ft. In. 
 1 () 
 -) 
 2 
 lU 
 
 3 
 
 1 
 
 1 6 
 
 3 
 
 9 
 
 1 2 
 8 
 G 
 G 
 2 
 
 2 6 
 5 
 C 
 3 
 
 10 
 
 1 
 8 
 C 
 6 
 
 10 
 
 1 
 1 
 
 1 6 
 
 10 
 
 4 
 
 5 
 
 1 G 
 21 
 4 
 8 
 1 
 
 120 
 121 
 122 
 
 123 
 124 
 125 
 126 
 127 
 128 
 129 
 loO 
 131 
 132 
 133 
 134 
 135 
 130 
 137 
 138 
 139 
 140 
 141 
 142 
 143 
 144 
 145 
 14G 
 147 
 
 148 
 149 
 150 
 151 
 
 152 
 153 
 154 
 155 
 156 
 157 
 158 
 159 
 160 
 ItU 
 1G2 
 1G3 
 164 
 1G5 
 1G6 
 167 
 1G8 
 169 
 170 
 171 
 172 
 173 
 
 De.scription. 
 
 Limestone 
 
 Marl 
 
 Clay shale, variegated, (purple, yel- 
 low, &c.) 
 
 Limestone, slightly fossiliferous 
 
 Gypseous eartli 
 
 Limi'stouc, slightly fos.siliferous 
 
 Marl, bluish-black, hard 
 
 Coal 
 
 GyDseous eaith 
 
 Coal 
 
 Limestone 
 
 Marl and coal 
 
 Limestone '. 
 
 Sliale, bitumiuous, black 
 
 Marl, hard 
 
 Shale, black 
 
 Marl 
 
 Shale 
 
 Limestone, very fossiliferous 
 
 Clay shale, blue, full of fossils 
 
 Shale, bituminous; yellow and black 
 
 Limestone 
 
 Shale, slaty, black 
 
 Sliale, brown, full of fossils 
 
 Shale, blue 
 
 Marl 
 
 Gypseous earth 
 
 Limestone, compact, streaks of marl 
 and coal, which run out 
 
 Shale, slaty 
 
 Bituminous shale and brown coal 
 
 Limestone 
 
 Clay shale, contains scales of white 
 gj'pseous earth 
 
 Marl, hard 
 
 Shale, fossiliferous 
 
 Clay, hard, fossiliferous 
 
 Clay shale, black 
 
 Clay, hard, fossiliferous 
 
 Marl, gray 
 
 Marl, black , 
 
 G;v'pseous earth, white 
 
 Clay, hard 
 
 Mail 
 
 Coal, brown 
 
 Clay 
 
 Limestone 
 
 Gypseous earth and shale 
 
 Limestone 
 
 Sandstone, yellow 
 
 Limestone 
 
 Gypseous earth and shale , 
 
 Limestone , 
 
 Clay shale 
 
 Bituminous shale 
 
 Limestone 
 
 Thick- 
 uesir 
 
 Ft. III. 
 
 10 
 
 1 e 
 
 9 
 
 3 
 
 G 
 
 4 
 
 2 
 
 i 
 
 3 
 
 i 
 
 1 e 
 
 2 
 7 
 10 
 4 
 
 (I 
 3 
 7 
 3k 
 
 i 
 
 3 6 
 
 1 2 
 
 8 
 
 1 
 
 1 10 
 3 
 
 2 
 8 
 Ih 
 4 
 6 
 2 
 8 
 8 
 1 
 
 e 
 
 1 
 
 8 
 
 1 
 3 
 4 
 
 2 
 
 From Xo. 173 to western end of cut, (which is made up of the reversed strata, hut not in regular 
 order, some seem to be pinched out.) 
 
152 
 
 GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF THE TERRITORIES. 
 
 ORDER OF STRATA EXPOSED DJ RAILROAD CUT, SECTION 2, (FROM EAST TO WEST.) 
 
 No. 
 
 Description. 
 
 Drift, steel-colored 
 
 Sandstone, wbito 
 
 Sandstone, yellow, containing frag- 
 ments. Kg. 2 
 
 Shale, arenaceous, brown 
 
 Sandstone, coarse, yellow, in layers. 
 
 Sandstone, flue, yellow, in thin layers 
 
 Sandstone, coarse, containing irregu- 
 lar streaks of brown shale, which 
 contains coal in fragments . 
 
 Sandstone, fine, white 
 
 Sandstone, brown, contains brown 
 marks resembl'g bark and branches 
 
 Sandstone, steel-gray, contains 
 streaks of No. 9 
 
 Shale, black, and sandstone, steel- 
 gray 
 
 Sandstone, fine, white 
 
 Sandstone, in thin layers of varie- 
 gated colors 
 
 Sandstone, in broad laj'ers of varie- 
 gated colors 
 
 Sandstone, steel-gray. 
 
 Sandstone, in thin iayeis of varie- 
 gated colors 
 
 Sandstone, steel-gray, in Layers, (con- 
 tains streaks of coarseryellow in 
 layers) 
 
 Thick- 
 
 Ftln. 
 
 15 
 
 13 
 
 1 5 
 
 9 5 
 
 1 
 
 1 5 
 
 18 
 
 2 5 
 
 40 
 
 1 
 
 4 
 
 21 
 12 
 
 5 
 
 No. 
 
 Description. 
 
 Shale, bro^Ti 
 
 Saud.stone, yellow 
 
 Shale, brown 
 
 Sandstone, steel-gray 
 
 Sandstone, white 
 
 Sandstone, gray 
 
 Shale, earthy, black 
 
 Gypseous earth, yellow 
 
 Shale, black .' 
 
 Sandstone, contains shells in frag- 
 ments 
 
 Shale, brown 
 
 Clay, marly 
 
 Sandstone, yellow 
 
 Shales and clays, earthy 
 
 Shale, brown 
 
 Sandstone and gypseous earth 
 
 Shale, bituminous 
 
 Gypseous earth 
 
 Sand.stouc, yellow 
 
 S.indstnne, white 
 
 Marl, containing shells 
 
 Gypseous earth 
 
 To end of cut, shale, clay, and arena 
 ceous gj-pseous earth 
 
 Length of cut, 440 feet. 
 
 60 
 
 There is liere anotlier iiiteresting feature, tlie oil spriugs of Bear 
 Eiver, which have inade this country famous for many years. More 
 than twenty thousand acres of oil lands, in claims of one hundred and 
 sixty acres each, have already been surveyed and located by difl'erent 
 parties. Companies have been formed and shafts sunk, preparatory 
 to an extensive business. The external appearances are certainly 
 very favorable. A considerable quantity of the crude oil flows from 
 these springs constantly, and accumulates in small depressions or in the 
 channels of the stream. When the oil first issues from the ground it has 
 a bright-green color, but it soon changes on exposure to a dark brown, 
 and has a slightly aromatic taste and smell. Similar springs occur in 
 the valleys of Wind Eiver, of the Sweetwater, and also of the Arkansas 
 Eiver, near Canon City, Colorado. At the latter locality about four 
 thousand gallons of refined oil have been made per year for the past 
 three years. It is readily purchased by the inhabitants of the country, 
 who regard it in all respects as equal to our eastern oils for domestic 
 uses. I will not here attempt to explain the origin of these western oils, 
 but I suppose that they are derived from a similar source with those of 
 the East. Geologists differ as to whether the oil is derived from vege- 
 table or animal remains, but it is certain that it is not confined to any 
 particular formation or geological period. In the valley of the Arkansas 
 the springs are located in rocks of cretaceous age, while in Bear Eiver 
 Valley the oil flows up through tertiary strata, though in some instances 
 it evidently rises from beds as old at least as the cretaceous. 
 
 About twenty miles west of Fort Bridger, on the Overland Stage road, 
 there is a fine soda spring, yielding the most delicious water; it does not 
 differ materially from that of the soda springs in the valley of the 
 Fontaine qui Bouille, at the eastern base of Pike's Peak. 
 
 Bear Eiver Valley has been noted for many years for its numerous 
 mineral springs. Indeed, all Utah Territory is celebrated for them, but 
 in times past the numerous springs in this valley have attracted most 
 attention. 
 
GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF THE TERRITORIES. 
 
 153 
 
 About ten miles below the sta- 
 tion, on tlie T\'p;ht side of Bear 
 liiver, is Medicine Bow Butte, 
 which looms up consi)icuonsly 
 above the surroundin-i' counliy, 
 eij^ht hundred to one thousand 
 feet above the bed of the stream. 
 It is undoubtedly composed, for 
 the most part, of strata belong- 
 ing- to the coal series, which I am 
 disposed to regard as of tertiary- 
 age. It is well grassed over, 
 and is covered here and there 
 with dense groves of quaking 
 asp, &c. 
 
 Passing along the stage road 
 westward from Bear Creek Sta- ^ 
 tion, over beds nearly horizon- | 
 tal, or inclining at a small angh^, S 
 we suddenly come to an up- f. 
 thrust of rocks, called "The§ 
 i^leedles," which the traveler S^ 
 coming from the East for the g 
 first time will regard with aston- ^ 
 ishment. Deep underneath an < 
 extensive covering of more re- q 
 cent deposits there seems to be ^ 
 an immense bed of coarse con- cj 
 glomerates, and at this locality, !• 
 by upheaval, these conglomer- ^ 
 ates have been thrust up th rough '$. 
 the softer overlying beds in a o 
 nearly vertical position several p 
 hundred feet above the road, g 
 and have been weathered bj' p 
 atmospheric influences into a 
 number of sharp conical peaks, 
 which have given to this land- 
 mark the name of "The Xee- 
 dles." It is made np of all kinds 
 of worn boulders and pebbles, 
 like those we see forming the 
 bed of any of our mountain 
 streams, varying in size from 
 that of a pea to a foot in diame- 
 ter. These rocks are held to- 
 gether somewhat loosely by a 
 kind of siliceous grit. Some of 
 the worn masses are themselves 
 an aggregate of worn pebbles, 
 proving that a portion of the 
 nuiterials were derived from still 
 
 older conglomerates. Sometimes there is a thin local seam of coarse 
 sand containing only a few pebbles, but the greater part of the entire 
 mass, five hundred to one thousand feet thick, is a coarse conglomerate. 
 It is situated near the Yellow Creek Station, and the ridge of upheaval 
 
154 GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF THE TERRITORIES, 
 
 extends down from the Uinta range. As we go westward, examples of 
 these massive conglomerates will not snrprise ns, and in Echo Caiiou 
 we shall find them three thousand to five thousand feet in thickness. 
 They are probably all of modern tertiary age. 
 
 From the hills about a mile west of Yellow Creek Station we have 
 some of the finest and most extensive views of the country. With a 
 good field-glass we can see objects with considerable distinctness on a 
 clear day for a distance of fifty to a hundred miles in every direction, 
 over a most rugged surfoce with high ridges and deep gorges, the strata 
 showing red, yellow, gray, and indeed every variety of color. Far to 
 the south we can see the Uinta Mountains, their summits covered with 
 snow tbe greater portion of the year, forming a most beautiful and sym- 
 metrical background to our ^iew. To the southwest, dimly seen, is 
 the Wasatch range, which separates ns from one of the objects of our 
 visit to this country — the Great Salt Lake. jSTorth of the road the 
 Goose Creek Mountains are faintly visible, but still loom up with suflBcient 
 magnitude to invite our attention. "" 
 
 At Evanston we leave Bear Eiver Valley and proceed on our way 
 westward, while the river flows far northward into Idaho to Port Neuf 
 Gap, near latitude 42^° N,, then it suddenly and almost abruptly flexes 
 about and flows southward until it empties into Bear Eiver Bay, a por- 
 tion of Great Salt Lake. 
 
 We may stop at Evanston and study the interesting coal mines with 
 profit. With one exception this is the last point along the line of the 
 road before reaching the Pacific coast, where we shall have an opportu- 
 nity to examine coal mines possessed of any economic value. The coal 
 is located about three miles from this place on the east bluff of Bear 
 Eiver Valley, and is exposed over but a small area. It seems to have 
 been revealed by the incUnation of the coal strata to the east, and the 
 entrances have been made at the base of the bluffs but a few feet above 
 the bed of the valley. A branch railroad has been constructed to these 
 mines, and there is now no limit to the amount of fuel they can furnish. 
 
 The mines have been opened with more system and at greater ex- 
 pense, and I regard them as more valuable and the coal of a better qual- 
 ity than any I have ever seen west of the Mississippi. Five entrances 
 have been made, each one showing a vertical front to the coal bed, va- 
 rying from twenty to twenty-six feet. The dip is about northeast, and 
 varies from 12° to 19°. For a distance of about a mile along this ab- 
 rupt rocky blufl* the coal seems to be exhibited on the grand scale above 
 described, but proceeding either way from that point it disappears or be- 
 comes almost inaccessible. About one hundred feet above the coal bed 
 there is a layer of calcareous sandstone filled with leaves, apparently 
 belonging to extinct species of the genera Magnolia, Tilia, Salix, TJlmus, 
 and Flataims, though very much resembling in form those of our exist- 
 ing forest trees. These leaves indicate that the rocks are of a tertiary 
 age. 
 
 The summits of the hills are capped with a thick bed of conglom- 
 erate, probably of the same age ^Wth that which forms " The Nee- 
 dles " near Yellow Creek, and also that shown so- grandly in Echo and 
 Weber Valleys. At this point there is a broad expansion of Bear 
 Biver Valley," which makes it a most attractive site for a city. There 
 are here thousands of acres of fertile land that could be easily irrigated, 
 and even now they form a vast meadow, covered during the summer and 
 autumn with a luxuriant crop of grass. 
 
 From Evanston we might branch off in any direction and visit places 
 of great interest of which but little is known as yet. Not far north- 
 
GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF THE TERRITOEIES. 155 
 
 ward we might take a. glance at Bear Lake Valley, which is destined 
 to be a point of great interest, not only to tourists iVoni the grandeur 
 of the scenery and the beauty of the lake from which it takes its name, 
 but also to settlers on account of the fertility of its soil. This lake is 
 an expansion of a branch of Bear Eiver, and is about fifteen miles long 
 and four or five in width, and well stocked with trout. iVbout thirty 
 miles to the north are the far-famed soda springs of Idaho, which will 
 re])ay the time spent in visiting them. 
 
 Taking the cars again at Evanston we shall soon find ourselves at the 
 divide between Bear Piiver and Echo Caiion at an elevation of about 
 seven thousand feet above tide-M\ater. The country we have passed 
 over presents nothing new or striking ; the same reddish clays and sands 
 which we have seen before, seem to have been worn down into a fine 
 rolling surface, which is covered with a good growth of grass, giving 
 the whole scene a cheerful aspect. Game, as antelope, elk, deer, bear, 
 &c., was formerly abundant all over this region, and the experienced 
 wary hunter might discover some even at this time; but all along the 
 line of the railroad game of all kinds is fast disappearing. 
 
 The tunnel at the head of Echo Canon is cut through the reddish and 
 jmrplish indurated sands and clays of what I have called the Wasatch 
 Group, of miocene tertiary age. It is seven hundred and seventy feet in 
 length, and is the longest tunnel on the Union Pacific road. After pass- 
 ing through it, the trains move slowly over the piers of trestle-work, 
 which creak and tremble beneath their load. One section is two hun- 
 dred and thirty feet long and thirty feet high, the other four hundred 
 and fifty feet in length and seventy-five feet high. We then enter one 
 of the narrow grassy valleys which leads soon into Echo Caiion, and 
 then we sweep I'apidly down between lofty conglomerate walls on either 
 side, which have been weathered into the most fantastic forms. 
 
 Indeed, this entire valley is, for the most part, one of erosion. The 
 water in past geological times has carved out of the massive conglom- 
 erates its deep channel, and on either side the rocks rise wall-like five 
 hundred to one thousand feet. Some i)ortion of the lower part of the 
 valley passes through a mouoclinal rift; that is, the beds incline to tbe 
 northwest, so that on our right as we descend we see the projecting 
 edges. All these beds seem to have a greater or less dip to the north- 
 west, apparently from the Uinta range. 
 
 At the head of Echo CaQon the first objects that attract our attention 
 are the massive reddish sandstones on our right, five hundred, to eight 
 hundred feet high, which have weathered into curiously castellated 
 forms, and to which the general nanie of Castle Rock is given. As we 
 pass down through some of the wildest scenery in the world, our eye 
 will be constantly arrested by some unique shape into which these 
 variegated sandstones and conglomerates have been worn by time. 
 Witches' Eock, Eagle Eock, Hanging Eock, Conglomerate Peaks, Sen- 
 tinel Eock, Monument Eock, all greet us in turn as important land- 
 marks. 
 
 The Conglomerate Peaks of Echo present a near view of these con- 
 glomerates, so that even the depressions in the smoothly-worn surfaces 
 of the boulders can be distinctly seen. A little side stream has worn a 
 deep gorge, and scattered vast piles of debris below. The different 
 sizes of the pebbles are also well shown 5 its walls are about five hundred 
 feet high. 
 
 Monument Eock is one of the most remarkable landmarks in this 
 valley. It is a regular obelisk of conglomerate, standing at the junction 
 of the Echo with the Weber Valley, nearly one thousand miles west of 
 
156 GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF THE TERRITORIES. 
 
 Omaha. It is about two hundred and fifty feet hi^h, and forms another 
 illustration of the peculiar style of weathering by which rocks assume 
 the appearance of animals. This column has been very aptly called the 
 Dog's Head, to which it will be seen at a glance that the summit bears 
 a resemblance. 
 
 The peculiar form of stratification, with the varied texture, sometimes 
 a fine sandstone, then a fine pudding-stone, is well shown in many 
 localities, and the same variations of structure on a still larger scale 
 may be seen throughout the valley of Echo and portions of Weber Canon, 
 The inclination of the strata is also well shown. The base is composed 
 of rather fine sandstone, but these sandy layers are not permament over 
 areas, but often within a distance of a few feet run into coarse, massive 
 conglomerate. 
 
 Hanging Rock presents to us one of the most striking views in this 
 region, and is a mass of coarse conglomerate, overhanging its base 
 about fifty feet. It overlooks Echo City and the valley of Weber, through 
 which a beautiful stream of pure mountain water winds its way. On 
 the opposite side of the Weber the partially-rounded, grassy foot-hills 
 of the Wasatch Mountains may be distinctly seen. The Weber Eiver 
 also flows a portion of its way tlirough a monoclinal valley, the abrupt, 
 nearly perpendicular sides of the conglomerate bluffs rising up like 
 gigantic walls eight hundred to one thousand feet, while on the left the 
 gently-sloping sides of the inner series of ridges are well displayed. 
 The isolated rounded mass, which seems to stand alone, and almost 
 ready to tumble into the valley below, is quite firmly seated on its bed 
 of sandstone, and the corresponding portions may be seen forming the 
 base of the hanging rocks. I call attention to these strata of sandstone 
 as a matter of geological interest. High above the bed of the Weber, 
 eight hundred feet or more, rises the conglomerate bluff, with nearly 
 perpendicular sides, and from its summit one can survey the country 
 for a long distance in every direction, and enjoy the multitude of most 
 attractive views offered. 
 
 As we descend Echo Valley, we emerge from the caiion around Pulpit 
 Eock, and shoot our way with wonderful rapidity down the picturesque 
 valley of the Weber. We shall observe that, as we descend the Echo 
 Caiion, the more rugged picturesque scenery is exhibited on our right 
 hand, and as we descend the Weber, the same lofty perpendicular walls, 
 weathered here and there into all sorts of fantastic forms, continue to 
 the Narrows, where the Weber Eiver makes a bend to the left, and the 
 conglomerates disai)pear. This formation, which in some respects is the 
 most remarkable one which I have ever seen in the West, must have 
 a thickness of three thousand to five thousand feet. The conglomerate 
 portion above must be one thousand five hundred to two thousand feet 
 in thickness. I have included in • this group all the A' ariegated beds 
 which we have observed west of Carter's Station, and we have noticed 
 especially that some shade of red has prevailed in the clays and sands, 
 as well as in the conglomerates of this group. Some of the sandstones 
 in the upper portion of Echo Canon are noticeable for their deep yellow 
 hue. I have called this series of beds the Wasatch Group. How great 
 the area occupied by these formations I have never ascertaiuecl. I 
 regard them, however, as forming the materials deposited in one of the 
 great lake basins of the middle tertiary period, the history of which, if 
 we knew it, would be too long and tedious for this volume. But if fine 
 sands require moving waters for their deposition, what kind of aqueous 
 forces must have been employed to transport these boulders into this 
 lake-basin ? From whence were they derived, and what were the powers 
 
GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF THE TERRITORIES. 157 
 
 tbat wrenched tliera from their parent beds, smoothed them into their 
 present rounded form, and then iiji^gregated and cemented them together 
 into such huge masses as we tiud here 1 
 
 From the mouth of Echo up tlie vaHey the rocks seem to form a sort 
 of gentle anticlinal for about ten miles, and then the inclination is 
 reversed. The general dip, however, is 5° to 15° nearly northwest; 
 but for six miles below and three miles above Hanging Hock, it is 
 increased to 25°, and even to 35°. 
 
 This formation, which diflers somewhat lithologically from any with- 
 which I am acquainted, must have an aggregate thickness of at least 
 three thousand feet. The conglomerate portion must be at least fifteen 
 hundred feet in thickness. It includes no beds of coal, and shows a few 
 fossils, which are all imi^ressious of deciduous trees, but no marine or 
 fresh-water shells. 
 
 Near Coalville, a little town in the valley of "Weber River, five miles 
 above the mouth of Echo Creek, coal outcrops several times. At Spriggs' 
 Opening the dip is 20° or 30° east, and the coal bed about fifteen feet 
 thick, capped with gray sandstone, nuich of it charged with pebbles. 
 I was informed that in other places this pebbly sandstone rests directly^ 
 on the coal bed. A few hundred feet from Spriggs' Opening a shaft to 
 strike the same bed has been sunk seventy-nine feet deep, through 
 twelve feet of gravel and sand, into black clay, growing harder down- 
 ward, and containing numerous specimens of a species of Inoceramus, 
 Ostrca, and Ammonites, showing that the black clays are certainly of 
 cretaceous age. If these beds do actually lie above the coal, as the dip 
 would indicate, then this formation of doubtful age, must be' cretaceous, 
 and some of the finest coal beds in the West are in rocks of that age. It 
 is probable, however, that the coal is really above the black cretaceous 
 clays of No. 2, and forms a part of the upper cretaceous group. 
 
 The Weber Eiver flows directly west, and the rocks incline in a sort 
 of half circle between north and south. Several beds of massive sand- 
 stone cap the high hills, and between them are layers of clay with a 
 reddish tinge. 1 was informed that there were in this section six or 
 seven beds of coal, varying in thickness from eighteen inches to fifteen 
 feet. 
 
 Passing down the Weber Valley the dip would carry down the Coal- 
 ville coal beds, in a distance of five miles, that is, at Echo City, to a 
 depth of from twelve hundred to fifteen hundred feet beneath the sur- 
 face. So that the coal area that can ever be made available for eco- 
 nomical purposes in this region must be very limited. 
 
 An interesting feature along the Weber Eiver is its terraces. Near 
 Echo City there is a rather narrow bottom near the river; then an 
 abrupt ascent of thirty feet ; then a level i)lain or bottom of two hun- 
 dred to four hundred yards ; then a gentle ascent to the rock blufis. 
 The summit of the first bluif at Echo is five hundred feet high ; it then 
 slopes back to the plains bej'ond. 
 
 Passing down the Weber Valley, about a mile below Echo Station 
 the beds begin to dip 25° northeast. The whole valley is filled with 
 rounded boulders, some of them three to four feet in diameter. The 
 Weber Eiver throughout the greater part of its course seems to flow 
 through a monoclinal valley ; but just before reaching the entrance of 
 Lost Creek it seems to pass along a local synclinal valley. A long ridge 
 of conglomerate extends down from the direction of the Wasatch 
 Mountains, nearly northeast and southwest, inclining northeast 5° to 
 10°. At this point the Weber, instead of continuing in the syn- 
 clinal valley, cuts through the ridge, isolating a portion about half a 
 
158 GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF THE TERRITOEIES. 
 
 mile in leugth and forminj];' a liiige cliasin or gorjre, wliicli is called here 
 the ISTarrows. After passiug- throngli this ridge the Weber receives 
 Lost Creek, and makes an abrupt bend to the southward ; and here is 
 exposed an immense thickness of tlie older ro(;ks, in a nearly vertical 
 position. These rocks extend down the Weber River four miles or 
 more, when the beds abruptly change from the nearlj^ vertical position 
 to a nearly horizontal one. 
 
 Commencing near the j^arrows, at the mouth of Lost Creek, we have 
 a considerable thickness of the Jurassic limestones and marls, dij^ping 
 70° or 80° northeast, of a bluish ash color, very hard and brittle, cleav- 
 ing into thin layers and fracturing in every direction, so that the sides 
 of the hills are covered to a great dei)tli with its debris. Then comes 
 a series of mud shales, with ripple marks, some layers of very white 
 sandstone, and a thick bed of hard red sandstone, destined to take the 
 highest rank among the building stones of Utah. It can be easily 
 wrought into hue forms for culverts, fronts for buiklings, caps and sills, 
 &C. Then comes a vast thickness of gray and dark-gray, more or less 
 cherty limestones, which are probably carboniferous ; aiul below these 
 again a A^ery hard siliceous rock, oftentimes massive, portions of which 
 are filled with holes at right angles to the layers, very similar to much 
 of the Potsdam east of the Mississippi, pierced by ^Goliihm linearis. In 
 this quartzose group there is a becl oi^ shaly limestone, six to teu feet 
 thick. A few indistinct mollusks were observed in the limestones and 
 the mud shales. 
 
 The distance from the mouth of Lost Creek to the end of the nearly 
 vertical series of rocks is about three miles. So that we have here a 
 thickness of strata not much less than two miles in thickness from the 
 top of the Jurassic downwards, so as to include the carboniferous. 
 
 At the mouth of Lost Creek there is a reuiarkable example of non- 
 conformity in hills of different ages. The reddish conglomerate rests 
 directly upon the upturned edges of the vertical beds described above, 
 and it is an important question what has become of all the intermediate 
 beds, containing the coal, which are so conspicuous about five miles 
 above Echo City. 
 
 Descending the Weber from the Narrows, we find some of the most 
 remarkably rugged scenery in the West. The walls are very noticeable, ' 
 and are formed of two beds of limestone, projecting from the sides of 
 the valley at right angles, from between which ten or twelve feet of loose 
 material has been washed out. Near the tunnels the rocks on the left 
 side of the Weber dip about 10° nearly north, while on the other side 
 the strata incline in the opposite direction 3° to 5°, as if the valley was 
 anticlinal. Then again the valley would appear to be monoclinal, the 
 strata on the right side of the river inclining 20° south, and on the- 
 opposite side, though presenting ji nearly vertical front, inclining south 
 also. A little farther on down the valley, and on the right side of the 
 river, come beds of red sandstone ; below these again gray sandstone, 
 with a reddish tinge, the red sandstone dipping east 12° ; while on the 
 opposite side of the river the hills are open, rounded, and grass-covered. 
 
 The cherty crinoidal limestone extends to ]\Iorgan City and gradually 
 disappears. The red sandstones are seen among the foot-hills. 
 
 At Morgan City we come out of the principal canon of the Weber into 
 a broad open bottom, filled with little villages and farm-houses. The 
 soil is of great fertility. The hills on either side are smoothed off and 
 covered thickly with loose material and vegetation. The high vertical 
 exposures all disappear. The Wasatch range seeuis to tiend nearly 
 north and south ; even the foot-hills of this range are so smoothed oif 
 
GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF THE TERRITORIES. 159 ' 
 
 and covered with drift, and then with grass, that the underlying rocks 
 are not to be seen. Tlie industry shown by the Mormons in this valley 
 is worthy of all praise. The little streams are made use of to irrigate 
 the rich bottom lands, which produce abundantly, and the houses look 
 neat and comfortable. Fruit cannot be raised to any extent in the 
 Weber Valley. The varieties of trees are confined mostly to the bitter 
 Cottonwood, although from Echo City down we meet with a small dwarf 
 oak, box-elder, striped maple, and choke-cherry. 
 
 Just below the little viUage of Enterprise I saw in the hills, rocks 
 composed of an aggregate of quartz pebbles. Still larther down we 
 come to feldspathic rocks, indicating that the dip of the gneissic beds 
 of the Wasatch range is westward. The Wasatch range is composed of 
 gneiss, so far as the rocks can be seen along the Weber. The rocks are 
 beautifully banded everywhere. There are also coarse aggregations of 
 quartz and feldspar, with large masses of tourmaline ; and all through 
 the gneiss, are seams of feldspar and quartz of various thicknesses. 
 
 The evidence is quite clear that from Morgan City to the entrance of 
 the Wasatch Canon stretched a lake, the waters of which must have 
 filled up the valley, rounded off the hills, and covered the sides of the 
 mountains with loose debris. Along the sides of the canon of the 
 Wasatch, four and a half miles long, are thick deposits of loose sand, 
 interspersed with water- worn boulders in many places. These deposits 
 have been cut through in making excavations by the railroad, and the 
 lines of current deposition are curiously well marked. About half way 
 through the canon there is a sudden bend in the Weber Kiver, by which 
 a small portion of one of the gneissic ridges is cut off. O[)posite this 
 ox-bow, a canon descends the mountain side, down which a vast quantity 
 of loose material has been swept, filling the channel of the river with 
 local drift, and jn'obably driving the current through the gneissic ridges. 
 The Weber Eiver, if its channel were straightened, would run through 
 this deposit of drift, which is about thirty feet thick; instead of which 
 it makes a bend and cuts its way through a massive gneissic ridge. 
 
 Extensive deposits of whitish, fine-blue and rusty-yellow sandstones, 
 hard enough for building purposes, with liesh-colored marls, probably of 
 pliocene age, and resembling verj^ closely in many respects the more 
 recent tertiary beds along the Platte, occur in this valley. These recent 
 beds dip east or southeast. We thus learn that some of the later move- 
 ments in the elevation of these mountain ranges have been of compara- 
 tively modern date. Terraces continue to show themselves the entire 
 length of the Weber River, and they are probably synchronous with 
 those which surround the basin of Salt Lake Vallej'. 
 
 x\.fter emerging from the Wasatch Caiion of the Weber valley, we 
 pursued a southerly course along the base of the Wasatch range to Salt 
 Lake City. For twenty miles or more all the unchanged rocks ha\'e 
 been worn away from the flanks of the mountains, or completely con- 
 cealed by debris. All over the gentle slopes at the foot of the moun- 
 tains are strewn masses of rocks, all gneissic and evidently derived 
 from the central parts of the mountains. Terraces surround this basin 
 everywhere. There is one large one, with two or three smaller ones, 
 on tlie sides of the mountains ; and from the lowest one downwards the 
 surface slopes gently to the lake. I was infonned that the lake had 
 risen nine feet vertically since 18GS, and of course the water has ag- 
 gressed upon the land to a great distance. I have heard no explanation 
 of this phenomenon. All the lakes in the West are said to be rising- 
 more or less. 
 
 The carboniferous limestones begin to make their appearance along 
 
160 GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF THE TERRITORIES. 
 
 the flanks of tlie mountains about ten miles nortli of Salt Lake City, and 
 continue to a greater or less extent all around the rim of the basin. 
 
 On the flanks of the mountains east of the city are the red beds, and 
 probably a careful study would reveal Jurassic, cretaceous, and possi- 
 bly even tertiary beds. President Y^ung has long since olfered a 
 large reward to any one who would discover workable beds of coal 
 within a reasonable distance of the city, and a thorough search has been 
 made for them, but thus far without success. A bed of coaly clay only, 
 has been found near the city in the mountains. All the coal used in the 
 valley is transported in wagons from Coalville, on the Weber. The best 
 of red sandstone for building purposes is brought from E,ed Sandstone 
 Caiion, just east of the town. I tliink it is of Triassic nge. The beauti- 
 ful gray granite which is used in the construction of the Mormon Tem- 
 ple is brought from Cottonwood Valley in the Wasatch Mountains. It 
 is composed of white feldspar, quartz, and black mica. 
 
 The surface of Salt Lake Valley has been rendered fruitful by the in- 
 dustry, of the Mormons. Like the greater portion of the West, it was 
 originally avast sage plain. Xow, by irrigation, all kinds of cereals and 
 roots grow luxuriantly, and there are no better apples, peaches, plums, 
 grapes, &c., raised in America. It may eventually become a vine-growing 
 region. 
 
 Following the stage road eastward, sixteen inifes from Salt Lake City 
 to the Brewery at the mouth of Parley's Caiion, we reach the foot of 
 the mountain, over sand beds which are probably of post-pliocene age. 
 Here a little stream cuts through the sand beds, exposing a vertical 
 bluff two hundred feet high, composed of fine sand, horizontally 
 stratified and overlaid with a great thickness of water-worn pebble con- 
 glomerate. There are indications all along the flanks of the mountains 
 that nearly or quite all the formations already recognized as far west as 
 this i)oint are here represented. At the entrance of the caiion the 
 carboniferous limestones dip northeast 70° to 80° ; over them lie the 
 purple and red sandstones and rusty-yellow layers, and under them red- 
 dish sliales. Beneath these shales an immense thickness of dark-gray 
 silicious rock stands nearly vertical. All this vast thickness of older 
 rocks, in appearance semi-metamorphosed, is undoubted!}^ the counter- 
 part of the series described in the Weber Valley, just below the en- 
 trance of Lost Creek. 
 
 The road passes up a monoclinal valley between the ridges of quartzitic 
 rocks, having a brittle fracture, and the monoclinal slopes are covered 
 with debris. No gueissic rocks are noticeable along this road. 
 
 Before reaching the summits, in fact soon after we begin the ascent, 
 we come to the conglomerates and sandstones which accompanied us 
 down the Echo and Weber Valleys. Near the summit all the hills are 
 rounded by erosion and grassed over, and water- worn boulders are scat- 
 tered about here and there, so that the underlying rocks are partially 
 concealed. Just beyond the summit we arrive at a broad oj^en exposure 
 in the valley of the stream called Parley's Point, half a mile wide and 
 about seven thousand feet above sea level. Settlements are numerous 
 all along the road ; but while there is very good grazing, few of the 
 cereals vrill grow. 
 
 AH the rocks on the eastern slope incline at a greater or less angle 
 apparently toward the east. Just as we enter Silver Creek Valley Ave 
 come to numerous upthrusts of partially changed sandstones" and con- 
 glomerates, the first indications that we get along our route of the neigh- 
 borhood of igneous rocks. Some of the masses of rock which go to make 
 up the conglomerate are of great size, very compact, and of a steel-gray 
 
GEOLOGICAL SUKVEY OF THE TERRITORIES 161 
 
 color, and are inclosed in a steel gray silicious paste ; but whether large or 
 small, all are angular. These might be called volcanic conglomerates, 
 for they are of igneous origin. They occur in the South Jcark and near 
 the sources of Lewis's Fork of the Columbia Eiver. k 
 
 CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 GENERAL REVIEW OF THE GEOLOGY OP THE COUNTRY FROM OMAHA TO 
 
 SALT LAKE VALLEY. 
 
 In the preceding chapters I have endeavored to present a simple state- 
 ment of facts as I have been enabled to read them in nature. The 
 simplicity and unity of the Great Rocky Mountain system is such, that 
 when a sufficiently wide range of facts has been secured it will not be 
 difficult to derive from them some generalizations of permanent value. 
 In this chapter I desire to recapitulate somewhat briefly the principal 
 geological features of the country from the Missouri to Salt Lake Valley, 
 stopping here and there to discuss some obscure x3oints. 
 
 The upper coal measure limestones are seen at Omaha, near the water's 
 edge, and quarried all along the Platte nearly to the Elk Horn River. 
 The lower cretaceous rusty sandstones of No. 1 overlap the upper 
 carboniferous limestones about four miles above the mouth of the Platte, 
 and extend to the mouth of the Loup Fork ; but the yellow marl deposit, 
 or loess, conceals for the most part the underlying rocks. A fine yellow- 
 ish sand, of the same age, or a little less recent, overlaps the cretaceous 
 near Columbus. 
 
 The chalky limestones of No. 3, with the characteristic Inoceramus 
 prollematicus, here and there crop out, and some obscure exposures have 
 been detected in the Pawnee reservation, fifteen or twenty miles up the 
 Loup Fork. 
 
 This fine yello ^ish sand soon gives place to the pliocene beds of the Platte, 
 Loup Fork, and Niobrara Rivers, composed of indurated marls, sands, or 
 sandstones, which continue on as far as the margin of the Laramie range 
 of mountains, five hundred and thirty miles west of Omaha — that is, for 
 nearly four hundred and thirty miles along the line of the railroad. In 
 the grand anticlinal of the Laramie range, which I have already described, 
 they sometimes repose with a slight discordance on the older rocks; some- 
 times, as near the Laramie Peak, they rest directly on the granites, and 
 entirely conceal, for a distance of forty or fifty miles, all the unchanged 
 rocks of older date ; but a careful study of the eastern flank, from Red 
 Buttes to Long's Peak, will reveal all the „. 
 
 formations that are known to exist in this ^^' ^ 
 
 part of the West, inclining from the sides 
 of the granitic nucleus at various angles. 
 
 Figure 14 will illustrate the surface fea- ; 
 tures of the Monument Creek Group. The 
 rocks are composed mostly of decomposed ' 
 granites, a feldspathic paste holding some 
 pebbles of quartz or feldspar. The columns 
 that are left standing over a large area, 
 are capped with a hard layer of rusty yellow 
 sandstone, as shown in the cut. This group 
 covers the divide between the South Platte 
 and the Arkansas Rivers, and is supposed ' 
 to be of upper miocene or pliocene age. Monument Creek, Coionwio. 
 
 11 G 
 
162 
 
 GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF THE TERRITORIES. 
 
 Figure 15 will serve to show the appearance of the ridges of upheaval, 
 or " hog backs," as they are sonletimes called iu the west. These ridges 
 occur to a greater or less extent all along the eastern flanks of the Rocky 
 Mountains. They sometimes rise like steps to the crest, so that one 
 may walk from the tertiary forrpations in the plains, holding a horizon- 
 tal position, across the uplifted edges of all the formations to the granite 
 nucleus. Between these ridges are, iu many instances, beautiful grassy 
 valleys, varyiug from a few hundred yards to half a mile in width. 
 
 When exposed only on one side of a range I have called them mono- 
 clinal ridges and valleys. 
 
 Fig. 15. 
 
 Ridges of npheavel neax Big Thompson Creek, Colorado. 
 
 The railroad then for forty miles passes over and cuts through a great 
 variety of svenites; some compact, beautiful building stones, almost 
 equal to the Scotch syenites, but the greater part ferruginous and easily 
 disintegrating on exposure. Tf. i 
 
 On the west side of the Laramie range we pass across the up itted 
 edges of the various formations seen on the eastern margin. We know 
 that the carboniferous limestones occur here, for the fossils which, 
 though not abundant, are explicit as to their age. The limestones lie 
 all along the margins of the Laramie range up to the Eed Buttes, and 
 sometimes slope so gently and cover the flanks so uniformly as to appear 
 like a sort of flexible roofl Along the North Platte, above Laramie 
 Peak, the little streams have cut deep canons through the limestones 
 and sandstones of carboniferous age. In Box Elder Canon, Hemipromtes 
 crassus, Productus semieticulatus, Amculapecten occidentahs, and other 
 well-known carboniferous forms occur. Between the granites and the 
 
GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF THE TERRITORIES. 
 
 163 
 
 limestones is a thin series of fine and coarse sandstone, the hijers rest- 
 ing directly upon the granites, being composed of a sort of fine pudding- 
 stone consisting of an aggregate of quartz pebbles and rusty coarse 
 sand cemented with lime. This may possibly be a remnant of the Pots- 
 dam sandstone which occurs so well developed farther north in the Big 
 Horn, Wind Eiver, and Sweetwater ranges. This same sandstone is 
 observed far north to EedButtes, but I have never been able to find any 
 trace of organic remains. 
 
 ' Fig. 16. • 
 
 Uplifted Carboniferous Ridges, Jefferson Fork,, Upper Missouri. 
 
 Figurel6 is introduced in this connection simply to show the ridges 
 of carboniferous limestone, as they are revealed along the flanks of tho 
 mountains. This cut will apply to the ridges about ten miles west of 
 Elk Mountain, although the sketch was taken in the valley of Jefferson 
 fork of the Missouri River. Similar examples occur all along the east 
 and west sides of the Laramie range. The figures are introduced in this 
 connection to make more clear the theory of the upheaval of the Rocky 
 Mountain ranges, which* has been expressed in this and previous re- 
 ports. 
 
 The red beds are well revealed all along the western flanks of the 
 Laramie range, and are always noticed by the traveler on account of 
 their peculiar brick-red color. The harder layers of this rock are 
 much used for building purposes. I am unable to say yet whether 
 these red sandstones are triassic or Jurassic, though I believe that be- 
 tween these and the cretaceous formations, Jurassic beds occur. Along 
 the Big Laramie the cretaceous rocks come to the surface. The quartz- 
 ites and sandstones which I have usually referred to No. 1, or lower 
 cretaceous, underlie the plain just west of the railroad south of Fort 
 Sanders; and in the banks of the Big Laramie, near the old stage 
 station, jSTo. 2, occurs with its dark plastic laminated clays, with thin lay- 
 ers of fibrous carbonate of lime, to the surface of which are attached 
 great numbers of the ubiquitous Ostrea congesta. In the level plain 
 west of the Big Laramie, No. 3 is exposed fifty to one hundred feet in 
 
164 GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF THE TERRITORIES. 
 
 thickness, with its usual yellow chalky character ; the usual Ostrea 
 congesla occurs in great abundance. Immediately along the line of the 
 railroad no indications of No. 3 have ever been observed. Nowhere in 
 the Laramie plains are any of the subdivisions of the cretaceous group 
 well defined. These beds occupy the country along the line of the 
 road from Laramie City nearly to Como Station, a distance of sixty 
 miles ; at this point the red beds and the true Jurassic rocks are 
 brought; to the surface, over a restricted area, by means of an anticlinal 
 which forms a valley through which the road passes. The strata in- 
 cline from either side. The south side of the road exposes the most 
 complete series of beds ; a high ridge is composed of Jurassic beds, 
 mostly capped with the sandstones of No. 1, while as far as the eye 
 can reach to the southward the low, wave-like ridges of No. 2 can be 
 seen. Towards the southwest, the anticlinal valley seems to close up, 
 but to the northeastward it expands indefinitely, and extends, no doubt, 
 to the Laramie range. 
 
 From a point about ten miles west of Como to St. Mary's Station, a 
 distance of fifty miles, the tertiary coal beds, with the sands, sandstones, 
 and clays peculiar to them, occupy the country. The most important 
 coal mines are located at Carbon ; no shells have ever been observed 
 in connection with the coal, but thousands of impressions of deciduous 
 leaves are found. It is an important point to fix the age of the coal 
 beds in any one locality. So far as we can determine, the coal beds of 
 the Laramie plains are of eocene age, although the plants are more 
 closely allied to those of the miocene period in the Old World, 
 
 In the vicinity of Elk Mountain, along the Overland stage road, in 
 beds which I regard as belonging to the older tertiary, and holding a 
 position near the junction of the tertiary and cretaceous, and nearly or 
 quite on a parallel with the lower tertiary beds near Denver, Colorado, 
 1 found a quantity of fossil leaves, among which Dr. Newberry identi- 
 fies Platanus Haydeni, Quercus aceroides, Magnolia tenerafolia, with frag- 
 ments of Cornus and Khamnus. The same species occur in the upper 
 portion of the coal series on the west side of Bridger's Pass. At Carbon 
 Populus cuneata, P. Nebrascensis, and Platanus Haydeni, are very abun- 
 dant. From St. Mary's Station to Kawlings' Si>rings, a distance of thirty 
 miles, the road passes over rocks of cretaceous age ; although on the 
 hills on either side remnants of the coal strata may be found. About 
 two miles west of this point the coal beds begin to appear again, and at 
 Separation, Platanus Haydeni, Cornus acuminata, with other undeter- 
 mined species of plants, occur. This point forms the eastern rim of a 
 basin which extends about one hundred and t6n miles to the westward. 
 A new group comes in which I have named the Washakie Group, from 
 the fiict that near this station are beds of calcareous sandstone and lime- 
 stone, composed of an aggregate of fresh-water shells. As they are 
 mostly casts it is difficult to identifj^ the species, but Mr. Meek has 
 named the most abundant kind TJnio WasJiaJceei. Soon after leaving Bitter 
 Creek Station the coal strata of eocene age rise to the surface from be- 
 neath the miocene beds of the Washakie Group with a reversed dip. 
 Here we find numerous beds of coal, and in the rocks above and below 
 the coal are great numbers of impressions of leaves, and in the clay 
 seams of oyster shells of several species. At Black Buttes Station, eight 
 hundred and fifty miles west of Omaha, we found Sabal Camphelli, Rham- 
 nus elegans, Cornus acuminata, Quercus aceroides, Tilia antiqua, with 
 other undescribed species. At Point of Rocks, fourteen miles farther 
 west, Platanus Haydeni, P. Nehrasccnsis, Cornus acuminata. Magnolia 
 tcnerafolia,occuT. At Hallville the black slaty clays, forming the roof of one 
 
GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF THE TERRITORIES. 165 
 
 of the most valuable of the coal beds of this region, are crowded with bi- 
 valve shells, two species of which Mr. Meek has named Cyrena fracta, and 
 G. crassatelliformis, regarding them as tertiary. They are undoubtedly 
 brackish-water forms and show a sort of middle jjositiou — that is, middle 
 or upper eocene. That there is a connection between all the coal beds 
 of the West I firmly believe, and I am convinced that in due time that 
 relation will be worked out and the links in the chain of evidence joined 
 together. That some of the older beds may be of upper cretaceous age 
 I am i)repared to believe, yet until much clearer light is thrown upon 
 their origin than any we have yet secured, I shall regard them as belong- 
 ing to my transition series or beds of passage between the true creta- 
 ceous and the tertiary. When the large collections of fossil plants from 
 the West, now in the possession of Dr. Newberry, are carefully studied, 
 we shall have a mucfi better basis upon which to rest a conclusion. It 
 will be seen at once that one of the most important problems in the geol- 
 ogy of the West awaits solution, in detecting, without a doubt, the age of 
 the coal series of the West, and the exact line of demarkation between 
 the cretaceous and tertiary periods. 
 
 The study of this question shows the importance of the continued 
 accumulation of facts and the collection of organic remains. Neither 
 can we place too rigid reliance on the teachings of the fossils, for it has 
 already been shown many times that the fauna and flora of the tertiary 
 deposits of this country, when compared with those of the Old World, 
 reach back one epoch into the past. W^e have already obliterated the 
 chasm between the permian and the carboniferous era, and shown that 
 there is a well-marked inosculation of organic forms — those of supposed 
 permian affinities passing down into well-known carboniferous strata, 
 and admitted carboniferous types passing up into the permian. We 
 believe that the careful study of these transition beds is destined to oblit- 
 erate the chasm between the cretaceous and tertiary periods, and that 
 there is a passing dowm into the cretaceous period of tertiary forms, and 
 an extending upward into the tertiary of those of cretaceous affinities. 
 It appears also, that every distinct fauna or flora of a period ought 
 to contain within itself the evidence of its own age or time of existence, 
 with certain prophetic features which reach forward to the epoch about 
 to follow. If there is a strict uniformity in all the operations of nature 
 when taken in the aggregate, as I believe there is, then this is simply in 
 accordance with the law' of progress which in the case of the physical 
 changes wrought out in the geological history' of the world has operated 
 so slowly that infinite ages have been required to. produce any percep- 
 tible change. The position that I have taken in all my studies in the 
 West is that all evidences of sudden or paroxysmal movements, have 
 been local and are to be investigated as such, and have had no influence 
 on the great extended movements which I have regarded as general, uni- 
 form, and slow, and the results of which have given to the West its 
 I)resent configuration. The splendid group of fossils obtained on the 
 Upper Missouri, from the Fox Hills Group or upper cretaceous beds, 
 illustrate the j)rophetic element I have mentioned above. Among them 
 are many true cretaceous Ibrms, as Ammonites, BacuUtes, Inoeeramns, &c., 
 yet these all present such a modern facies that they seem plainly to look 
 forward into the succeeding epoch, which in the case of our Atlantic 
 coast was strictly marine. It was no fault of the fossils themselves that 
 they were mistaken in this instance. 
 
 We may suppose that near the close of the cretaceous period, the 
 ocean extended all over the area west of the Mississippi, from the Arc- 
 tic Circle to the Isthmus of Darien. How mu(;h of the countrv east of 
 
166 GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF THE TERRITORIES. 
 
 the Mississippi "vras beneath the ocean I will not now attempt to deter- 
 mine. Eestricted portions of the western continent may liave been 
 above the ocean level, and some of the mountains may have projected, 
 like rocky islands, above the waters. Near the close of the cretaceous 
 period the great water-shed of the continent was marked out, and the 
 marine waters were separated into more or less shallow seas, lakes, es- 
 tuaries, marshes, &c. Among' the marshes sported the reptiles, the 
 remains of which are so abundant in the tertiary deposits ; and on the 
 areas raised above the waters grew luxuriant forest trees and other 
 vegetation which contributed to the formation of the coal beds. We 
 shall attempt to show from time to time tliat, althougli the coal deposits 
 of the West occupy an enormous area, yet theproiitable deposits of coal 
 lie in detached basins, some of which are quite restricted in their area. 
 The study of these coal formations in nature shoVs most plainly that 
 some of the beds of coal extend, uninterruptedly, over enormous areas, 
 as if the vegetable matter had been deposited in a sea, or that the 
 physical conditions attending its occurrence were widespread and uni- 
 form, while in other localities coal strata of great thickness clearly oc- 
 cupy but a limited area. We are aware that beds of coal, but a few 
 miles apart, and evidently vsynchronous, show no physical evidence of 
 ever having been connected with each other. There is another curious 
 fact, that, while very nearly the same species of plants occur, the coal 
 strata are nearly, or quite all, marine or brackish, while far removed 
 from the mountain ranges the sediments very soon become purely fresh- • 
 water. On the Upper Missouri, where the coal-bearing group covers so 
 large an area with remarkable uniformity, only the lowest beds contain 
 marine forms, and very soon we pass up into strata with purely fresh- 
 water fossils. We may suppose that at an early period, during the ter- 
 tiary epoch, this portion was cut off from access to the salt water. If 
 our ideas of the physical geogTaphy of these epochs are correct, coal 
 strata of contemporaneous origin may be purely marine, purely fresh- 
 v.ater or brackish, depending upon the proximit}" of the sea, lake, or 
 marsh, to the ocean waters. 
 
 We have already shown many times that there is no real physical 
 break in the deposition of the sediments between the well marked cre- 
 taceous and tertiary groups. In some localities the continuity is clear 
 and beautiful in the highest degree. On Green Eiver, and in the Bit- 
 ter Creek Valley, one can trace the continuity step by step, solar as the 
 strata are concerned, from the cretaceous through the greatest thick- 
 ness of clays, sands, iind sandstones of the lower tertiary to the purely 
 fresh-water beds of Green Riv^er shales, Washakie or Bridger Groups. 
 In these localities the influence of the elevation of the mountain ranges 
 has been such as to expose the outcropping edges of all the strata from 
 the cretaceous to the sands of the most recent tertiary, like the 
 leaves of a book. We have already shown that in the clays interspersed 
 among the coal beds in the Bitter Creek Valley, are seams of oys- 
 ter shells of several species. A few other marine forms have been ob- 
 served. At Hallvdle, near Point of llocks, we liave seen that in the 
 slaty shales, above one of the coal beds, are proofs that at that period 
 the physical conditions were most favorable for the existence of a i)ro- 
 fusion of brackish- water life; that in this locality, from 3,0U0 to 4,000 
 feet of coal strata were deposited before the salt water ceased to have 
 access to these tertiary lakes. At Bear liiver, also, the same history is 
 written upon the rocky layers. We have well-defined cretaceous strata, 
 and from these we ascend through a series of sandstones and clays, with 
 an abundance of shells of the genus Ostrca, and a few other marine forms 
 
GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF THE TERRITORIES. 167 
 
 resembling tertiary types as much as cretaceous. Soon we come to the 
 coal beds, which, at this Ideality, ^re nearly vertical. Above them we 
 find seams of oyster shells, but no otlier marine forms. Anil finally, 
 high up iu the upper beds of the coal group, we find the greatest profu- 
 sion of brackish and fresh-water life that we have observed in the West, 
 Unio priscus, U. hcUiplicatus, Cyrciia dnrJccel, Corbula injriformis, &c. 
 fcso far as the Evanston coal mines are concerned, no shells have been 
 found in connection with them, so far as I know. But last year, in the 
 calcareous sandstones above the huge 20-foot bed, I discovered a mag- 
 nificent series of fossil leaves, among which, Dr. Kewberry informed 
 me, he had detected species identical with those occurring in connection 
 with the coal beds of the Laramie Plains, and on the Upper Missouri. 
 No plants have been observed iu the vicinity of Bear Eiver City. What 
 relation the coal be(ts here sustain to those at Evanston, I cannot deter- 
 mine. As yet there is no evidence of any connection whatever, except 
 proximity. 
 
 The next locality where coal is exposed is at Coalville, a little town in 
 the valley of Weber River, five miles above the mouth of Echo Creek, 
 where it crops out in a number of places over a very restricted area. 
 The general dip of the beds is northwest, 10° to 18°. The most im- 
 portant opening of a coal vein is that of Mr. Siuiggs. The coal bed 
 is fifteen feet thick, twelve feet of good coal, and the other three feet 
 somewhat impure, but useful as a fuel. The dip is 20° to 30° ;. the roof, 
 is composed of yellowish-gray sandstone, sometimes a pudding-stone, 
 witb only about an inch or so of clay between. An air shaft sunk by 
 Mr. Spriggs passed through the sandstone sixty feet, Mr. Spriggs in- 
 formed me that there were six difiterent seams of coal in this region. 
 Just above the third seam there is a layer of oyster shells about four 
 feet thick ; the clay under the coal varies iu thickness, sometimes sixteen 
 feetj again eighteen inches ; below this is a yellowish-gray or brown 
 sandstone. Looking doM'n the Weber Valley, the group of beds forma 
 sort of semicircle, dipphig west and northwest. In the high ridge that 
 lies immediately north of Chalk Creek, we have a series of yellowish 
 and brown-gray clays and sands, with one or two beds of light, brick- 
 red, arenaceous clay, the whole extending up two hundred and fifty 
 feet above the coal, apparently. On the summit of this ridge, and in 
 different layers along the outcropping edges of the ridge, are great 
 quantities of marine shells, which are regarded as of very modern cre- 
 taceous types. A few hundred feet south of Spriggs's opening, a party 
 sunk a shaft eighty ieet with the intention of cutting the bed of coal ; 
 the shaft cut through the black clays of what I regard as cretaceous 
 No. 4. In the clays that were thrown out of the shaft were great quan- 
 tities of Inoceraimis^ Ammonites^ Ostrca, &c. The coal is evidently iu close 
 proximity to these cretaceous clays, but, I think, above them. From 
 Chalk Creek to Echo City it is about four miles iu a straight line ; 
 about two and a half miles of it is occupied b^- eight to twelve ridges 
 of the coal strata, inclining 10° to 30°, averaging 20°. There is not less 
 than one thousand feet of them exposed here, but the coal is mostly, 
 and perhaps all the workable beds are, iu the lower ])ortion. There is 
 a sort of valley which forms the line of separatiou between the coal 
 strata and the Wasatch Group; the remaining one and a half miles is 
 composed of the Wasatch conglomerates. In the group of coal strata, 
 all of which I suppose lie above the Coalville bed, shells of the gen- 
 era Anchura., Gyrodcs. Inoceramus^ and Ostrea, are found. The evi- 
 dence seems to point to the cretaceous age of the coal grouj) iu Weber 
 VaUey. It is the only locality iu the West that has come under my ob- 
 
168 GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF THE TERRITORIES. 
 
 servation where the proofs seem to be so condusive ; and yet I ^ish to 
 make a still more careful examination of this locality before I commit 
 myself fully. My reading of the rocks is, that they are either upper 
 cretaceous, above what we have usually regarded as No. 5, or a portion 
 of my transition series, more purely marine in their character than 
 usual. 
 
 If it is true that there must have beeu such a continuity in the pro- 
 gress of events during geological times that there can be no general phys- 
 ical line of separation between any of the great periods, and that the 
 names Jurassic, cretaceous, or tertiary are merely terms of convenience — 
 milestones, as it were, to mark steps of time — then why should not cer- 
 tain marine forms of life extend up into the lower eocene, or in other 
 words, did not the cretaceous deposits at certain localities continue on 
 up, unchanged, into tertiary time'? Whether the coal strata of the 
 West are of cretaceous or tertiary age, or both, is a matter of indifference 
 to me ; I only wish to discuss tlje subject from time to time, as the occa- 
 sion offers, in the light of sucli facts as I can secure. The geologist is 
 simply the interpreter of nature. He must seek to read the records as 
 the Creator has written them upon the tablets of stone, and his ob- 
 servations will be of i)ermanent value only when he is able to arrive at 
 the true reading. Experience has shown that with a simple love of the 
 truth, untrammeled by tradition or preconceived notions one is led step 
 by step, slowly, perhaps, and through many difficulties, but eventually, 
 to the light. 
 
 We will now pass rapidly down the valley of the Weber River. iChe 
 geological structure is very complicated, and there is mnch that is 
 yet obscure. We only hope, at present, to contribute something toward 
 a knowledge of it. Every year we hope to gather more facts and ex- 
 tend our examinations over larger areas. Before proceeding further we 
 might say a word in regard to the conglomerates which form the most 
 conspicuous feature in the geology of this region. I now regard the 
 whole group as distinct from any other — a separate lake basin. The east- 
 ern shore of it may be regarded as the same as the eastern rim of the 
 great basin, of which Salt Lake Valley forms a part. The great thick- 
 ness of variegated clays, sands, and sandstones, which we see from Car- 
 ter Station to the middle of Echo Caiion, lie beneath the vast body 
 of conglomerates in Echo and Weber Valleys. I have never been able 
 to find a single well-defined fossil in this group, only a few small frag- 
 ments of the shell of a fresh- water turtle. It occupies so large an area 
 that it seems to me more careful explorations must bring to light some 
 organic remains. From physical evidence I am inclined to the belief 
 that it began its existence after that of the Green River Group, but be- 
 fore the close of that period and extending up through the time of the 
 deposition of the Bridger Group ; that is, the conglomerates are prob- 
 ably on a parallel with the Bridger Group, or upper miocene. These 
 conglomerates originally extended entirely across the Wasatch Moun- 
 tains. In City Creek Caiion, on the west side of the range, these con- 
 glomerates are finely shown, a thousand feet or more in thickness, ip- 
 clining from the range. There is the same evidence of want of con- 
 formity as is shown near the " Narrows," but no rocks more recent than 
 the Jurassic limestones were observed between them. I do not donbt 
 that further to the southward both cretaceous and older tertiary beds 
 occur on the flanks of the mountains. The immense thickness of strata 
 exposed in the Weber Valley seems to be made np, so far as I can as- 
 certain, of Jurassic, triassic, and carboniferous rocks. Near Morgan 
 Station, in limestones which appear to hold a position at the base of the 
 
GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF THE TERRITORIES. 169 
 
 series, 1 saw great quantities of fossils, among them several varieties 
 of Productus, Spirifer, &c., well-known carboniferous forms. Fossils of 
 the same age are quite abiiudant just over the range near Salt LalvO 
 City, and in many other localities all over the valley. There may be 
 restricted areas in the Salt Lake basin where unchauged rocks of older 
 date than the carboniferous occur, but they have so far escaped my 
 observation, and we have no evidence of their existence from the ex- 
 aminations of other explorers. 
 
 In my last preliminary report 1 alluded brietly to a series of sands, 
 sandstones, marls, &c., in the Weber Valley, between Morgan Station 
 and Devil's Gate, and also along the foot of the mountains in Salt 
 Lake Valley proper. That they form a separate group from all others 
 I do not doubt, although in point of time they may be regarded as an 
 extension upward of the Wasatch Group. I have given these the name 
 of the Salt Lake Group, and I believe them to be of pliocene age. All 
 through the mountain districts these later pliocene deposits occur, com- 
 posed of light-colored clays, -sands, marls, &c., not unfrequently yielding 
 numbers of vertebrate remains. The Salt Lake Group has so far revealed 
 but few fossils, only one species of Helix. During the middle tertiary 
 period, it seems probable that the metamor})hic and granitic rocks 
 which form the nu(;leus of the mountain ranges were exposed to the 
 erosive action of the waters to a great extent, and thus their decomposi- 
 tion, mostly feldspar, supplied the materials for these pliocene deposits. 
 Their uniformity in composition and color is quite remarkable. In most 
 cases these beds have been very sltghtly disturbed and do not conform 
 to the older rocks, though I think they conform to the conglomerates. 
 These recent beds underlie the benches or terraces which form so 
 marked a feature in Salt Lake Valley. There are still more recent 
 deposits in Salt Lake Valley, which, from their magnitude, deserve 
 mention. As we emerge from the Weber Canon into Salt Lake Valley 
 we see on either hand high, rounded hills, which jut close up to'the foot 
 of the mountains. All the older rocks seem to have been swept away, 
 leaving a ver}' large area, from a point about ten miles north of Salt 
 Lake City to the mouth of Bear Eiver, occupied only by the arenaceous 
 clays of the quarternary period. The cuts along the railroad show 
 the character of these deposits quite clearly. Still more recent, 
 and probably forming a portion of this deposit, are the immense accu- 
 mulations of loose sands and drift or worn pebbles and boulders which 
 are found everywhere in Salt Lake Valley and extend high up the 
 valleys of the streams which empty their waters into Salt Lake. From 
 the mouth of Echo Creek to the Salt Lake Valley, Weber Valley is 
 covered with a prodigious quantity of worn rocks of greater or less size, 
 from a small pebble to boulders two or thre^ feet in diameter. The 
 terraces are composed of fine sediments, mingled with jiebbles and 
 boulders. On the sides of the Weber River, in its passage through the 
 Wasatch range, we see fifty to one hundred feet of this fine sand, gravel, 
 and boulders, with a kind of irregular stratification, which indicates 
 deposition in moving waters. I mention these details to show with what 
 fidelity the records of the various changes, geographical and geological, 
 of this valley, have been preserved. We see that by careful examination 
 we can trace the history step by step far back, from the middle of the 
 tertiary period up to the present time. 
 
 Let us for a moment glance at some of these intermediate steps and 
 ascertain what bearing they have on the progress of the growth of our 
 continent. The Salt Lake Group, which I have already described, I re- 
 gard as an important feature in th^ history-. 
 
170 GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF THE TERRITORIES 
 
 The sediments reach a thickness of eight hundred to one thousand 
 two hundred feet at least. It not only occupied a vast area in the great 
 basin, but extended up the valleys of the luimerous rivers that How 
 therein. In the Weber Valley above the Devil's Gate, or on the ^ east 
 side of the Wasatch range, this group occuj)ies an oval area of twelve 
 miles long and eight miles wide, or about one hundred square miles. It 
 forms one of the series of mountain lakes which occupied hundreds of 
 the oval areas, or parks as they are now called, in the great mountain 
 system which extends from the Arctic on the north to the Isthmus of 
 Darien on the south, and I presume also to Patagonia, in South America. 
 
 The Salt Lake Group I regard as of pliocene age and contemporane- 
 ous with the Niobrara, Arkansas, and Santa Fe Groups, with numerous 
 other small accumulations of marls and sands in the Middle Park, and 
 among the mountains far to the northward and throughout the Hum- 
 boldt Valley, Oregon, «S^c. All the proofs we can secure, up to the pres- 
 ent time, indicate their fresh- water origin. What geographical changes 
 have occurred in this long period of time we will not now attempt to de- 
 termine; we wish simply to express our belief that, at least since the 
 middle tertiary period, the salt ocean has not had access to this great 
 basin. If now we pass to what may be called for convenience the quar- 
 tenary period, or the one that gradually merges into the present, we 
 shall find that it presents geological features of no ordinary interest. 
 In descending the Weber Valley, after we emerge from the caiion of the 
 Wasatch range into the open valley of Salt Lake, we observe on either 
 side thick beds of sands and arenaceous clays, which must have been de- 
 posited in the quiet waters of a lake. 
 
 In the valley of Sait Lake, and especially in that of the Weber River, 
 these drift deposits i)0ssess a thickness of several hundred feet, and of 
 these materials the terraces are formed. Near Salt Lake City, in dig- 
 ging a well, fresh-water shells were found in these deposits, forty feet 
 below the surface, and on the north side of the lake, where these de])0sits 
 are very largely exhibited, the cuts in the railroad, through the gravel 
 and sands, reveal the greatest abundance of fresh- water shells, showing 
 that at this time the physical conditions were unusually favorable for 
 the existence of fresh- water molluscous life. So far as I could ascer- 
 tain, these conditions do not exist at the present time, or if they do, it 
 must be only to a limited extent. 
 
 I am indebted to the kindness of Mr. George W. Tryon, jr., for the 
 identification of the species obtained from this drift : 
 
 1. Fluminicola fusca. Tbis species seems to have been very abundant ; 
 it exi.sts at the present time in the mountain streams. 
 
 2. Fomatiopsis Cincinnatiensis. 
 
 3. Amnicola limosa. 
 
 4. Valvata sincera. I 
 
 5. L-imnea desidiosa. 
 
 6. Liinnea catiscopium. 
 
 From these observations I infer that a vast fresh-water lake once oc- 
 cupied all this immense basin ; that the smaller ranges of mountains 
 were scattered over it as isolated islands, their summits projecting above 
 the surface ; that the waters have gradually and slowly passed away 
 by evaporation, and the terraces are left to reveal certain oscillations of 
 level and the steps of progress toward the present order of things; and 
 that the briny waters have concentrated in those lake basins, which have 
 no outlet. The entire country seems to be full of salt springs, which 
 have, in all probability, contributed a great share to the saline charac- 
 ter of the waters. 
 
GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF TIIP: TERRITORIES. 171 
 
 But Tre must not omit to mention in this connection the Warm Springs, 
 which are located about a' mile north of the city. They issue from the 
 limestone rocks near the foot of the mountains ; all around the place 
 are tnfa-like incrustations of sufficient hardness to be used for walls and 
 fences. The baths at this place are the most grateful I luive ever enjoyed, 
 and 1 cannot well conceive of a more desirable locality for invalids in a 
 sanitary point of view. The following analysis of the water, made by 
 Dr. Charles S. Jackson, of Boston, is posted on the walls of tiie bathing- 
 house, which any one can have the privilege of reading or copying: 
 
 Three fluid ounces of the water, on evaporating to entire dryness in a platina cap- 
 snle, gave 8.25 grains of solid dry saline matter : 
 
 Carbonate of lime and magnesia 0.240 1.280 
 
 Peroxide of iron 0.040 0.208 
 
 Lime --- 0.545 2.907 
 
 Chlorine 3.454 18.421 
 
 Soda : 2.877 15.344 
 
 Magnesia (^.370 2.073 
 
 iSulphuric acid 0.703 3.748 
 
 8.2-2'J 43.981 
 
 It is slightly charged with hydro-sulphuric acid gas and with carbonic acid gas, and 
 is a pleasant, saline mineral water, having the valuable properties belonging to saline 
 sulphur springs. 
 
 The above is a true copy of the analysis, and the reader can extract 
 for himself whatever information of value it may contain. 
 
 About three miles north of the city are the Hot Springs, which are 
 well worth the examination of the traveler. The water boils np from 
 beneath beds of limestone at the base of the mountains, and it is only 
 necessary to thrust the hand into it to ascertain that it is boiling hot. 
 Meat is readily cooked in it, and eggs will be ready for the table in three 
 minutes. The dense column of steam that rises perpetually will always 
 point out the locality of the springs. Quite a large volume of water 
 issues forth, forming a stream four or five feet in width and six inches in 
 depth. It flows into a beautiful lake not far distant to the west, called 
 Hot Spring Lake. This lake is supposed to be supplied to some extent 
 with water from hot springs beneath the surface. Still the hot water is 
 not sufficient to prevent the existence of some kinds of excellent fish, 
 among them fine large trout. Springs which, if they existed on the 
 Atlantic coast, would be of great value, are so common throughout all 
 this region that they attract but little attention. Hot, warm, and cold 
 springs frequently issue from the ground only a few yards apart. 
 
 In no portion of the inland West will the traveler so delight to linger 
 and enjoy the novelty and beauty of the scenery and the exhilarating 
 influence of the atmosphere. But before leaving this pleasant region 
 we may devote a paragraph at least to the remarkable inland sea which 
 gives the name and fame to (Central Utah. 
 
 Although such streams as the Jordan, Weber, and Bear Eivers, with 
 numerous smaller ones, have been for ages pouring a vast volume of 
 water into this lake, it is now well known that it has no visible outlet; 
 the question naturally arises. What becomes of all the water thus 
 gathered into this area ? We believe that it all disappears by evapora- 
 tion. It seems, however, that of later years the evaporation has not been 
 going on as rapidly as in former times. It is stated by the railroad 
 engineers that the waters of the lake have risen nine vertical feet since 
 1804, and the general impression is, that all the lakes of the West are 
 rising more or less. 
 
172 GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF THE TERRITORIES. 
 
 We might note, in this connection, many changes which this valley 
 must have been subjected to since the present configuration of the sur- 
 face wns outlined by the elevation of the mountain chains. Several 
 times this valley must have been filled high up on the mountain sides 
 with water; water, too, with but very little of that saline character which 
 it i^ossesses at this time. Indeed, I am convinced that, while the lake 
 itself is not of modern origin, yet as a salt lake, in its present condition, 
 it is of comparatively recent date. We find all along the flanks of the 
 mountains, and high up in the valleys of the ravines opening into this 
 basin, groups of strata hundreds of feet in thickness, which are doubtless 
 of fresh-water origin, dating back into the pliocene or upper tertiary 
 period. Then these beds have been disturbed by the elevations of the 
 mountains, showing that while these ranges formed shore lines for the 
 halves of this i)eriod, they did not reach their present height until after 
 the deposition of these tertiary beds. Eesting upon them, and appar- 
 ently deposited after the upheaval movements had ceased, are heavy 
 beds of sand and gravel, and the flanks of the mountains all around the 
 valley, as well as the sides of the mountains in the islands of the lake, 
 reveal numerous water lines, showing most clearly the elevations to 
 which the waters of the lake must have reached in later geological times. 
 We can hardly suppose that during these periods the waters here were 
 sufliciently salt to difter from the other lakes in the West. I am inclined 
 to the belief, therefore, that the saline materials of a vast area have been 
 concentrated by time into the basin now occupied by Salt Lake, and 
 that it is owing to its partial evaporation that its water is become so salt. 
 
 Let us for a moment take a bird's-eye view of the great inland basin 
 of which Salt Lake Valley forms only a part. We shall find that what 
 is termed the Great Basin of the West comprises the vast area inclosed 
 by the Wasatch Mountains on the east, and the Sierra Nevada on the 
 west, the crest or water divide of the Columbia on the north, and that 
 of the Colorado on the south. We shall also observe that this great 
 region has no visible outlet; that it is composed of a multitude of 
 smaller basins or valleys, each of which has its little lakes, s])rings, and 
 water-courses, their surplus water either evaporating or sinking beneath 
 the surface. If we examine the elevations in this region, we observe a 
 w'onderful uniformity in the surface of the valleys, and find that none 
 of them are much above the level of the waters of Great Salt Lake. As 
 Captain Stansbury has remarked: 
 
 These plains are but little elevated above the present level of the lake, and have, 
 beyond question, at one time formed a part of it ; an elevation of but a few feet above 
 the present level of the lake would float this entire flat to a great distance, thus forming 
 a vast inland sea. 
 
 It seems probable, also, that at a comparatively modern i)eriod the 
 briny waters spread out over a much larger area than at present, 
 for both Fremont and Stansbury make frequent mention of large tracts 
 covered with an incrustation of salt. The latter, in describing the broad 
 plain country to the west of Great Salt Lake, says: 
 
 The first part of the plaia consisted simply of dried mud, with small crystals of salt 
 scattered thickly over the surface. Crossing this, we came upon another portion of it, 
 three miles in width, where the ground was entirely covered with a thin layer of salt 
 in a state of deliqiaescence, and of so soft a consistence that the feet of our mules sank 
 at every step iuto tlie mud beneath. But we soon came upon a portion of the idain 
 where the salt lay in a solid state in oue unbroken sheet, extending, apparently, to its 
 western border. So firm and strong was this unique and snowy floor, that it sustained 
 the weight of our entire train without in the least giving way or cracking beneath the 
 pressure. Our mules walked upon it as upon a sheet of solid ice. The whole field was 
 crossed by a network of little ridges, projecting about half an inch, as if the salt had 
 expanded in the process of crystalizatiou. I estiuiated this field to be at least seven 
 
GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF THE TERRITORIES. 173 
 
 miles wide aud ten miles in length. How luuch farther it extended nortliwai'd I conld 
 not tell, but if it covered the plain in that direction as it did where we crossed, its 
 extent must have been very much greater. The salt, which was very pure and white, 
 averaged from one-half to three-fourths of an inch in thickness, and was etiual in all 
 respects to our linest specimens for table use. Assuming these data, the quantity that 
 here lay upon the grouiul in* one body, exclusive of that in a deli([uescent state, 
 amounted to over four and a half millions of cubic yards, or about one hundred 
 millions of bushels. 
 
 Areas of greater or less extent, covered with this saline incrustation, 
 occur in numerous localities, so that we may infer that in all probability, 
 at no very distant period in the past the salt lake extended either con- 
 nectedly, or in isolated portions, over the greater part of the Great 
 Basin. 
 
 It would be a. most interesting subject to trace the history of this 
 wonderful lake far back in the geological past ; from the records which 
 have been left in the sediments, I have obtained comparatively few facts 
 as yet, but they seem to be quite conclusive, and I believe that each 
 successive step in the changes which this great region has undergone can 
 be interpreted with accuracy from the records left in the surfVice deposits, 
 if they could be studied in detail. 
 
 One of the most conspicuous features in this basin, is the system of 
 terraces or benches which borders the valleys as well as the streams. 
 These terraces seem to form an independent system in this basin, discon- 
 nected, both in regard to time and the causes that produce them, from 
 those so well known along the Missouri and Columbia Elvers. 
 
 Not only do they seem to be universal over this gi^eat basiu, but they 
 are all of about the same level. I have never observed more than two or 
 three of these benches well defined, but Captain Stansbury speaks of 
 counting thirteen successive terraces at the northern end of the lake, the 
 highest about two hundred feet above the valley. 
 
 In volume II of the Pacific Railroad Reports, page 97, there is a most 
 interesting note in regard to these remarkable shore lines, which I am 
 sure will be as instructive to those who may read this volume as it has 
 been to me : 
 
 The old shore lines existing in the vicinity of the C4reat Salt Lake present an interest- 
 ing study. Some of them are elevated but a few feet (from live to twenty) above the 
 present level of the lake, and are as distinct and well defined as its present beaches, whilst 
 their magnitude and smoothly- worn forms as unmistakably indicate the levels which 
 the waters maintained at their respective formations for verj^ considerable periods. 
 In the Tuilla Valley, at the south end of the lake, they are so remarkably distinct 
 and peculiar in form and position that they attracted the attention of the least-informed 
 teamsters of my party, to whom they appeared artificial. From these beaches the Tuilla 
 Valley ascends gradually toward the south, and in a few miles becomes blocked up by 
 a cross range of mountains, with passages at either side, leading, however, over quite 
 as remarkable beaches, into what is known to the Mormons as Rush Valley, in which 
 there are still small lakes or ponds, once doubtless forming part of the Great Salt Lake. 
 
 The recessions of the waters of the lake from the beaches at these comparatively 
 slight elevations must have taken place within a very modern geological period, and 
 the volume of the water of the lake at each subsidence — by whatever cause produced, 
 whether gradual or spasmodic — seems as plainly to have been diminished ; for its pres- 
 ent volume is not sufficient to form a lake of even two or three feet in dejjth over the 
 area indicated by these shores, and, if existing, would be annually dried up during the 
 summer. 
 
 These banks are not peculiar to the vicinity of this lake of the basin, but were ob- 
 served near the lakes in Franklin Valley, and will probably be found near other lakes, 
 and in the numerous small basins which, united, form the Great Basin. They clearly 
 seem to have been formed and left dry within a period so recent that it would seem im- 
 possible for the waters which formed them to have escaped into the sea, either by great 
 convulsions opening jiassages for them, or by the gradual breaking up of the distant 
 shore, (rim of the basin,) thus draining them off, without leaving abundant records of 
 the escaping waters, as legible at least as the old shores they formed. 
 
 But high above these diminutive banks of recent date are seen, on the mountains to 
 the east, south, aud west, aud ou the islands of Great Salt Lake, formations preserving 
 
174 GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF THE TERRITORIES. 
 
 apparently a uniform elevation as far as the eye can extend — foriuatiousv/hich, hastily 
 examined, seem no less unmistakably than the former to indicate their shore origin. 
 They are elevated from tvro hundred or three hundred to six hundred or eight hundred 
 feet above the present lake, and may on cai'eful examination afford the nieaus of de- 
 termining the character of the sea by which they were formed, whether an internal 
 one, subsequently drained oft' by the breaking or weariag away of the rim of the basin, 
 or an arm of the main sea, which with the continent has been elevated to its present 
 position and drained by the successive steps indicated by these shores. 
 
 These terraces seem to be a marked feature of tbe valleys of streams 
 ou both sides of the Rocky Mouiitaius. lu the valleys of the Missouri 
 • River and its tributaries, even the smallest branch, they are to be seen 
 more or less conspicuous. Professor Dana describes them with much 
 care, as universal ou the Pacific coast. So far as those terraces are con- 
 cerned which occur ou the Pacilic coast and the eastern slope of the 
 Rocky Mountains, I believe they have a common origin ; but the ter- 
 races of this great inland basin might be synchronous or quite independ- 
 ent of the others. Still, as both must have been formed near the close 
 of the quarternary i)eriod, constituting the last act in the drama, we 
 might consider them all as having a common origin. If we v/ere to ex- 
 amine the whole country west of the Mississippi, the broad plains of the 
 eastern slope rising gradually to the foot of the mountains and to the 
 very summits of the loftiest ranges, descend into the plains on the oppo- 
 site side, and explore the valleys of the inland streams, the parks and ba- 
 sins, we shall lind everywhere, to a greater or lesser extent, the proofs of a 
 very modern drift deposit, or that among the latest events in the geo- 
 graphical history of our continent is the evidence that it was nearly or 
 quite submerged with water. Some of the highest peaks may have pro- 
 jected above the almost universal sea of waters ; but the tops of the 
 highest mountains, as the Wind River, Big Horn, Uinta, show the drift 
 boulders at an elevation of twelve thousand feet above the sea. So far 
 as my own observations are concerned, all the evidences I have been able 
 to detect show that the superiicial or quarternary deposits of the West are 
 of local origin. In the vicinity of the mountain ranges the proofs of the 
 origin of the vast mass of the boulder drift is very api)areut. The hills at 
 the base of the mountains are often covered with masses of rocks, usuall}' 
 out slightly worn. And as we recede from the mountains these rocks 
 become smalles and more worn, until far out in the plains they are re- 
 duced to mere pebbles. But il is in the inland plains and i)arks, as 
 Laramie Plains, the Great Salt Lake Basin, North, Middle, and South 
 Parks, &c., that the greatest exhibition of this local drift action is best 
 shown. In the Missouri Valley, and especially north in Minnesota and 
 Dakota, these stray masses are scattered in the greatest profusion all 
 over the surface of those broad, treeless plains. The character of the 
 rocks themselves shows that they came from the mountains. Sometimes 
 these rocks are strewn in belts across the cotintry, taking a uniform 
 direction. iSTorth of the Missouri River, from the Big Sioux River to 
 Fort Clark, there are districts Avhere one might walk for miles atiross 
 the iJlains and over the hills without stei^ping upon the ground, so 
 closely paved is it with worn or partially- worn boulders. The cele- 
 brated Ooteau de Prairie was no doubt outlined by these drift forces, and 
 scattered over the hills are masses of these rocks. The accompanying 
 figure 17 will convey an idea of a strip of country which fornis a sort of 
 water divide between the drainage of the Missouri, Mississippi, and the 
 Red River of the North. 
 
 As we have previously remarked, we believe that the quaternary 
 period, although more difficult to study, will be found to be scarcely 
 second in importance to any of the previous great epochs in geology. 
 
GEOLOGICAL SL^RVEY OF THE TERRITORIES. 
 
 175 
 
 A careful study of these u\odern deposits will undoubtedly show coiisec- 
 ntivii links by which it was united to the tertiary period, in the same 
 manner as the cretaceous and teitiary are connected in the case of 
 
 Fig. 17. 
 
 Coteau des Prairies, on the Missouri. 
 
 the great tertiary lake now indicated by the deposits. on White and 
 Niobrara Rivers, in Nebraska, in which the waters continued to cover n 
 greater or less area through most of the quaternarj^ period, at least, 
 as is shown by the thick deposits of fine sand, with bones of raammals 
 and shells of existing species, on Loup Fork and its tributaries. The 
 same may be said of the bluff deposit, or loess, which is so well displayed 
 along the Missouri from Fort Pierre down beiowSt. Louis, and, probably, 
 to the Gulf of Mexico. At a modern i>eriod it is probable that the 
 waters of the ocean swept high up inland, reaching nearly to the foot of 
 the mountains. The great water-courses had already beeu marked out, 
 consequently we find the yellow marl or loess fifty to one hundred and fifty 
 feet thick in the immediate valley of the Missouri, but thinning out as we 
 recede from it, or the valleys of any of its branches. The existence of 
 so many fresh-water mollusca and the entire absence of any- marine 
 forms indicate that the waters of the Mississippi and Missouri were 
 either cut off from the direct access to the sea, or that the influx of such 
 a vast quantity of fresh water as must have flowed down from the 
 mouiitaiu districts rendered completely fresh the inland jwrtions. 
 
 We may suppose the temperature just prior to the present period to have 
 been extremely low, and that the elevated portions of the West were 
 covered with vast masses of snow and ice ; that as the temperature be- 
 came warmer this snow and ice melted, producing such an accession to 
 the already existing waters that they covered all the country, except- 
 ing, })erhaps, the summits of the highest peaks ; that masses of ice tilled 
 with fragments of rocks, worn and unworn, floated oft" into this gi"eat 
 sea, and melting, scattered the contents over the hills and plains belov/ ; 
 that as the waters diminished these masses of ice would accumulate on 
 the summits of the foot-hills of the mountains, or at certain localities in 
 the i)lains; and thus account for the great local accumulations of stray 
 rocks at certain places. The materials, also, which must have beeu re- 
 moved from all portions of the West drained by the Missouri and its 
 tributaries by surface denudation, as is illustrated by the " bad lands," 
 &c., were also swept into this vast inland lake, and then, carried beyond 
 the reach of currents, would settle quietly to the bottom, almost with- 
 out lines of stratification, as we observe in the loess. The last act was 
 the recession of these waters to their present position, and the forma- 
 tion of the terraces. We believe the terraces constitute the last change 
 
176 
 
 GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OP THE TERRITORIES. 
 
 of any importance in the surface of the western continent. We suppose 
 tliat the channels of all tlie streams on the eastern slope of the Kocky 
 Mountains were at one time occupied with water from hill to hill, and 
 that the drainage was toward the sea. But in the Great Basin, which, 
 so far as we know, has no outlet, the drainage must have been by evap- 
 oration, for the evidence points to the conclusion that it was entirely 
 tilled with water high up on the sides of the mountains. There is 
 greater uuiformity in the terraces in the Great Basin than in the valley 
 of the Missouri, which indicates a far more equable drainage. Still, 
 those along the flanks of the Wasatch Mountains number two or three 
 principal ones, but these formations separate into five or six 5 and iStans- 
 bury mentions one locality where there are ten or twelve of them. In 
 the Missouri Valley, and along the eastern slope generally, the terraces 
 vary much in height and importance. 
 
 Fig. 18 shows the peculiar form of the main terrace as shown on the 
 Missouri Eiver, just above Omaha. 
 
 Fig. 18. 
 
 The distant hills are composed of the yellow marl or loess, and the 
 surface has be^n weathered into the rounded, conical hills. This por- 
 tion is often covered with the drift or stray rocks, or what I have called 
 in a former report the erratic block deposit. On the terraces these erratic 
 masses are scarcely ever found, and in the broad bottoms of the Missouri 
 River seldom if ever. This fact strengthens the opinion that the terraces 
 are really one of the latest features, and that they were formed during 
 the drainage of the waters toward the sea after the temperature had 
 reached nearly its present state. Oscillations of level may have contrib- 
 uted somewhat to the formation of the terraces, but I am inclined to 
 believe that the drainage or the contraction of the waters is the main 
 cause. This is an important point, and I hope hereafter to treat it more 
 fully when I have accumulated a greater number of facts. It has been 
 my belief for years, that not only the Missouri Eiver, but all the 
 branches, from the largest river, like the Yellowstone or Platte, that 
 flowed into it, to the smallest creek, that has cut its caiiou deep iut« 
 the sides of the mountains, were once filled with water from side to 
 side, but have gradually shrunk to their present diminutive proportions. 
 All over the West are large, dry beds which must have at one time 
 given passage to vast bodies of water. The flanks of the mountains, 
 from the north line to Mexico, are gashed with gullies or canons, many 
 
GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF THE TERRITORIES. 177 
 
 of which are now dry as the dusty road for the greater portion of the 
 year. I mention some of these details here simply to show how closely 
 the story of the physical growth of our western continent is linked 
 together, and that it needs only the careful, conscientious grouping 
 together of the facts to secure this history step by step from the earliest 
 commencement to the present time, and mold it into one harmonious 
 whole. 
 
 CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 OBSERVATIONS ON MINES— ANALYSES OF COALS, ORES, AND SALTS. 
 
 Although many valuable observations have been made in regard to 
 the gold and silver mines of the West, I shall not attempt to present 
 them in detail at this time. The elaborate and elegantly illustrated 
 " Report on Mining Industry," prepared under the direction of Mr. 
 Clarence King, United States geologist of the 40th parallel, about to be 
 issued from the Public Printing Office, covers this grouud far more 
 efficiently than my incidental labors could do. Mr. R. W. Raymond is 
 making a series of valuable reports as United States Commissioner of 
 Mining Statistics, and the one already published for the years lS69-'70 
 is quite exhaustive, and to these works the reader is referred. The 
 latter report contains an excellent and lengthy statement of the condi- 
 tion of the mines of the Sweetwater district. In the preceding pages 
 some information is given in regard to those mines, and in this chapter 
 a few additional notes, taken by Mr. A. L. Ford, mineralogist of the 
 survey, will be of interest. 
 
 The object of this survey is to study the mineral regions more in 
 reference to their geological relations than with any special practical 
 end in view. * 
 
 In a previous report the remarkable parallelism of the lodes was al- 
 luded to, and an attemjjt was made to show that this fact is only one link 
 in a chain of facts which may yet serve to unite the physical history of the 
 mountain regions of the West together. Hundreds of observations 
 were taken the past season, which serve to show the definite direction 
 of the two principal sets of fissures or clefts. The unity of the origin 
 of all these fissures, whether they assume the form of mineral lodes, 
 dikes, or lines of fracture of mountain ranges, is a thought around which 
 I wisli to cluster all the facts that can be secured. Hereafter all these 
 observations will be carefully sifted, and rig. 19. 
 
 those which seem to contain the elements 
 of truth will be found valuable. 
 
 In this connection, two illustrations of 
 these fissures may be introduced, which 
 will be of interest. They are made by the 
 Jewett line relief process, and are very 
 excellent. One of them presents a fine 
 section of the well-known Gregory lode 
 at Central City. This fissure has a strike 
 about northeast and southwest. The 
 country rock is trne gneiss, while the ^ 
 
 gangue of the lode is mostly feldspar and Gregory Lode, central city, 
 
 quartz. So far as the history of its min- Colorado. 
 
 eral contents is concerned, it is so well known that I need not describe- 
 it, and the cut will explain itself. 
 12 G 
 
178 
 
 GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF THE TERRITORIES. 
 
 The dike is in the same mountain, not more than three hundred yards 
 from the Gregory lode. It is exposed by an artificial cut for a road up 
 
 the side of the mountain, and but for 
 this circumstance "would not have 
 been visible from the surface. It is 
 vertical, twenty feet high, and three 
 to four feet wide. The materials in- 
 closed in the dike are evidently very 
 old basalt, yellow buff color, with 
 cavities filled with decomposed feld- 
 spar. The country rock does not ap- 
 X3ear to have suff'ered changes, but the 
 lines of bedding are entirely inter- 
 rupted, and curved upward. 
 
 The following notes on the Sweet- 
 water Mines were taken by Mr. Ar- 
 thur L. Ford, the mineralogist of the 
 expedition : 
 
 Dyke, near Central City, CaHso ilfmes. — Worked by Mr. 
 
 coLojiADo. Eoberts, of South Pass City. Shaft 
 
 one hundred and forty feet deep, sunk in vein of very refractory quartz- 
 ite averaging four and one-half feet in thickness; strike of vein north- 
 west and southeast, with dip of 70° to northeast. Cap rock and wall 
 rock consist of tough gneissoid slate containing a little free gold, and 
 occasionally showing a few small cubes of iron pyrites. The gold con- 
 taining the quartz is very finely disseminated, but is " free " and very 
 pure, and hence easily amalgamated ; it contains about one-half ounce of 
 silver. About four tons of ore are being taken out daily, with an average 
 yield of $75 per ton, and sometimes doubling that amount. The quartz 
 is of remarkably even quality, seldom falling much below the average 
 yield. Mr. Eoberts estimates the gold already produced to amount to 
 about $75,000. The mine makes very little water, about eight or ten 
 buckets being taken out hourly. 
 
 Young America Mine — Mr. Incath, manager. On same lode as the 
 Cariso ; quartz contains considerable disseminated oxide of iron, but is 
 not on that account less refractory. Ore averages about $23 per ton — not 
 visited. 
 
 East End Mine — On Miner's Delight lode, Mr. A. C. Hasey, manager. 
 Shaft sunk sixty feet, through slightly laminated, easily- worked quartz 
 of varying color, that having a clear blue tinge su^jposed to be the best, 
 especially if breaking easily into lamina of from one to one and one- 
 half inches in thickness. Strike of vein northwest and southeast, with 
 dip nearly i^erpendicular. Vein, like the Cariso, conforms with the 
 gneissoid slates which form the wall rock, and which are supplanted 
 toward the surface by a porphyritic gneiss holding small quantities of 
 gold and overlying the vein, though not forming a true cap rock. Very 
 small traces of i^yrites are contained in both wall rock and quartz. All 
 gold, however, seems to be full. Seven tons per day of ore were being 
 taken out by hand labor, ore averaging $20 per ton. Gold not so pure 
 as that of Cariso, though very bright and easily amalgamated. A great 
 deal of the gold is in flakes of considerable size, especially between the 
 lamina of the quartz. The quartz is so soft that no blasting is needed. 
 A good deal of moss agate occurs in the vein, noticeable when the quartz 
 is clear. 
 
 Miner's Delight Mine — Just west of preceding; the claims join. Lode 
 is the same, but pinches to an average width of two feet. Vein stopped 
 
GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF THE TERRITORIES. 179 
 
 down eiglity-five feet, ore averaging $35 per ton. Mine not in opera- 
 tion at present, as buiklings and macliiriery are in course of erection. 
 Tlie superintendent expects to take out fifteen tons per day. 
 
 Young Canadian Mine — One-quarter of a mile west of the i)receding. 
 Shaft sunl: eighty feet through barren lode before reaching pay streak, 
 which was struck only two or three days before the mine was visited. The 
 ore had not been assayed, but was pronounced by all miners in the vicin- 
 ity to far exceed in richness any ore yet discovered in the neighborhood. 
 
 THE COALS OF THE ROCKY MOUNTAINS.* 
 
 The coals of the portion of our continent lying west of the Missouri 
 Eiver are only just beginning to attract that attention which their im- 
 portance deserves. In the works heretofore published on the coal-fields 
 of the United States, they have been almost neglected, and even in 
 Dana's last compendious work on mineralogy, he disposes of them with 
 the remark that " tertiary coal occurs on the Cowlitz in Oregon and in 
 many places on the eastern slopes of the Eocky Mountains, where a 
 ' lignite formation' is very widely distributed; but it is rarely in beds of 
 economical importance." In his enumeration of the coal-fields of the 
 United States he mentions the Appalachian, the Illinois, the Ehode 
 Island, and the Michigan basins. To the former two he accords an area 
 of one hundred and twenty thousand square miles; to the latter five 
 thousand square miles; while the area of the Ehode Island basin is left 
 out of the account altogether; the total coal area of the United States 
 being given as about one hundred and twenty-five thousand square miles. 
 But besides these four basins there are the Eastern and Middle Eocky 
 Mountain, the Monte Diablo, and the Oregon and Alaska beds to be 
 considered. Those beds which occur on the east flank of the Eocky 
 Mountains have been followed for five hundred miles and more, north and 
 south; and if it be true that these are "fragments of one great basin, 
 interrupted here and there by the upheaval of mountain chaihis, or con- 
 cealed by the deposition of newer formations,"! then their extension 
 east and west, or from the eastern range of the Eocky Mountains or 
 Black Hills to Weber Caiion, where an excellent coal is mined, will fall 
 but little short of five hundred miles. Throughout this extent these beds 
 of coal are found between the upper cretaceous and lower tertiary, (or 
 in the transition beds of Hayden,) wherever these transition beds occur, 
 whether on the extreme flanks or in the valleys and parks between the 
 numerous mountain ranges. Assuming that the eroding agencies -to- 
 gether have cut off one-half of the coal from this area, and taking one- 
 half of the remainder as their average longitudinal extent, we have over 
 fifty thousand square miles of coal-lands, accounting the latitudinal ex- 
 tent as only five hundred miles ; whereas we have no reason to believe 
 that it terminates within these bounds, but on the contrary good reason 
 for supposing that it extends northward far into Canada and south- 
 ward with the Cordilleras. All this territory has been omitted in the 
 estimate of the extent of our coal-fields. 
 
 Classification of coals. 
 
 The best classification of the coals is that of Professor Eogers in the 
 second volume of his report on the geology of Pennsylvania. 
 
 * By Persifor Frazier, jr. 
 
 t Hayden's Report on Geology of Colorado and New Mexico. 
 
180 GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF THE TERRITORIES. 
 
 The basis of this division is partly chemical and partly structural, the 
 genera being derived from differences in chemical constitution, while 
 the species are made with reference to the physical properties of the 
 coals. Thus he separates all coals into — 
 
 ^ 1. Anthracites containing 3 to 10 jier cent, of gaseous matter, of 
 which 1 to 2 per cent, is water ; ash in any ratio; specific grav- 
 I. { ity 1.50. 
 
 2. Semi-anthracites containing 7 to 8 per cent, of volatile combusti- 
 ble matter; does not intumesce. 
 
 r 1. Bituminous ; carbon, 52 to 84 per cent.; volatile substances 16 
 
 jy J to 48 per cent.; ash, 2 to 20 per cent.; specific gravity, 1.269. 
 
 I 2. Semi-bituminous ; volatile substances more than 11 to 12 j)er 
 
 I cent, and less than 18 per cent. 
 
 jjy (Hydrogenous; volatile substances, 30 to 70 per ceut.; specific 
 
 ^^^- \ ^ gravity, 1.272. 
 
 These varieties are further split up, in the case of bituminous, into la, 
 caking coal; 1&, cherry coal; and Ic, splint coal. The semi-bituminous 
 into 2(1, semi-bituminous cherry coal; and 2/>, semi-bituminous splint 
 coal. The hydrogenous, 1, cannel coals ; 2, hydrogenous shaly coals, 
 (Torbanehill, &c.;) and, 3, asphaltic coal, (Albert mine.) 
 
 This classification takes no account of the age of the coals, but merely 
 considers the nature of the mineral. Accordingly it will be found con- 
 venient of application to coals about whose age there is yet some differ- 
 ence of opinion among geologists. 
 
 3Iode of occurrence. 
 
 The coal of the Eocky Mountains is distributed ailong their flanks 
 as several leaves in the great book of folded strata and invariably 
 in the transition beds or between the tertiary and cretaceous. !N"o- 
 where in the world is there such a vast development of the recent 
 coal measifi-es, and in few places is their existence more necessary 
 to the advancement and improvement of the region in which they occur. 
 They lie regularly and in the main quite horizontally, though close to 
 the mountain the beds are naturally tilted. The coals are called vari- 
 ously lignites, brown, semi-bituminous and bituminous, though from 
 their chemical constitution they ally themselves much more nearly with 
 the latter. They are distinguished by their cleavage planes, which latter 
 are nearly perpendicular to the planes of lamination and to each other, 
 and give to the coal (which is usually friable) a stair form structure, 
 almost resembling the crystallization of some clusters of iron pyrites. 
 It is hardly worth while to say that these coals differ in different local- 
 ities as to general structure and chemical composition. 
 
 It would be an exceedingly interesting piece of work to follow up 
 those beds from their easternmost outcrop westward and to seek to 
 identify them in their different plications. Paleontologically these coals, 
 containing almost exclusively i)lant fossils, comparatively few shells 
 have been discovered, and those of species which leave the real question 
 of " cretaceous or tertiary" undecided. The great mass of the fossils 
 are of deciduous leaves, very much resembling now existing varieties. 
 Broad leaves like the oaks and even nuts transformed into dull red 
 sandstone {San Lazaro) (in one case showing the kernel and shell beau- 
 tifully distinct from each other, where a fracture of the latter had ex- 
 posed the former to ^iew) are met with in the drab clay and more espe- 
 cially in some dark-colored sandstones near the coal. Here, almost on 
 
GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF THE TERRITORIES. 181 
 
 tlie threshold of our own era, the conditions are similar in many respects 
 to those which produced the long ago carboniferous age ; the same 
 great cretaceous sand formation ushering in the coal as the Pennsylvania 
 No. 10 did the ftilse coal measures and the great conglomerate the real 
 ones. Here also we see mammoth veins and small veins, indicating a 
 longer or shorter period of deposition or a greater or less activity in 
 vegetable growth. Here, too, anthracites and semi-anthracites have been 
 reported, but occupying areas much more geographically restricted than 
 is the case in Pennsylvania. And stranger than all, here, too, are oil 
 wells, apparently the product of this same coal age, but whose supply 
 has trickled through the loose cretaceous and Jurassic formations and 
 found lodgment only in the impervious triassic beds, perhaps on the 
 granite itself. It has been stated above that these coals belong in the 
 main to the class of the bituminous coals, both hj right of their chemical 
 constitution and their i)hysical properties. All the specimens, from what- 
 ever quarter, which were obtained by your expedition belong to the bitumi- 
 nous class, so that the inference seems fair that only the middle member 
 of the Pennsylvania series of anthracite, semi-anthracite, semi-bituminous, 
 bituminous, and hydrogenous are represented to any extent in this por- 
 tion of the Eocky Mountains. On the other hand I)r. Le Conte, in his 
 report, mentions a true anthracite, (88 to 91 per centum of fixed carbon,) 
 and Hollister in his " INIines of Colorado," (tlie mineralogical part of 
 which was written by Mr. J. Alden Smith) speaks of albertine coal as 
 occurring in certain parts of western Colorado. Albertine coal (or solid- 
 ified petroleum, as it is sometimes improperly called) is one of the most 
 hydrogenous coals known, and if it really exists, as Professor Denton of 
 Massachusetts asserts it does in White Eiver in West Coioradb, the 
 extremes and middle members of the series are to be found west of the 
 Missouri. Still the general character of these coals is bituminous. The 
 following are some analyses of them. 
 
 Bituriiinous coal from Old Placer 2Ii)ies, San Lazaro Mountains, Neio 
 Mexico. — This coal differs in appearance from all other coals found on 
 the flanks of the Eocky Mountains, both in color and fracture. The 
 former is jet black except on the couchoidal cleavage surfaces, where 
 the half metallic bronze lustre, similar to that of the anthracites, is 
 observable. Fracture conchoidal and uneven, splintery ; specific gravity 
 less than that of the Pennsylvania anthracites. 
 
 Milligram. 
 
 Weight in air of specimen 338. 6 
 
 Weight in water with plat wire after boiling ^ 110. 
 
 Weight of wire 7 milligrams, allowing for 1 milligram loss of weight of plat 
 
 wire in water, 6 milligrams 104. 
 
 338.6—104.0=234.6. 
 338.6-^234.6=1,443.3 specific gravity. 
 
 First analysis : 
 
 Per cent. 
 
 Water and volatile substances 22. 
 
 Ash 8.2 
 
 Fixed carbon 69. 8 
 
 Total 100.0 
 
 / Second analysis : 
 
 Water 3.0 
 
 Volatile substances 21.0 
 
 Ash 7.5 
 
 Fixed carbon 68. 5 
 
 Total 100.0 
 
182 GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF THE TERRITORIES. 
 
 Third analysis : 
 
 Per cent. 
 
 Water 3.0 
 
 Volatile siibstancfes 22. 
 
 Ash 7.5 
 
 Fixed carbon 67. 5 
 
 Total 100.0 
 
 Fourth analysis : 
 
 Water and volatile substances 22. 
 
 Ash 7.5 
 
 Fixed carbon 70.5 
 
 Total 100.0 
 
 Fifth analysis : 
 
 Water and volatile substances 23. 
 
 Ash 7.5 
 
 Carbon 69. 5 
 
 Total 100.0 
 
 * Sixth analysis, (F. P. :) 
 
 Water 2.25 
 
 Volatile substances 20. 75 
 
 Ash 6.40 
 
 Fixed carbon '. 70. 60 
 
 Total 100.00 
 
 Seventh analysis, (F. P. :) 
 
 AYater 3.75 
 
 Volatile substances 21. 25 
 
 Ash 6.00 
 
 Fixed carbon 68.00 
 
 Total 100.00 
 
 Average of seven analyses : 
 
 Water 3.00 
 
 Volatile substances 20. 85 
 
 Ash 7.23 
 
 Fixed carbon 69. 09 
 
 Total 100.17 
 
 Of sidjihur 0.72 per cent, was obtained. 
 
 Bituminous coal from Marshall's jproperty near Boulder City, Colorado 
 Territory. — This coal is black, (in powder dark brown,) and wlien ex- 
 posed to the atmosphere friable, as are all of these tertiary coals. Its frac- 
 ture is conchoidal and the luster of the smooth surfaces of fracture 
 resinous. 
 
 Specific gravity 1. 412 
 
 Weight in air 595. 06 
 
 Weight in water 173.03 
 
 First analysis : 
 
 Per cent. 
 
 Water 16.00 
 
 Volatile substances 38. 00 
 
 Fixed carbon , 42.00 
 
 Ash 4.00 
 
 Total 100.00 
 
 *The analyses marked P. P. were made by Mr. Franklin Piatt, jr. 
 
GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF THE TERRITORIES. 183 
 
 Per cent. 
 Second analysis : 
 
 Water and volatile substances 54. 00 
 
 Ash 4.00 
 
 Fixed carbon 42.00 
 
 Total 100.00 
 
 Third analysis : 
 
 Water 16.00 
 
 Volatile substances 38. 00 
 
 Ash 4.50 
 
 Fixed carbon 41. 50 
 
 Total 100.00 
 
 Fourth analysis : 
 
 Water , 10.00 
 
 Volatile substances 38. 00 
 
 Ash 5.00 
 
 Fixed carbon 41. 00 
 
 Total 100.00 
 
 Fifth analysis : 
 
 Water 16.00 
 
 Volatile substances 38. 00 
 
 Fixed carbon 41. 00 
 
 Ash 5.00 
 
 Total • 100.00 
 
 Average of five analyses : 
 
 Water 16.00 
 
 Volatile substances 38. 00 
 
 Ash 4.50 
 
 Fixed carbon 41. 50 
 
 Total 100.00 
 
 Bituminous coal from Spriggs's Mine, Weher Canon, Utah Territory. 
 
 Water and volatile substances 50. 80 
 
 Ash 3.60 
 
 Fixed carbon 45. 60 
 
 Total 100.00 
 
 Bituminous coal from Evanstown, Union Pacific Railroad. — This coal 
 is black, (even in powder,) has a highly resinous luster, and a fracture 
 like the other coals of this class, irregular and conchoidal. It appears 
 better able to resist the action of the atmosphere than the other tertiary 
 coals examined, and is not nearly so friable. Its specific gravity is 1.341. 
 
 Per cent. 
 First analysis : 
 
 Water 6.00 
 
 Volatile substances 38. 00 
 
 Ash 7.50 
 
 Fixed carbon 49. 50 
 
 100. 00 
 
 Second analysis : 
 
 Water 5.50 
 
 V^olatile substances 37. 00 
 
184 GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF THE TERRITORIES. 
 
 Per cent. 
 
 Ash 7.70 
 
 Fixed carbon 49.80 
 
 100. 00 
 
 Third analysis, F. P. : 
 
 Water 6.00 
 
 Volatile substances 37. 00 
 
 Ash 7,00 
 
 Carbon 49.40 
 
 100. 00 
 
 Average of three analyses : 
 
 Water 5.83 
 
 Volatile substances 37. 40 
 
 Ash 7.46 
 
 Fixed carbon 49. 50 
 
 100. 19 
 
 Coal from Ullco. — A lignite of liglit-brown color aud low specific 
 gravity, possessing tlie feel and muck of the appearance of wood ; is 
 tougb aud tenacious when pounded or rubbed in a mortar. Tt is filled 
 with minute specks, of metallic color and luster. 
 
 As the coal had been kept a long time in a warm room, and had there- 
 fore altered in respect to its per centage of water, this aud the volatile 
 substances were determined together.. A frcsU si>ecimen would proba- 
 bly contain from 7 to 10 j)er cent, water. 
 
 Per cent. 
 
 Water and volatile substances 63. 50 
 
 Carbon 22.05 
 
 Ash 14.50 
 
 Sulphur 0.82 
 
 100. 82 
 
 Ash is of a pure gray color, a fine dust-like powder, containing but a 
 small percentage of soluble salts. 
 
 loica coals. — From specimens of coal sent by ^Rlr. Miller, of the Omaha 
 Herald, from Des Moines and Ottumwa, Iowa, the following analyses 
 were made, and may be interesting to compare with those of the Eocky 
 Mountain coals : 
 
 Per cent. 
 No. 1, (Ottumwa,) specific gravity, 1.327: 
 
 Water 12.00 
 
 Volatile substances 32. 00 
 
 Ash 12.00 
 
 Fixed carbon "- - - 44. 00 
 
 Total 100.00 
 
 No. 2, (Des Moines :) 
 
 Water 7.0 
 
 Volatile substances 47. 6 
 
 Fixed carbon 41. 4 
 
 Ash 40.0 
 
 Total 100.0 
 
 Sulphur existed in both the specimens to the extent of, perhaps, 1 to 
 2 per cent., but was not quantitively determined. 
 
GEOLOGICAL SDKVEY OF THE TERRITORIES. 185 
 
 Considerations affecting economic value of these coals. 
 
 A coal to be of value in the arts and as a domestic fuel should have 
 certain properties which render it easy of transportation, not easily nor 
 deleteriously aifected by weather or climate ; should be capable of rapid 
 ignition, and of having its combustion regulated to suit the different 
 circumstances attending its employment; should be capable of raising 
 proportionately to its bulk and weight a large amount of water to the 
 state of vapor, and should contain within itself the least quantities of 
 such substances as by contact with the grate bars at a high beat woukl 
 injure them, or whose products of combustion are poisonous to vegeta- 
 tion, or to animal life, or are corrosive. 
 
 It follows fi'om some of these conditions that the coal to be of the 
 greatest possible use must neither be crumbly nor so compact and tough 
 as to render its oxidation difficult by permitting a comparatively small 
 extent of coal surface to be brought in contact with the oxygen of the 
 draught. Also, for the same reasons, it must not cake or run together 
 so as to exclude the air from its interior parts, nor pulverize whereby 
 much loss is sustained by the dust being carried through the flame and 
 up the chimney without being consumed. Then the cleavage of the coal 
 should be such that a large amount can be stored without waste of room 
 in the interstices between the lumps, for it is evident that more material 
 can be packed in a given space when the form of the separate pieces is 
 somewhat regular and the surfaces are close together, than where each 
 lump touches the neighboring lump in only a few points, leaving an un- 
 occupied space between their surfaces. It should be "hard enough to 
 resist the grinding and pulverizing effect produced by motion as in the 
 bins of a steamer or the tender of a locomotive. In the article on the 
 subject in Professor Eogers's report on the geological survey of Pennsyl- 
 vania, the author for many reasons leans to the belief that to the many 
 economic purposes the semi-bituminous coals are better adapted than 
 any others. From the blacksmith's forge and the smelting and roasting 
 furnace to the uses of the locomotive or the kitchen, the Eocky Mount- 
 ain coals have been sufficiently proved in the last few years to answer 
 admirably all the requirements made of them. As it is not possible 
 to obtain all these good qualities in any single fuel, (see Eogers's 
 report,) the problem in every case is to select that which possesses the 
 greatest number of them. For instance, for railway purposes the coal 
 of the Eeal Dolores, though containing a higher percentage of fixed car- 
 bon, is less valuable than some of the semi-bituminous coals, because it 
 is neither so easily ignited nor is its combustion so easily regulated, 
 whereas for domestic and all other purposes where the hard dry coals 
 are preferred it is a most excellent fuel. Those coals which disintegrate 
 readily on exposure to the weather, (this includes most of the beds on 
 the eastern flanks of the Eocky Mountains, and in fact the majority of 
 the western coals everywhere,) are not so serviceable to the engine- 
 driver (whatever their percentage of carbon may be) as others with 
 more ash and water but also more power of resistance to atmospheric 
 influences. 
 
 The examination of two samples of brown coal from Wyoming Terri- 
 tory, by the very able chemist. Dr. F. A Genth, of Philadelphia, will be 
 usefid for comparison in this connection : 
 
 1. Coal fi-om seven miles east of Cooper Station, on the old stage road, Laramie 
 Plains, Wyoming Territory, gave : 
 
 Per cent. 
 
 Moisture 9. 28 
 
 Volatile matter 39.12 
 
186 GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF THE TERRITORIES. 
 
 Per cent. 
 
 Carbon 47.04 
 
 Ash, yellowisli brown „. . '. 4. 56 
 
 100. 00 
 
 It contains 1.38 per cent, of sulphur, wliioli is equal to 2.59 per cent, of pyrites. 
 
 A determination of the caloric power of this coal showed a reduction 22.20 parts of 
 lead from the oxide, by one part of coal, while pure carbon reduces 34 parts of lead. 
 
 2. Coal from Point of Rocks Station, North Pacific Railroad, Wyoming Territory, 
 gave : 
 
 Per cent. 
 
 Moisture 8. 54 
 
 Volatile matter 30.60 
 
 Carbon 52.34 
 
 Ash, white 8. 52 
 
 100. 00 
 
 It contains a very minute quantity of sulphur, only 0.04 per cent., which is equal to 
 0.075 per cent. j)yrites. One part of this coal is capable of reducing 21.80 parts of lead 
 fi'om the oxide. 
 
 The following notes present the results of actual experiments on our 
 diifereut western coals, by Mr. Samuel Puruell, superintendent of the 
 Omaha Gas Works. It will be seen at a glance that their practical 
 character renders them worthy of attention. It is my wish to include 
 in these reports all the information possible that will be likely to jirove 
 of practical interest to the West : 
 
 The results of the working of one ton of lignite, or Rocky Mountain coal, from 
 Evanston, Utah, in the Omaha Gas Works, are as follows : 
 
 Weight of coal used, 2,000 pounds ; gas made, 7,400 cubic feet ; time of charges 3^ 
 hours; tested in clay retorts, at bright orange heat, (21 90°;) candle power of the gas 
 at the works, 7 to 8 ; but will not carry its carbon in the street mains, burning blue in 
 the town ; water produced from the coal, 20 gallons ; tar xiroduced, 1 gallon. 
 
 The gas possessed a most offensive sulphurous odor, which neither lime nor oxide of 
 iron puriiicatiou would remove, and which was neutral to test papers. The residue in 
 the retorts, as coke, consisted of 12 bushels of earthy breeze, in small cubes, which, 
 when put in the furnace fires, smothered them. The coke is worthless for heating pur- 
 poses. The coal is worthless for gas purposes. 
 
 Coal from Rock Springs, Wyoming, was also tested, and it is precisely similar. 
 
 I have carefully analyzed a sample of coal taken from a bed seven inches thick, nine 
 miles below Omaha, on the Omaha and Great Western Railroad. 
 
 Per cent. 
 
 Volatile matter 42. 62 
 
 Coke 54.88 
 
 Ash 11.00 
 
 Sulphur 00.50 
 
 100. 00 
 
 The coal is black, bituminous, and contains in small quantity sulphide of lime, sul- 
 phide of iron, and oxide of iron. The coke is good, of moderate firmness, and of bright 
 luster. By the sujoiued table of comparative analyses, the coal is found to be almost 
 identical with the Missouri and Iowa coals. 
 
 Coal. Volatile matter. Coke. Ash 
 
 Omaha 42.87 46.13 11.00 
 
 Des Moines, Iowa 44. 00 47. 50 8. 50 
 
 Ottumwa, Iowa 44.50 44.57 10.93 
 
 Frederick, Iowa 47.67 42.33 10.00 
 
 Osage River, Missouri 43.50 51.16 5.34 
 
 Rock River, Illinois 44.50 45.50 10.00 
 
 Clarksburg, West Virginia 41.66 56.74 1.60 
 
GEOLOGICAL SUEVEY OF THE TERRITOEIES. 187 
 
 ALICALI FROM PUNTIA PASS.* 
 
 The- word alkali is used on tlie Plains to indicate a saline deposit 
 wliich covers often manj^ miles of low, arid country, and appears in 
 streaks stretching far away in all directions and sometimes giving' the 
 country the appearance of a plain covered by a sheet of snow. It is 
 very generally believed by the inhabitants that this alkali is the cause of 
 the sterility in connection with which it almost always occurs ; but the 
 fact is that one circumstance favors its continuance upon the soil and 
 interferes with vegetation, and that is the want of rain. Any contina- 
 ous rain would undosibtedly dissolve this material and carry it away in 
 the streams or through the subsoil. It is not quite certain that a soil 
 charged with the salts of which this alkali is composed would not fur- 
 nish more nutriment than another to certain kinds of growth. At all 
 events, where the experiment has been tried the j)lants have grown re- 
 markably well upon it with i^roper treatment. 
 
 The probable origin of these deposits has been thought to be the 
 evaporation of numerous shallow pools, perhaps left by the subsidence 
 of a large inland sea or system of lakes, and the analogy in chemical 
 constitution between this material and the deposit around the margins 
 of still-existing pools (like the Soda Lake, twelve miles from Denver) 
 seems to bear out the hypothesis. 
 
 This alkali is a grayish-white deposit, mixed up with the dry roots 
 and stems of sage-brush and other vegetation, from which it derives 
 frequently a reddish-brown tinge. It is -dry and efflorescent. 
 
 It has a decided alkaline and salty taste and low specific gravity. 
 
 It contains soda, lime, and magnesia, sulphuric acid, hydrochloric 
 acid, and a small quantity' of nitric acid, and consists of sulphates of 
 soda, lime, and magnesia, chloride of sodium, and nitrate of soda. 
 
 SODA FROM SODA LAKE. 
 (12 miles from Denver, Colorado Territory.) 
 
 A white, efflorescent salt, falling to powder on exposure to the air, con- 
 taining sulphate of soda, sulphate of lime, sulphate of magnesia, and 
 chloride of sodium. 
 
 Per cent. 
 
 Sulphate of soda 63.87 
 
 SuliAato of lime 9. 70 
 
 "Water of crystalization of the effloresence 21. 88 
 
 Chloride of sodium, sulphate of magnesia., &c 4.55 
 
 tl inclose the results of the analysis of the specimens of alkali col- 
 lected during last summer's survey of Wyoming Territory. 
 
 jSTo. 1. From Alkaline Lake two miles east of Independence Eock, in 
 the Sweetwater Valley : 
 
 Per cent. 
 
 Sulphate of soda, (NaO, SO3) 73.17 
 
 Chloride of sodium, (Na, CI) 3.85 
 
 Carbonate of soda, | (by loss) 22. 98 
 
 100. 00 
 
 * Prepared by Persifor Frazer, jr. 
 
 t Prepared by Arther L. Ford, mineralogist to the survey. 
 
 t Owing to this siiecimen's effervescing on being dissolved in water, it was impossi- 
 ble to determine the proportion of carbonic acid, but the salt seems to have been a 
 sesquicarbonate, the whole specimen being probably identical with or similar to that 
 referred to by Dana in his mineralogy, under the head of Trona, as occurring near the 
 Sweetwa-ter River. 
 
188 • GEOLOGICAL SUKVEY OF THE TERRITORIES. 
 
 No. 2. From alkaline effloresence ou damp ground, seven miles west 
 of St. Mary's Station, in the Sweetwater Valley : 
 
 Per cent. 
 
 Sulphate of soda, (Na O, S O3), to 88.93 
 
 Chloride of sodium, (Na, CI), to 11.63 
 
 100, 56 
 
 No. 3. From deposit near Pacific Springs : 
 
 Per cent. 
 
 Sulphate of soda, (Na 0, S O3) 82.23 
 
 Chloride of sodium, (Na, CI) 3,95 
 
 Carbonate of soda, (by loss) 14, 82 
 
 100. 00 
 
 No. 4. From deposit by evaporation of Alkaline Pond, near Big Sandy 
 Eiver. 
 No. 4, (a.) From upper part of bank, where deposition commenced : 
 
 Per cent. 
 
 Sulphate of soda, (Na O, S O3) 64.65 
 
 Chloride of sodium (Na, CI... 35.46 
 
 100. 11 
 No. 4, (&.) Taking half way between upper and lower limit of deposit : 
 
 Vex cent. 
 
 Sulphate of soda, NaO, S O3) .\. 94.92 
 
 Chloride of sodium, (Na, CI) 5.23 
 
 100. 15 
 
 No. 4, (c.) From lowest part of pond, when last deposition took place, 
 consists of slender orthorhombic prisms of pure sulphate of soda — she- 
 nardite : 
 
 Per cent. 
 Sulphate of soda, (Na O, S O3) 100.00 
 
 All the specimens appear to be absolutely free from any salts of po- 
 tassa, an examination by the spectroscope even failing to show the pres- 
 ence of that base. 
 
I>J!lRT III. 
 
 REPORT OF PROFESSOR CYRUS THOMAS. 
 
 PART I.— AGRICULTURE. 
 
 PART II. -A LIST AND DESCRIPTIONS OF NEW SPECIES OF ORTHOPTERA, 
 WITH REMARKS ON THE CALOPIENUS SPBETUS, OR "HATEFUL 
 GRASSHOPPER." 
 
KEPORT 
 
 Deae Sir : I herewith present a report of my investigations in regard 
 to the agricultural capacity of that part of the Kocky Mountain region 
 over which your operations as United States geologist have extended 
 during the past season. Although the immediate route of this expedi- 
 tion Avas confined principally to Wyoming Territory, I have, in accord- 
 ance with your instructions, endeavored to complete my report on that 
 part of Colorado and New Mexico examined in 18G9. By your direction 
 I also visited the Salt Lake basin, and have added a short account of 
 that interesting section, including a few items concerning other portions 
 of Utah. 
 
 At the risk of being somewhat monotonous by the repetition of sim- 
 ilar details, I have endeavored to confine myself strictly within the lim- 
 its of the subject upon which I have been required to report. 
 
 Instead of giving details in a journalistic form, which would have 
 amounted to little more than an itinerary, I have endeavored to follow out 
 as far as possible the plan pursued in my report of last year, describing 
 the areas in these Territories drained by the large rivers, as separate dis- 
 tricts. I have divided the entire region into two parts called " divi- 
 sions," one including the area east of the divide, between the waters of 
 the Atlantic and Pacific, and the other the area west of it. The east- 
 ern division contains five districts, corresponding with the Rio Grande, 
 Arkansas, South Platte, North Platte, and Wind Elvers. The western 
 comprises the Green lliver District and Great Salt Lake basin. 
 
 I have attempted in most instances to make some estimate of the 
 amount of tillable lands in the different districts and sections. 
 
 As a matter of course I do not claim that these are anything more 
 than approximations, made in some instances upon slender data, yet 
 they are not mere guesses, but are made up fi'om estimates of the smal- 
 ler subdivisions and separate areas, and are, at least, near enough the 
 correct amounts to give a general idea of the agricultural value of the 
 diilierent districts and sections. Although I exclude from these esti- 
 mates any probable future success and use of artesian wells, yet I in- 
 clude all possible j)resent means of irrigation. 
 
 Eespecting those parts of these sections which I was unable to visit 
 in i^erson, I have endeavored to obtidn the most reliable information 
 l)0ssible. 
 
 Your operations during the past season have developed the fact that 
 in regions which have generally been considered sterile and unproduc- 
 tive, there are large areas of land which by proper eflbrts may be ren- 
 dered tillable and made to produce useful crops. 
 
 In my investigations I have constantly looked forward to the con- 
 struction of a map of these Territories which will show the comparative 
 extent and locality of the irrigable areas, the pastoral lands, and the 
 timbered sections. Such a map, accompanied by a condensed state- 
 ment of all important facts connected therewith, would not only be of 
 great value to those who contemplate removing to the West, but would 
 be a valuable vade meciim for our public officers, Senators and Eepresen* 
 tatives, and the public generally. , / 
 
192 GEOLOGICAL SUEVEY OF THE TEREITOEIES. 
 
 The subject of irrigation is one inseparably connected witli tlie agri- 
 cultural development of this section, and deserves to be carefully stud- 
 ied. The time given for the preparation of this preliminary report has 
 been too short to enter upon a thorough discussion of it, but I have 
 added a few facts in my concluding remarks, in order to direct atten- 
 tion to the data needed in its investigation. 
 
 If you continue your surveys I would suggest the propriety ot falhng 
 up as rapidly as possible the vacuities in the data obtained in regard to 
 the sections already passed over. I am aware that you did not possess 
 the facilities for doing this in your previous expeditions, but the value of 
 your previous labors, so far as the agricultural investigations go, will be 
 very much enhanced by doing this. I allude to the measurement of the 
 principal streams, their descent, volume, velocity, &c., and the couipar- 
 ative altitude of the different levels and plains above the level ot the 
 irrigating streams, by some instrument more accurate than the ba- 
 
 I take pleasure in acknowledging my obligations to the citizens gen- 
 erally along our route, for information obtained from them, and espe- 
 cially to the oflacers and others at the military posts, for their uniform 
 kindness and willingness to assist me in my investigations. 1 am also 
 under obligations to the Denver Pacific and the Kansas Pacific Eail- 
 roads, for passes over these roads and information furnished. Nor can 
 I refrain from mentioning the fact that I am indebted to Wm. N. Byers, 
 esq., of Denver, and Dr. Latham, of Laramie City, for valuable ma- 
 terial furnished me for this report. , , ^ -x • ^ r 
 
 I am aware this report bears marks of haste, and that it is tar trom 
 being complete, but trusting that it will prove satisfactory, 
 
 • I remaia yours, ™ry respectfully, OYEUS THOMAS. 
 
 Professor P. V. Hayden, 
 
 United States Geologist. 
 
 PAET I.— AGEICULTUEE. 
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 In studying the agricultural capacity of the vast Eocky Mountain 
 reo-ion and broad plains of the West, and calculating the probable 
 development of the same, it is necessary to lay aside, to a great extent, 
 all our ideas of agriculture based upon experience m the States. Por 
 not only are the physical aspects of this portion of the West so differeait 
 from the eastern half of our country as to strike the most superficial 
 observer, but the climate is almost completely reversed, the thermom- 
 etric and hygrometric conditions bearing no such relations to vegetation 
 and agriculture here as there. „ .,., , i , • 
 
 Hence, the criteria by which we judge of the fertility and productive- 
 ness of the soil, and of its adaptation to given products, (except, perJiaps, 
 the strictly chemical test,) do not hold good here. The pale appearance 
 of the soil, the barren look and stunted growth of a spot, are by no means 
 conclusive evidences of its sterility, for the application of water may 
 show it to be rich in vegetative force. Plants which are Considered as 
 incompatible in other sections are often here found growing side by 
 side, while others usually associated are here never, or but seldom, found 
 too-ether. Even the constants— latitude and elevation— cannot always 
 
GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF THE TERRITORIES. 193 
 
 be taken as true indices of temperature and vegetable life, on account 
 of strong counteracting local intiuenees. The tem])eratnre of a valley, 
 during the latter lialf of the summer and through autumn, may ])resent 
 an average which -would indicate a climate adapted to the production 
 of even tender fruits; while a record of the temperature of the same 
 place, during the spring and the first half of the summer, would show a 
 very different average. And even a knowkMlge of this fact nniy not 
 thoroughly acquaint us with the cliuuite and the agricultural capacity 
 of the place, as the presence of lofty mountains near by, with snow- 
 covered summits, may reduce the temperature of the nights very low as 
 compared with that of the day, and thus retard tlu^, growth of crops 
 which otherwise would mature and produce well. On the contrary, at 
 other points a lofty range may act as a wall against the cold winds, and 
 under its cover may be found nestling little valleys with a ('omparatively 
 mild climate. Nor are these imaginary cases, for I could refer to numer- 
 ous instances of each class. 
 
 Hence, I conclude that any attempt to generalize by talang latitude 
 and elevation, or even the average annual temi)erature, would require 
 so many exceptions that the result would be of no practical value. Yet 
 these are by no means to be excluded. 
 
 On account of the reasons given, and others equally potent which 
 might be mentioned, the agricultural capacity of this region must be 
 studied from its own stand-point ; and each section must be carefnllj' 
 examined. Otherwise we are very apt, from our experience in other 
 portions of the country, to form erroneous conclusions. Injustice, on 
 this account, is often done to this section by travelers who pass hastily 
 through it, along the- railroad lines, judging of the fertility and pro- 
 ductiveness of aspot by comparing it with the rain-moistened land of 
 the States. I recollect an incident which will serve to illustrate the 
 truth of this remark. Eiding in the cars, along the slightly- elevated 
 bottom which Hanked a little stream, but which, to the eye, had a very 
 barren appearance — being sparsely covered with " grease- wood " {Obi- 
 one canescens) and little tufts of dry grass — I remarked to a passenger 
 that, notwithstanding its barren appearance, this bottom could be irri- 
 gated from the stream and would produce good crops of wheat, oats, 
 barley, and the hardier vegetables. I could see that this remark pro- 
 A'oked a smile of derision on the countenances of those in ear-shot. Yet 
 if they hatl gone a few miles from the road they could have seen my 
 assertion verified. But this erroneous idea stops not with the uninter- 
 ested traveler, who is only anxious to reach the terminus of his journey ; 
 even official documents, issuing from quarters we would have supposed 
 best informed, have sometimes too hastily and in too general terms con- 
 demned this vast area as sterile and desolate. 
 
 The following extracts from an opinion deliberately penned, even after 
 the extensive surveys of 1853 and 1854, will stand in strong contrast 
 with the evidences of to-day : 
 
 The concurring testimony of reliable observers had indicated that the second divis- 
 ion, or that called the sterile region, (the Plains), was so inferior in vegetation and 
 character of soil, and so dehcient in moisture, that it had received, and probably de- 
 served, the name of desert. This opinion is confirmed by the results of recent explora- 
 tions, which prove that the soil of the greater part of this region is, from its consiitumt 
 2)arts, necessarily sterile ; and that of the remaining part, although well constituted for 
 fertility, is, from the absence of rains at certain seasons, except where capable of irri- 
 gation, as uncnltivable and unproductive as the other. This general character of ex- 
 treme sterility likewise belongs to the country embraced in the mountain region. 
 
 The winter then proceeds to sum i\]) the areas susceptible of cultiva- 
 tion as follows: Near the route of the 47th parallel one thousand square 
 13 G 
 
194 GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF THE TERRITORIES. 
 
 miles; along the 41st and 38tli parallels only the Great Salt Lake basin, 
 estimated at one thousand one hundred and eight square miles; and 
 that in New Mexico at seven hundred square miles. 
 
 Experiments made during the fifteen years which, have elapsed since 
 the above was written, have sbov^ai that about one-third of the entire 
 amount of arable land mentioned can be found in the little triangle be- 
 tween the South Platte and the mountains, in Northern Colorado. 
 
 Startling as the statement may appear to those who have swept 
 across the continent along the barren-looking track of the Union Pacific 
 Ilailroad, I assert it as my firm conviction that there are but few lands 
 in all this portion of the country which are really unproductive ; that 
 wherever there is soil, if water can be applied to it, it will be found rich 
 in all the primary elements necessary to the production of useful crops 
 of some kind. Without water as a matter of course it cannot be made 
 to yield, and the crops produced will vary with the climate ; but these 
 facts do not affect the position I take in regard to the primitive fertility 
 of the soil. 
 
 As I have heretofore stated that the tests of fertility in the rain- 
 moistened regions would not apply here, the question maybe asked. Upon 
 what is the assertion based that this soil possesses the elements of pro- 
 ductiveness "? Upon numerous experiments, the only means I know by 
 which I could have been convinced of the fact. 
 
 It is only after a careful examination of a vast number of experiments 
 made in New Mexico, Colorado, Wyoming, Utah, &c., that I am fonjed 
 to acknowledge what I before did not believe, viz: that wherever there 
 is soil in these regions^ it is rich in the primary elements of fertilitij. 
 
 Emory, in his " Ileconnoissance in New Mexico and California," speak- 
 ing of the Moro Valley, says : " The plains were strewed with fragments of 
 brick-dust colored lava, scoriae, and slag ; the hills to the left capped 
 with white granular quartz. The plains are almost destitute of vege- 
 tation ; the hills bear a stunted growth of piiion and red cedar." And 
 although he adds that rain had recently fallen, and that the grass in the 
 bottom was good, yet it fails to obliterate the picture of barrenness he 
 had drawn. But that which wore such a desolate a[)pearance in 1846 is 
 now one of the richest wheat-growing valleys in the whole Territory, 
 its only rival being the Taos Valley, which was once covered with nothing 
 l)ut sage-bushes, {Artemisia,) and was likewise counted as barren and 
 worthless. 
 
 Nestling high amid the snow-crowned granite peaks of the Eocky 
 Mountains lies the little valley of the Upper Arkansas, where we would 
 scarcely expect to find an arable spot. Yet experiment proves that even 
 this elevated place, covered with the rough local drift from the barren 
 metamorphic peaks around it, when irrigated, is productive, and yields 
 rich crops of the cereals, potatoes, &c. The fossil-bearing deposits in 
 the Bridger basin, on account of their worn, washed, and barren ap- 
 pearance, have been compared with the Mauvaises Terres of Dakota, 
 and have generally been considered by travelers utterly worthless in an 
 agricultural point of view ; yet the productive farais along Smith's Eork 
 will suffice to convince the most incredulous of the error of this opin- 
 ion. Necessity for a sui^ply of fresh vegetables to the mining popula- 
 tion around South Pass has brought out the fact that the valleys along 
 the tributaries of Wind Hi ^^er will produce fine and abundant crops of 
 all the hardier vegetables. And almost on the mountain crest at Fort 
 Sanders the industrious officers and soldiers of the post have demon- 
 strated the fact that, despite the barren appearance of the soil, the bleak 
 winds of their elevated position, and the early frosts and snows of their 
 
GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF THE TERRITORIES. 195 
 
 climato, useful crops can be pi'odnced even berc ; and prolonged exper- 
 iments have shown that even si)Ots so thickly frosted over with alka- 
 line deposit.s as to destroy vegetable and animal life can be rendered 
 fertile and made to ])ro(lnce abundant crops. 
 
 As a final illustration, 1 would refer to the efforts of the Mormons on 
 the Rio Virgin, along the Arizonian border, where 1 might truly say, 
 amid basaltic hills and drifting sands the desert is being turned into a 
 blooming garden. Perhaps a more desolate-looking region tban the 
 vicinity of St. George could scarcely have been selected ; yet the ap- 
 plication of water shows that here, as elsewhere, the soil is rich in the 
 mineral elements necessary to fertility. 
 
 Another fact with which our investigations must begin is, that as a 
 rule, which has but few exceptions, irrigation is necessary to the culti- 
 vation of the soil. 
 
 As Avater is, therefore, the great desideratum in the agricultural 
 development of this country, in the method of its distribution we shall 
 find the true key to the agricultnral systems of the West, and its turn- 
 ing sheds the boundaries of the districts. I adopted this as the basis 
 of the plan of my report of last season, and subsequent and more ex- 
 tended observations and investigations have served to confirm me in 
 the position then taken. 
 
 If I am correct in the foregoing opii^ions, then a general description 
 of the arable lands of this section implies a description of the portions 
 that can be irrigated. But a description of what may hereafter possi- 
 bly become arable widens the field and introdnces the question of an 
 increase of moisture, with which I do not propose dealing at present, 
 but may allude to hereafter. 
 
 Althongh there is not one monotonous uniformity throughout this 
 vast extent of country, yet there is nothing like the variety to be found 
 between the Mississippi and Atlantic. To know that a given spot is 
 covered with a sufticient depth of soil, and is susceptible of irrigation^ 
 is to know that it will produce the cereals, the common vegetables and 
 frnits, except so far as limited by climate. The change in soil and veg- 
 etation in passing from the eastern to the western "slope of the great 
 divide between the waters of the Atlantic and Pacific is tar less than is 
 generally supposed. 
 
 Daring the two years I have been connected with the United States 
 geological survey of these Territories, having traversed the country 
 north and sonth, from the banks of the Rio Grande to the southern 
 tributaries of the Yellowstone; aiul east and west from the plains east 
 of the Rocky Mountains to the Great Salt Lake basin, I shall give, in 
 as full and comprehensive manner as possible, in a short preliminary re- 
 port, a description of the various arable districts embraced within the 
 boundary mentioned, omitting what has already been reported upon. 
 Following out the plan already suggested, the different water-sheds, 
 and systems of valleys which lead to the large streams that drain the 
 country, will form the districts to be considered separately. And these 
 are generally so Avell marked that but little ditficulty is experienced 
 in tracing them. 
 
 The central axis of the Rocky Mountain chain divides this area into 
 two unequal and irregular divisions ; the eastern division being drained 
 by the following rivers: the Rio Grande, the Arkausas, the Platte, 
 and the Big Horn, which form the water systems of the eastern shed 
 within the territory under consideration. The western division com- 
 prises two very dilierent systeijis, the one being drained by Green River, 
 whose waters ultimately reach the Pacific through the Gulf of Califor- 
 
196 GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF THE TERRITORIES. 
 
 Ilia. The other is the Great Salt Lake basin, whose waters empty into 
 the hikes contained within it, or are lost in the sands of its plains. 
 
 THE EASTERN DIVISION. 
 
 As before stated, this division includes all the territory under consid- 
 eration which lies east of the divide between the waters of the Atlantic 
 and Pacific. It embraces the areas drained by the Rio Grande, the Ar- 
 kansas, the Platte, (or rather the Plattes.) and the Big Horn Elvers and 
 their tributaries. These areas, although very irregular and unequal, are 
 generally separated from each other bj^ very distinct boundaries, and 
 can be traced without difficulty. 
 
 The Eio Grande basin, although belonging to this division, because 
 its waters find their way to the Atlantic, is in fact situated in a bifur- 
 cation of the Ivocky Mountain range, pointing southward. And as the 
 larger and loftier extension of this bifurcation is the eastern prong, the 
 basin lies west of it. The western rim of this division, which is the 
 divide between the waters of the east and the west, beginning at the 
 southern extremity and going northward, runs about as follows : With 
 the Mimbres Mountains to the i)lains of San Augusta; thence slightly 
 northwest along the Zuni range to Campbell's Pass, where, turning north- 
 east, it passes along Mesa Fachada to the Sierra de San Juan, which 
 forms the western rim of the San Luis Valley. From the vicinity of 
 Coochetopa Pass, running west of the Upper Arkansas Valley, and 
 west of South Park, it saddeuly turns eastward and wands around Mid- 
 dle Park, throwing this basin on the west. North of this it again bends 
 westward arou_ud the Isl^orth Park, where the character of the range is 
 again changed. Ijosiug its compact form, it breaks up into irregular 
 branches and broken chains, separated by elevated intervening plains, 
 which are traversed by short ridges and mountains. The main divide, 
 which is less elevated here than farther south, bends somewhat abruptly 
 to the northwest, connecting with the Wind River Mountains, near 
 South Pass. The latter range forms the western boundary of the Big 
 Horn basin, the northern district of the division under consideration. 
 
 The eastern boundary of this division, as fixed by nature, is the line 
 where irrigation becomes necessary as we move west from the Mississippi. 
 But since this is difficult to determine definitely, I have limited my ex- 
 aminations to the boundaries of the three Territories within which the 
 work of the expedition was principally confined daring 18G9 and 1870. 
 This embraces nearly all of Kew Mexico, the eastern half of Colorado, 
 and (by including the Powder River country) all of Wyoming, except 
 a small triangular area in the southwest corner, and amounts in the 
 aggregate to about two hundred and fifty thousand square miles. 
 
 Of this area perhaps three-tenths, or seventy-five thousand square 
 miles, could no"t be cultivated if every other obstacle except its rugged- 
 uess were removed. Of the remaining seven-tenths we may set down 
 five-tenths as at present without a sufficient supply of water for irriga- 
 tion. This leaves two-tenths, or about fifty thousand square miles, which 
 are, or may be rendered arable by irrigation, and whi(;h, at a moderate 
 estimate, would support a population of several millions. It is true that 
 this is but an estimate in round numbers, liable to be considerably modi- 
 fied, and which will, by many, be considered as exaggerated, but I make 
 it after having traversed the entire division from one extremity to the 
 other; and I believe it will inwove to be nearer correct than the limited 
 estimates which ha^e heretofore been made in regard to the (udtivable 
 lands of these Territories. And I think it quite probable that addi- 
 
GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF THE TERRITORIES. 197 
 
 tional ami new metliods of obtaining, liusbaudiug, and api)]ying water, 
 as by reservoirs, wells, pumps, elevatiug nuKjliinery, &c., may show tbat 
 even this estimate is far below the proper figures. 
 
 Efforts already made, and canals nuder way and projected in this 
 division, when completed, will demonstrate the feasibility of bri-jgkig 
 under culture a large extent of the lands in these Territories lying east 
 of the mountains. 
 
 In order to avoid i-epetition and confusion I shall follow out the plan 
 adopted in my last report, using the term " district" to designate the 
 area drained by one of the large streams named, (the Plattes, north and 
 south, being described separately ;) the term " section" being applied to 
 the larger subdivisions of a district. The terms "tillable," "arable," 
 "susceptible of cultivation," not being used as excluding the idea of the 
 future possibility of cultivating other portions, but simply to express 
 the fact that those portions so termed are now sutlicieutly supplied with 
 water ibr farming purposes. 
 
 THE RIO GRANDE DISTRICT. 
 
 This district, although chiefly confined within the bounds of New 
 Mexico, penetrates into the southern portion of Colorado. Beginning 
 at Poncho Pass, about 38° 30' north latitude, it extends southward to 
 the southern boundary of the Territory, and is about five hundred miles 
 long. As far south as Santa Fe its width is tolerably uniform, averag- 
 ing very near one hundred miles; but here it begins to expand rapidly 
 on the eastern side to embrace the area drained by the Pecos, termin- 
 ating in this direction in the Llano Estacado. Excluding the " Staked 
 Plains" from our calculation, the entire area of this district amounts to 
 about seventy thousand square miles, about five thousand five hundred 
 of which belong to Colorado, (according to the old boundary line.) 
 
 This district may conveniently be divided into three sections, corre- 
 sponding with the natural asi)ect of the country : First, the San Luis 
 Valley, (sometimes called the San Luis Park,) which constitutes that 
 portion of the district which lies north of the point where the Eio de 
 Taos enters into the Ilio Grande ; second, the central portion of the 
 Territory, including the Eio Grande Valley proper and the tributary 
 valleys leading into it between the southern rim of the San Luis Valley 
 and the southern boundary of the Territory; third, the Pecos Valley, 
 which, beginning east of the mountains, about opposite Santa Fe, runs 
 a little east of south to the Texas line, and includes only the area drained 
 by the Pecos Eiver. 
 
 This district embraces nearly two-thirds of New Mexico, leaving a strip 
 along the western boundary varying from fifty to one hundred miles in 
 width, and drained by the tributaries of the Colorado and Gila Eivers, 
 and a triangular area in the northeast corner drained by the Canadian 
 Eiver. It embraces the central, and, with the exception of a few val- 
 leys, the most productive portion of the Territory ; and, although much 
 of it is occupied by broken ranges of mountains and elevated mesas, yet 
 there is a large portion which can be irrigated by the streams that 
 traverse it, and a still larger ratio which affords rich pasturage for sheep 
 and cattle. Here also can be found every variety of climate, from the 
 cold of the mountain region along its northern rim, to the tropical 
 valleys of its southern border. 
 
 SAN LUIS VALLEY. 
 
 This valley, or park, has been correctly described as " an immense 
 
198 GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF THE TERRITORIES. 
 
 elliptical basin enveloping the sources of the Eio Grande." Its entire 
 length, in a direct hue from the summit of Poncho Pass to the mouth 
 of the Eio de Taos, is about one hundred and fifty miles, and its great- 
 est widtli, counting from the crest of the rim, about one huudred miles; 
 but its surface area cannot properly be esiimated at more than one hun- 
 dred and forty miles long, by an average width of sixty miles, giving an 
 area of eight thousand four hundred square miles. Of this amount 
 perhaps one-fourth, or about one million three huudred and fift^' thou- 
 sand acjes, can be irrigated and brought under cultivation by ordinary 
 means, and by damuiing up and. drawiug off in cauals the waters of the 
 Eio Grande the area of cultivable land may be exi^auded above these 
 figures. 
 
 The mesa plains, mountain foot-hills, and slopes afford nutritious 
 grasses suitable to the pasturage of sheep and cattle. The average ele- 
 vation of the surface is about seven thousand feet above the level of the 
 sea. 
 
 The northern part of this section is occupied by an isolated basin of 
 considerable extent, to which the name San Luis Park is sometimes lim- 
 ited ; it is also called the " Eincon," and " Sah watch Basin." The waters 
 of this basin, instead of entering the Eio Grande, are poured into a reser- 
 voir near the western base of the Sierra Blanca, which has received the 
 name Sahwatch Lake. For a long time the vevy existence of this lake 
 was a matter of doubt, and even at the present day, with settlements 
 beginniug around it, its extent is a matter of dispute, the estimates vary- 
 ing from three to sixty miles. I cannot describe this singular basin and 
 reservoir in any better manner than by quoting the language of the 
 United States geologist, (chief of our expedition,) found in his prelimi- 
 nary report of last year: ''This northern portion [of the San Luis Valley] 
 above the bow of the Eio Grande is about sixty miles in length, and has 
 an average width of fifteen or twenty miles. About the center (rather 
 in the southeast part) of this park is a singular depression, about ten 
 miles wide and thirty miles long, which looks like one vast thicket of 
 grease- wood {tSarcobatus vernicularis) and other chenopodiaceous shrubs. 
 Into it flow some twelve or fifteen good-sized streams, and yet there is 
 no outlet, neither is there any large body of water visible. It seems to 
 be one vast swamp or bog with a few small lakes, one of which is said 
 to be three miles in length. Although disconnected from any other 
 water system, the little streams are full of trout." 
 
 The boggy nature of the broad mafgin, the shallowness of the streams 
 where they enter it, and want of interest on the part of those residing 
 in the vicinity, have probably prevented an examination sufficient to 
 determine, with any degree of accuracy, the extent of the lake or lakes 
 contained therein. During the spring and early part of summer the 
 streams which run into it must carry down a large amount of water, 
 part of which probably sinks into the margin which has dried during 
 the autumn, the rest evaporating into the dry atmosphere. The streams 
 on the east side generally dry up in the latter part of the season, but 
 those on the west and north are constant runners. 
 
 Commencing at Poncho Pass on the northern extremity of the section 
 and moving southward, we enter the valley of Homan's (or San Luis) 
 Creek, which expands for a part of its length into what is called Homau's 
 Park. This is about four or five miles wide at its broadest part, and 
 some seven or eight miles long. The arable portion, which lies chiefly 
 on the west side, although somewhat inclined, can be easily irrigated 
 from the little streams which descend across it to the principal channel. 
 The soil, though mixed Avith coarse sand, is quite good, and will produce 
 
GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF THE TERRITORIES. 199 
 
 good crops of wheat, oats, and the hardy vegetables, the climate being: 
 too cold lor anything- of a tender nature. Some trees of a considerable 
 size, princii>ally cottonwood, grow in the valley, while the mouutains 
 around produce an abundance of pine. 
 
 The soil of the lower level, especially near the north end, is strongly 
 impregnated with alkali. 
 
 This is a most excellent point for a few stock ranches, as water is 
 abundant, and as not only the valley proper, but also the little openings 
 up into the mountains and slopes on the north and west, afford most 
 excellent grass, and would furnish pasturage for quite a number of cattle. 
 
 Below this point the valley contracts, but again expands near where 
 it opens into the Sahwatch Basin, affording a small area of arable land. 
 Here also are a number of hot springs which emit a strong vapor, the 
 temperature ranging at abont 120° Fahrenheit. 
 
 Banning in from the northwest is Sahwatch Creek, which affords a 
 rich valley some three or four miles wide and some ten or twelve miles 
 long. The bottoms which dank this stream are generally flat, and as 
 they are raised but slightly above the water-level, can be easily irriga- 
 tedj the supply of water being abundant. A settlement has already 
 been made here, and although the seasons are short, yet experiment has 
 XJroved that wheat, oats, &c., can be profitably raised, the yield being 
 good and the grain fine. I dislike to introduce i)ersonal incidents into 
 a report of this kind, yet as they sometimes serve to give stronger im- 
 pressions than can otherwise be made, 1 trust I will be excused for in- 
 troducing one here to show how difficult it is to produce a belief in the 
 agricultural capacity of these regions. As we entered this valley from 
 the west, we noticed that the oats, which appeared to be of a very inferior 
 quality, had been cut quite green ; this was late in the season, (Septem- 
 ber 30,) and the night was very cold and frosty. I at once conchided 
 that the climate was too cold and the seasons too short to produce the 
 cereals, and even the leader of our expedition, who had been exploring 
 the Rocky Mountain regions for fifteen years, and who long since had 
 gotten over first impressions, was inclined to the same opinion. Yet 
 next morning, when we passed over to the other side of the valley, we 
 were surprised to see some large fields of the finest quality of wheat. 
 Although it was being harvested at this late date, having been sowed 
 late in May, the grains were large and plump, and fully ripened. 
 
 The broad margin that surrounds the boggy basin before described, 
 is sufficiently level for agricultural purj)oses, and, as far as the supply oi 
 water will go, can be easily irrigated and brought under cultivation. 
 The lands along the east side, which slope in from the base of the Sierra 
 Blanca, are rather sandy, and in places almost destitute of vegetation, 
 the supply of water on this side not being constant. Yet I think it 
 probable that during the spring and first of summer, when most needed, 
 and while the snows on the west side of the mountain are melting, there 
 will be a sufficiency of water to irrigate a considerable breadth of land 
 even here. 
 
 On the west side are the Carnero and Gareta Creeks, pretty little 
 streams which pour down their pure, limpid waters through ditch-like 
 channels but a few feet below the surface of the plain, rendering the ir- 
 rigation of the bordering lands remarkably easy and inexpensive. The 
 soil here is very good, in some places being a dark, rich loam, covered 
 with a tall and rank growth of grass. The temi)erature is about the 
 same as in the Sahwatch Valley, but although more open and i)erhaps 
 warmer during the day, is more subject to irregular early frosts, a fact 
 
200 GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF THE TERRITORIES. 
 
 wliicli is often noticed in comparing tlie climate of open plains with tbat 
 of adjaceut monntain valleys. 
 
 Should the time come when there will be an nrgent demand for land 
 in this vicinity, an encroachment could be made upon the marshy bor- 
 ders of the central basin, which if redeemed would afibrd several thou- 
 sands of acres of rich soil. 
 
 On the southwest this basin is bordered by a somewhat elevated, 
 gravelly plateau, varying in width from eight to fifteen miles, which, 
 beginning at the mountains on the west, passes eastward between the 
 Eio Grande and Gareta round the south end of the basin, separating it 
 from the Eio Grande bottoms. In regard to the possibility of irrigating 
 this ridge I will speak hereafter. 
 
 The Ivio Grande, rising in the mountains to the west. Hows directly 
 east until it reaches the middle of the valley, where, making an abrupt 
 bend, it runs south through the entire length of the valley, dividing it 
 into nearly equal parts. On the east side, between the Sahwatch basin 
 and the Eio Costillo, lies a broad, slightly-inclined plain, averaging 
 about twenty miles in width. It is interrupted, in its southwest por- 
 tion, by a mesa of considerable extent, and by occasional foot-hills which 
 shoot out from the mountain on the east. The southern half isxmdulat- 
 ing, but the northern portion is composed of three levels: first and low- 
 est, the river bottom, some five or six miles wide ; the second correspond- 
 ing with the plateau before mentioned, and which occupies the region 
 about Fort Garland, having an area of one hundred and fifty or two 
 hundred square miles ; the third, which is the highest, lying south of 
 the second. The bottoms along the Eio Grande are composed of deep 
 rich soil, generally covered with tall grass, or thickets of bushes, with 
 here and there open groves of cotton wood. They can, without much 
 difficulty, be irrigated irom the river, but I am of the 0})iniou (and oh 
 this account have been thus minute in my description of this locality) 
 that, by commencing a canal where the river emerges from the mount- 
 ains, and bringing it along the plateau and around the bend upon the 
 second level, not onl}^ the plateau and a great portion of the second 
 level, but the southern slope of Sahwatch basin and Eio Grande bottoms 
 might all be irrigated from it. It is i)ossible there may be a depression 
 between the Eio Grande and Gareta at the up'per portion, which would 
 necessitate the building of an aqueduct, and thus increase the expense, 
 but in regard to this I cannot speak positively. This canal would irri- 
 gate at least five hundred thousand acres, at a moderate cost per acre. 
 
 From the Trenchera most of the eastern portion of the second level 
 can be irrigated 5 and it is possible a portion of the higher level might 
 be reached by water from this stream and the Culebra, near their 
 sources in the mountains. 
 
 An old Mexican claim extends over a considerable portion of this part 
 of the valley. Eeachiiig from the south end of the Sierra Blauca to the 
 Eio Costillo, it embraces the entire valleys of the Trenchera, Culebra, 
 and Costillo, amounting to one million three hundred thousand acres. 
 
 The Eio Culebra furnishes one of the prettiest and richest valleys of 
 this section, its chief expanse being along the eastern margin near the 
 mountains, from which numerous little tributaries pour down their cool, 
 clear waters. This ex[)anse, lying between the mountains on the east 
 and the " cerillos" on the west, has been very appropriately designated 
 the "vegas" or meadows, on account of the luxuriant growth of grass 
 that covers its soil. There is quite a settlement here, chiefly Mexican, 
 and a large portion of the valley at this point is already under cultiva- 
 tion. The county seat of Costillo County, San Luis, (or Culebra,) is lo- 
 
GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF THE TERRITOKIES. 201 
 
 cated here. The second or upper level liere, and also that bordering the 
 Costillo Valley, might be irrigated, thus increasing the breadth ot the 
 arable area. Near the llio Grande lie a succession of l)asaltic mesas and 
 ridges, through which the Cnlebra and Costillo have cut channels for 
 their waters. The llio Grande afibrds no bottom along this part of its 
 course, its waters being conlined to a deep narrow caiion of basalt for 
 sixty-five miles, from La Joya to the crossing of tlie road to Conejos. 
 The llio Colorado affords another valley of moderate width, which, like 
 the others, is broadest and most extensive at its upper end, narrowing 
 as it approaches the Eio Grande. Between this and the Taos Valley, 
 though a few spots of limited extent may be found which can be culti- 
 vated, the greater part is elevated and broken, and is covered with a 
 heavy growth of timber. 
 
 The area west of the Kio Grande is similar in character to that east. 
 It is watered by Pintado Creek, Eio de Jara, and the Conejos River, and 
 contains some as fine land as is to be found in the San Luis Valley. 
 
 The valleys of the Pintado and de Jara are of but moderate extent, 
 traversing a more uneven country than that farther south. The Conejos 
 Eiver and its tributaries afford a valley which at its central part pre- 
 sents a broad and fertile area, where quite a number of Mexican settle- 
 ments have already been made. The southern portion of this side of 
 the San Luis Valley is principally an elevated basaltic i)lateau, or mesa, 
 which is covered with grass, and well adapted for grazing purposes, but 
 cannot be brought under cultivation, as it is beyond the reach of irriga- 
 tion. But there is on this side, as on the east, a large extent of laud, 
 principally on the second level, which by proper efforts might be irrigated, 
 thus adding a broad margin to the arable lands of this section. 
 
 The soil of the lower valleys and bottoms throughout the section is 
 generally comi^osed of a rich sandy loam, containing more or less com- 
 minuted m arl. That of the upper levels and ridges has more or less gravel 
 and coarse sand mingled with it. 
 
 Having an elevation of seven thousand feet above the level of the sea, 
 and being partiallj' surrounded by mountains, whose summits bear upon 
 them snow throughout the year, this basin must necessarily have a 
 tolerably cold climate. Yet the days and the average temperature 
 during the growing season, as shown by, the thermometer, would indicate 
 a more favorable climate than the surronndings do ; but this is to a cer- 
 tain degree deceptive, as the nights during the warmer half of the year 
 are quite cold as compared with the temperature of the days. And this 
 fact, as will be seen, has an important bearing in estimating the agricul- 
 tural capacity of this section. Frosts geuerall}^ set in between the 1st 
 and 10th of September, but snow seldom begins to fall on the plain 
 until December, and the amount that falls during the winter is small. 
 
 There is scarcely any portion of the valley that does not afford good 
 pasturage for cattle and sheep, and when every acre that can be irrigated 
 has been brought under cultivation, the higher ridges, mountain sides, 
 and elevated valleys will still furnish sufficient pasturage for numerous 
 herds and flocks; and if a means of reaching market is ever obtained, 
 few better places for the manufacture of batter and cheese than this cau 
 be found. 
 
 From Mr. Stephen E. Sterrett, wiio has been acquainted with this 
 valley for eighteen years, and has resided here for the last ten years, I 
 obtained the following information in regard to the crops. 
 
 The principal products of the soil are wheat, oats, and potatoes, very 
 little corn being raised. Wheat is generally sown between the 1st of 
 April and 10th of May, and harvested from 1st to the 20th of September, 
 
202 GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF THE TERRITORIES. 
 
 tlie average yield being thirty busliels, whicb he considers a low esti- 
 mate as lie has seen fields turn out as much as sixty bushels to the acre. 
 He siys the reason why their harvest is so late is because the cold nights 
 in the spring check its growth, and in the latter part of the summer 
 retard its ripemng. Oats grow finely, and yield about forty bnshels 
 to the acre. Some corn is raised, principally in the southern erid of the 
 vallev, yet the seasons are so short, and its growth so much retarded by 
 the cold nights, that it is often injured by autumnal rosts, a"^l even 
 when it matures is of an inferior quality, and the yield light. He finds 
 by experience that in the northern part of the valley it is less liable to 
 injury if planted near the mountain than on the open plain. 
 
 Irish potatoes do well, yielding moderate returns of fine-flavored tubers. 
 Turnips and ftlexican squashes can be easily raised, feuch garden vege- 
 tables as cabbages, beets, carrots, peas, &c.,can be grown here without 
 difiicultv; and tomatoes and beans can be raised, but are liable to be 
 iniured by the frosts. Very little fruit has hitherto been raised m the 
 vallev, but I think if the proper varieties of apples were selected and 
 well managed, a siiflicient quantity might be produced to su])ply the 
 local demand. Currants, raspberries, gooseberrie^, and strawberries 
 will grow here and produce fruit, but the cultivated varieties will have 
 to be planted, for although the mountain sides furnish an abundance ot 
 the wild kinds, they appear to fail when transplanted to the 1 lams. 
 
 Ample water power for milling and manufacturing purposes can be 
 readily obtained; and a supply of timber can be had by going to the 
 mountains, especially at the northern and southern extremities of the 
 vallev, and it is verv probable a large amount of the better kind loi 
 building purposes might be floated down the Eio Grande, as far as this 
 river has accessible points. i vi, i^ori 
 
 The roads within the valley are mostly good; and those which lead 
 out of it at Poncho and Sangre de Christo passes and at the south end 
 can be made good without any great expense. , . , , 
 
 I have been thus minute in my description of this basin because much 
 interest has been manifested concerning it of late years, and yet so lit- 
 tle in regard to its agricultural capacity seems to be known. 
 
 The reader will notice that I have omitted to speak ot the Taos Val- 
 lev in mv description of this basin, although in giving the boundaries 
 I included it. I did so because it is wholly distinct m its character 
 from the rest of the basin, and is almost completely isolated. 
 
 TAOS VALLEY. 
 
 " The valley in which Taos is situated may be said to be formed by a 
 notch or bend in the mountain range. On the southwest is the Picaris 
 Eange, with a strike nearly northeast and southwest. The next range 
 east of this trends about north and south." It is about eighteen miles 
 in extent from east to west and sixteen from north to south, the^narrow 
 valley of the Arroyo Hondo forming its northern extremity, iliere is 
 also an open area, about eight miles wide, on the west side of the Kio 
 Grande, which may properly be counted as a pa,rt of it. The entire 
 area, including the strip west of the river, amounts to about two hun- 
 dred and fifty square miles, or one hundred and sixty thousand acres, 
 a large part of which may ultimately be brought under cultivation. 
 
 The deep arroyo or valley at the north end is from one to two miles 
 wide, affording a fertile spot, easily irrigated, where there is a small 
 Mexican settlement and village. i « n ^ 
 
 The entire valley of the Taos seems to have been one broad field ot 
 sage, {Artemisea,) which, on the parts where it has not been disturbed. 
 
GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF THE TERRITORIES. 203 
 
 excludes every other growtb, giving a very barren appearance to the 
 hiiulscape. 
 
 Besides Taos there are several other villages and settlements, chiefly 
 Mexican, in the southeast part of tlie valley. The amount of land in 
 cultivation is not more than fifteen thousand acres. Unless the caiiou 
 through which the llio Grande emerges into this valley sbould present 
 some insurmountable difficulty, the greater part of its area may be irri- 
 gated, the northern and -svestern portion from this river, and that part 
 along the mountains from the streams that flow into it. 
 
 The soil is quite different from that of the valleys further north, being- 
 very finely pulverized and loose ; it also is of considerable depth and 
 very fertile. The cause of its fertility will be understood from the fol- 
 lowing quotation, made from the preliminary report of the United States 
 Geologist on the " Geological Survey of Colorado and ]New Mexico," 
 18G9, p. 70: 
 
 The valley proper is scooped out of the Santa Fe marls, Tvhicli must at one time 
 have prevailed extensively, as in the country north of Santa Fe, but the surface has 
 heen smoothed oli", so that nowhere are the marls conspicuous ; still they can be seen 
 all along the base of the mountains bordering the valley, where portions of the recent 
 dcpositslle high on the mountain side. No sedimentary rocks of older date are seen, 
 and the Santa Fe marls rest directly on the metamorphic rocks. 
 
 The effect of this marl upon the appearance and character of the soil 
 is i>lainly seen. The consequence is, that that which in its wild state 
 appears as but a barren sage ])lain, across which the wind sweeps the 
 fine i)articles of the light soil, piling it in little heaps around the bushes, 
 by the application of water is changed into a fertile field. And I think 
 Colonel Charles IMcClnre justified in his statement to me, that sufficient 
 wheat to suppl.y the Territory might be raised in this valley. It is con- 
 sidered the best wheat-growing region in New Mexico. The climate 
 appears to be milder here than in the San Luis Valley proper, although 
 but narrowly separated from each other, and the diiferences of latitude 
 and altitude being slight. 
 
 Having now com]deted my description of this gTeat mountain basin, 
 it is proper I should refer to the report of Lieutenant E. G. Beckwith, 
 as published in Vol. II, Pacific Eailroad Eeports, whose opinion and 
 description differ somewhat from that I have given. He remarks that 
 " in our ride of over a hundred miles from El Sangre de Christo to this 
 place (Taos) we saw no grass in the valleys worth naming, the vegeta- 
 tion being confined almost exclusively to artemisia and a few varieties 
 of cacti, but chiefly the prickly pear ; the pines of the mountains at 
 times extend well down to the plains. In the high small valleys of the 
 mountains the grass is luxuriant and the flowers beautiful." 
 
 There are parts of the open valley which are not well grassed and 
 that have upon them a tolerably thick growth of artemisia, and also 
 some spots grown up with chenopodiaceous shrubs ; but as a whole it 
 may properly be called well grassed. In 18G9 our party traveled over 
 exactly the same road here spoken of, camping one night in each of the 
 principal valleys, the Eio Colorado, Eio Costillo, and Culebra, having 
 uo ditficulty in either in obtaining sufficient grass Ibr our stock. It is 
 true that it was not so rank and abundant in the first two as in the 
 last, which, outside of the cultivated fields,;«'as one rich meadow. The 
 bottoms of the Eio Grande and western slope of the Sahwatch basin 
 we found covered with a very heavy growth of grass. 
 
 In summing up his view of this valley, although he calls it one of the 
 finest in New Mexico, yet he goes on to say : 
 
 The extensive valley of San Luis, lying between the Sierra Blanca on the east and 
 Sierra San Juan on the west, and watered by the Rio Grande del Norte and its uumer- 
 
204 GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF THE TERRITORIES. 
 
 ous small tributaries, is, in general, one vast sage plain from the Rio Colorado to Gun- 
 nison's Pass. The grass on the lower tributaries of the Rio del Norte, in this valley, is 
 very limited indeed. It is more abundant on the upper affluents, where a few lields 
 of prairie grass a mile or two in width were observed, and the antliority of our guide 
 given for extensive grass prairies on the Rio del Norte itself. But all these grass fields, 
 Avith the greatest amount of cultivation which can be supplied with water from the 
 little streams of this valley, can, under the most favorable circumstances, only support 
 a meager population. 
 
 It is evident from these remarks of Lieutenant Beckwith that he 
 bases his condusions on his observations and experience in the States 
 "where the soil is moistened by rain, and that he considers the sage 
 ground as unfit for cultivation. But the experiments of the seventeeu 
 years which have elapsed since he was there, have taught us that sage 
 land, when irrigated, is about as productive as the grass fields. And the 
 broad sage field that lies west of Fort Garland, (then Fort Massachu- 
 setts,) if redeemed by water, would soou give evidence of this fact. 
 
 I do not refer to the reports of others in any spirit of criticism, but 
 as far as possible to correct the impression made by these opinions, 
 which, though given in all candor, frequently did injustice to this 
 country. 
 
 VALLEY OF THE RIO GRANDE. 
 
 As I have traveled over but a small i^ortion of this section I cannot 
 enter as minutely into details as I have in regard to the one north of it. 
 My description, therefore, will not only be more general, but made up in 
 part from such reliable information as I could obtain. But this defi- 
 ciency is, to a great degree, compensated by the narrative of Dr. A. 
 Wislizenus, the reconnoissanee of Lieutenant Emory, and the reports of 
 General Pope, Lieutenant Whipple, and others, in which notices of the 
 agriculture and arable lauds of ditferent parts of the section are to be 
 found. 
 
 The length from north to south, counting from the moutli of the Rio 
 de Taos to the Mexican line, is about three hundred and fii:ty miles, 
 with an average width of one hundred and ten miles. It is difficult to esti- 
 mate, even with approximate accuracy, the amount of arable land in this 
 area, as, with the exception of the comparatively narrow valley proper 
 of the Eio Grande, it lies in small irregular valleys and detached spots. 
 And, in addition to this difficulty, great diversity of opinion exists in 
 regard to the average width of this valley, varying from two to twenty 
 miles. Yet this diflerence is not wholly due to error in either party, as 
 the term " valley *' is used in different senses, some meaning thereby only 
 the bottoms immediately along the river, while others include the lower 
 terraces which at some points flank the bottoms. Perhaps the best 
 data we have upon which to base an estimate is to be found in the re- 
 port of Lieutenant Whipple, who, after a careful examination, estimates 
 the cultivable area of a belt thirty miles wide, and one hundred and 
 eighty miles long, east and west — reaching from Anton Chico to Camp- 
 bell's Pass— at three hundred and sixty square miles, or one-fifteenth of 
 the whole area. As this belt reaches directly across the entire width of 
 the section nnder consideration, it may be taken as an average of the 
 whole ; for, although it includes the valley of the San Jos6 on the west, 
 the east end stretches over the broad Mesa de la Vista almost from 
 Anton Chico to San Antonio. This proportion would give for the sec- 
 tion nearly two thousand six hundred square miles of tillable land, which 
 I think may be increased by the proper husbanding of water. 
 
 In order to understand properly the differences in climate and pro- 
 ductions observable in the different parts of this section, it is necessary, 
 not only to take into consideration the latitude, but also the variations 
 
GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF THE TERRITORIES. 205 
 
 iu altitiulo, and proximity to high mountains. Beginningf at the Sau 
 Luis Valley, with an elevation of 7,000 feet above the level of the sea, 
 we llntl wheti we reach Santa Fe the heiglft is still 0,840 feet, which is 
 higher than some of the valleys farther north. Keeping on the same 
 plateau, and moving south, the elevations of the i)rin('ipal points are as 
 follows: Gallisteo Village, 0,105; Los Cerillos, 5,804; Canon Ulanno, 
 0,31*0, and a little southwest of the cafion, near Laguiia Blaiica, 0,043 
 feet. ^Moving southwest from this point toward Albuquerque, we lind 
 the elevation at San Antonio is 0,408 feet. But when we descend into 
 the immediate valley of the Eio Grande, as far north as Pena )ilanca, 
 it is onlv 5,288 feet above the sea-level, or 1,552 lower than at Santa Fe. 
 At San Felipe it is 5,220 ; at Albuquerque, 5,020 ; at Isleta, 4,910 ; at 
 Socorro, 4,500 ; at Alamosa, 4,200; and at El Paso about 3,800. Strange 
 as it may appear, when we cross the ridge east of Santa Fe, to the 
 headwaters of the Pecos, we tind the altitude at Pecos Village but 0,300 
 feet — about 500 feet lower than at Santa Fe ; while at Anton Chico it is 
 only 5,372 feet, corresponding very nearly with that of the Eio Grande 
 valley at Pena Blanca. 
 
 I have given these particulars in regard to the elevation of this 
 region to show that, sweeping around the southern terminus of the Eocky 
 Mountain range, is an elevated plateau, or extended mesa, v»liich, reach- 
 ing north along the inside of the basin for some distance, occupies both 
 sides of the river, but southward recedes from it. At Pena Blanca we 
 descend into the Eio Grande Valley i^roper, which continues along the 
 southern course of the river with little interruption throughout the rest 
 of the Territory. From this point south, fruits and the tenderer vege- 
 tables and plants are grown with ease, which fail no farther north than 
 Santa Fe. 
 
 But the difference in altitude is not the only influence tending to vary 
 the temperature and vegetation between the northern and southern 
 parts of the section, for about opposite the point where this lower level 
 begins, the mountain range on the east terminates, and, as a matter of 
 course, the depression of temperature and the cold of the nights, so far 
 as caused by the proximity of snowy peaks and icy waters, also cease. 
 
 From the region of the Galisteo south the features of the country 
 change ; instead of the vast and lofty ranges of the Eocky Mountains, 
 a succession of shorter, narrower, and less lofty mountains forming a 
 chain which runs directly north and south a short distance east of the 
 river and almost parallel with it ; and what is somewhat remarkable, 
 instead of corresponding with the range east of the San Luis Valley, 
 this chain runs almost directly in a line with the bottom of the valley. 
 While the mountains have thus diminished, on the other hand the minia- 
 ture table lands of the regions farther north are here replaced by vast 
 plateaus which spread over the country forming its general level, out of 
 which are scooped the valleys and basins. 
 
 On the east side of the Eio Grande, between the Taos Valley and 
 Joya, the country is broken and mountainous, mostly covered with a 
 heavy growth of timber, chiefly pine and fir. This area is traversed 
 east and west by a few small streams, which are bordered by narrow 
 strips of cultivable lands. The three principal ones are the Peuasco, 
 Pueblo, and Chumesal ; the first being a vigorous creek which traverses 
 a valley varying in width from one to five miles, which is flanked on 
 each side by high blufts. A good part of it is already under cultivation, 
 and, as the soil is fertile and the valley sheltered, the crops produced are 
 quite heavy. The other two are small and less important than the 
 Peiiasco. 
 
206 GEOLOGICAL SUEVEY OF THE TERRITORIES. 
 
 Between this broken region and the Rio de Canado (or Santa Cruz) 
 on the south, lying along the Eio Grande, is a moderate breadth of arable 
 laud, some of which is verytertile, and produces not only the hardier 
 cereals, as wheat, oats, and barley, but also corn, which grows large and 
 fine. The tillable area here could be considerably enlarged by irrigation 
 from the Eio Grande, unless there is some impediment which 1 failed to 
 observe. 
 
 The Rio de Santa Ft^, Rio Galisteo, and Tuerto Creek afford strips of 
 arable land, varying in width from one to ten miles ; but here also I 
 think the amonnt might be increased by proper efforts and more ex- 
 tensive acequias. 
 
 I have not visited the valleys of the Rio de Chama and Rio Puerco. 
 The valley of the Rio Puerco, I understand, is flanked by elevated table 
 lands, and that its lower portion is not supplied with living water but a 
 part of the year ; but its i:»rincipal tributary', the San Jose, runs through 
 a fine wide valley, in which there is a considerable amount of cultivated 
 land and a number of villages, the breadth available for agricultural 
 purposes being equal to the capacity of the stream. 
 
 The average width of the immediate valley of the Rio Grande, as 
 before stated, has received widely different estimates ; Dr. Wislizenus 
 placing it as high as twenty miles, evidently including the lower terrace 
 which is sometimes present, while Colonel McClure stated to me that he 
 would not estimate it at more than two miles, including only the imme- 
 diate bottoms of the river. Lieutenant Whipple's calculation would 
 give about eight or nine miles as the average, which is probably nearer 
 correct than either of the others. 
 
 The following memoranda in regard to various points along this valley, 
 though not ver^' definite, may be of some interest to the reader. 
 
 At San Domij]go it is quite narrow and continues so for about six 
 miles below San Felipe, where it again widens to six or seven miles, the 
 soil being quite sandy. At Bernalillo it is of considerable breadth, but 
 gi'ows narrow in the vicinity of Zandia, again expanding and affording 
 a tolerably broad area at Alameda. From Alameda to a pomt some 
 distance below Isleta, there is a moderate width of good bottom land. 
 Contracting near Peralto, it widens again in the neighborhood of Tome 
 with improved soil, the belt continuing with verj' little interruption 
 to the bend of the Rio Grande, below the mouth of the Puerco, where 
 the bordering hills close in upon it, reducing it to about one mile. At 
 Socorro there is a medium belt, which expands southward, i)resenting a 
 very fine agricultural section, which is interrupted in the vicinity of Fra 
 Cristobal Mountains. Between San Antouio and Doiia Ana are some 
 of the finest portions of the whole valley, opposite which on the east 
 side stretch the sandy wastes of the dreaded Jornada del Muerto. 
 Near Mesilla and Doiia Aiia are also some fiue openings, which are par- 
 tially cultivated. In regard to the ^few small tributary valleys below 
 the Rio Puerco, I know nothing. 
 
 The volume of water sent down by this river is sufficient to irrigate 
 an immense area of land. xVt Tome Lieutenant Emory found by meas- 
 urement the entire volume, including two acequias, to be equal to a width 
 of ninety-three feet and depth of two feet, or the area of a transverse 
 section, one hundred and eighty-six square feet. The rate of fall be- 
 tween Peiia Blanca and Isleta is nearly six feet to the mile; it may 
 therefore be possible to carry it to some portions of the higher ground, 
 but in regard to this I am unable to speak positively. Judging from 
 the height of the bluff at San Felipe above the river level, one hundred 
 
GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF THE TERRITORIES. 207 
 
 and ninety-six feet, it is not probable this is practicable except where 
 there are lower intermediate levels. 
 
 As a general thing the soil aloni? the river is (juite sandy, but when 
 well watered proves to be very fertile; and, although seeuiingly adapted 
 to the growth of wheat, this cereal does not prove as productive here as 
 farther north. Indian corn grows finely, and when the better varieties 
 are introduced and cultivated, large and remunerative crops may be 
 raised. Here is to be found one of the finest grape-growing sections in 
 the Union, its only rivals being the valleys of California. All the usual 
 varieties of fruit can be raised in abundance and with great ease. Mel- 
 ons, pumpkins, frijoles, and in the southern extremity cotton, can be 
 produced. In the greater part of this valley two crops of cereals can be 
 raised in one season. 
 
 THE PECOS VALLEY. 
 
 As I have visited only the northern part of this section, and have . 
 received information in regard to some detached i^ortions only of its w 
 southern half, I can form no reliable estimate of the amount of arable ^l 
 laud it contiiins. Yet I am warranted, by what I have seen and learned, ^ ^' 
 in saying that the proportion is less than in either of the sections here- 
 tofore described. In fact, the valley of this river is one of erosion, worn 
 out of the broad plateau of this region, and in-esenting, north of the 
 Guadalupe Mountains, the appearance of one vast arroi/o. Its tribu- 
 taries are few, and, with the exception of two or three, of but little im- 
 portance in an agricultural point of view. . '^ .- 
 
 The Gallinas Eiver and its little tributaries afford narrow belts of fer- y 
 tile soil, the area being equal to the supply of water. Around Las Vegas ^- ' 
 a considerable breadth is under cultivation, corn being the chief crop. 
 The Pecos, to its junction with the Gallinas, runs through a very narrow 
 valley, which has been correctly described as " ribbon-lilie," a few bay- 
 like expansions forming the only exceptions, as at San Miguel. The 
 valley bottom throughout this distance is generally fiauked by high 
 bluffs, which sometimes, as in the neighborhood of La Guesta, reach an 
 altitude of five hundred feet. Lieutenant Whipple, whose liue of survey 
 crossed at Anton Chico, estimates the cultivable land in a belt thirty 
 miles wide and reaching directh^ across this section, from Pajarito Creek 
 to Anton Chico, at one-tliirtieth of the area embraced. From an exam- 
 ination in person of a similar belt immediately north of it, I am inclined 
 to think this estimate very near correct ; it may be a little too low, but 
 not much. In the neighborhood of Fort Sumner, as I was informed by 
 Mr. Maxwell, there is a considerable breadth of fertile land which can 
 be irrigated, and which is well adapted to the growth of fruits and 
 grapes. Along the headwaters of the liio Bonito there are some fertile 
 spots, where not only fine crops of cereals are raised, but where fruits, 
 grapes, and even sweet potatoes grow well. Very little appears to be 
 known in regard to the valley of the Penasco. 
 
 From the north end of the Guadalupe Mountains to the mouth of the 
 Delaware Eiver the valley of the Pecos is level and very fertile, averag- 
 ing in width some three or four miles. But from all I can learn in re- 
 gard to this part of the section the tillable area could be extended far 
 beyond the immediate bottoms. For here the plateau, instead of ter- 
 minating in abrupt bluffs, descends gradually, and in a somewhat gen- 
 tle slope to the river bottom. The sui^ply of water in the river being- 
 ample, and the fall rapid in this part of its course, irrigating canals could 
 be carried far up the slope, if not to the top of the plateau. The soil on 
 
208 GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF THE TERRITORIES. 
 
 the upper level possesses alltbe ingredients necessary to productiveness, 
 except tbat furnislied by water. Supply this and all the table lands of 
 New Mexico will yield rich returns for tlie labor bestowed upon them. 
 I am of the opinion that for a part of its course the Pecos is some- 
 what sluf;i?ish, l3ut I may be mistahen in this, as I base it entirely on 
 the following data, viz, that from Anton Chico to the mouth of the Dela- 
 ware the fall amounts to one thousand two hundred and fifty feet, 
 which gives an average of but little more than four feet to the mile, but 
 as the fall between the north end of the Guadalupe Mountains and the 
 mouth of the Delaware is very rapid, and at the upper ]K)rtion is also 
 above the average, I mfer that for a part of its intermediate distance 
 the fall is but little. 
 
 WESTERN NEW MEXICO. 
 
 Although this is not embraced in the Eio Grande district, it is per- 
 haps best to add here what few items I have obtained in regard to its 
 agricultural capacity. 
 
 The Eio San Juan, a tributary of the Colorado of the West, although 
 rising in tlie ^au Juan Mountains of Colorado Territory, bends south 
 and traverses the northwest portion of New Mexico, Avhere it receives a 
 number of aliiuents. Colonel McClure and Governor Arny inform me 
 that these valleys afford a considerable breadth of very rich land, which 
 can be irrigated, and which will produce fine crops of the cereals, veg- 
 etables, and fruits usually growni in the Middle States. As this area 
 appears to be almost, if not entirely, unoccupied, it would j)resent a 
 good j)oint for a colony. 
 
 The upper tributaries of the Puerco of the West, a branch of Flax 
 Eiver, are flanked by narrow belts of arable lands, but as the water of 
 this river sinks as it descends, it cannot be relied on for irrigating pur- 
 poses. But near the mountains here, as along the headwaters of the 
 Zuui, crops may be raised without irrigation, as the supi)ly of rain is 
 said to be generally sufiicieiit for this purpose. Even around Zuili, 
 where an ample supply of water can be obtained from the Zuili Eiver, 
 there are no acequias, the inhabitants relying on the rains to supply the 
 necessary moisture. There is probably some peculiarity connected with 
 the local atmospheric currents here which collects the moisture, or 
 causes its separation and fall. The evidences of a former quite numer- 
 ous population, which have served to render this classic ground, when 
 we consider the fact that they are unaccompanied by the remains of 
 aqueducts, would indicate that formerly the amount of rain was sufficient 
 for agricultural purposes. 
 
 The Eio Mimbres runs through a beautiful valley of moderate width 
 and fertile soil, where all the productions of the Central States can be 
 raised, and wdiere even those things which belong to a more southern 
 climate can be grown without difficulty. 
 
 The Eio Gila, near where it leaves the Territory, has some good bot- 
 tom lands, but farther north, toward the Sierra Santa Eita, is pebbly 
 and inferior. In regard to the valleys along its head-waters I know 
 nothing. 
 
 SOIL, CLIMATE, AND PRODUCTIONS. 
 
 Leaving the description of the Canadian sectioii until I come to the 
 examination of the Arkansas district, I will close my account of the Eio 
 Grande district with a short summary of the information obtained in 
 reference to the soil, climate, and productions of the Territory. 
 
GEOLOGICAL SUEVEY OF THE TERRITORIES. 209 
 
 As a general tiling the soil is sandy and looks poor and sterile, giving 
 an impression of extreme barrenness, which it is difficult to remove until 
 the efl'ect of irrigation and cultivation is seen. But the general state- 
 ment made in the introduction respecting the soil in the Kocky Moun- 
 tain region holds good here, for wherever sufficient water can be applied 
 the soil will prove fertile. 
 
 The best estimate I can make of the arable area of the Territory is 
 about as follows : in the Eio Grande district, one-twentieth, or about 
 two thousand eight hundred square miles ; in the strip along tlie west- 
 ern border, one-flftieth, or about six hundred square miles ; in the north- 
 eastern triangle, watered by the Canadian liiver, one-fifteen tb, or about 
 one thousand four hundred square miles. This calculation excludes the 
 " Staked Plains," and amounts in the aggregate to four thousand eight 
 hundred square miles, or nearly two million nine hundred thousand 
 acres. This, I am aware, is larger than any previous estimate that I 
 have seen, but when the country is penetrated by one or t^^'o railroads, 
 and a more enterprising agricultural population is introduced, the fact 
 will soon be developed that many portions now considered Iteyond the 
 reach of irrigation will be reclaimed. I do not found this estimate 
 wholly upon the observations made in the small portions I have visited, 
 but in addition thereto I have carefully examined the various reports 
 made upon special sections, and have obtained all the information I 
 could from intelligent persons who have resided in the Territory for a 
 number of years. 
 
 As the Territory inc'ludes in its bounds some portions of the Eocky 
 Mountain range on which snow remains for a great part of the year^ 
 and also a semi-tropical region along its southern boundry, there is, of 
 necessity, a wide difference in the extremes of temperature. But with 
 the exception -jf the cold seasons of the higher lands at the north, it is 
 temi)erate and regular. The summer days in the lower valleys are 
 sometimes quite warm, but as the dry atmosphere rapidly absorbs the 
 perspiration of the body, it prevents the debilitating effect experienced 
 where the air is heavier and more saturated with moisture. The nights 
 are cool and refreshing. The winters, except in the mountainous por- 
 tions at the north, are moderate, but the difference between the north- 
 ern and southern sections during this season is greater than during the 
 summer. The amount of snow that falls is light and seldom remains 
 on- the ground longer than a few hours. The rains principally fall dur- 
 ing the months of July, August, and September, but the annual amount 
 is small, seldom ^exceeding a few inches. When there are heavy snows 
 in the mountains during the winter, there will be good crops the follow- 
 ing summer, the supply of water being more abundant, and the quan- 
 tity of sediment carried down greater than when the snow^s are light. 
 Good crops appear to come in cycles, three or four following in succes- 
 sion, then one or two inferior ones. During the autumn months the 
 wind is disagreeable in some places, especially near the openings between 
 high ridges, and at the termini of or passes through mountain ranges. 
 There is, perhaps, no healthier section of country to be found in the 
 United States than that embraced in the boundaries of Colorado and 
 New Mexico. In fact, I think I am justified in saying that this area 
 includes the healthiest portion of the Union. Perhaps it is not improper 
 for me to say that I have no personal ends to serve in making this state- 
 ment, not having one dollar invested in either of these Territories in 
 any way whatever. I make it simply because I believe it to be true. 
 Nor would I wish to be understood as contrasting with other sections 
 of the Eocky Mountain region, only so far as these Territories have the 
 14 a 
 
210 GEOLOGICAL SUEVEY OF THE TERRIT0EIE9. 
 
 advantage in temperature. It is possible Arizona should be included, 
 but as I have not visited it I cannot speak of it. There is no better 
 place of resort for those suffering with pulmonary complaints than here. 
 It is time for the health- seekers of our country to learn and appreciate 
 the fact that within our own bounds are to be found all the elements of 
 health that can possibly be obtained by a tour to the eastern continent, 
 or any other part of the world. And that, in addition to the invigor- 
 ating air, is scenery as wild, grand, and varied as any found amid the 
 Alpine heights of Switzerland. And here too, from Middle Park to 
 Las Vegas, is a succession of mineral and hot springs of almost every 
 character. 
 
 The productions of New Mexico, as might be inferred from the variety 
 of its climate, are varied, but the staples will evidently be cattle, sheep, 
 wool, and wine, for which it seems to be peculiarly adapted. The table- 
 lands and mountain valleys are covered throughout with the nutritious 
 gramma and other grasses, which, on account of the dryness of the soil, 
 cure upon the ground and aftbrd an inexhaustible supply of food for 
 flocks and herds both summer and winter. The ease and comparatively 
 small cost with which they can be kept, the raj^idity with which they 
 increase, and exemption from epidemic diseases, added to the fact that 
 winter feeding is not required, must make the raising of stock and wool- 
 growing a prominent business of the country ; the only serious draw- 
 back at i)resent being the fear of the hostile Indian tribes. But as these 
 remarks apply equally well to all these districts, I will speak further in 
 regard to this matter when I take ui) the subject of grazing in this 
 division. 
 
 The cattle and sheep of this Territory are small, because no care seems 
 to be taken to improve the breed. San Miguel County appears to be 
 the great j)asturing ground for sheep, large numbers being driven here 
 from other counties to graze. Don Komaldo Baca estimates that be- 
 tween five hundred thousand and eight hundred thousand are annually 
 pastured here ; about two-thirds of which are driven in from other sec- 
 tions. His own Hocks number between thirty thousand and forty 
 thousand head; those of his nephew twenty-five thousand to thirty 
 thousand ; I\Ir. Mariano Trisarry, of Bernalillo County, owns about fifty- 
 five thousand ; and Mr. Gallegos, of Santa ¥6, nearly seventy thousand 
 head. 
 
 Don Eomaldo Baca stated to me that his flocks yielded him an annual 
 average of about one and a half pounds of washed wool to the sheep ; 
 that the average price of sheep was not more than two dollars per head ; 
 that the wool paid all expenses'and left the increase, which is from fifty 
 to seventy-five per cent, per annum, as his profit. From these figures 
 some estimate may be formed of what improved sheep would yield. 
 
 Wheat and oats grow throughout the Territory, but the former does 
 not yield as heavily in the southern as in the northern part. If any 
 method of watering the higher plateau is ever discovered, I think that 
 it will produce heavier crops of wheat than the valley of the Eio Grande. 
 
 Corn is raised from the Vermijo on the east of the mountains around 
 to the Culebra on the inside ; in fact, it is the principal crop of San 
 Miguel County, but the quality and yield is inferior to that which can 
 be produced in the Eio Grande Valley, and along the Eio Bonito. The 
 southern portion of the Eio Pecos Valley and the Canadian bottoms are 
 j)robably the best portions of the Territory for this cereal. 
 
 Apples will grow from the Taos Valley south ; but peaches cannot be 
 raised to any advantage north of Bernalillo in the central section, but it 
 is likely they would do well along some of the tributaries and main 
 
GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF THE TERRITORIES. 211 
 
 valley of the Canadian Elver. They also appear to grow well and pro- 
 duce fruit without irrigation in the Zuiii country ; and the valley of the 
 Mimbres is also adapted to their culture. Apricots and plums grow 
 wherever apples or peaches can be raised. I neglected to obtain any 
 information in regard to pears, but judging from the similarity of soil 
 and climate here to that of Utah and California, where this fruit grows 
 to perfection, I suppose that in the central and southern portions 
 it woidd do well. The grape will probably be the chief or at least 
 the most profitable product of the soil. The soil and climate appear 
 to be peculiarly adapted to its growth, and the probability is that as 
 a grape-growing and wine-producing section it will be second onlj- to 
 Califoruia. From Colonel McClure I learned that the amount of wine 
 made in 18G7 was about forty thousand gallons, and that the crop of 18G9 
 would probably reach one hundred thousand gallons ; 1 have not been 
 informed since whether his estimate was verified or not. A good many 
 vineyards were i^lanted in 18C9, at least double the number of IS J 8. 
 Several Americans, anticipating the building of a railroad through that 
 section, have engaged in this branch of agriculture. The wine that is 
 made here is said to be of an excellent quality. 
 
 Beets here, as in Colorado, grow to an enormous size, and it is quite 
 likely that the sugar beet would not only yield heavj- crops, but also con- 
 tain a large per cent, of saccharine matter. I am rather inclined to believe 
 that soil which is impregnated with alkaline matter will favor the pro- 
 duction of the saccharine principle. I base this opinion wholly on ob- 
 servations made in Utah in regard to its effect on fruit, therefore experi- 
 ments may prove that I am wholly mistaken. It is possible the experi- 
 ment has been tried ; if so, I am not aware of it. 
 
 The Irish potatoes are inferior to those raised farther north. Cab- 
 bages grow large and fine. Onions from the Eaton Mountains south 
 have the finest flavor of any I ever tasted, and therefore am not sur- 
 prised that Lieutenant Emory found the dishes at Bernalillo " all dressed 
 with the everlasting onion." But as to the " chili " or pepper which is 
 so extensively raised and used in New Mexico, I beg to be excused, un- 
 less I can have my throat lined with something less sensitive than na- 
 ture's coating. Sweet potatoes have been successfully tried in the 
 vicinity of Fort Siuuner and along the head- waters of the Eio Bonito. 
 Melons, pumpkins, frijoles, &c., are raised in profusion in the lower val- 
 leys ; and I understand cotton was formerly grown in limited quantities. 
 
 As a general thing the mountains afford an abundance of pine for the 
 supply of lumber and fuel to those sufficiently near to them. Some of 
 the valleys have a limited amount of cottonwood growing along them. 
 In addition to pine, spruce and cottonwood, the stunted cedar and mes- 
 quit, which is found over a large area, may be used for fuel. The best 
 timbered portion of the Eio Grande Valley is between Socorro and Dona 
 Aiia. The east side of the Guadalupe range has an abundant supply of 
 pine of large size. Around the head- waters of the Pecos is some excel- 
 lent timber. Walnut and oak are found in a few spots south, but in 
 limited quantities and of too small a size to be of much value. 
 
 THE CANADIAN SECTION. 
 
 This section, in a strictly systematic arrangement, would be included 
 in the Arkansas district, to which it really belongs ; but, for conveni- 
 ence, and that the plan of my report of last year may remain unchanged, 
 I describe it separately. It includes that part of ISTew Mexico lying be- 
 tween the Eaton Mountains on the north and the Pecos section, or 
 
212 GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF THE TERRITORIES. 
 
 " Llano Estacado'' on the south and southwest, and contains about four- 
 teen thousand square miles. The amount of arable land in this section, 
 as heretofore stated, is estimated at about one thousand four hundred 
 square miles, or nine hundred thousand acres. This estimate is made 
 on Tery slender data, and therefore cannot be considered as very relia- 
 ble, but I am satisfied that it is not too large, and I think it is approxi- 
 mately correct. 
 
 The Canadian*iRiYer, rising in the Eaton Mountains, runs southeast 
 for about one hundred and fifty miles, to Fort Bascom, where it turns 
 east, and passes out of the Territory, a little north of the thirty-fifth 
 parallel — its whole length within the limits of the Territory being about 
 two hundred miles. Most of its tributaries of any importance in an agTi- 
 cultural point of view flow in from the west, of which the following are 
 the principal ones : Yermijo, Little Cimarron, Ocate, Eayada, (a branch 
 of the Ocate,) Moro, Eio Conchas, Pajarito Creek, and Tucumcari Creek. 
 
 As will be seen by a glance at the map of this region, its western part 
 slopes eastward, while the general descent is toward the south. Hence 
 the highest portion of its general surface is found in the northwest angle, 
 where the elevation is iprobably about five thousand feet above the sea- 
 level, while the southeast corner, which is the lowest, has an elevation 
 of only three thousand feet. 
 
 The fall of the river, from the mouth of Pajarito Creek east for about 
 two hundred miles, is about nine feet to the mile. The fall above this 
 is unknown, but it is evidently greater. It is therefore evident that the 
 amount of land which. can be irrigated is limited only by the sui^ply of 
 water, which is somewhat uncertain. I know but little in regard to the 
 valley of this river, but understand that, as a general thing, it is not 
 extensive; that at many points the bluffs press closely upon it, 
 leaving but a narrow opening for the river, while at others they recede, 
 leaving broad and fertile bottoms. The bordering plains are generally 
 quite sandy, supporting but a scanty vegetation. The landscape is va- 
 ried by small elevated mesas rising from the comparatively level sur- 
 face, whose sharp outlines form a singular feature of this country. 
 
 The following description of the western border, across which our 
 expedition iDassed in 1869, will give a tolerably correct idea of the 
 section : 
 
 Starting from the crest of the Eaton Mountains, immediately above 
 the source of the Canadian Eiver, after passing down through a dense 
 forest of magnificent pines and firs, we enter a beautiful little valley 
 covered over with a thick sward of luxuriant grass. Here a considera- 
 ble amount is annually cut for hay and taken to Trinidad. But this 
 valley soon terminates, and the little stream and road enter a rugged 
 caiion bordered by precipitous bluffs of gray sandstone, which continue 
 to the plains at the base of the mountain. Here a grand panoramic 
 view spreads out toward the south ; a broad, valley-like plain slopes 
 southward as far as the vision will reach. Scarcely a tree or shrub is 
 to be seen ; all is one smooth, grassy carpet, which, on the distant gentle 
 slopes, looks more like i)ale, pea-green velvet than anything else to 
 which I can compare it. Eising up from the broad base are two or 
 three huge basaltic tables, lifting their perfectly level surfaces one hun- 
 dred and fifty feet or more into the air, and all clothed in the same 
 velvety covering, but which fails to destroy the sharp outline of circular 
 rim. The little stream, like a silvery thread, is seen winding its tortu- 
 ous course along the gently descending i^lain, joined now and then by a 
 slender rill flowing down from the mountain on the west. It is a mag- 
 nificent pasture ground for sheep and cattle, where thousands might be 
 
GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF THE TEERITOEIES. 213 
 
 grazed and tended with but little trouble. But the stream is too small 
 to irrigate any great extent of the lands through which it passes, and 
 which could easily be reached if the supply of water was suflicient ; yet 
 enough can be obtained to supply the wants of a moderate pastoral 
 settlement. 
 
 The first tributary we reach that will afford means of irrigation is a 
 small stream that flows in from the northwest along the base of the 
 variegated mural boundary that hems in the landscape on the west. I 
 believe it is called Uria. It has some very pretty bottoms, which are 
 quite fertile and can be easily irrigated to the full capacity of the 
 stream, which is but a few feet wide and a few inches deep. 
 
 The Little Cimarron and Vermijo afford considerable breadth of arable 
 land, the former presenting a valley some twenty-five or thirty miles 
 long, varying in width from one to six miles, which can be easily irri- 
 gated. The latter presents a valley of more uniform width, and bordered, 
 generall}^, by higher lands. It is about the same length as the former, 
 and where we crossed it about two miles wide, and very rich and fertile, 
 the creek supplying sufficient water to irrigate the whole of it. 
 
 The Kayada runs through a valley somewhat similar to that of the 
 Yermijo, the bottoms being very low and easily irrigated,' but I think 
 they are subject to occasional overflows. The creek is sufficient to 
 supply the lower level with water for irrigation, but the second level is 
 rather too high to be reached except by a lengthy canal. 
 
 The Ocate winds through a narrow valley of erosion, the high border- 
 ing bluffs descending to it in steej) curves, beautifully carpeted over 
 with grass. Not a tree or bush is to be seen ; all is as smooth as a 
 meadowy lawn. The part of this valley which I visited is narrow, vary- 
 ing from one-half to a mile or so in width, but it may expand as it 
 approaches the river. 
 
 The Moro Valley is the finest in this section, and, next to the Taos 
 Valley, the best wheat-growing region in the Territory. The upper or 
 mountain portion of it is some eight or ten miles long and about three 
 miles wide. After passing out of this through a narrow gorge, the 
 creek enters the more open plains, and is bordered for the greater part 
 of its length by a tolerably broad and very fertile valley. The entire 
 length is, i)erhaps, some sixty or seventy miles, and the width of the 
 irrigable lands that skirt the creek will probably average foiu- or five 
 miles. 
 
 As the topography of this portion of the section has been somewhat 
 minutely described by Dr. Hayden, (see Preliminary Eeport, 18G9, j)p. 
 56-61,) it is unnecessary for me to repeat it here. 
 
 The comparatively low elevation and southeastern exposure of this 
 section, together with the mountain barriers west and north, give to it 
 a more moderate climate than that of the section immediately west. 
 Kot only is wheat which is produced here remarkably fine, but maize 
 grows large, with full, fine ears. The fruits, if cultivated, would pro- 
 duce crops almost, if not quite, equal to those of the Eio Grande Valley. 
 And in the southeast jjart of the section, along the Canadian Elver, 
 grapes can be grown without any difficulty. The native grape, without 
 having the aid of irrigation, grows here in rich profusion, the stunted 
 vines often being loaded down with the clusters. 
 
 As heretofore intimated, the \^'estern border affords some of the finest 
 grazing fields in the Territory, especially for sheei). 
 
 THE ARKANSAS DISTRICT. 
 
 This district includes that part of Colorado Territory situated between 
 
214 GEOLOGICAL SUEVEY OF THE TERRITORIES. 
 
 the ''Divide," opposite South Park, and Eaton Mountains, and lying 
 east of the dividing ridge of the Rocky Mountains. It not only embraces 
 the plains east of the base of the mountains, but also the Upper Arkansas 
 Valley or park lying within them. It contains about twenty-six thousand 
 square miles, of which about one-fourth, or six thousand square miles, 
 can be irrigated and brought under cultivation. It is being rapidly set- 
 tled up, and will ultimately prove to be the richest agricultural portion 
 of the Territory. 
 
 The Arkansas Eiver, rising a little northwest of South Park, runs 
 southeast nearly to Poncho Pass, where, turning a little more toward 
 the east, it passes through a caiion for about forty miles, emerging upon 
 the open country at Canon City. From this point to the eastern bound- 
 ary of the Territory it runs almost directly east. 
 
 The mountain valley has an elevation of between seven and eight 
 thousand feet above the sea, while that of the plain country lying east 
 of the range varies from six thousand near the base of the mountains to 
 about three thousand five hundred feet at the eastern boundary of the 
 Territory. This somewhat rapid descent of the plains eastward is a very 
 important item in estimating the agTicultviral capacity of this country ; 
 for it was for some time a serious question in my mind whether the 
 descent on the broad open plains was sufficient, after leaving the moun- 
 tains for some distance, to carry the water of these rivers over the sandy 
 soil; but from a list of elevations along the Kansas Pacific Eailroad, 
 kindly furnished Dr. Hayden by General Anderson, superintendent of 
 that road, I learn the following imi:)ortant facts : That from Denver to 
 Port Hays, a distance of three hundred and forty-seven miles, the fall is 
 three thousand two hundred and seven feet, or a little over nine feet to 
 the mile, showing it possible to pour the waters of the South Platte into 
 the channel ©f Smoky Hill Eiver. Prom Cheyenne Wells, near the 
 source of the Smoky Hill Eiver, to the same place, a distance of one 
 hundred and seventy-three miles, the fall is one thousand two hundred 
 and eighty-three feet, or over seven feet to the mile, which is sufficient 
 to carry the water upon levels sixty, or even one hundred, feet above 
 the stream, whei;e the supply is sufficient. The Arkasas Eiver, from 
 the mouth of the Apishpa to the mouth of the Pawnee, a distance of two 
 hundred and six miles, has the remarkable fall of two thousand four 
 hundred and eight feet, or more than eleven feet to the mile. This is 
 sufficient to reach the highest extensive levels, so that, east of Pue- 
 blo, the extent of the inigable land is limited only by the supply of 
 water, which confirms an opinion expressed by Mr. Byers in a commu- 
 nication to me concerning this valley. 
 
 The head-waters of the Arkansas are in an oval park situated directly 
 west of the South Park. The altitude of this basin is probably between 
 eight and nine thousand feet above the level of the sea ; the length is 
 about fifty miles from north to south and twenty or thirty miles in width 
 at the middle or widest point. At the lower or southern end, an attempt 
 has been made to cultivate the soil, which bids fair to prove a success. 
 Around the Twin Lakes, at the extreme point, oats, wheat, barley, pota- 
 toes, and turnij)s have been raised, yielding very fair crops. Below this 
 basin the river, for twenty miles, passes through a narroAv canon, along 
 which, with considerable difficulty, a road has been made. Emerging 
 from this, it enters the " Upper Arkansas Valley " proper, which is a 
 widening of the bottom lands from two to six or eight miles. This valley 
 is some forty or fifty miles in length and very fertile. Near the southern 
 extremity are some large boulder deposits, evidently formed during its 
 lake period, ere the southeast barrier had broken away before the accu- 
 
GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF THE TERRITORIES. 215 
 
 mulated waters. The chief portion of the arable land lies on the west 
 side of the stream, which generally hngs closely the base of the eastern 
 range. 
 
 Several streams of moderate size flow down from the Sahwatch range 
 on the west and cross the main valley. The largest of these is the Sonth 
 Arkansas, np which an arm of the park or valley extends for several 
 miles. The average elevation is abont seven thousand feet above the 
 level of the sea. There is already a considerable poi>ulation there, two 
 or three small villages, a flonring mill, and at least one hundred farms. 
 
 Although somewhat elevated, this region is well protected from the 
 winds by the lofty mountain wall that hems it on every side, and stock 
 can be kept on the grazing fields most of the winter, shelter and feeding 
 being but seldom required, and that but for a short time. Passing 
 through here in October, 1869, we found it clear of snow and the weather 
 pleasant. We also procured here some of the finest potatoes I saw while 
 in the Territory. The extent of irrigable land may be estimated, in the 
 entire basin, at three hundred square miles. 
 
 Below this the mountains and hills again crowd down to the river, 
 leaving only a few small openings suitable for settlement. But, as is 
 generally the case with these little mountain valleys in this portion of 
 the country, they are very fertile. 
 
 It is probably forty or fifty miles from the lower end of this valley to 
 CaSon City, where the river leaves the mountaius. From this point to 
 Pueblo, which is situated at the mouth of the "Fountaine Qui Bouille," 
 the distance is forty miles. The valley of the river during this part of 
 its course is very uneven and broken. At one point the bottom will 
 spread out for five or six miles in width ; then again it is shut in by 
 rolling hills or elevated plateaus. Mr. Byers estimates the irrigable 
 lands in this part of the valley at two hundred square miles. But I am 
 inclined to think these elevated plateaus are not beyond the reach of 
 irrigation from the river. Take, for instance, the one immediately south 
 of Canon City, which, according to my present recollection, is about one 
 hundred and twenty-five or one hundred and fifty feet above the water 
 level, with the fall the river has in this part of its course, which cannot 
 be less than fifteen feet to the mile, I see no reason wffy the water could 
 not be carried upon it. But it is possible Mr. Byers includes these in 
 his estimate, which certainly is not extravagant. 
 
 From Pueblo eastward the valley is wide, with easy slopes right and 
 left to the elevated plains, much like the valley and bordering lands of 
 the South Platte. Therefore we may safely assume that, with a fall of 
 eleven feet to the mile, which the river has in this part of its course, the 
 extent of land which may be irrigated is only limited by the supi^lj- of 
 water. Starting from Pueblo with a width of two or three miles, there 
 is nothing to prevent widening the belt to thirty or forty miles, thus 
 giving between Cafion City and the eastern boundary of the Territory 
 at least four thousand square miles, or two milUons and a half acres of 
 irrigable land. 
 
 The fact that a large quantity of the water of a stream like this sinks 
 out on the plains, should not be set down as conclusive evidence that 
 the bordering lands cannot be irrigated from it ; for, in the first place, 
 they generally have much more water in them during the season of the 
 year when irrigation is necessary than in the latter part of the summer 
 and fall, when not required. And in the second place, all the water 
 that comes down from the mountains may be retained on the surface by 
 tapping the streams above the point where it sinks. Suppose all the 
 water which flows down from the mountains in the Arkansas and its 
 
216 GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF THE TEREITOEIES. 
 
 numerous tributaries was gatliered into canals and equally distributed 
 over the broad plains of tliis part of the Territory, ^Yiio will dare say that 
 four thousand square miles, yea almost twice four thousand, might not 
 be irrigated? Then the simple poiut to be determined is, can this be 
 done 1 I believe it can, and that when the demand for land in this dis- 
 trict requires it, it will be done ; the great obstacle here, as elsewhere 
 in these Territories, being to bring together that amount of capital 
 or force sufficient to construct these canals at a reasonable cost per acre. 
 
 The principal tributaries of the Arkansas that flow in from the south, 
 east of the mountains, are Hardscrabble and Greenhorn Creeks, (the St. 
 Charles is a branch of the latter,) Huerfano Eiver, which has a large 
 tributary named Cuchara; Apishpa Elver, Timpas Creek, and Purgatory 
 Eiver. On the north side. Fountain Qui Bouille Eiver and Squirrel Creek 
 are the principal streams affording water. 
 
 Hardscrabble is a small stream running through a broken section, and 
 is skirted by narrow bottoms from a half to two miles in width, which 
 are low, easily irrigated, and quite fertile. The St. Charles is a larger 
 stream, which traverses some arable lands, but is occasionally hemmed 
 in by bluffs. As I crossed it only at a deep, narrow cut, I am unable to 
 speak positively in regard to the extent of its valley, but I understand 
 considerable bodies of irrigable laud are to be found along its course, 
 and that near its source is a valley of moderate size called Wet Moun- 
 tain Valley, which affords some good farming laud. The Greenhorn 
 Valley also furnishes level land and irrigating facilities sufficient for 
 considerable agricultural settlements. The length of this valley is prob- 
 ably thirty miles, but what its average width is I do not know. Along 
 the Huerfano and its chief tributary are some of the best farming lands 
 in the district. Huerfano Park, or, as it is sometimes called, the Upper 
 Huerfano Valley, which lies west of or behind the Wet Mountains, is 
 about fifteen miles long and from three to five miles wide, and is already 
 tolerably well settled. The valleys of these two streams are of moderate 
 width, but are occasionally interrupted for some distance by the upper 
 level, which presses close upon the streams, leaving only deep cuts or 
 caiions. But as the fall is rapid, the water could, without much diffi- 
 culty, be broughffupon the upper surface, thus largely increasing the 
 amount of tillable lands. Where we crossed the Cuchara, the bottom 
 was about one mile wide, but the second level, which is ext-ensive, was 
 not more than fifty feet above the stream, and, as I learn, is generally 
 less than this height. 
 
 In regard to the valley of the Purgatory I know but little, as I did 
 not have an opportunity of visiting it. Its upper portion, I believe, is 
 narrow, and occasionally the bluffs close in upon the stream for several 
 miles ; but the lower moiety is broader, affording room for extensive 
 settlements. There is, I believe, as a general thing, an ample supply 
 of water for irrigating purposes, but during the latter part of the season 
 the flow becomes somewhat scanty. 
 
 Monument Creek, from its source to where it enters the Fountaine 
 -Qui Bouille, is about twenty-four miles long, and affords water sufficient 
 to irrigate an average of only half a mile on each side. For a part of its 
 course ifc runs through forests of pine, where the growth is tall and fine 
 and well suited for lumbering purposes. The Fountain Qui Bouille, which 
 rises in the mountains northwest of Colorado City, has a run of about 
 fifty miles, the immediate valley averaging about two miles. The plains 
 which flank it are generally of but moderate height and slope down 
 gently, and can be irrigated, with but little difficulty, to the full extent 
 of the water in the stream. 
 
GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF THE TERRITORIES. 217 
 
 This entire district affords broad and extensive grazing fields for cattle 
 and sheep, and quite a number of herders and stock- raisers are begin- 
 ning already to spread out theii* flocks and herds over these broad areas 
 of rich and nutritious grasses. One of the finest meadows, of moderate 
 extent, that I saw in tlie Territory, was on the divide near the head of 
 Monument Creek, and near by was a large pond of cool, clear water. 
 
 The temj)eratnre of this section is somewhat similar to that of Northern 
 Missouri, and all the products grown there can be raised here, some with 
 a heavier yield and of a finer quality, as wheat, oats, «S:c., while others, 
 as corn, yield less and are inferior in quality. 
 
 An experiment made by Mr. John T. Smith, a short distance south of 
 Caiion City, proves conclusively that such fruits as apples, peaches, 
 j)ears, and cherries will grow here without difdculty, and produce 
 abundant crops of excellent quality. I saw here peach trees in fruit 
 the fourth year from the seed. 
 
 SOUTH PLATTE DISTRICT. 
 
 As my report of 1869 covered this district, I will only add such addi- 
 tional facts in regard to its agricultural prospects and development as I 
 gathered the present j^ear. The impetus given to the settlement and 
 cultivation of this district by the completion of the Kansas Pacific and 
 Denver Pacific Eailroads is already manifest. At the mouth of the 
 Cache a la Poudre, where last year only a ranch or two were to be seen, 
 is now a fine village. Farms are marked off in the valley and on the 
 plains, and extensive preparations made to test on a broad scale, next 
 season, the productive powers of this soil. A canal some fourteen or 
 fifteen miles long has been commenced and will shortly be completed. 
 This will bring water from the Cache a la Poudre and aflbrd means of 
 irrigating some fifty or sixty thousand acres of the plains that lie north 
 of the Platte. And, if I am not wholly mistaken, that which has by 
 some been ridiculed as a barren cactus plain will produce crops of cereals 
 that will rival the heaviest yield of the richest lands of the States. I 
 may be mistaken, but will cling to the opinion, until contradicted by 
 fair experiments, that the uplands or ridges of this section, when prop- 
 erly irrigated and cultivated, will produce better wheat than the creek 
 bottoms. 
 
 The Kansas Pacific Eailroad Company contemplate running a canal 
 from the mouth of Platte Caiion to some point near the head-waters of 
 the Eepublican Fork, a distance of one hundred and forty or one hun- 
 dred and fifty miles. The rise between Bijou and Denver Junction may 
 present some difdculty, but this can doubtless be overcome by bending 
 round to the north, where the elevation is less. And the fall between 
 the mouth of the caiion and Denver, which is probably two hundred 
 feet or more, may considerably lessen the flexure. If this great work is 
 completed we may see ere long the irrigated lands brought close to the 
 rain-moistened region; a belt of farms stretching from the Missouri 
 Eiver to the Eocky Mountains. Such a consummation is certainly de- 
 sirable. The "Great American Desert" belted with fields of golden 
 grain and pleasant homes would be a result not anticipated ten years 
 ago, and the very mention of which is ridiculed by many now, but which 
 those who carefully study the country do not concede as impossible. 
 
 NORTH PLATTE DISTRICT. 
 
 The boundaries of this district are more difficult to describe than 
 those of either of the other districts of the eastern division. Not be- 
 
218 GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF THE TERRITORIES. 
 
 cause tliey are any less definite, but because the water-sheds at some 
 points are not prominent, and have received no well-kno\yn and fixed 
 names. The following lines will designate the area embraced in the dis- 
 trict with sufficient accuracy for present purposes : 
 
 Commencing at Long's Peak, it runs west, and then north, leaving 
 the l^orth Park to the right 5 from thence northwest, by way of Bridger's 
 Pass and Creston Station, it crosses over the plains to South Pass. 
 From this point it runs northeast between Little Popoagie and Sweet- 
 water, and passes round the Eattlesnake Hills between Bad- Water and 
 Poison Spring Creeks. Prom here, turning east, it passes along an 
 irregular range of hills to the southern extremity of the Big Horn Moun- 
 tains ; then, turning southeast, passes between the waters of the Chey- 
 enne and North Platte Elvers to the eastern boundary of the Territory. 
 Following the boundary line of the Territory southward, we may prop- 
 erly include Lodge Pole Yalley, as its upper portion appears to belong- 
 more to the North Platte slope than that of the South Platte. 
 
 These boundaries embrace an area of about twentj'-five thousand 
 square miles, and, exclusive of North Park, nearly one-fourth Of Wyo- 
 ming Territory. With the exception of a few small sections, they in- 
 clude the most desirable portions of the Territory, and the greater part 
 of the arable lands. 
 
 This district is not only very irregular in its outline, but bears the 
 same varied and irregidar character interiorly. The mighty convul- 
 sive force which heaved up these vast Eocky Mountain ranges seems to 
 have obtained slight breathing places for its imprisoned energies at the 
 parks of Colorado, while here, with one terrific throe,' it has scattered 
 the mountains and hills in wild confusion as a giant would scatter 
 pebbles. In the eastern portion, stretching north and south, is a range 
 of rough and lofty mountains, which, at its northern extremity, is rent 
 into fragments and scattered in decreasing peaks and ridges to the 
 northwest. Along the southern border, turning in nearly every direc- 
 tion of the compass, are lofty ranges whose summits wear crowns of 
 perennial snow. Westward the mountain ranges trending northwest 
 sink beneath the immense deposit of local drift, which here covers the 
 mighty chasm, but they show themselves further north in the granite 
 peaks, which, like islands, shoot up from the Sweetwater Plains, and 
 further on emerge in the Wind Eiver range. Between these irregular 
 surroundings lie the broad Laramie Plains, which might appropriately 
 be called the Great Park of Wyoming. Entirely east of the Black Hills 
 we enter upon the plains which slope toward the Missouri Eiver. 
 
 The area west of the Black Hills, as shown by the course of the 
 streams, and also by the barometer, slopes north and east, pouring its 
 waters through the northeast angle of the district. The average level 
 of the entire district is higher than that of either of the others of this 
 division, the western portion being on an average about six thousand 
 five hundred feet above the level of the sea. The diiference of level be- 
 tween the North Park and the mouth of the Sweetwater is about two 
 thousand feet ; and between South Pass and the mouth of the Sweet- 
 water about one thousand five hundred feet. The area east of the moun- 
 tains varies from four thousand four hundred to six thousand feet above , 
 the sea level. 
 
 On account of its altitude, and the direction and force of its atmo- 
 spheric cuiTcnts, the temperature of this district is lower than that of the 
 other districts east of the divide, within the bounds under consideration. 
 And as a general thing only those products adapted to a cold climate 
 and short seasons can be raised to any advantage. Yet it is exceed- 
 
GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF THE TERRITORIES. 219 
 
 ingly important to know, not only that a mining section can produce 
 the principal cereals, as wheat, oats, and barley, and the more useful 
 vegetables suflScient to supply its own wants, but also to know something 
 in regard to the locality and extent of its arable lands. A few acres of 
 productive soil in the vicinity of a rich mine will often yield a greater 
 profit to the cultivator than a large farm in Ohio or Illinois. 
 
 It is difficult to give any very reliable estimate of the land susceptible 
 of cultivation in the bounds of this district, as much of it is in small 
 bodies of irregular shape ; yet I think that by proper eftbrts at least 
 three thousand square miles, or about two million acres, can be brought 
 under cultivation. This may be thought an exaggerated estimate, Avhen 
 we take into consideration the large proportion of the area occupied by 
 mountains, the barren tract south of the Sweetwater, and the deficiency 
 in the supply of water on the plains east of the Black Hills. But when 
 more effectual means of husbanding the water are adopted, as by tap- 
 ping the streams nearer their exit from the mountains, and keeping it 
 above the surface, by forming reservoirs, &c., the supply will be found 
 greater than at present supposed, and the estimate given, instead of be- 
 ing too large, will most likely prove to be too small. The cold climate, 
 it is true, is a serious obstacle, yet there are but few arable spots in the 
 district that cannot be made to produce useful crops of some kind. 
 
 The district is naturally divided into four sections, as follows: The 
 North Park, the Laramie Plains, the Sweetwater region, and the plains 
 lying eavSt of the Black Hills, forming, as it were, a winding series of 
 vast steps from the mountain height to the broad plains below. 
 
 NORTH PARK. 
 
 This elevated mountain basin, in which the North Platte takes its rise, 
 lies entirely within the bounds of Colorado Territory. It is about 
 fifty miles long from east to west, and thirty miles wide from north to 
 south, containing a surface area of some eight or nine hundred square 
 miles. The elevation varies from seven thousand five hundred feet to 
 nine thousand feet above the level of the sea, the average being about 
 eight thousand feet. 
 
 The following description of this mountain cove, from a former report 
 made by Dr. Hayden, will convey a better idea of it in a few words than 
 anv description of my own. And, although several years have i)assed 
 since it was made, and glowing descriptions have since been published, 
 there seems to be nothing new added : 
 
 The Xorth Park is oval or nearly quadrangular in shape. Viewing it from one of the 
 high mountains on its border, it appears like a vast depression which might once have 
 formed the bed of a lake. Its surface is rather rugged, yet there are broad bottoms 
 along the streams, especially the North Platte and its branches. Scarcely a tree is to be 
 seen over the whole extent, while the mountains which wall it in on every side are dotted 
 with a dense gi'owth of pine. The grass grows in the i^ark quite, abundantly, often 
 yielding at least two tons to the acre. Streams of the purest water flow through the 
 park, and there are some of the finest springs I have seen, a few of them forming good- 
 sized streams where they issue from the ground. I am quite confident that this entire 
 park would make an excellent grazing region for at least six or eight months of the 
 year. The soil is very rich, but the seasons must be too brief for the successful culti- 
 vation of any crops. Indeed, there is frost there nearly every night, and snow falls 
 every month in the year. On the north and east sides may be seen the snow-covered 
 ranges rising far above all the rest, their summits touching the clouds. On the west 
 eide there is also a short snowy range. On the west side long ridges come into tlie 
 park and die out in the plain, forming a sort of en echelon arrangement. 
 
 The soil is mixed with gravel and coarse sand on the ridges and upper 
 levels, but along the bottoms that flank the streams is rich and dark. . 
 On the north side there is a.quite sandy area. If future experiments 
 
220 GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF THE TERRITORIES. 
 
 should prove tliat it is possible to raise valuable crops here, there will be 
 no difficulty in bringing the land under cultivation so far as the supply 
 of water is concerned, for this is ami^le, and the fall sufficient to irrigate 
 all the lands which can be cultivated. It may be thought ^'isiouary to 
 speak of agricultm^e in this elevated, snow-bound cove, and the remarks 
 quoted imply that Dr. Hayden, with all his experience in this region, 
 looks upon it as impossible. But it is not best to conclude too hastily, 
 for if a number of rich mines should be discovered here tod worked for 
 a few years, the demand for fresh vegetables might bring about, in prac- 
 tice, that which is considered impossible in theory. At least the scope 
 of my i)lan requires me to give an account of the arable areas, and the 
 facts in regard to the seasons, so far as known, leaving the battle with 
 climate to be determined by experiments. 
 
 And it is possible that a record of the seasons may show that it is 
 really no colder here than in South Park, which has a greater elevation 
 than this park, and is also partially surrounded by snow-covered moun- 
 tains ; but, as remarked in the introduction, latitude and elevation do 
 not always determine the climate in the Eocky Mountain regions. Be 
 this as it may, there is here a fine grazing field for cattle and sheep, but 
 these would require some feeding and occasional sheltering during the 
 winter months. Nature has provided amply the means to meet every 
 necessity in this direction ; from the grassy valleys, at a nominal cost, 
 all the hay necessary could be cut 5 the mountain sides are bristling with 
 sturdy pines, and the rapid streams as they rush down from their foun- 
 tains afford all the power necessary to drive mills to saw the lumber. 
 Of coiu-se, places requiring this trouble and expense will not be selected 
 while others equally good, which do not require it, can be easily found. 
 
 The jSTorth Platte, from its point of exit from the park to where it 
 reaches the border of Laramie Plains, passes through a rugged, moun- 
 tainous region. Along the upper portion of its course its valley is very 
 narrow, sometimes amounting to nothing but a gorge. But as it de- 
 scends toAvard the northwest it is joined by several small tributaries, and 
 its valley widens, affording occasionally bottoms of moderate breadth, 
 especially near the entrance of Sage Creek, where there is a considera- 
 ble stretch of fine wooded bottoms. 
 
 LARAMIE PLAINS. 
 
 This section is bounded on the east and northeast by the Black Hills, 
 on the west by the West Eattlesnake Hills, and on the southwest by 
 Medicine Bow Mountains. It is somewhat quadrangular in shape, its 
 average length from southeast to northwest being about ninety miles, and 
 average width from northeast to southwest about seventy-five miles, 
 containing (exclusive of the surrounding mountains) a surface area of 
 about six thousand seven hundred and fifty square miles, or nearly four 
 million five hundred thousand acres. It is drained chiefly by the 
 Medicine Bow and Laramie Eivers and their tributaries, both affluents 
 of the North Platte, which also traverses the extreme western border. 
 The Laramie, rising in the mountains at the southwest angle, flows along 
 the eastern border to the northeast angle of the section, where it breaks 
 through the Black Hills and joins the North Platte in the plains beyond. 
 The Medicine Bow, receiving affluents from each side, but principally 
 from the south, flows through the western part of the section and joins 
 the North Platte on the western border ; which latter stream makes its 
 exit at the northwest angle. 
 
 The surface varies considerably in character and elevation, some of it 
 
GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF THE TERRITORIES. 221 
 
 preseiitiug beautiful meadowy expanses, while other portions are rolling 
 and hilly and but sparsely covered with vegetation. The average eleva- 
 tion, as before stated, is about six thousand five hundred feet above the 
 level of the sea ; but, as will be seen below, different parts vary in height 
 as much as one thousand seven hundred feet, counting from the water 
 levels. As most of the streams iu this section aiibrd an ample supply of 
 water during the season when it is most needed for irrigation, their fall 
 becomes an important item in making up an estimate of the cultivable 
 lands. I therefore give the levels of the principal points of the three 
 larger. The Xorth Platte at the railroad crossing has an elevation of six 
 thousand four hundred and seventy-seven feet, and at the mouth of the 
 Sweetwater nearly six thousand feet above the level of the sea, showing 
 a fall in this distance of about four hundred and eighty feet, or seven 
 feet to the mile. Medicine Bow Eiver at Medicine Bow Station has an 
 elevation of six thousand six hundred and ninety-eight feet, and at its 
 junction with the Platte about six thousand three hundred feet, a differ- 
 ence of nearly four hundred feet, or about eight feet to the mile. 
 Laramie Eiver at Laramie City is seven thousand one hundred and 
 t'wenty-three feet above the level of the sea, and at the point where it 
 enters the Bkick Hills about five thousand four hundred feet, a difference 
 of over one thousand seven hundred feet, giving the verj- rapid fall of 
 eighteen or twenty feet to the mile.* 
 
 These figures develop the important fact that not only the bottoms, 
 but also the upper levels, except where they are very high, can be irri- 
 gated. This must increase our estimate of the cultivable lauds of the 
 section to an amount considerably beyond the area of the immediate 
 bottoms. 
 
 The southeast part, to which the name " Laramie Plains " is some- 
 times limited, is decidedly the best portion of the section, and contains 
 much the largest proportion of arable land. Counting from the head 
 of the Laramie Valley to Eock Creek it is about seventy miles long, with 
 an average width of about twenty-five miles, giving an area of seven- 
 teen hundred and fifty square miles. Although the .west end of this 
 area contains the dividing ridge between the Medicine Bow and the 
 Laramie, yet I think we may safely estimate that one-half of it can be 
 irrigated and brought under cultivation. The greater portion of this 
 beautiful valley is covered with a rich growth of grass, and presents the 
 appearance of one broad meadow, over w hich the numerous herds ol 
 cattle which are being gathered here to graze can be seen roaming. The 
 western part of this sub-section beyond Cooper's Lake presents a bar- 
 ren appearance until we reach the vicinity of Eock Creek. The creek, 
 although bordered by occasional bluffs, during most of its course is mar- 
 gined by fertile bottoms of moderate width, and tolerably- well timbered 
 along its upper portion. Some of the southern tributaries of Medicine 
 Bow pass through fertile valleys, which can be easily irrigated and 
 brought under cultivation. The main stream passes for some distance 
 between rocky bluffs, with small bottoms on the alternate sides, but is 
 generally flanked by a moderately wide valley, with here and there 
 gToves of Cottonwood. I have not visited the valley of this stream or 
 that of the North Platte, north of the railroad, but from the informa- 
 tion obtained in regard to them, believe that by proper efforts they 
 would afford a considerable extent of tillable land. I have seen only a 
 
 * The elevations along tlie railroad are taken from the survey of that road. The 
 others are estimates made up from the barometric record kept by Mr. Beman during 
 ,the geological survey of the present season (1870,) and which he very kindly copied 
 and furnished me while in the field. 
 
222 GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF THE TERRITORIES. 
 
 part of tlie northern extension of tlie Laramie Valley, but judging from 
 that, aiid its rapid fall and the general features of the surrounding coun- 
 try, I am satisfied that not only the bottoms, but that a large amount 
 on the lower ridges and plateaus may be irrigated and cultivated. But 
 I am inclined to think that along a part of its northern course the bor- 
 dering regions are quite broken, and that the belt of arable laud there 
 is small. The northwest angle of the section is also probably quite broken 
 and uneven, affording very little arable land. 
 
 The climate, as might be inferred from the elevation and surroundings 
 of this basin, is somewhat severe, and the seasons short. But the great- 
 est drawback does not appear to be from these causes taken generally, 
 but from the occasional untimely frosts and gusts of snow which nip 
 the growing crops in the spring, or injure them later in the season when 
 nearly matured. The cold nights, as is generally the case in these high 
 regions, retard the growth especially of the cereals. Yet, notwithstand- 
 ing these drawbacks, the repeated experiments made during the past 
 four years have shown conclusively that useful croi)s can be raised here. 
 
 I visited Laramie City August 3, for the purpose of examining tl^e 
 garden of Dr. Latham, who has charge of a military hospital at this 
 place, and who is experimenting with various vegetables and cereals in 
 order to ascertain what can be raised here. I found this garden to be 
 quite extensive and in a flourishing condition. Here I saw a small 
 piece of barley, full-headed, well stooled, and of medium height ; also a 
 similar piece of wheat, which, though sowed late, presented a very fine 
 appearance. The potatoes and turniiDS were remarkably fine. Peas 
 grow very large and thrifty, as I can testify from the excellent ones I 
 ate at the doctor's table, and which I saw gathered from the vines in his 
 garden. His beets were making a vigorous growth, as were also the fol- 
 lowing vegetables : winter squashes, cabbages, beans, lettuce, onions, 
 carrots, radishes, &c. I pulled some turnips in another field, which 
 were at least six inches in diameter, the seed from which they grew 
 having been sown the loth day of May. The tops were remarkably 
 large and succulent. I did not have time to visit the garden under 
 charge of the officers stationed at Fort Sanders, but I understood it was 
 in a flourishing condition. These experiments, as I learn from a former 
 report made by Dr. Hayden, were commenced about 1866 by General 
 Gibbon, and have, with commendable zeal, been continued by the offi- 
 cers in command of the post. 
 
 Oats appear to grow and mature wherever tried in the valley. 
 
 These experiments, and others made along Laramie Eiver, Eock 
 Creek, and at other points, continued as they have been for several 
 years, certainly settle the question as to the practicability of farming in 
 the Laramie Plains. The points where they have been made are the 
 highest on the Plains, and, I am rather inclined to believe, the coldest 
 portion. 
 
 Although this section may not be an agricultural region in the broader 
 sense of the term, yet its situation renders it a matter of deep interest 
 to know that the hardier vegetables, and such cereals as wheat, oats, and 
 barley, can be raised here ; for, i)laced in the center of the mountains, 
 on the great thoroughfare between the Atlantic to the Pacific, with a 
 broad barren plain to the west, and a mountain stretch to the east, it 
 is very desirable to have here a halting place. 
 
 The business of the road necessary at the termini of divisions, stock- 
 raising, temporary grazing of passing herds, lumbering, and probably 
 coal-mining, will bring here a considerable population. 
 
 There is i)erhaps no finer grazing section in Wyoming than this. The 
 
GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF THE TERRITORIES. 223 
 
 soutlieasteru part is literally carpeted over with a compact growth of 
 rich and nutritious grasses, which the water of the numerous little 
 streams that sweep down from the mountains keejis constantly fresh. 
 And the rain-fall, I judge, is greater here than in any other part of the 
 Territory, and it seems to be on the increase, .which also appears to be 
 true around Cheyenne. I understand that stock can be wintered here with- 
 out shelter and with very little feeding; in fact, large flocks of sheep and 
 herds of cattle, as will hereafter be shown, have passed the winter with 
 no other feed than the uncut grass of the valleys and plains. Utiy in 
 abundance can be obtained along the creek bottoms at a nomhial cost. 
 Dr. Latham informed me that his hay cost him this season, in the stack 
 where it was cut, but $3 per ton. 
 
 Timber, such as pine and fir, of an excellent quality, can be obtained 
 from the mountains along the southern border. A vast quantity is an- 
 nually cut and floated down the Little Laramie and other streams for 
 lumber, railroad ties, &c. Some of the streams, especially along tbe 
 southwest border, are margined by groves of cottonwood, which will 
 furnish fuel and fencing material for that locality. 
 
 THE SWEETWATER REGION. 
 
 I cannot define this section better than by saying that It includes the 
 valley and bordering plains through which the Sweetwater Eiver passes, 
 from the vicinity of South Pass to its junction with the North Platte. 
 This stream rises a little northwest of the pass, and flows almost directly 
 east about one hundred and thirty miles, connecting with the North 
 Platte near the exit of the latter from the Laramie Plains. For about 
 twenty-five or thirty miles east of the pass, it flows through a rugged, 
 mountainous region, falling rapidly, and presenting no areas of import- 
 ance that can be brought under cultivation. A short distance west of 
 St. Mary's Station it bursts from its mountain cahons, and enters upon 
 a valley that continues, with some short interruptions, throughout its 
 course. The comparative uniformity of this valley will obviate the 
 necessity of any lengthy description of the different sections of it. 
 
 Beginning at South Pass, (on the summit,) with an elevation of seven 
 thousand four hundred and ninety feet, when we reach the point where 
 the river emerges from the gorge, we are still six thousand six hundred 
 and fifty feet above the level of the sea, having descended but eight 
 hundred and forty feet. Yet, at this highest point of the section which 
 can be counted as arable, we are five hundred and thirteen feet lower 
 than Fort Sanders, and four hundred and seventy-three feet below Lara- 
 mie City. At the Three Crossings the height is only six thousand one, 
 hundred and thirty-five feet, showing a fall between this point and the 
 head of the valley of five hundred and fifteen feet, or about twelve feet 
 to the mile. At Independence Eock the elevation has decreased to just 
 six thousand feet, giving a fall between this and the last-mentioned 
 point of scarcely five feet to the mile. From here to the point where 
 the river joins the Platte the fall is, probably, some five or six feet to the 
 mile, as it grows a little more rapid as it approaches its debouchure. 
 We may, therefore, estimate the average elevation of the valley at six 
 thousand three hundred feet above the sea level. 
 
 For ten or twelve miles below the point where the stream emerges 
 
 from the mountains there is a very pretty fertile valley, averaging 
 
 about oue mile wide, bordered on the right, and part of its length on 
 
 , the left, with high bluffs. Most of it is covered over with a luxuriant 
 
 growth of grass, from which a supply is drawn for South Pass City, 
 
224 GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF THE TERRITOEIES. 
 
 Atlantic City, &c. Near tlie lower end of this opening the left bank ia 
 flanked by a second level or table, which might be reached by an irri- 
 gating ditch, a few miles long, and would give an additional amount of 
 farming land equal to tlie entire bottom. Below this the hills again 
 close in upon the valley for a few miles, and then separate, leaving a 
 very pretty triangular area, containing some forty or fifty square miles 
 of quite level and fertile land, which can easily be irrigated. Toward 
 the north and northwest the hills slope down so gradually that a con- 
 siderable area along their lower margins could be reached with water 
 if the river would supply a sufficient amount for this and the bottoms. 
 The stream here is about thirty feet wide and one foot deep, and the 
 fall some ten or twelve feet to the mile. Here, as also in the vicinity 
 of what is known as St. Mary's Station, small colonies would find very 
 good locations ; and by comlDiniug and digging large primary ditches 
 the laud could be irrigated at a moderate expense. The only difficulty, 
 except the exposure to Indian depredations, would be the obtaining of 
 a su])ply of timber, which at the last point is scarce. JSear St. Mary's 
 no difficulty in this respect would be experienced. 
 
 From this point the river bends around to the northeast, passing 
 among the hills, and is flanked by alternate bottoms, of small extent. 
 To the south of the river, forming a chord to its circular bend, runs a 
 singular valley, which is some ten or twelve miles wide ; and although 
 its surface looks exactly like the plateaus of this section, yet its general 
 appearance is that of the bed of a stream that was very broad and shal- 
 low. If the water of the river can be brought upon this level, as much 
 land can be irrigated as the water of the river can supply. But as I 
 had no opportunity of ascertaining the height of this plain or valley 
 above the river level, I cannot say positively that the water can be 
 brought upon it. 
 
 Where the road again strikes the river, going east, there is a consid- 
 erable expanse of arable land ; and, although there is very little imme- 
 diate bottom, the second level is quite broad and of moderate elevation, 
 which might be irrigated by cutting a ditch a few miles in length. 
 Below this, as we come near the '' Three Crossings," the granite hills 
 set in and continue to flank the valley as far as Indei)endence Eock. 
 Near the west end of this irregular range, for some seven or eight miles, 
 the river breaks through it, and is closely walled in by lofty bluffs, with 
 here and there a little level plat containing a few hundred acres of fer- 
 tile soil. Around the south side of these bluffs ruus an open plain, 
 several miles in width, which jn^obably might be reached by a ditch 
 some twelve or fifteen miles in length. There is near the remains of the 
 old stage station (Three Crossings*) a very remarkable evidence of the 
 eflfect of the wind : an immense deposit of sand in a bend of the granite 
 hill, piled up against the bluff like a huge snow-drift. 
 
 After passing through the gorge here the river enters a broad and 
 beautiful valley, the upper j)ortion of which is thickly covered with 
 chenopodiaceous vshrubs, the lower i^art being covered with a tall and 
 thick growth of grass. The soil, though somewhat sandy, is very rich 
 and light, and if irrigated would produce heavy crops of such products 
 as are adapted to the climate. The immediate bottoms are imrrow,- 
 sometimes entirely absent, but the second level is not more than ten or 
 fifteen feet above the water, and could be reached by a ditch four or 
 five miles long. And I think it probable an area of 80 to 100 square 
 
 * These statious — St. Mary's, Three Crossings, and Sweetwater — have been abandoned 
 for some years, but I use them to give names to the localities, as they are yet retained 
 on some maps. 
 
GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF THE TERRITORIES. 225 
 
 miles could be brought under cultivation here, and as timber could be 
 obtained from the neighboring- hills this would be a good point for a 
 settlement. The Union Pacific Eailroad is not more than sixty miles 
 distant from this place. 
 
 1 /!i*^''' 17''"l^,^ ""^ Hayden's Peaks,* the granite hills on one side and 
 blulis on the other press close to the margin of the river for a short dis- 
 tance, then receding from each other in a circular sweep again come 
 close together a few miles beyond, inclosing a beautiful circular area 
 contamiiig some twenty or twenty-five square miles of fertile bottom 
 laud, which, as it is but slightly elevated above the water, can be irri- 
 gated without difficulty. 
 
 Passing the gate-like opening of the little park just described, we 
 enter upon a broad valley, which continues without interruption to the 
 
 Devil s Gate," about four miles above Independence Eock. A good 
 part ot this valley is cqvere<l with " grease-wood " and sage, but the soil 
 is very lertile and will produce good crops. Muddy Creek, which comes 
 in here Irom the south, has a tolerably broad margin of level land but 
 1 doubt about It affording water for irrigation. The breadth of land 
 here is probably equal to the supply of water. Around Independence 
 Eock and for several miles above and below it are fine bottoms which 
 can be irrigated. Between the river and Horse Creek there is a broad 
 delta, which has an average elevation of twenty or thirty feet above the 
 bed ot the river, but less than that above the level of the creek This 
 plateau, and, in fact, a considerable area east of Horse Creek, could be 
 reached by irrigating ditches, but the ditch from the river would renuire 
 two short aqueducts at the Devil's Gate. The soil of this plain is 
 strong.y impregnated in some places with alkali, otherwise it is rich in 
 the elements ot fertility. At present it is covered with " grease-wood " 
 and sage, except in the Httle areas which are frosted over with alkaline 
 incrustations; but this is no longer a terror to the agriculturist, who 
 has learned liow to manage it, if he only has an abundance of water and 
 sufficient drainage Along the ridge lying north of this plain, around 
 the head- waters ot Horse Creek and over the summit in the vicinity of 
 ;}jJ^}™^^^ ^r some excellent grazing lands. The country along 
 the 1 latte, from the mouth of Sweetwater to Poison Sprino- Cre"k is 
 broken and mountainous, and the river for part of the wav runs throu'oh 
 deep gorges and flills in this distance over four hundred feet, the fall 
 Irom Independence Eock to Eed Buttes being about five hundred and 
 lorty leet. 
 
 The length of the Sweetwater Valley, from its commencement above 
 i^'^n ^^^*\«^ f? the Platte, is about ninety miles, and the average 
 width ot the land which can be brought under cultivation may be safety 
 estimated at six miles. This would give a cultivable area of five hun- 
 dred and forty square miles, or about three hundred and fifty thousand 
 acres fo^r this section, besides a few small areas on the upper portions- 
 ot the toweetwater that may possibly be brought under cultivation and 
 made to yield some of the hardier crops. 
 I am aware that the dreary and desolate appearance of some parts of 
 
 9V n^^'^f^ '"''■*^J '*^' S"'eetwater River, about latitude 42° 28', west longitude 107° 
 are tfee? w' -'tf e n,''!t '^''"'^ toy^^^\the west. On this semicireular po^rtion thero 
 aic tmce pea.vb, the one to the ^Yest shoots up in a sharp point, the one to the east i^ 
 
 nen poin/ 'Sd^t?'" "'"1*^ '^' ""-'''"f "" '' ^'^"^'^ an.Fclme-iiS: Is th se pJomi! 
 mme uLm ''Mf7T^^^^ ^^'?^T^'l "« names, the members of the\,arty 
 
 p led 1^ f SnS wnr''^''' r ^r ^""n ""^ *^" ^'^^^'^^^ ^^ *^« expedition. On thi map 
 
 name, 
 15 G 
 
 " Mairof Ufnir'nn^^p.V "'?"f> -^^ f ''"1\'' ,''"'^"' '''''^^'' o^' General Sherman, entitled 
 
226 GEOLOGICAL SUKVEY OF THE TERRITORIES. 
 
 this sectio-1 whicli I have described as susceptible of cultivation will 
 have a teudeucv to make some of the many who have traveled oyer this 
 old emigrant route mistrust my judgment. I may be mistaken m reter- 
 ence to the amount of land which can be brought under cultivation, tor 
 this is only an estimate made up without measurement, (except the 
 direct distances as shown by the odometer,*) from estimates o. the 
 various parts, but if the supply of water does not fall short, I thmk thib 
 is not too large. And I have learned that the dreary look a covering 
 of sage and grease-wood gives to the landscape is not to be taken as 
 any evidence of the sterility of the soil. I am also pretty well satisned 
 that the climate here will prove more favorable to agriculture than tnat 
 of Laramie Plains, and that the cereals (except corn) and the ordinary 
 vegetables can be raised without any difficulty. I know of no experi- 
 melits having been made in this section to show what can be grown 
 here, therefore have to judge from the character of the soil, elevation, 
 latitide, surroundings, and the temperature so iar as I could learn from 
 those who had passed through it. . ^ „ ^^ ■ 
 
 As a grazing region it is inferior to the Laramie Valley, yet the river 
 bottoms and mountain slopes (the granite hills excepted) afiord very 
 o-ood grass. Timber is also scarce from the vicinity ot bt. Mary s sta- 
 tion to the mouth. Here and there are groves of willow, and m the 
 uiroer valleys a few cotton-wood trees, but those which lormerly gTCW 
 along this route, and which are mentioned by Fremont, have nearly all 
 been destroyed by the emigrants and others who have since traveled 
 the road. It is possible that when the stream is full timber may be 
 floated down from the mountains near South Pass. 
 
 THE EASTERN SECTION. 
 
 This section, the principal part of which lies east of the Black Hills, 
 constitutes the remaining portion of the district under consideration. It 
 consists of the valleys of the North Platte and its tributaries, trom the 
 Eed Buttes to the mouth of Horse Creek, on the eastern boundary of 
 the Territory. It also includes the valleys of Crow Creek, Larren's 
 Fork and Lodge Pole to the boundary line, and the intervening plains, 
 containing about nine thousand square miles, of which I estimate one- 
 sixth or nearly one million acres, can be irrigated and rendered tillable. 
 I was at first disposed to set down the amount of land m this section, 
 susceptible of cultivation, at considerably l<?«s than these figures, but 
 when I examined the barometric record showing the tail ot the Platte i 
 felt assured my first estimate was too small. The elevation, as migiit 
 be inferred from the situatiou, varies considerably m the ditterent pai^s, 
 the northwestern and southwestern angles presenting the highest points, 
 and the northeast the lowest. In order to give an idea ot the topog- 
 raphv of the counti^v, I herewith note the elevation ot the principal 
 points bearing upon "its facilities for irrigation on a large scale. Begin- 
 ning at Red Buttes ami following the Platte, which runs near the north- 
 east border of the section, the elevation above the sea level is as tollows : 
 Eed Buttes, 5,528 feet: five miles below the Old Bridge, 5,2a2 teet; river 
 bottom near Fort Fetterman, about 4,970 feet;t l^^ort Laramie, accord- 
 to Fremont, 4,470 feet, and as given by Stansbury, 4,ol9 teet ; moutfiot 
 
 *I was careful to obtain the distances each day from Mr. Beaman, that my compari- 
 
 '^t^^^S^^Z^^i^ taken on the La Prele ahout two ^^tfZ'J^^l' 
 Fetterman, where the elevation is just 5,012 feet ; I have deducted 42 feet as the prob- 
 able fall to the river bottom. 
 
GEOLOGICAL SUEVEY OF THE TERRITORIES. 227 
 
 Horse Creek, 4,395 feet. From wliicTi it appears that the entire fall 
 from Eed Biittes to Horse Creek is 1,133 feet, or an average of about 
 seven feet to the mile. The fall between the intermediate points are as 
 follows : From Eed Battes to the Bridge, eighteen feet to the mile ; 
 from the Bridge to Fort Fetterman, a little over seven feet to the mile; 
 from there to Horse Creek, about the same. 
 
 These figures develope a fact of the utmost importance in calculating 
 the agricultural capacity of this section. A fall of over one thousand 
 feet in less than one hundred and fifty miles, with the volume of water 
 found in this part of the river, will give the means of irrigating an 
 immense amount of land. But in regard to this I will speak- more fully 
 ■when I come to the more minute description of this part of the section. 
 
 The elevation of Laramie bottom, at the mouth of Chugwater, is about 
 four thousand five hundred feet above the level of the sea.* The Chug- 
 water Valley, w^here the stage road to Fort Laramie strikes it, has an 
 elevation of five thousand four hundred and sixty feet ; Cheyenne, six 
 thousand and forty feet. 
 
 Poison Spring Creek is a small stream coming down from the north- 
 west, and entering the North Platte at Red Buttes. It runs through a 
 xerj pretty valley, averaging about one mile wide, flanked on the west 
 by a broad plain, which gradually ascends as it recedes from the stream. 
 On the' east the hills rise rapidly to a sharp ridge running parallel with 
 the creek. It has been stated that the water of this stream is poisonous, 
 but I noticed some of our animals drinking from it as we crossed it, and 
 I think one of the men also filled a canteen with the water for drinking 
 on the road. No bad eftects followed. Some two or three species of 
 Ijlauts were also growing luxuriantlj" in the stream. The amount of 
 water at the time we passed it (August) w^is small, but sufficient to irri- 
 gate the immediate bottoms. The entire valley was covered with a rank 
 growth of grass. 
 
 Near the Eed Buttes, in the bend of the North Platte, is a beautiful 
 bottom of perhaps one thousand two hundred or one thousand five hun- 
 dred acres of fertile soil. On one side of the river there is a thick grove 
 of Cottonwood, willow, «&c., but on the other (north) the timber has been 
 destroyed by emigrants and others who have camped at this point. 
 
 Immediately below this the river enters a gorge or caiion some eight 
 or ten miles long, where, as a matter of course, no cultivable land worthy 
 of note is to be found. The slopes toward the river, except for a very 
 short distance, are not so precipitous as to present any serious obstacle 
 to the cutting of a canal around them, if it should be found necessary to 
 tap the river this high up. On the south side a canal could reach as far 
 up as the mouth of the caiion above Eed Buttes, but on the north side 
 the depression at Poison Spring Creek would i)reseut a serious obstacle 
 if commenced higher up than the upper end of the canon. As the fall 
 between Eed Buttes and the Old Bridge is nearly or quite four hundred 
 
 *The barometric readings taken by Mr. Beaman on the Laramie bottom, some two 
 or three miles above the mouth of the Chugwater, give four thousand five hundred and 
 thirteen feet as the elevation at that point. Four very uniform readings were obtained, 
 the weather being clear and cool. The distance from this point to i'ort Laramie is 
 about twenty-one or twenty-two miles. Mr. Frc^mont gives the elevation of Fort Lar- 
 amie as four thousand four hundred and seventy feet, while Stansbury, who, it seems, 
 camped on the same ground, or very near it, makes it four thousand five hundred and 
 nineteen feet. As we did not visit Fort Laramie, I have no means ot ascertaining where 
 the error lies. As Mr. Beamau's instrument did not admit of accurate readings nearer 
 than one tenth, an error of fifty or sixty feet might have occurred in his calculations. 
 As the Laramie rims x>retty rapidly, the fall between Chugwater and the fort cannot 
 be less than one hundred feet. 
 
228 GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF THE TERRITORIES. 
 
 feet, it would be suf^cient to cany the water on the table lands which 
 spread out from here eastward. On the north side a short tunnel might 
 be necessary, but below this point, so far as I observed, there would be 
 no other difficulty than an occasional lengthy flexure round the head of 
 a dry ravine, and perhaps here and there a short aqueduct. On the 
 south side I think there would be less difficulty. I make no pretensions 
 here to engineering accuracy, as I only had time to take hasty glances 
 at the country as we passetl along in our somewhat rapid march. A 
 short distance below the Old Bridge I made an approximate estimate 
 of the volume of water in the river. I found that a cross section at the 
 low stage of water of that season (August) was equal to one hundred 
 and sixty by two feet, or three hundred and twenty square feet, running 
 at the rate of three miles per hour, or a discharge of two hundred and 
 sixty-four cubic feet to the second, which, earlier in the season, when 
 most needed for irrigation, must be much greater. With this amount 
 of water, and the considerable fall there is in this part of the river, 
 making ample allowance for errors in the elevation, a vast body of land 
 jcan be irrigated and brought under cultivation. 
 
 It is true that all this land on the north side of the river lies in an 
 Indian reservation, but this renders a knowledge of the fact only the 
 more important; for, in my judgment, if the Indian problem is ever 
 solved without destroying them, it will be by the aid of agriculture. 
 
 In order to show that the soil of this region is possessed of the ele- 
 ments of fertility, I quote the following remarks from General Fremont's 
 report, which will doubtless be corroborated by the report of the United 
 Stiites geologist for the present year : 
 
 The nature of the soil may be inferred from its geological formation. The limestono 
 at the eastern limit of this section (between Fort Laramie and RedButtes) is succeeded 
 by limestone without fossils, a great variety of sandstone, consisting principally of red 
 sandstone and fine conglomerate. The red sandstone is argillaceous, with compact 
 gypsum or alabaster, very beautiful. The other sandstones are gray, yellow, and fer- 
 ruginous, sometimes very coarse. The apparent sterility of the country must therefore 
 be'^songht in other causes than the nature of the soil. The face of the country cannot 
 with propriety be called hilly. It is a succession of long ridges made by the numerous 
 streams v>'hich come down from the neighboring mountain range. [By this he alludes 
 to the south side.] The ridges have an undulating surface, Avith some such appear- 
 ance as the ocean in an ordinary breeze. 
 
 I did not have an opportunity of seeing the North Platte bottoms 
 but a i^art of the distance between the ruins of Fort Casper and the 
 boundary line. I will therefore limit myself to a description of these 
 portions, from which a pretty correct idea of the whole may be formed, 
 as they are said to be quite uniform throughout. 
 
 In the vicinity of Fort Casper, on the south side of the river, there is 
 a broad level bottom, some four or five miles in width, mostly covered 
 with a rank growth of grass mixed with tall weeds, showing the soil to 
 be quite fertile and that it contains a moderate proportion of vegetable 
 mold. Below this a second level sets in, which is raised'but a few feet 
 above the lowest. This is one entire sage plain, and spreads out to some 
 eight or nine miles in width. Before reaching Muddy Creek, the low, 
 rounded hills approach the river for a few miles, narrowing the bottom 
 to a mere strip. At Muddy it again expands to six or eight miles, and 
 is covered in iiart by a thick growth of greasewood. The creek, although 
 containing a considerable volume of water, is confined to a very narrow, 
 ditch-like channel, cut in the fine-grained soil, which here has a marly 
 appearance. 
 
 The opposite side of the river for most of this distance is bordered by 
 low bluffs, which seem to be the escarpments of a plateau from a hun- 
 dred to a hundred and M^ feet high. At some points these recede from 
 
GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF THE TERRITORIES. 229 
 
 the river, leaving- a narrow belt of bottom land. For some distance 
 above Fort Fetterman there is a broad valley, partly bottom land and 
 partly the second level, all of which could be easily irrigated, and would 
 afford a fine farming region. 
 
 I think we may safely estimate the average width of the immediate 
 valley of the river, from Fort Casper, or the Old Bridge, to the territo- 
 rial line, at four miles. This alone would give a cultivable area of six 
 hundred square miles. Add to this the additional amount which can be 
 brought into use by the canals heretofore proposed,, and the estimate I 
 have given for this section will not appear too large. 
 
 West of Fort Fetterman, Deer and Box Elder Creeks flow into the 
 Platte from the south, each aflbrding a narrow belt of irrigable land, 
 and fields of excellent i^asturage, the principal supply of hay for the 
 fort being cut from the vallej^ of Deer Creek. The La Prele, which con- 
 nects with the Platte near the fort, is bordered chiefly by high hills and 
 blufis, its bottoms being narrow and irregular and the supply of water 
 small. 
 
 There is one thing which will probably have a tendency to retard the 
 settlement of this part of the Platte Valley; that is the wind. Our at- 
 tention was first called to this while crossing a broad valley a few miles 
 sonth of Fetterman, where a strong and constant wind swept down upon 
 ns from the west. While camping on the La Prele this was of daily oc- 
 currence ; and from Fetterman to Poison Spring Creek we felt its effects 
 each day, except when sheltered behind some bluff or ridge. While 
 crossing the river near old Fort Casper, and for a few miles along the 
 north bank, where we were directly opposite the mouth of the gorge, 
 the wind was so strong that we were compelled to tie our hats upon our 
 heads, yet the day was clear and sunny. 
 
 Fremont in his report says this place is celebrated for winds, of which 
 the prevailing ones are west ; which corresponds with our experience, 
 with this exception, that when south of Fetterman they came from the 
 northwest. Stansbury, while in the vicinity of Box Elder Creek, speaks 
 of a " brsk wiud from the northwest," adding that the morning was 
 bright and cool. And he also states that after he had passed through 
 the gap to the vicinity of Poison Spring Creek, "the wind rose from the 
 southwest and blew almost a hurricane the whole day, tearing up the 
 sand and gravel, and dashing it into our faces, as we rode, with such 
 violence as to cause sensible pain." And the cause of this I think is 
 apparent. Here the mountain range is completely severed, and an oi^en 
 gap exists between the western and eastern plains. Through this the 
 cooler surface atmosphere of the higher mountain plains rushes down to 
 fill the space left by the warmer ascending air of the broad eastern 
 plains. It is true this kind of movement is going on along the entire 
 mountain range, but it is in a quiet manner, while here the entire vol- 
 ume from a broad expanse is j)ressed through a narrow channel, and as 
 a necessary consequence the current is strong. Having passed through 
 the gap it expands upon the open $pace to the east, sending currents 
 along the valleys north and south. 
 
 Between Fort Fetterman and Laramie Eiver a number of streams 
 rising in the Black Hills run east and empty into the Platte, the most 
 important of which are the La Bonte, Elkhorn, Horseshoe and Bitter 
 Cottonwood. The La Bont6 drains a very i^retty and fertile valley 
 which is of moderate width, and is covered at jioints with groves of 
 Cottonwood, willow, &c. This valley is pretty well shielded, for most of 
 its length, by high hills which border it on each side, and presents a good 
 point for a small farming settlement. Horseshoe and Elkhorn Creeks 
 
230 GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF THE TERRITOEIES. 
 
 are flanked by narrow bottoms, but as tlie supply of water is not con- 
 stant througliout their course they cannot be depended upon for irri- 
 gating- purposes unless the water is brought down by ditches which be- 
 gin near the mountains. 
 
 The bottoms of Bitter Cottonwood are only of moderate width, but 
 for most of its length these are bordered by second levels of considera- 
 ble width which are quite low. The water of this creek is probably suf- 
 ficient, in the first part of the summer, to irrigate the entire lands in 
 reach, but late in the season it would be deficient. 
 
 The soil in this valley is not so good as that of the La Bonte. 
 
 The valleys of the Laramie and its principal tributary, Chugwater, 
 j)resent the most desirable points for agTicultural purposes in the sec- 
 tion. In fact I consider the short valley of the Laramie Eiver, from the 
 mountains to the Platte, one of the choice spots of the entire district. 
 The elevation being about one thousand five hundred feet less than 
 Cheyenne, and two thousand six hundred feet lower than Laramie City ; 
 and shielded from the winds by the mountains on the west, and the high 
 blufl's and hills on the north and south, it possesses a climate several 
 degrees warmer than most of the section, and is not so liable to be vis- 
 ited by those untimely frosts and snows Avhich often do so much injury 
 to crops in this mountain district. The extent of the bottom is not very 
 great, the entire area probably not exceeding seventy-five or eighty 
 square miles, yet the fall of the river and volume of water are sufficient 
 to irrigate much of the bordering table lands. The supply of timber is 
 ample, the mountain heights aftbrdiug an abundance of pine and fir for 
 lumber, and the groves of the bottoms cottonwood for fuel, &c. 
 
 Fremont bears testimony to the moderate climate, saying, " The vrin- 
 ter here is remarkably mild for the latitude ; but rainy weather is fre- 
 quent, and the place is celebrated for winds, of which the prevailing one 
 is west. An east wind in summer, and a south wind in winter, are said 
 to be always accompanied with rain." What he says in regard to the 
 place being celebrated for winds is certainly true, as a general rule, and 
 while this may apply directly to the eastern end of this valley and the 
 table lands, I think the bottom lands are generally screened by the hills 
 and blufls. 
 
 Stansbury, although unfavorably impressed with this region generally, 
 remarks in regard to the lower part of this valley, " That he has no 
 doubt that, with the aid of irrigation, the bottom land of Laramie Creek 
 may be made to produce abundant crops ;" and that "hay is cut about 
 eight miles up the stream in quantity sufficient to supply the garrison." 
 
 The Chugwater runs northeast for some thirty-five or forty miles 
 along the base of the Black Hills, watering a beautiful valley, which 
 averages about two miles wide. This valley is bordered on each side 
 by high bluffs, which wall it in for the greater part of its length. The 
 bottoms are very fertile and easily irrigated, and the supply of water is 
 probably safificient for this purpose, although it appears to sink at some 
 points and then rise again, but if drawn oft' by irrigating ditches this 
 would be prevented and the su])ply would be constant. 
 
 Horse Creek and its afiiuents fiu^nish a considerable amount of valley 
 land and level bottoms, but, with the exception of that found along the 
 main branch, which rises in the mountains, little of it can be brought 
 into use by the usual system of irrigating, as the supply of water is not 
 constant. Eeservoirs along the little affluents would be the means of 
 bringing a large body of laud under culture. The same remarks wiU 
 apply to Larren's Fork, which, as it is not a mountain stream, dries up 
 in the latter part of the season. 
 
GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF THE TEERITORIES. 231 
 
 Lodge role Creek is an isolated stream rising near Cheyenne Pass 
 and flowing witli a moderate fall eastward tbrougli a narrow valley, 
 bordered eacli side by broad, ronnded ridges. The amount of bottom 
 land is limited, but as much, perhaps, as the water in the stream will 
 supply. It is probable that by commencing a canal near the mountain 
 a much larger and uiore constant supply could be obtained; and the 
 upper lauds and broad ridges can easily be reached if water can be 
 obtained. 
 
 Crow Creek rises in the Black Hills west of Cheyenne, and, running 
 east for a short distance beyond this city, bends south and passes into 
 Colorado. Although the valley is narrow and the stream small, its sit- 
 uation renders it important, and eiforts are now in progress which will 
 probablj' develop the entire capability of the stream. If the supply of 
 water was sufficient the entire plains around the city could be irrigated 
 and the land made to produce useful crops. 
 
 I have been informed that the Union Pacific Eailroad Comjiany intend 
 shortly to take steps to irrigate some of their lands in the southeast 
 part of Wyoming by canals, but as they neglected to furnish any infor- 
 mation on this point, I can state nothing positively in regard to it. 
 
 I am of the opinion that the rain-fall is on the increase in the imme- 
 diate vicinity of this city, and that as the laud is irrigated and brought 
 under cultivation, this increase will become more rapid. And the import- 
 ance of the subject and locality will be sufficient excuse for my giving 
 m}* reasons for this opinion. 
 
 While remaining in camp at Port D. A. Eussell for several days in 
 1869, and also in 1870, 1 noticed that the rains would generally commence 
 several miles to the west, and mo\ing north for some distance would 
 wheel around eastward and then bear down upon us from the north. I 
 think nine out of every ten followed this course during the time I no- 
 ticed them, which was in the months of July and August. As Cheyenne 
 Pass, which lies north of the fort a few miles, affords a depression 
 through which the air from the west rushes down, we may conclude that 
 a, large eddy in the surface currents exists here. I know nothing in 
 regard to the course of the winter rains and storms. If I am right, 
 then the influx of population into the southern rim of this eddy will, by 
 increasing the evaporating surface of the water, increase the amount of 
 rain in this circuit. These remarljs, as a matter of course, only ai)ply 
 to the limited rains of the spring and summer. 
 
 This section has a milder climate than any other portion of the dis- 
 trict, yet its parts differ considerably in temperature, corresponding- 
 somewhat to the elevation and freedom from prevailing winds. As the 
 population is confined almost exclusively to Cheyenne and vicinity, we 
 have no means of comparing records of the seasons. 
 
 All the agricultural products which can be grown in the other sections 
 of the district can be raised here ', and in addition to these it is very 
 probable that corn can be raised in the lower valleys. 
 
 Pine grazing fields are to be Ibund throughout the section, in the val- 
 leys and along the slopes of the mountains, and even where there are 
 no running streams wells may be dug and water found at moderate 
 depths, whicli can easily be raised by wind-mills in sufficient quantity 
 to supply stock and possibly assist in irrigation. 
 
 Timber in abundance can be obtained along the mountains and on 
 some of the streams from Chugwater north. I believe some saw-mills 
 have already been erected on the upper portions of the last-named stream. 
 
 The soil and face of the country is very similar to the South PJatte 
 
232 GEOLOGICAL SUEVEY OF THE TEREITORIES. 
 
 district until we pass Laramie Elver going north, wlien it begins to 
 assume the wave-like appearance noticed by Fremont. 
 
 Some experiments have been made in farming and gardening around 
 Cheyenne, at Fort Fetterman and other points, which are, perhaps, the 
 coldest portions of the section, yet the results, so far as I can learn, 
 have been quite favorable. 
 
 THE WIND KIVER DISTRICT. 
 
 As I did not have an opportunity of visiting this district, I can only 
 give such information respecting it as I derived from others. The prin- 
 cipal facts in regard to its extent and productions were obtained from 
 Major Baldwin,"who is thorouglily acquainted with it, and who has a 
 farm there under cultivation. I also saw specimens of its productions 
 in quantity, which were brought to South Pass City for sale, which veri- 
 iied the statements made to me respecting its climate and fertility. It 
 is drained by the Wind (or Big Horn*) Eiver and its tributaries^, and is 
 situated between the Wind Ei^^er Mountains on the west and Big Horn 
 Mountains on the east. From the borders of Little Popoagie to the Big 
 Horn Canon, its length is about one hundred and seventy-five miles, and 
 the average width of the country drained being about one hundred 
 miles, giving an area of seventeen thousand five hundred square miles. 
 It is supposed that one-twelfth of it, or about one thousand four hun- 
 dred square miles, can be irrigated and cultivated, but as I was unable 
 to obtain any estimate of its subdivisions, except that of the principal 
 valley, I cannot say that this is approximately correct, but I do not 
 think it exaggerated if the reports as to the supply of water be true. 
 
 Wind Eiver rises in Wind Eiver Mountains, on the west side of the 
 district, and, flowing a little south of east for some sixty or seventy 
 miles, bends abruptly north, which is its general course from this point 
 until it passes out of the Territory. The length of its valley is estimated 
 at two hundred miles, and its width from two to fifteen, but it is inter- 
 rupted at some points, especially at the irregular range of hills or moun- 
 tains that crosses the district from east to west near the middle of its 
 length. 
 
 The following tributaries flow into the main stream on the north and 
 west side: The North Fork, Owl Creek, Gray Bull, and Stinking Water 
 Creeks. On the south and west side are the following affluents : South 
 Fork, Buffalo Bull Creek, Big Popoagie Eiver, Beaver Creek, and ISTo- 
 Wood Eiver. Little Wind Eiver and Little Popoagie Creeks are tribu- 
 taries of Big Popoagie. All of these streams are bordered by more or 
 less arable land, which is generally qnite fertile and can be irrigated, as 
 the supply of water is ample. I understiind the Indian agency here 
 intends cutting a canal and drawing the water from Wind Eiver above 
 the bend, which, it is estimated, will irrigate several thousand acres. 
 All of these streams, except No- Wood Eiver, are skirted by heavy 
 growths of Cottonwood and willow. Wheat, oats, and barley can be 
 raised with ease, the climate being sufficiently mild and the season of 
 sufficient length for them to mature, but it is rather severe for corn. 
 Potatoes and cabbages grow finely and of pretty good size, but the 
 turnips I saw, if a fair sample, did not indicate a favorable locality for 
 their production. Somewhat to my surprise, the beans raised here, of 
 which I examined several bushels in the green i)ods, were very large, 
 l)lump, and well filled, which would indicate a freedom from late frosts 
 
 *This stream is called Wiud Eiver until it passes throufjli the first range of monn- 
 tains, north of which it has received the name of Big Horn Eiver. 
 
GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF THE TERRITORIES. 233 
 
 I did uot expect to find here. But since that time I have learned some 
 facts which go to shovf tliat there are some valleys and localities even 
 north of this, cspecialh" on the west side of the range, where the climate 
 is comparatively mild, and where not only the hardier cereals, but corn 
 can be raised, and will produce a moderately good crop. 
 
 I do not know what the elevation of this valley is, but am inclined to 
 believe that it is lower than that of the Sweetwater. Miijor Baldwin 
 thinks that it will not average more than live thousand feet above the 
 level of the sea. 
 
 I believe the greater part of this district is embraced in an Indian 
 reservation; but, as I have heretofore remarked, this only makes a 
 knowledge of its agricultural capacity the more important. 
 
 THE WESTERN DIVISION. 
 
 A full consideration of the territory on the western slope of the great 
 divide, lying opposite to that in the eastern division, would include, not 
 only the Salt Lake basin, but also the vast district drained by the Rio 
 Colorado of the West and its numerous tributaries. But this I am una- 
 ble to do, especially in regard to the latter ; for while my observations 
 and information extended over the greater part of the Great Salt Lake 
 basin, they were limited, in the Eio Colorado district, to a. part of the 
 Green River country, the valley of the Rio Virgin, and tlie head-waters 
 of the San Juan aud Flax Rivers. The last two I have embraced in my 
 report on New Mexico, and the valley of the Rio Virgin I will include 
 in a description of the Salt Lake district, leaving oulj^ the Green River 
 section to be described separately. This, I am aware, breaks in upon 
 my plan of making each separate water system a district, but as 1 am 
 unable to carry it out in this case, I thought it best to throw the differ- 
 ent parts of the Territories together as much as possible consistent with 
 the general plan. 
 
 This division is a part of the great inter-alpine trough lying between 
 the Rocky Mountain and Sierra Nevada ranges, which terminates north 
 in the plains of the Columbia, and is lost in the south in the broad 
 plateaus of Arizona and Mexico. Its situation, so far from the imme- 
 diate Pacific slope and Mississippi Valley, with immense rugged ranges 
 of mountains on each side, aud yet on the line of travel between the 
 Atlantic and Pacific shores, renders a knowledge of its agricultural 
 capacity, of great importance. And a more complete investigation on 
 this point by the Government would not l)e money spent in vain. 
 
 The lowest level of the area under consideration is reached in the Salt 
 Lake Valley, which is about four thousand three hundred feet above the 
 sea, while various arable points in each district are found as high as 
 seven thousand feet. 
 
 THE GREEN RIVER DISTRICT. 
 
 I regret my inability to describe this district in full, not only because 
 without it my work is incomplete, but more particularly because I think 
 there is here a large body of irrigable laud, which is unoccupied. It is 
 probable that the portion of the area, drained by Green River and its 
 tributaries, which lies within Wyoming Territory, amounts to some fif- 
 teen thousand or sixteen thousand square miles. The southeastern 
 X^art consists principally of broad barren sage plains, with but little 
 water, and is, as a ^'eneral thing, of but little value, unless it can be re- 
 deemed by means of artesian wells. The southern part is composed 
 
234 GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF THE TERRITORIES. 
 
 chiefly of boulder ridges and plateaus, with \rashed and bluffy escarp- 
 ments, in consequence of which the term " bad lauds " is sometimes 
 applied to it. This section is partially supplied with streams bordered 
 with narrow arable strips, which can be irrigated, and, notwithstanding 
 :heir barren appearance, are really quite fertile. The southwest corner 
 is broken and mountainous and contains very little land that can be 
 cultivated, but includes some line grazing fields. The northern triangu- 
 lar section, lying between the "Wind Eiver and TVahsatch Mountains, 
 contains the greater part of the arable laud in the district, and is di- 
 vided into three distinct parts or sub-sections, as follows : the Green 
 River Valley, the Big Sandy Valley, and the broad, somewhat elevated 
 plains lying between them. 
 
 Green Eiver, rising in the V^iud Eiver Mountains near Fremont's 
 Peak, runs in a southerly direction for about one hundred and twenty 
 miles to the ■i2d parallel, where it turns southeast, and is joined by Big 
 Sandy, v.here it crosses the 110th meridian. It continues the same 
 course, after receiving the waters of the Big Sandy, to the crossing of the 
 Union Pacific Eailroad, where it again turns south and passes out of 
 the Territory. Between its source and the 12d parallel it is joined by a 
 number of small affluents that flow down from the mountains on the 
 west, the more important of which are, Lead Horse, Marshy, White 
 Clay, Butternut, Piney, La Barge, Fontenelle, and State Creeks. 
 
 Although I have not had an opportunity of a full examination of this 
 part of the section, yet I am satisfied there must be a large amount of 
 arable land that can be irrigated by the waters of these creeks. And. 
 this opinion is strengthened by observing the volume of water in the 
 river above its junction with the Big Sandy, for where we crossed it in 
 September, (the time of year when its waters are low,) it was about one 
 hundred and twenty feet wide, with an average depth of fifteen inches, 
 and running very swiftly. There is but one stream of any importance — 
 the Xew Fork — that comes in from the east, but this is the longest trib- 
 utary north of the bend. 
 
 I do not know what the fall of the river is, but it must be considerable, 
 as its current is rapid and its bottom, where I saw it, covered with clean 
 round pebbles. I suppose it cannot l3e less than eight or ten feet to the 
 mile, which is suificient to reach the surface of the broad plateau that 
 spreads out east of it. If I am correct in my conclusions, it will be pos- 
 sible to irrigate a body of land equal to the entire capacity of the stream, 
 and we may therefore safely estimate the amount of land in this section 
 which can can be brought under cultivation at eight or nine hundred 
 square miles. It is true this estimate is based on slender data, but I 
 think it cannot be too large, for the Green Eiver bottoms alone will 
 make one-fourth of this amount, while the larger irrigable area is on the 
 second level or table lands, which vary from fifteen to fifty feet in height, 
 above the waters of the stream aud spread out to great width. The 
 broad tract that spreads out between this river and Big Sandy is level 
 and sandy, i^resentiug a barren and desolate appearance, on which ac- 
 count it is sometimes called "The Colorado Desert." It is covered with 
 a low gTOwth of Artemisia, and a close examination of the soil shows that 
 it possesses the elements of fertility, and only needs the addition of water 
 to make it productive. Although the supply of water from Green Eiver 
 is not sufficient to irrigate all this extensive tract it will furnish a broad 
 belt of it. The Big Sandy rises in the "Wind Eiver range a few miles to the 
 northwest of South Pass, autl runs south until it is joined by the Little 
 Sandy — its principal tributary — when, bending southwest, it continues 
 this course until it joins Green Eiver. The upper portion passes almost 
 
GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF THE TERRITORIES. 235 
 
 its entire length througli a level sage plain, averaging about twenty-five 
 or tbirty feet liigber tbau tbe surface of tbe creek. The immediate bot- 
 toms are generally narrow, and often wanting on one side. Tbe fall 
 of tbe creek bere is sufficient to carry tbe water on tbe planis, but tbe 
 supply is not suilicient to irrigate a belt more tban a mile or two in 
 widtb. Tbe country bordering tbe ujiper portion of Little Sandy is 
 somewbat broken and billy, particularly on tbe east side, but it enters 
 tbe i)lains before it is joined by Pacific Creek, and is flanked through- 
 out by all tbe level land its waters can irrigate. 
 
 Tbe Big Sandy, from tbe point where it is joined by tbe little Sandy 
 to its mouth, runs through a narrow valley, generally flanked on one 
 side by tolerably high blufts, which are the margins of tbe elevated 
 l^lains that here rise from seventy -five to one hundred feet above the 
 creek. Tbe average width of tbe immediate bottoms is, perhaps, half a 
 mile, but the upper level can be reached with canals a few miles long, 
 and tbe breadth of cultivable land increased to the full extent of tbe 
 supply of water. Tbe elevation of tbe little Sandy bottom, just above 
 its junction with Pacific Creek, is six thousand four hundred and fifty 
 feet above the sea, while that of Big Sandy bottom near Big Timbers — 
 twenty-five miles by the road from the former — is five thousand eight 
 hundred and eighteen feet. This shows that between these points 
 there is a fall of over twenty feet to the mile. Ten miles further down, 
 where it empties into Green lliver, the altitude is five thousand five 
 hundred and six feet above the sea level, showing a fall of nearly thirty 
 feet to tbe mile, which is sufiicient to reach the highest plateaus which 
 border tbe valley. 
 
 Although I traveled over this sub-section, and noted carefully every- 
 thing observable bearing upon its agricultural capacity, yet I am unable 
 to form any very reliable estimate of tbe area of its irrigable lands. This 
 difiiculty arises from a want of information concerning the volume of 
 water these streams send down during tbe irrigating season. If, as is 
 probably the case, they are much larger at that season tban when we 
 crossed them, then the estimate of the tillable lands must be much 
 larger tban if judged by the water at the time of our Aisit. Assuming 
 tbe larger volume, I would place the estimate at about one hundred and 
 twenty square miles in this sub-section. 
 
 The average elevation of this entire section is between five thousand 
 five hundred and six thousand five hundred feet above the sea level, 
 which is lower than that of tbe Laramie Plains, but the climate is not 
 so temperate as that of the Salt Lake basin. Wheat, oats, barley, and 
 such roots and vegetables as are mentioned as growing at Laramie City, 
 can be raised bere. 
 
 The north part of the Green Kiver Valley may have some good graz- 
 ing fields, but neither the lower part of this valley nor that of the 
 Sandy aiford any very extensive or valuable areas suitable for pasturage. 
 
 There is some cottonwood along the Green Eiver and tbe lower part 
 of Big Sandy, but as a general thing this entire region is destitute of 
 timber, none being found nearer tban the mountains. 
 
 Tbe remainder of my report on this district relates only to such 
 detached portions as were visited by the expedition. 
 
 Black's Fork, to the point where it is joined by Ham's Fork, is bor- 
 dered by a bottom of moderate widtb, which will afford space for a 
 number of farms, and a grazing area of considerable extent. At the 
 time of our visit to this place, a drove of one thousand cattle was rest- 
 ing and feeding here, preparatory to their departure west. Tbis stream, 
 to its junction with Green Eiver, is flanked by narrow bottoms, which 
 
236 GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF THE TERRITORIES. 
 
 are fertile and well grassed, as a general thing, and which can easily be 
 irrigated. As there is a tolerably good supply of water during the grow- 
 ing season, it is i>robable a portion of the uplands, where level, can be 
 irrigated, thus increasing the tillable area. The higher plateau between 
 this stream and Henry's Fork is beyond the reach of irrigation, but 
 between this and the streams around it runs a lower level, varying in 
 breadth from a few rods to ten or twelve miles, and generally about 
 fifteen or twenty feet above the immediate creek bottoms. This level, 
 which is mostly covered with a thick growth of artemisia, can be irri- 
 gated as far as the supply of water will go. The broad expanse around 
 Church Butte can be reached by a canal some eight or ten miles in 
 length, but the supply of water in Black's Fork is hardly sufficient 
 to justify the expense. A canal might probably be cut from Green 
 Elver, commencing some eighteen or twenty miles above the railroad, 
 which would not only irrigate the broad level portions of the plains 
 lying west of the river and south of Ham's Fork, but if a suitable place 
 for crossing Black's Fork Valley with an aqueduct can be found, might 
 also supply the first level south of the latter stream. 
 
 Around Fort Bridger, on the head- waters of Black's Fork and its 
 tributaries, Smith's Fork and Cottonwood Creek, are some fine farming 
 lauds, and on Smith's Fork a number of farms are already in cultivation, 
 I^roducing fine crops of wheat, oats, barley, potatoes, &c. The tillable 
 area in this neighborhood amounts to several thousand acres. 
 
 A proposition has been made to run a branch railroad from some 
 point on the Union Pacific Eailroad near Carter Station, up Smith's 
 Fork, to the Uintah Mountains, in order to reach the abundant supply 
 of pine timber to be found there. 
 
 The altitude of Fort Bridger is about seven thousand feet above the 
 sea level. 
 
 Concerning the country east of Smith's Fork I quote from the journal 
 of Dr. Turnbull, as during the jiassage of the expedition over this sec- 
 tion I was absent examining the lands of Utah : 
 
 " From Fort Bridger to Henry's Fork, with the exception of the valley 
 of Smith's Fork, the country has a sterile appearance and is without 
 means of irrigation, being generally covered with a scattering and 
 stunted growth of artemisia. 
 
 " Henry's Fork traverses a beautiful valley, something like thirty miles 
 long and from two to five miles wide, can be easily irrigated, and will 
 produce heavy crops of cereals and the hardy roots and vegetables. 
 At present it is covered with a luxuriant growth of grass, from which 
 not only a supply for the military post is obtained, but also for shipment 
 to other points. During the time of our passage through this region, 
 some twenty-five hundred head of Texas cattle were resting and feeding 
 at Brown's Hole. 
 
 " The valley of Green Eiver, between Black's Fork and Bear Eiver, is 
 generally narrow, varying in width from a few rods to three or four 
 miles, but as we approach the mouth of Vermillion Creek it widens out 
 into a broad, bay-like valley about twelve miles long and seven or eight 
 in width, which is one broad meadow. On the east side of the river, 
 between Currant and Eed Creeks, there is a broad sage plain of moder- 
 ate elevation, which could be watered from the river by means of canals 
 a few miles long, and, although having a barren look, would doubtless 
 produce good crops. 
 
 " From Bitter Creek east, until we reach Muddy or Washakie Creek, 
 a tributary to Bear Eiver, the country is desolate and uninviting, and 
 1/he water generally bad, being impregnated with alkaline matter. At 
 
GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF THE TERRITORIES. 237 
 
 the latter plenty of good grass is to be obtained, but the irrigable and 
 tillable area is limited." 
 
 From the data obtained by the expedition while in this section, I am 
 led to the conclusion that a thorough investigation of the northeast part 
 of Utah and northwest part of Colorado would reveal the fact that 
 there is a large area of land there which can be cultivated, not in ex- 
 tensive bodies, but in long narrow valleys and belts. But it is probable 
 the reports of others, who have been making some examinations of 
 this mountainous region, may supply that which we have to omit for 
 want of information. 
 
 Timber is abundant along the slopes of the Uintah Mountains, and 
 some of the valleys are tolerably well supplied with Cottonwood. 
 
 SALT LAKE DISTKICT. 
 
 This district, which lies partly in Utah and partly in Nevada, is a 
 vast elliptical basin about three hundred and fifty miles in lengt]i from 
 north to south, and varying from fifty to three hundred miles in width, 
 being on an average about one hundred and eighty or one hundred and 
 ninety miles wide, and containing an area of some sixty-five thousand 
 square miles. As there is a large portion of this territory which is but 
 little known, and which has never been examined with a view of ascer- 
 taining its agricultural capacity, it is very difficult to give even an ap- 
 proximate estimate of the cultivable lands within its bounds. Omitting 
 what may hereafter be discovered to be cultivable in the western section, 
 I think we may safely place the estimate at three thousand square miles, 
 or about two million acres. 
 
 An irregular range of hills or mountains starting from the west side 
 of Salt Lake runs south a little west of the 113th meridian to the 38th 
 parallel, when it bends southeast and forms an imperfect junction with 
 the southern extremity of the Wahsatch Mountains. B}^ this range the 
 basin is divided into two unequal parts, that on the east, which contains 
 nearly all the known arable land, being much smaller than the western 
 section. 
 
 This latter portion consists chiefly of broad, flat, sandy plains, often 
 destitute of vegetation, and in many places covered with saline incrus- 
 tations, showing plainly that the lake formerly extended over a much 
 larger area in this direction than at present. 
 
 As this western section, so far as known, contains but very little 
 arable land — this being limited to the extreme southeast border — and as 
 the entire basin consists of minor basins with distinct water systems, I 
 shall not attempt to consider the district by sections, but will describe 
 it by the minor basins and valleys, so far as I have visited them and 
 obtained reliable information concerning them. Leaving out of the list 
 the broad northwestern plains, the following are the more important 
 minor basins : the Salt Lake Basin, Eush Valley, Sevier Eiver Basin, 
 and Beaver Eiver Basin. 
 
 SALT LAKE BASIN. 
 
 This basin embraces the territory immediately around the lake, and 
 that drained by the numerous streams that flow into it, of which the 
 principal ones are Bear, Weber, and Jordan Eivers, the last mcluding 
 as its tributaries the streams that discharge their waters into Utah 
 Lake. 
 
 This basin is nearly two hundred miles in length, and covers over 
 
238 GEOLOGICAL SUEVEY OF THE TERRITORIES. 
 
 one-fourth of the entire district; and within its bounds are contained 
 the choice lands and chief population of Utah. 
 
 Beginning at the north end of the lake, and moving east and then. 
 south, I will describe the country, so far as my observation and informa- 
 tion extend, by valleys, in the order in which they come. 
 
 I did not visit either Hansee Spring Valley or Blue Spring Valley, 
 which lie north of the promontory ; nor did I succeed in obtaining any 
 very definite information concerning the agricultural capacity of either; 
 but from all I could learn I am satisfied they contain very little arable 
 land. The former is not supplied with streams that will furnish water 
 for irrigation, and the i)riucipal stream in the latter is very strongly 
 impregnated v;ith saline matter. The southern portions of these valleys 
 have a barren appearance, and are but sparsely covered with vegetation ; 
 the soil is also saturated with salt or alkali. Farther north there are 
 probably some better portions and some small areas susceptible of cul- 
 tivation, and grass may also be found near the mountains. 
 
 The Malade Valley, which extends north into Idaho, is drained by 
 the Malade River, and is a very i^retty, fertile section ; and, including 
 the shore of Bear River Bay, is about forty miles long, with an average 
 width of five miles. It contains about one hundred and fifty square 
 miles of land which may be irrigated, and in the northern part are some 
 fine fields of grass. Although the Malade River is narrow, it sends 
 down a considerable volume of water, sufficient, I think, to irrigate all 
 the level land of the valley as far south as the " gate," or caiion, through 
 which Bear River emerges. From this point water can be drawn from 
 the latter stream to irrigate the south end of the valley. Although a 
 portion of the land near the bay may be unfit for agricultural purposes, 
 yet several thousand acres can be brought under cultivation in the 
 vicinity of Corinne, where it would doubtless prove quite profitable. 
 
 The Cache Valley, the next one to the east, is an expansion of the 
 otherwise ribbon-like valley of Bear River, and extends north and south 
 from the divide between Muddy and Box Elder into the southern border 
 of Idaho. Its length from Paradise to the mountains above Franklin 
 is about fifty miles, varying in width from six to sixteen and averaging 
 as much as twelve miles. About one-half of its area, or three hundred 
 squa^re miles, can be irrigated and rendered suitable for cultivation. 
 Not only can the bottoms be irrigated, but the benches and uplands 
 between Paradise and Franklin may be reached by digging ditches a 
 few miles in length ; for, in addition to the river, there are numerous 
 little streams running down into the valley from the Wahsatch Moun- 
 tains on the east, as follows : Muddy, Blacksmith's Fork, High Fork, 
 Gros Bois Creek, and Logan's Fork, and Rush Creek from the west, 
 all of which afford water. 
 
 This is probably the finest grazing section in the entire basin, and sit- 
 uated as it is near the junction of three railroads, must become a favorite 
 pasture ground for stock-raisers and stock-traders. Occasionally, feed- 
 ing may be required for a short time in the winter, on account of the 
 snow, but this seldom extends over three or four weeks during the sea- 
 son. This is also one of the best wheat-growing valleys in the district, 
 being second to none but the San Pete. It is colder t^han the valley of 
 the Jordan, as is also that of the Malade, and therefore not so well 
 adapted to fruit or corn as the sections farther south, yet apples and the 
 hardier fruits can be raised. The attractive features and situation of 
 this valley have drawn a considersble population here, so that already 
 between thirty and thirty-five thousand acres have been irrigated. 
 
 Box Elder, and the other little streams that connect with it, are bor- 
 
GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF THE TERRITORIES. 239 
 
 dered by some excellent lands which can be easily irrigated. A settle- 
 ment has been made here and some land is under cultivation, but what 
 amount 1 am unable to say. 
 
 Bear Eiver rises in the Uintah IMountains, near the southwest corner 
 of Wyoming", and running north within Utah Territory, 'but very near 
 the eastern boundary, passes up into Idaho for forty or fifty miles, where, 
 bending- suddenly soutlnvest, it enters the Cache Valley. Most of the 
 distance from where the Union Pacific Eailroad enters it, to its northern 
 bend, it is flanked by a narrow belt of bottom land, which occasionally, 
 as in the vicinity of Medicine Butte, and near the point where it crosses 
 the boundary line, expands to four or live miles in vridth, but for the 
 whole length the average width cannot safely be estimated at more than 
 one mile. Its chief value will be as a grazing region when the broader 
 valleys have been taken up, its elevation and mountainous surroundings 
 making it too cold for any but the hardier cereals and vegetables. 
 
 The "average fall of the river is about twelve feet to the mile, which 
 is sufficient to carry it upon any table lands that may border it which 
 are not more than one hundred to one hundred and fifty feet high. 
 
 I am not sufficiently acquainted with the country through which it 
 runs to state what is the probable amount of land that may thus be 
 rendered cultivable. I know there are occasional belts of the second 
 level, but I think these are limited. Around Bear Eiver Lalce there is 
 a strip of arable land and some grassy meadows. 
 
 Ogden's Hole, which is a little park in the Wahsatch Mountains, 
 drained by Ogden Creek, is about fifteen miles long and seven miles 
 wide. 
 
 This beautiful valley is hemmed in on all sides by high mountains, 
 from which flow down little streams of crystal water sufficient to irri- 
 gate nearly the entire area. The greater part is covered over by a thick 
 growth of nutritious grass, and aftbrds an excellent grazing field. The 
 remarks made in regard to the climate and products in Bear Eiver Val- 
 ley will apply here. 
 
 Weber River, along which the railroad runs for some distance — from 
 where it emerges from the canon to where it enters upon Salt Lake Val- 
 ley proper — passes through a very pretty, and, for the most part, fertile 
 section, which is rapidly filling up with villages and settlements, and is 
 so well known to everj- one who has traveled along the Union Pacific 
 Eailroad, that any description of it would be superfluous. 
 
 The arable land in the valley, including the little spots on Echo Creek, 
 may be estimated at one hundred square miles, or sixty-four thousand 
 acres. 
 
 I may add that the soil is very fertile, and, although the climate is^ 
 slightly colder than that of the Salt Lake Valley, apples and some other" 
 fruits can be raised without difficult^' . 
 
 In order to prevent confusion, I have limited the name " Salt Lake 
 Valley" to the strip of level land lying along the eastern shore between 
 the lake and the Wahsatch Mountains. Its length from Salt Lake City 
 to Willard City, in a direct line, is about fifty miles, varying in width 
 from two to fifteen miles, and averaging about ten. 
 
 Of this area I estimate three-fifths, or three hundred square miles, as 
 susceptible of cultivation. I am aware that with the present systems of 
 irrigation it would be difficult, if not impossible, to obtain sufficient 
 water to irrigate this esteut, but by making reservoirs and bringing 
 upon it all the water that is within reach from the streams north and 
 south, my estimate will not be too large ; and, by this means, part of 
 
240 GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF THE TERRITORIES. 
 
 I 
 
 the higlier lands soutli of Weber Eiver may be rendered fit for cul- 
 ture. 
 
 The soil, although in many places covered with artemisia, and more 
 or less impregnated with saline matter, is very rich and productive, as 
 the farms already under cultivation show. 
 
 The northern and southern portions contain the principal settlements, 
 as there the land is lowest and inost easily irrigated. 
 
 As the productions of this and the remaining portions of the basin are 
 similar, I will speak of them after I have described the different sec- 
 tions. 
 
 The valley of the Jordan extends almost directly north and south from 
 Utah Lake to Great Salt Lake ; the lofty peaks of Wahsatch range 
 walling it in on the east, and the Oquirrh Mountains bounding it on the 
 west. 
 
 From the lower end of the caiion to its northern extremity, where it 
 spreads out and becomes a i»art of what I have included in the Salt 
 Lake Valley, is about twenty-six miles, and its average width fully 
 fifteen miles. This gives nearly four hundred square miles as its area, 
 which may appear small to those who have read the glowing descrip- 
 tions of it. Lieutenant Beckwith gives thirty miles as its length, and 
 twenty as its width ; but he counts from Utah Lake and includes the 
 mountain slopes, while I confine my estimate to the valley plains, four- 
 fifths of which can be irrigated ; and I also exclude from the calculation 
 that part of the lake shore bordering the river, which I have included 
 in the former section. 
 
 The direct length, by Government survey, from the base line which 
 runs near the north side of the city to the southern line of Salt Lake 
 County, which crosses near the caiion, is just twenty-four miles.* The 
 greater part of this beautiful valley can be irrigated, and I estimate its 
 cultivable area at four-fifths, or about three hundred square miles. 
 
 Most of the tributaries of the Jordan enter it from the east side, and 
 south of the creek that waters the city the only ones of any importance 
 are Mill, Big Cottonwood, Little Cottonwood, and Willow Creeks. 
 Ditches have recently been made along the eastern border of the valley, 
 drawing the water from Cottonwood Creeks near the mountain and 
 carrying it on the plateau that occupies a considerable area on this side 
 of the river. 
 
 This eff"ort has clearly demonstrated the possibility and practicability 
 of irrigating nearly every acre on the east side of the river, north of 
 Willow Creek. Although but little of this plateau or higher level has 
 been tilled, yet the primary canals and a number of the smaller ditches 
 ^are already made, and when I passed through the valley in September 
 last were filled with running water. 
 
 In the vicinity of Willow Creek there is a small area of slightly rolling 
 land, which probably cannot be irrigated from any of the streams, not 
 because of its elevation, but because this creek does not furnish suf- 
 ficient water. If it is possible to establish reservoirs along the base of 
 the mountain there will be no necessity for even this remaining idle. 
 
 An extensive canal is now in course of construction for the purpose 
 of irrigating the great body of land on the west side of the river. Start- 
 ing within the caiion, and but a few feet below the level of Utah Lake, 
 ^ the intention is to carry the water from the Jordan along the base of 
 the Oquirrh Mountains, at as high a level as possible. This will furnish 
 
 * The table of distances given in Stansbnry's Report, p. 294, makes the distance from 
 the State House to the summit of the hill at the caiion twenty-five miles, "which is tho 
 correct road measure. 
 
GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF THE TERRITORIES. 241 
 
 water enough to irrigate the hirger portion of the lands on this side; 
 but the fall is not sufficient to reach the higher margins of the sloping 
 plain. 
 
 When these works are completed and the fresh water from Utah 
 Lake has i)ermeated the soil for a few years, this valley, seen from some 
 neighboring height, will truly appear as one vast garden. 
 
 The soil of the flat lands around thfe city, when the Mormons first 
 settled it, was so thoroughly saturated with saline matter that for 
 several years there were considerable areas upon which they could get 
 no crops to grow. But at length by experience they learned that by 
 sowing it in herd-grass and irrigating it freely it could be rendered 
 suitable for the culture of other crops. And Mr. R. L. Campbell, who 
 was for some years secretary, and is now, I believe, president of the 
 Agricultural and ]\Ianufacturing Society, informs me that lands which 
 were heretofore rejected on this account are now being rapidly occupied 
 for farms. 
 
 It is impossible to give the exact number of acres that have been irri- 
 gated in this valley, as no returns, so far as I could ascertain, have been 
 made since 18G7. Omitting from the estimate the lands that may be 
 reached by the Jordan Canal, which is not completed, I suppose the 
 number at present amounts at least to twenty thousand or twenty-five 
 thousand acres. 
 
 Perhaps, before passing to the Utah basin, it would be best to include 
 the Tooele and Lone Eock Valleys, as they properly belong to this group 
 of arable tracts. 
 
 The Tooele Valley is about sixteen miles long and ten miles wide, and 
 is probably the most fertile spot in the Territory. The small streams 
 that run through it afford sufficient water to irrigate the greater part of 
 its area, and therefore I estimate its agricultural lands at one huudred 
 and sixty square miles, or the full extent of the valley surface. The 
 soil appears to be peculiarly adapted to the growth of the cereals, it 
 being no uncommon thing to cut from sixty to seventy bushels of oats 
 from an acre, and last year one field of ninety acres averaged sixty 
 bushels to the acre. It is already j^retty well settled up, having one 
 woolen manufactory and fi^e grist-mills, and some fourteen or fifteen 
 thousand acres irrigated. 
 
 Lone Eock or Spring Valley, which lies at the southwest corner of 
 Salt Lake, does not appear to have attracted much attention, and is not 
 so well known as the others in this region, i^robably, on account of its 
 locality. It is about twenty miles long and from eight to ten miles wide, 
 and, with the exception of its northern end, is well grassed over and 
 aftords excellent grazing fields. A small area can be irrigated and 
 brought under cultivation around the southwest margin, but the central 
 portion is watered principally by springs, which render the surface 
 marshy in places. Ditching through the marshy i)arts would probably 
 draw off sufficient water to leave the ground firm and suitable for graz- 
 ing and, perhai)S, for culture. The northern portion, as it approaches the 
 lake, assumes a more barren appearance, and in some places is frosted 
 over with saline incrustations, while the southern end is much like Tintic 
 Valley. 
 
 UTAH LAKE VALLEY. 
 
 Passing southward over the ridge at the upper end of the Jordan 
 
 Valley, we enter the Utah Lake Basin. The principal portion of the 
 
 arable lands of this basin or valley stretch along the eastern shore of 
 
 the lake, extending back from its margin to the foot of the mountains, 
 
 16 G 
 
242 GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF THE TERRITORIES. 
 
 •whicli here descend abruptly to the plains. The length of this semicir- 
 cular belt, from the exit of the Jordan to Santaguin, is about fifty miles, 
 with an average width of six. This entire area of three hundred square 
 miles can be irrigated, the numerous streams that rush down from the 
 mountain canons affording sufficient water to irrigate not only the lower 
 bottoms, but also the broad elevated plateau that extends from Battle 
 Creek to Provo Kiver,* For a long time this plateau was supposed to 
 be beyond the reach of any of the streams in the viciuity, and was con- 
 signed to inutility, but a little energy has recently shown that this was 
 a mistake. A canal, commencing some distance up Provo Canon, has 
 been constructed along the steep mountain slopes, and now brings the 
 water from Provo Eiver to the highest point of this elevated i)laiu, and 
 when I passed through here the secondary ditches were filled with water, 
 spreading here and there large pools over the dry plains. Although I 
 saw but one field in cultivation, farms were being marked off and prep- 
 arations made for cultivating the soil. And I believe that this once 
 rejected plat will prove the best wheat-gTowing tract hi the valley of 
 Utah Lake, and that ere long it will be dotted over with farm-houses 
 and fields of golden grain. 
 
 The following is a list of the streams that run down from the moun- 
 tain and cross this shore-strip, given in the order in which they come, 
 beginning at the north end of the lake. Dry Creek, American Fork, 
 Battle Creek, Provo River, Spring Creek, Hobble Creek, Spanish Fork, 
 and Petenete Creek; Summit Creek, which crosses the road south of the 
 lake, is a tributary of the Petenete. These streams are bordered by no 
 valleys or bottoms within the mountains, for, with the exception of 
 Provo Eiver, they do not reach beyond the first range, but rushing down 
 its slope enter suddenly upon the plain and sweep across it to the lake. 
 
 The soil is generally very fertile, that along the margin of the lake 
 having a large iiroportion of vegetable mold mixed with it ; that near 
 the mountain and on the plateau is intermingled with small boulders, 
 but not to such a degree as to injure it. From Battle Creek north, and 
 from Provo River south, it is pretty well settled and most of the choice 
 bottom lauds occupied, but there is a broad strip along the lake margin 
 not cultivated but used as meadow land to graze the cattle belonging 
 to the citizens of the little villages located on the creeks. Including 
 Tintic and Cedar Valleys there are at least twenty-five thousand acres 
 of irrigated land in Utah County, and even this estimate may fall con- 
 siderably below the true figures, for if the canal cut from the Provo is 
 of sufficient capacity to water the whole surface of the plateau, this 
 alone would amount to over twenty thousand acres, and would increase 
 my estimate to thirty-five thousand, as I include but ten thousand in the 
 first figures. 
 
 Tintic Valley, which lies southwest of Utah Lake, is a narrow, bay- 
 like indentation in the range of hills or low mountains that sweeps 
 around the west side of the basin. It is about twenty-five miles long 
 north and south, and four or five miles wide, and is Avatered principally 
 by springs. As there are very few streams from which water can be 
 'drawn to irrigate the soil, a small portion only of the land can be brought 
 under culture, but as a grazing section it probably stands next to the 
 Cache Valley. The grass grows luxuriantly and is kept fresh and nu- 
 tritious by the water from the numerous springs, and the comparatively 
 mild climate prevents the necessity of winter feeding or shelter, as some- 
 times required in the north part of the Territory. 
 
 * This stream was formerly called the TimpanogaSj and this is the name generally 
 tfound on the maps and in public documents. 
 
GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF THE TERRITORIES. 243 
 
 Cedar Valley lies west of tbe lake, behind the range of hills that here 
 rises up near the shore, and is about thirty miles long from north to 
 south, and averages ten miles in width, and contains perhaps one hun- 
 dred and fifty square miles of land that can be cultivated. It is watered 
 by two small streams that run in from the west and northwest, and 
 which aftbrd sufficient wnter to irrigate the northern and western por- 
 tions, especially around Crittenden and Cedar City. The laud is good 
 and productive. The valley is partially settled, and there are already 
 two saw-mills and one Houring-mill in operation here. 1 did not have 
 an opportunity of visiting this locality, but obtained my information 
 from citizens of Provo, who are well acquainted with it. I neglected to 
 inquire about its water drainage, and am somewhat in doubt respecting 
 it. If there is any outlet for it to the lake, I failed to see it, and I am 
 satisfied there is none to the Jordan, therefore I presume it is a separate 
 basin, but as it may belong to the Utah basin, I have considered it in 
 connection with that system. It has a greater elevation than the Utah 
 Valley, but how much I do not know. 
 
 Moving southward from Santaguin, we enter the Juab Valley, which 
 extends from this point to the divide between Utah and Sevier basins, 
 a short distance below Nephi. It is about fifty miles long and six 
 miles wide, and contains one hundred square miles of land that can be 
 irrigated, principally along Salt and Clover Creeks. The most of the 
 remainder is well grassed over, and affords good pasture lands for sheep 
 and cattle. 
 
 Eeserviug a fuller account of the x)roductions of the Salt Lake, Jordan, 
 and Utah Valleys, until I have completed the description of the district, 
 I will only remark that everything that can be raised in the Middle 
 States can be raised here, and that these sections bear about the same 
 relations to the colder regions of the elevated moiuitain districts and 
 southern borders of our Territory that the Middle States do to New 
 England and Georgia. 
 
 Without detracting anything from the importance of the arable tracts 
 and grazing fields along the railroad line east of this in Wyoming, 1 
 may truly call this basin, with all its drawbacks, (for it has some,) an 
 oasis on the great continental highway of trade and travel. Possessing 
 this advantage of situation, surrounded by mountains rich in the pre- 
 cious metals, and having a healthy climate, it must, in the course of a 
 few years, become densely populated. It is important, therefore, that 
 the Government should give all proper encouragement to its develop- 
 ment. I make these remarks here, because they are more particularly 
 applicable to the immediate basin of Salt Lake than to the rest of the 
 Territory, being the portion through which the railroad passes. 
 
 The general level of the Salt Lake VaUey is about four thousand three 
 hundred feet above the sea level, and that of Utah Lake Valley between 
 four thousand five hundred and fifty and four thousand six hundred 
 feet.* 
 
 In the mountains east of the Jordan are three little parks or elevated 
 valleys. Parley's Park, Kamas Valley, and Eound Prairie, which be- 
 long to the basin under consideration. Parley's Park is elevated about 
 two thousand feet above Salt Lake, and is some five or six miles long 
 and from two to three miles wide. It is watered by Caiion Creek, and 
 could be easily irrigated, but on account of its elevation and mountain- 
 
 * In the barometric table accompanying Lieutenant Beckwith's Report of Pacific Rail- 
 road Survey, toI. ii, part 1, p. 107, there are some errors, probably typographical. 
 For instance, the elevation at Provo is given as 4,362.6, when it certainly is at least 
 two hundred feet more. 
 
244 GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF THE TERRITORIES. 
 
 ous surroundings, it is too cold for any except the hardier ji reductions. 
 The recent discovery of some mines in the mountains around it, how- 
 ever, may bring it into notice. 
 
 Kamas Valley, which is similar to Parley's Park, is about ten miles 
 long and from two to four miles wide, and can also be irrigated. Both 
 are well grassed and afford good grazing fields, but, on account of the 
 difficulty in reaching them, and their small size, will not be of much 
 value in an agi^icultural point of view. 
 
 I know nothing in regard to Eonnd Prairie. 
 
 RUSH VALLEY. 
 
 This -valley appears to be a small isolated basin, having a distinct 
 water system of its own; Eush Lake, which lies in the north part, being 
 the reservoir. It is about forty or fifty miles in length from north to 
 south, and averages fifteen miles in width, a large portion of which can 
 be irrigated, and which I have estimated at three hundred square miles. 
 Clover Creek, which flows into Eush Lake, is a stream of considerable 
 size, and affords sufficient water, not only to irrigate a large extent of 
 land, but also power to drive machinery. The lake is about eight miles 
 long and some three or four miles wide. Some mines recently discov- 
 ered at the north end of this valley will, if they prove productive, fur- 
 nish a market for the farm products. 
 
 Stockton, at the north end of the lake, is a village of considerable 
 size. The farms in this locality are irrigated from a stream that ,runs 
 from the mountains near by and empties into the lake. 
 
 SEVIER RIVER BASIN. 
 
 This comprises the country drained by the Sexier Eiver and its trib- 
 utaries. This river, rising in the southwest corner of the Territory, runs a 
 little east of north between two ranges of the Wahsatch Mountains for 
 one Iwindred and fifty or one hundred and sixty miles, where it breaks 
 through the western ridge and runs southwest for forty or fifty miles 
 more, and empties into Sevier Lake. Its principal tributaries are the 
 San Pete Eiver and Meadow Creek. The former, rising a little south of 
 Mount ]S"ebo, runs southwest through the San Pete Yalley and joins the 
 Sevier Eiver near the crossing of the 112th meridian and 39th parallel. 
 The latter commences in the divide south of Eush Yalley, and traverses 
 the ijlains west of the mountains, uniting at the bend. Very little ap- 
 pears to be known in regard to Sevier Lake, at least I have been unable 
 to ascertain anything of imj)ortance respecting it or the lower portion of 
 the river. The very irregular form of this basin and uncertainty in 
 regard to its western rim make it impossible for me to give an esti- 
 mate of its area that will amount to anything more than a mere guess. 
 
 The San Pete Valley, which is watered by the San Pete Eiver and 
 numerous small tributaries, counting from Fountain Green to Guunisou, 
 is fort^^-four miles long and averages fully five miles in width. At least 
 two hundred square miles, or nearly the entire surface area of this beauti- 
 ful and fertile valley, can be irrigated. The returns of the Agricultural 
 and Manufacturing Society for 18G6-'67 give nearly twenty thousand 
 acres as the number then under irrigation ; the past three years have 
 increased this fully twenty-five per cent., so that we may safely estimate 
 the number now irrigated at tweuty-five thousand. 
 
 This valley, as a wheat-growing section, stands next to Cache, its soil 
 being peculiarly adapted to the production of this cereal. It is also one 
 of the best potato regions in the Territory. 
 
GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF THE TERRITORIES. 245 
 
 Its altitude averages about five thousand feet above the level of the 
 sea, the elevation at the mouth of San Pete River being four thousand 
 nine hundred and sixty feet. 
 
 The Sevier Eiver Valley is a long narrow belt lying bet^yeen two 
 wings of the Wahsatch range, and extending northwest and northeast 
 one hundred and ten or one hundred and fifteen miles. I kuow but 
 little respecting the agricultural features of the upper portion of this 
 valley, but presume, judging from what I know of the surrounding 
 regions, that it is well gi-assed and wtII watered, so that all spots of 
 arable land to be found there can be irrigated. I think it probable that 
 some timber can be found in this part of the valle}', although the lower 
 portions are very naked. 
 
 For about fifty or sixty miles above Gunnison it averages some six or 
 seven miles wide, but is wholly without timber, and has a very barren 
 appearance ; even the artemisia being scattered and stunted. The river 
 channel is generally a deep, ditch-like cleft in the soil, some six or eight 
 feet below the surface of the i)lain, its immediate bottoms being very 
 narrow. With the considerable fall in the stream a great portion of the 
 valley can be irrigated, and, notwithstanding the present barren appear- 
 ance, after a few years' irrigation, will become quite "fertile, and produce 
 good crops of wheat, oats, potatoes, &c. There are some settlements in 
 the north part of the valley, and a few thousand acres under cultivation 
 in Sevier and Piute Counties, which embrace this valley. What the 
 number of acres irrigated is I cannot say. 
 
 The elevation ranges from five thousand five hundred to four thou- 
 sand eight hundred feet above the level of the sea, and the volume 
 of water in the river is ample for all purposes. From Gunnison to 
 Chicken Creek, a distance of forty miles, the valley of this Eiver aver- 
 ages some three or four miles wide, and is similar in character to that 
 farther south. 
 
 Leaving the Sevier, and following the road over the ridge to the 
 southwest, Ave enter an isolated basin called Round or Lake Valley, 
 which appears to have little or no connection with the water systems 
 of the Sevier basin. This is some ten or twelve miles long and six or 
 seven wide, but for want of water only a limited portion of it can be 
 irrigated and brought under culture. There is probably sufficient to 
 supply a strip of about a mile and a half in width. And there are 
 some small grazing fields here. Passing westward out of this valley 
 we enter upon the margin of the plains, which spread out with a gentle 
 slope to the northwest. The little streams that run down from the 
 mountains and pass oif into the plains aftbrd a belt of arable spots 
 along the foot of the range, concerning which I obtained the following 
 particulars from Bishop Miller, of Provo : 
 
 Going south from the latter point, after passing for some ten miles 
 over the divjide, we reach a little stream where there is a small settle- 
 ment and a small extent of arable land that can be irrigated, and an 
 area ten or twelve miles long and four or five wide, suitable for grazing 
 sheep or cattle. Passing over a dry level plain for about eight miles 
 farther, we reach Chalk Creek, which afibrds a valley eight or ten miles 
 long and about two miles wide, the greater part of which can be irri- 
 gated. Crossing another dry level of about four miles we reach Meadow 
 Creek,* which has but little bottom laud adapted to agriculture, and 
 not sufficient water to irrigate more than a few hundred acres. But it 
 
 * This is a different stream from the Meadow Creek heretofore mentioned as coming 
 down from near Rush Valley. 
 
246 GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF THE TERRITORIES. 
 
 is probable that a ditcli could be bronglit round from Chalk Creek, by 
 which a considerable area of the upper level might be rendered tillable.* 
 
 Corn Creek, which is about five miles farther south, is flanked by a 
 moderately broad area of flat land, which can be irrigated to the full 
 extent of the supply of water. Cove Creek Valley, ten or twelve miles 
 farther on, furnishes but little farming land, but contains some good 
 grazing fields, and is already occupied, to a considerable extent, for 
 this purpose. Five or six miles south of this is another small stream 
 (probably Pine Creek,) where sufficient land for a few farms might be 
 irrigated. 
 
 Passing over a divide of some nine or ten miles we reach Indian 
 Creek, a tributary of Beaver Eiver, which brings us into another basin. 
 Although there are two stage routes through this section, there seems 
 to be but little known respecting its water system ; in fact, the very 
 existence of Preuss Lake appears to be a matter of doubt, and future 
 investigation may show that this is but a part of Sevier Eiver Basin. 
 Considering it as a separate system, it consists of Bear River and its 
 tributaries, which rise in the western slope of the range of mountains 
 before mentioned. 
 
 There is a considerable area of land on Beaver Eiver that can be irri- 
 gated and cultivated, and the probability is that its breadth might be 
 increased by extending canals on the ui)j)er levels below the mountain 
 or ridge that crosses here. Passing over Beaver Mountain we reach 
 Yellow Creek, where there is a fertile belt about ten miles long and six 
 or seven miles wide, reaching from the Creek about two miles south 
 of Parawan. Here, and at Beaver Eiver, are some settlements and 
 some laud already under cultivation. Between Parawan and Cedar 
 City there are a few arable spots of small extent, which are already 
 partly occupied. Cedar City is situated on Cole Creek, a stream about 
 the size of the Americau Fork, which will irrigate some four or five 
 thousand acres. Shirt's Creek, which runs by Kanara, is flanked by a 
 considerable bottom, but the stream does not aftbrd water sufficient to 
 irrigate 'but a part of it. West of this some twenty or twenty-five 
 miles, on another branch of Beaver Eiv(3r, are the celebrated Yegas de 
 Santa Clara, noted as a resting place after the fatigues of the desert 
 march from the West. By following these various streams, as they 
 move northwest toward some common reservoir, it is probable a num- 
 ber of irrigable spots may be found. 
 
 Crossing over the divide, which here sweeps round in a semicircular 
 form from a southwest to a northwest direction, we enter the valley 
 of the Eio Yirgin, a ])art of the vast territory drained by the Eio Colo- 
 rado of the West. This stream, although sending down a considerable 
 volume of water, is wide and rapid and consequently shallow. It runs 
 through a country having a very barren appearance, here and there 
 cutting through rocky clifl's and lava ridges, with occasional broad 
 stretches of sandy land covered with a very scanty growfli of vegeta- 
 tion. But, notwithstanding the unpromising appearand^ of this sec- 
 tion, there are several settlements here, some of which (as Washington 
 and St. George) number several thousand souls. 
 There are some arable spots Avhich are very productive, and in fact 
 
 *A11 the maps I have seen, including even the very accui'ato map of Colorado and 
 Utah, pvejjared by order of General Sherman, have an error in this section. They 
 have a number of small streams represented as rising in the plains west of the moun- 
 tains opposite Sevier Eiver and running through the range to the River, to do which 
 it would be necessary for the water to run up hill. They rise in the range, and, run- 
 ning noi'thwest into the plain, are lost in the sands, as all who have traveled along the 
 stage route here know, and as Fremont shows in his report. 
 
GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF THE TERRITORIES. 247 
 
 wherever water can be obtained, and the land irrigated, the soil becomes 
 very fertile. The arable areas around Toqueville, and from there up 
 the river, are very limited, but about Washington and St. George they are 
 more extensive, and the entire Santa Clara Valley, for fifteen or twenty 
 miles in length and two or three miles in width, can be cultivated. And 
 one or two canals are being cut along the Eio Virgin which will add con- 
 siderably to the cultivable area. This section, on account of its* semir 
 tropical climate, is considered by the Mormons of great importance, for 
 they look to this for their supply of cotton, raisins, oranges, and other 
 products, which cannot bo grown in the Salt Lake Valley. 
 
 In regard to the vast region east of the Wahsatch range, and south 
 of the Uintah Mountains belonging to the Eio Colorado district, I know 
 but very little. 
 
 Strawberry Creek, a tributary of Uintah River, runs through a very 
 pretty valley for twenty or twenty-five miles, which averages seven or 
 eight miles in width. The greater portion of this area can be irrigated, 
 and would produce good crops of such things as are adapted to the climate, 
 which, on account of elevation and the proximity of mountains, is cold. 
 
 The Uintah Valley is more extensive, and has in it some very good 
 land, a large portion of which may be rendered suitable for culture by 
 irrigation, for which purj)ose the supply of water is ample. 
 
 CLIMATE AJNTD PRODUCTIONS, 
 
 Within the Territory of Utah every grade of climate, from the cold 
 regions of the snowy Sierras to the semi-tropical region of the south- 
 ern plains, is to be found, but the central portion, where the greater part 
 of the cultivable land is situated, has a mild climate, which, as before 
 remarked, corresponds very nearly with that of the Middle States. As 
 we go north and northeast, ascending the mountain valleys, the climate 
 increases rapidly in severity, and the growing seasons become shorter. 
 As a general thing the annual fall of snow in the valleys is small, seldom 
 more than a few inches in depth, and it remains on the ground but few 
 hours, or days at farthest. In the vicinity of the higher mountains 
 there are occasional frosts that injure the crops. 
 
 Wheat, oats, potatoes, and fruit are the principal productions, which 
 not only grow readily and yield abundant crops, but of the very best 
 quality, the soil being naturally adapted to their culture. Something 
 over one million bushels of wheat was raised in the Territory in 1866, 
 but what the ratio of increase has been since that time I am unable to 
 say, but it has not been in proportion to the breadth of laud sown, as 
 the grasshoppers have been very destructive for the past three years. 
 Kot only have they injured the growing wheat, oats, &c., but, where the 
 ground has been replanted in something else, they have, in some in- 
 stances, cut it down for the sixth time in one season. The average 
 yield per acre, of favorable seasons, is from twenty-two to twenty-six 
 bushels, but in certain localities it will reach much higher figures. 
 
 Cache, San Pete, and Utah Counties are the principal wheat-growing 
 sections, not because they produce more' to the acre, but because more 
 acres have been cultivated in this cereal in these counties than any , 
 others. I did not have an opportunity of examining carefully the diifer- 
 ent specimens of wheat grown in the Territory, but, judging bj' the 
 bread made from it, I presume it to be superior in some respects. It is 
 probable that the flavor and lightness of the bread are partly due to the 
 alkali with which the soil of the valleys is more or less impregnated. 
 
 As is generally the case throughout the Eocky Mountain regions, oats 
 
248 GEOLOGICAL SUEVEY OP THE TERRITORIES. 
 
 grow luxuriantly, the average yield, per acre in the Territory being from 
 thirty to forty bushels. It is no uncommon occurrence for the farmer 
 here to cut an average crop of sixty bushels to the acre. Although a 
 large amount of corn is raised, and crops of forty and fifty bushels to 
 the acre produced, yet this cannot be considered a good corn-growing 
 country. And I may add that, so far as my observations have extended, 
 I have seen no really good corn section west of the rain-moistened por- 
 tion of the Mississippi Valley. That there are many places where toler- 
 ably good crops can be raised, and sufficient to supply local demands, is 
 true, but what I mean is that the corn of these Territories bears no such 
 comparison with the corn of the Mississippi Vallej^ as the wheat does. 
 
 Sorghum appears to grow finely, and, as I have heretofore stated in 
 regartl to beets, I am inclined to the belief that in this dry soil, consist- 
 ing principally of silicates, and containing alkali, the production of 
 saccharine matter will be greater than in soil haviug a large proportion 
 of A'egetable mold. And in this connection I may remark that the 
 plums grown here are the sweetest I ever tasted. The same variety 
 raised in California, although sweeter than those raised in the States 
 east, are inferior in this respect to those raised at Salt Lake City. But 
 in regard to pears the case is somewhat reversed as compared with Cali- 
 fornia, but not as compared with those of the States east of the mountains. 
 The same thing is traceable in apples but not in peaches. 
 
 Such fruits as apples, peaches, ])lums, pears, currants, gooseberries, 
 grapes, &c., can be raised in Salt Lake basin and south with ease, bnt 
 apples and peaches, especially the latter, will be the chief horticultural 
 product. The average yield of peaches to the acre, as shown by the re- 
 turns, is over three hundred bushels. Last year a gentleman in Provo 
 City gathered three hundred bushels from the trees on a lot twelve rods 
 long by six rods wide. For the past three years the fruit has been se- 
 riously injured by the grasshoppers eating off the leaves of the trees, 
 but the injury was probably less than it would have been in a section 
 depending on rain to supply the requisite moisture. 
 
 As a grape-growing region this Territory cannot compete with Cali- 
 fornia or even with Southern New Mexico, yet very fine grapes can be 
 raised, and the Eio Virgin section can produce a quality equal to any 
 part of the latter, bnt the area is limited. 
 
 The potatoes are as fine in quality as any I have ever mefVith ; they 
 also grow large, and yield heavy crops. 
 
 I noticed a number of fields of lucerne, which is used to feed the cat- 
 tle of the villages when the ijasturage in the vicinity proves insuilicient. 
 
 Very few of the valleys, except those in the mountains, furnish any 
 timber of importance, but, as a general thing, a supply can be obtained 
 from the neighboring ranges, chiefly \)me and fir. 
 
 PASTORAL LANDS AND STOCK-RAISING. 
 
 It is apparent to every one who has paid any attention to the supply 
 of beef-cattle for the principal markets of our country, that this must 
 come from the grazing fields ' of the West. Having recently traveled 
 , by different routes over the States between the Atlantic shore and Mis- 
 souri Eiver, I have been astonished to find so few beef-cattle upon the 
 meadows. No doubt the census returns will show heavy figures, yet 
 these are not made np from herds fed for beef, but mostl}'' from the cat- 
 tle and oxen in use upon the farms. The lands of the States are becom- 
 ing too valuable to afford the room required for grazing cattle at a price 
 that will compete with the plains of the West and Southwest. 
 
GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF THE TERRITORIES. 249 
 
 It is therefore a, fact conceded that the great bulk of our beef cattle 
 must be raised upon the grazing fields of the States and Territories west 
 of the Mis'sissii)pi. 
 
 As this report would be incomi^lete without some remarks upon this 
 subject, aud as experience in the Territories is requisite to an accurate 
 kiiowledjie of it, I give the followiug remarks taken principally from the 
 article of Dr. Latham of Laramie, aud published in the Omaha Herald, 
 prefacing lIiciu with some judicious renuirks from the pen of Mr. Byers 
 in the l^ocky Mountain News : 
 
 After the miuiiig interest, wliicb innst always take rank as the first productive 
 iudiistry in the nioiintain territories of the West, stock-raisiiij;' will dmil>tk^ss con- 
 tiuiie next in importance. The peculiarities of climate and soil a<lapt the grass-covered 
 country west of the ninety-eighth degree of longitude especially to the growth and 
 highest perfection of horses, cattle, and sheep. The earliest civilized expl<n'ers found 
 the plains densely populated with buffalo, elk, deer, and antelope, their numbers 
 exceeding computation. Great nations of Indians subsisted almost entirely by the 
 fruits of the chase, but with the rude weapons used were incapable of diminishing 
 their numbers. With the advent of the white man and the introduction of lire-arms, 
 and to supply the demands of commerce, these wild cattle have Iteen slaughtered by 
 the million, until their range, once six hundred miles wide from east to west, and 
 extending more tban two thousand miles north and south, over which they moved in 
 solid colnnnis, darkening the plains, has been dinunished to an irregular l)elt, a hun- 
 dred and fifty miles wide, in which only scattering herds can be found, and they seldom 
 numbering ten thousand animals. There is no reason why domestic cattle may not take 
 their jdace. The climate, soil, and vegetation, are as well adapted to the tame as to 
 the wild. The latter lived and thrived the year round all the way up to latitude fifty 
 degrees north. Twenty years' experience proves that the former do equally well upon 
 the same range, aud with the same lack of care. Time, the settlement of the country, 
 the growing wants of agriculture, the encroachment of tilled fields, will gradually nar- 
 row the range, as did semi-civilization that of the buffalo; first from the INIississiiiiDi 
 Valley westward, where that process is already seen, and then from the Rocky Moun- 
 tains toward the east ; but as yet the range is practically unlimited, and f(»r many yeara 
 to come there will be room to fatten beeves to feed the world. 
 
 This great pasture laud covers Western Texas, Indian Territory, Kansas, Nebraska, 
 and Dakota, Eastern New Mexico, Colorado, Wyoming, and Montana, and extends far 
 into British America. The southerly and southeasterly jiortious produce the largest 
 growth of grass, but it lacks the nutritious qualities ol^ that covering the higher and 
 drier lands farther north and west. Rank-growing aud bottom-land grasses contain 
 mostly water; they remain green until killed by frost, when their substance flows back 
 to the root, or is destroj^ed by the action of the elements. The dwarf grass of the 
 higher plains makes but a small growth, but makes that very quickly in the early 
 spring, and then, as the rains diminish and the summer heat increases, it dies aud cures 
 into hay whei% it stands; the seed even, in which it is very prolific, remains upon the 
 stalk, and, though very minute, is exceedingly nutritious. 
 
 In so far as the relative advantages of different portions of this wide region may bo 
 thought by many to preponderate over one another, we- do not appreciate them at all, 
 but would as soon risk a herd in the valley of the Upper Missouri, the Yellowstone, or 
 the Saskatchewan, as along the Arkansas, the Canadian, or Red River. If any differ- 
 ence, the grass is better north than south. One year the winter may be more severe 
 in the extreme north ; the next it may be equally so in the south, and the third it may 
 be most inclement midway between the two extremes; or, what is more common, the 
 severe storms and heavy snows may follow irregular streaks across the country at vari- 
 ous points. There are local causes and effects to be considered, such as pei'manently 
 affect certain localities favorably or the contrary. For instance, nearer the western 
 border of the plains there is less high wind, because the lofty mountain ranges form a 
 shelter or wind-breaker. Of local advantages, detached ranges of mountaius, hills or 
 broken land, timber, brush, aud deep ravines or stream-bods are the most important, 
 in furnisliing shelter, and, as a general thing, better and always more varied pasture 
 ground. 
 
 There is never raiu upon the middle and northern plains during the winter months. 
 When snow comes it is always dry, and never freezes to stock. The reverse is the case 
 in the Northern and Middle States, where winter storms often begin with rain, which 
 is followed by snow, and couclude with piercing wind aud exceeding cold. Stock-men 
 can readily appreciate the effect of such weather upon stock exposed to its inlluence. 
 The soil of the plains is very much the same everywhere. To a casual observer it 
 looks sterile aud uux)romisiug, but when turned by the plow or spade is found very fer- 
 tile. Near the mountains it is filled with coarse rock particles, aud under the action of 
 
250 GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF THE TERRITORIES. 
 
 the elements these become disproportionately prominent on the surface. Receding from 
 the mountains, it becomes gradually finer, until gravel and bits of broken stone are no 
 longer seen. Being made up from the wash and wearing away of the mountains, alka- 
 line earths enter largely into its composition, supplying inexhaustible quantities of 
 those properties which the eastern farmer can secure only by the application of plaster, 
 lime, and like manures. These make the rich, nutritious grasses upon which cattle 
 thrive so remarkably and to the constant wonder of new-comers, who cannot reconcile 
 tbe idea of such comparatively bare and barren-looking plains with the fat cattle that 
 roam over them. 
 
 Besides the plains there is a vast extent of pasture lands in the mountains. WTier- 
 ever there is soil enough to support vegetation grass is found in abundance, to a line 
 far above the limit oi timber growth, and almost to the crest of the snowy range. 
 These high pastures, however, are suitable only for summer and autumn range; but in 
 portions of the great parks and large valleys, most parts of which lie below eight 
 thousand feet altitude above the sea, cattle, horses, and sheep live and thrive the year 
 round. The cost of raising a steer to the age of five years, when he is at a prime age 
 for market, is believed to be about seven dollars and a half, or one dollar and a half 
 per year. A number of estimates given us by stock-men, running through several years, 
 place the average at about that figure. That contemplates a herd of four hundred or 
 more. Smaller lots of cattle will generally cost relatively mgre. The items of expense 
 are herding, branding, and salt — nothing for feed. 
 
 The following extracts from an article by Dr. H.Latham, in the Omaha 
 Daily Herald of June 5, 1870, give a description of the grazing lands in 
 the North Platte district : 
 
 The distance from the mouth of the North Platte, where it joins the South Platte on 
 the Union Pacific Railroad, to its sources in the gi"eat Sierra Madre, whose lofty sides 
 form the North Park, in which this stream takes its rise, is moie than eight hundred 
 milcNS. Its extreme southern tributaries head in the gorges of the mountains one 
 hundred miles south of the railroad, and receive their water from the melting snows 
 of these snow-capped ranges. Its extreme western tributaties rise in the Wahsatch 
 and Wind River ranges, sharing the honor of conveying the crystal snow-waters from 
 the continental divide with the Columbia and Colorado of the Pacific. Its northei-n 
 tributaries start oceanward from the Big Horn Mountains, three hundred miles north 
 of the starting point of its southern sources. 
 
 It drains a country larger than all New England and New York together. East of 
 the Alleghany ]Mountains there is no river comparable to this clear, swift mountain 
 stream in its length or in the extent of country it drains. 
 
 The valleys of the Korth Platte. — The main valley of the North Platte, two Imndred 
 miles from its mouth to where it debouches through the Black Hills out on to the 
 great plains, is an average of ten miles wide. Nearly all this area, two thousand 
 square miles, is covered with a dense growth of grass, yielding thousands of tons of 
 hay. The bluff's bordering these intervals are rounded and grass-grown, gradually 
 smoothing out into great grassy plains extending north and south as far as the eye 
 can see. • 
 
 Its tributaries. — The tributaries on the north side of the Platte are Blue Water, Cold- 
 water, Hill Creek, Raw Hide, Muddy Willow, Shawnee, Slate, and Sweetwater. On 
 the south they are Ash, Pumpkin, Larrons, Dry Horse, Cherry, Chugwater, Sybellie, 
 Big Laramie, Little Laramie, Carter, Cottonwood, Horse Shoe, Elk Horn, Rio a la Prelo, 
 Boisiee, Deer Creek, Medicine Bow, Rock Creek, Douglass, and North, South, and Mid- 
 dle Forks of the main Platte. 
 
 These streams, with' their smaller feeders, intersect in all directions a great pastural 
 land, interspersing it with rich, fertile valleys, and draining at least forty million acres, 
 aftbrding water for countless herds. Most of the banks of these streams are bordered 
 with timber. Cattle have been wintered on these. streams north of Cheyenne, along 
 the base of the Black Hills, around Fort Laramie, for twenty-five years. 
 
 Capacity for sfocTc-raisinf/. — Of this country Alexander Majors says, in a letter to the 
 writer of this article : " The favorite wintering grounds of my herders for the past 
 twenty years has been from the Cachd a la Poudre on the south to Fort Fetterman on 
 the north, embracing all the country along the eastern base of the Black Hills." It 
 was of this country that Mr. Seth E. Ward spoke when ho says : " I am satisfied that 
 no country in the same latitude, or even far south of it, is comparable to it as a graz- 
 ing and stock-raising country. Cattle and stock generally are healthy, and require no 
 fee^ling the year round, the rich 'bunch' and 'gramma' grasses of the plains and 
 mountains keeping them ordinarily fat enough for beef during the entire winter." 
 
 All this region east of the Black Hills is at an elevation less than five thousand feet. 
 
 The climate. — The climate, as reported from Fort Laramie for a period of twenty 
 
GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF THE TERRITORIES. 251 
 
 years, is 50° Fahrenheit. The mean temperature for the spring months is 47°, for the 
 summer months 72°, for autumn 0°, for winter 31°. 
 
 The annual rain-fall is about eighteen inches, distributed as follows: Spring, 8.69 
 inches; summer, 5.70 inches; autumn, 3.69 inches. The snow-fall is eighteeu inches. 
 It is of this region that Colonel C. H. Alden, post surgeon Fort D. A. Russell, speaks, 
 when he says: "The largest snow-fall so far, in one mouth, has been 3 97-1000 inches. 
 The snow in this vicinity rapidly disappears after falling, and it is very rare that there 
 is a sufficient quantity so that it remains long enough to give sleighing." 
 
 All this country of the North Platto, east of the Black Hills, is within easy distance 
 of the railroad at Cheyenne, Pine Bluffs, Sidney, and Julesburg. An abundance of 
 timber can be had in the Black Hills for fencing and building purposes for all ranch 
 .and stock men in any of these valleys. 
 
 Extent and resources of the JS^orth Platte Basin.— Thavo is in this North Platte Basin, 
 east of the Black Hills divide, at least eight million acres of pasturage, with the finest 
 and most lasting streams, and good shelter in the bluffs aud canons. As I have said 
 before, we can only judge of the extent and resources of such a single region by com- 
 parison. Ohio has six million sheep, yielding eighteeu million iiouuds of wool, bring- 
 ing her farmers an aggregate of four and one-half million dollars. This eight million 
 acves of pasture would at least feed eight million sheej>, yielding twentj--four million 
 pounds of wool, and at the same price as Ohio wool, six million dollars. Now, that 
 money, instead of going to build up ranches, stock farms, storehouses, wooden mills, 
 and all the components of a great and thrifty settlement, is sent by our wool-growers 
 and woollen manufacturers to Buenos Ayres, to Africa aud Australia, to enrich other 
 people and other lands, while our wool-growing resources remain undeveloped. 
 
 The great Laramie Plains. — As you follow the North Platte up through the Black 
 Hill Canon you come out on to the great Laramie Plains, which lie between the Black 
 HiUs on the east and the Snowy Range on the west. These plains are ninety miles 
 north and south and sixty miles east aud west. They are watered by the ]3ig and 
 Little Laramie Rivers, Deer Creek, Rock Creek, Medicine Bow River, Cooper Creek, 
 and other tributuries of the North Platte. It is on the extreme northern portion of 
 these plains, in the valley of Deer Creek, that General Reynolds wintered during the 
 winter of 1860, and of which he remarks, on i)ages seventy -four and seventy-tive of his 
 " Explorations of the Yellowstone," as follows : 
 
 General Eeynolds^s Eeport. — Throughout the whole season's march the subsistence of 
 our animals had been obtained by grazing after we had reached our camp in the after- 
 noon, and for an hour or two between the dawn of day aud our time of starting. The 
 consequence was, that when we reached our winter quarters there were but few 
 animals in the train that were in a condition to have continued the march without a 
 generous grain diet. Poorer and more broken-down creatures it would be difficult to 
 lind. In the spring they were in as fine condition for commencing another season's 
 work as could be desired. A greater change in their appearance could not have been 
 produced, even if they had been grain-fed aud stable-housed all winter. Only one was 
 .lost, the furious storm of December coming on before it had gained sufficient strength 
 to endure it. The fact that seventy exhausted animals, turned out to winter on the 
 plains the first of November, came out in the spring in the best condition aud with the 
 loss of but one of their number, is the most forcible commentary I can make on the 
 quality of the grass aud the character of the winter. 
 
 These plains have been favorite herding grounds of the buffalo away back in the pre- 
 historic age of this country. Their bones lie bleaching in all directions, and their 
 paths, deeply worn, cover the whole j)lain like a net-work. Their "wallows," where 
 these shaggy lords of animal* creation tore deep pits into the surface of the ground, are 
 still to be seen. Elk, antelope, and deer still feed here, and the mountain sheep are 
 found on the mountain sides and in the more secluded valleys of the Sierra Madre 
 range, all iiroving conclusively that this has aiforded winter j)asturage from time im- 
 memorial. Since 1849 many herds of work oxen, belonging to emigrants, freighters, 
 aud ranchmen, have grazed here each winter. It is on these plains, in the Laramie 
 Valley, that Messrs. Creighton and Hutton have their sheep, horses, and cattle, and of 
 which I^Ir. Edwai'd Creighton, president of the First National Bank of Omaha, says : 
 
 I Extract from Edward Creighton's letter.] 
 
 "The last four winters I have been raising stock, and have had large herds of cows 
 and calves in the valley of the Laramie. The present winter I have wintered about 
 eight thousand head. They have done exceedingly well. We have lost very few 
 through the whole winter, and those lost were very thin when winter commenced. We 
 had no shelter but the hlaSa and hills, and no feed but the wild uncut grass of the 
 country. 
 
 " We have had 3,000 sheep the past winter, and they are in the best of order ; many 
 are being sold daily for mutton. Like the cattle, they require no food or shelter. 
 
252 
 
 GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF THE TEREITORIES. 
 
 " The higli, rolling character of the country, and the dry climate, and short, sweet 
 grass of the numerous hillsides, are extremely favorable to sheep-raising and wool- 
 growiug." 
 
 There are many other stock-raisers on the plains besides Creighton and Hutton, 
 and there is room for hundreds more. On this plain the settler is near the great forests 
 of pine in the mountains, and in the coal fields of the Rocky Mountains, with several 
 kinds of irou ore, building stone, limestone, and fire-clay. The valleys of Rock Creek, 
 Medicine Bow, and the two Laramies afi'ord large quantities of hay. On these plains 
 alone there is, apparently, no limit to the grazing. The railroad bisects these pasture 
 lauds about evenly east and west, giving good facilities for transportation. 
 
 North Fark. — South of the Laramie Plains is the North Park, one of three great parks 
 of the Rocky Mountains, so fully described by Richardson, Bross, and Bowles. This 
 North Park is formed by the great Snowy Range. It is a valley from six to eight thou- 
 sand feet high, ninety miles long, and forty miles wide, surrounded by snowy mount- 
 ains from thuieen to fifteen thousand feet high. These mountain tops and sides are 
 completely covered with dense growths of forests ; the lower hillsides and this great 
 valley are covered with grasses. The forests and mountains afford ample shelter from 
 sweeping winds. Here as well as on the Laramie Plains the buffalo grazed in great 
 herds, aiid here the Ute hunters, from some hiding canon, dashed down among them 
 on their trained and fleet jtonies, shooting their arrows with unerring aim on all sides, 
 and having such glorious sport as kings might court and envy. The Indians are now 
 goue from this valley, and the buftalo nearly so. On the two million acres in this val- 
 ley not twenty head of cattle graze. 
 
 This great park, splendidly watered by the three forks of the Platte, and by a hun- 
 dred small streams that drain these lofty mountains of their snows and rains — rich in 
 all kinds of nutritious grasses; plentifully sujiplied with timber ; on the tertiary coal 
 fields, with iron, copper, lead, and gold — has not one real settler. There are a few 
 miners, but where there should be flocks and herds of sheep and cattle without num- 
 ber, there is only the wild game — the elk, antelope, and deer. 
 
 Demonstrated facts. — The season of 1870 has been a memorable one in the stock busi- 
 ness on the Plains. It commenced in doubt, but closes with unlimited confidence in 
 the complete practicability and profits of stock-growing and winter grazing. 
 
 Increase of cattle in the West. — The number of cattle in the country west of the Missouri 
 River and cast of the Snowy Range is now double, if not four times larger than in 1869. 
 Its j)resont magnitude and future prospects entitle it to a full share of public attention. 
 
 SMpments of hcef to casto'n marlcets. — Two years ago our beef and cattle were brought 
 from the East. To-day, cattle buyers from Chicago and New York are stopping at 
 every station on our railroads, and buying cattle in all our valleys for eastern con- 
 sumption. It is safe to predict that 15,0(J0 head of beeves will bo shipped from our 
 valleys east Ihe present season. During the past week I have visited some of the great 
 herds on the Plains, and Avill give your readers an account of them. 
 
 Tlie great herds. — The herds of Edward Creighton, Charles Hutton, and Thomas Alsop^ 
 are grazed on the Big Laramie, which is a tributary of the North Platte. The Laramie 
 Valley is between the Black Hills and the Medicine Bow Range. It is about one hun- 
 dred miles long and thirty miles wide. It is about midway in this valley, and six miles 
 from the railroad station at Laramie, that these gentlemen have located their stock 
 ranches. They have extensive houses, stables, and corrals. As we leave the station 
 on a beautiful August morning, (which is characterized by the clearest of blue skies 
 and golden sunlight,) you see Mount Agassiz directly in ftout of you, while Mount Dix 
 and Mount Dodge, with snow-covered tops, are respectively on the right and left. 
 
 We follow up the Laramie on a smooth road, which is like rolling the wheels over a 
 floor. We follow the windings of the stream, which is clear as crystal, and pure as the 
 snow from which its waters have just come. We first come to a heard of 4,000 half and 
 three-quarter-breed cows; that is, there are none more than one-half Texan, and many 
 only one-fourth. They are known among cattle dealers as short-horned Texas cattle. 
 There are 3,600 calves in this herd that are from three-eighths to one-half Durham. 
 These cows have been here on the Plains one winter and two summers. All the dry 
 cows are exceedingly fat, and many of the cows, with calves by their sides, are good 
 beef. In this herd are many two-year-olds and yearlings, all fat for the butcher, so far 
 as their condition is concerned. In all this herd there are as many as 9,000 head of 
 cattle — 4,000 cows, 3,600 calves, 1,000 two-year-olds, and 500 yearlings. 
 
 Tlielr hahits. — They range over a country fifteen by twenty miles. The cows and 
 calves run together the year around, and in fact are never separated, but run in families 
 of four, generally, cow, calf, yearling, and two-year-old. They are to be found on the 
 river bottoms in the middle of the day, where they had come about 11 o'clock for water. 
 They return about 4 o'clock in the afternoon to the high grounds, where the rich bunch 
 and nutritious gramma grasses are abundant, and feed till night and lie down on the 
 
GEOLOGICAL SUEVEY OF THE TEREITOEIES. 253 
 
 warm sandy soil till next morning, -when they feed till the heat of the day. It is inter- 
 esting to see the habits of these cattle when unrestrained by herders. Tliey travel back 
 and forth to the water and grazing gronnd in families and little herds, in single file, 
 like their predecessors of the soil, the biilFalo, forming doej) paths or trails like them. 
 After having spent three or fonr hours looking at this herd wc pass np the river to the 
 beef herd, whicli consists of 3,500 fat Texas cattle, in the very higliest order at which 
 grass-fed cattle arrive in this world. These cattle have been hero one or two seasons, 
 and will weigh npon an average, live weight, 1,300 pounds. They could all be sold 
 to-day for eastern markets at good figures. They have yet three months of good weather 
 to fatten this season, when, with 5,000 more, bought by these enterprisiug men and 
 on the way here, they will be sold east or slaughtered and sent east in the quarter. 
 
 There is, still higher up the stream and nearer the mountains, a stock herd of year- 
 lings and two-year-olds, that occupy our time for an hour or two. 
 
 Blooded sfoclc cattle. — Then wo cross over to Sand Creek, a small branch of the Lara- 
 mie, and see the herd of American cattle, which, including Hutton's and Alsop's, num- 
 bers 400, mostly cows. They are as fine stock as can be found anywhere. Amoug this 
 herd are several fine-graded Durham bulls and two thoroughbreds that were bought iu 
 Ohio at high iirices. These parties are owners of 300 blooded bulls, from which the 
 finest calves are being raised by the cross between them and the graded Texan cow. 
 It is interesting for the stock man to see these calves, wl)icli show the Durham so clearly 
 in every instance — another proof of the general law that the stronger and better blooded 
 of the two races will give form and impress to the progeny. This fact is remarkably 
 illustrated in these herds. The second and third crosses, leaving no trace of the Texan 
 blood. 
 
 Here on this rancli are 300 brood mares, and some young stock, yearling and two- 
 year-old colts which have been raised here, and have never been fed nor sheltered. 
 They are as large and fine colts as are raised anywhere. These brood mares and colts 
 are horded, but never stabled nor fed winters. 
 
 Sheep. — We next proceed to these flocks of sheep, which in all number more than 
 10,000 head, besides the lambs — of these there are 3,000 — making iu all 13,000. Some 
 of these are from New Mexico, but the great majority are from Iowa, and are fine 
 Merino sheep. They will average fully five pounds of wool per head. Ample shelters 
 have been provided them in case of storm. Much the larger number of these flocks arc 
 ewes. The owners expect to raise 6,000 lambs, and to shear 65,000 pounds of wool next 
 year. 
 
 These parties have about five miles of fence, inclosing hay grounds, pastures for 
 riding stock, and other purposes. They have, iu all, more than $300,000 invested here, 
 which is a sufficient commentai-y upon their enterprise, foresight, and courage. They 
 are the great stock princes of the mountains. Of all living men they have done most 
 to solve this question of winter grazing. « 
 
 We next proceed to the Little Laramie, where Messrs. Mantle & Bath have 400 head 
 of American and half-breed stock; they are at the old stage-road crossing, and have 
 some fine blooded stock. Above them, behind Sheep Mountain, directly under the 
 wbite top of Mount Dodge, named after General Dodge, on the head of the Little Lara- 
 mie, is a valley twenty miles long and ten miles wide, divided about equally by the 
 north, middle, and south forks of that stream. These are rapid running streams that 
 never freeze iu winter. They have groves of timber on their banks and bottom lands, 
 furnishing shade in summer and shelter in winter. This valley is a pocket in the 
 mountains, having only one point of ingress and no egress but by the same way. Here 
 are 2,900 cattle owned by Lambard & Gray, of New York, Captain Coates, of the Arm j-, 
 and the subscriber. Three men are able to herd them, from the nature of the vallej", 
 and it is certainly a cattle paradise. Of this herd, 1,200 are cows, 700 two-year-olds, 
 300 yearlings, and 700 calves. This stock is short-horned Texan, and a good lot of 
 stock cattle. 
 
 riiff's licrds on Croio CreeTc. — After leaving this herd, we take a three-hours' run on the 
 railroad, which takes us across the Black Hills to Cheyenne, which is the headquarters 
 of J. W. Ilift". His cattle range is down Crow Creek to the Platte, twenty to thirty 
 miles. On this grazing ground he has 6,700 cattle, classed as follows : 3,500 beeves, 
 2,000 cows, and 1,200 calves. The stock cattle are half-breeds, except yearlings and 
 calves, which he has raised, and which show the Durham cross. The beeves are 
 heavy, fat caftle, ranging in live weight from 1,200 to 1,400 pounds. This whole range 
 down Crow Creek, from Cheyenne to the Platte, affords the best of grasses, and the 
 creek blufts shelter the stock completely from storms. Mr. Ilifif has been the owner of 
 great herds of cattle in the last twelve years, and is firm in the faith that this is the 
 place to raise beef for eastern markets. His cattle have sold in Chicago market from 
 five to six cents per pound, live weight, this season. The whole 3,500 head of beeves 
 will be shipped east this fall. Mr. Ilift' is another of those wh.o have demonstrated to 
 .the world that wo have winter grazing, and in so doing he has made a fortune. Long 
 may such men live to enjoy their fortunes ! 
 
254 GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF THE TERRITORIES. 
 
 On the otlier side of the Platte, on ths Bijou, are the herds of the Patterson Brothers, 
 Reynolds, and John Hitson. These herds number 8,000 head of cattle, 6,000 of them 
 being beef-cattle. The Patterson Brothers are great cattle-raisers and dealers. They 
 own ranches on the Ai'kansas River, at Bent's Old Fort, and on the Pecos River, below 
 Fort Sumner, in New Mexico. They have handled hundreds of thousands of dollars' 
 woi-tli of cattle in the last five years. 
 
 John Hitson is another of the great cattle-raisers and dealers in New Mexico. His 
 herds are numbered by the thousands. His operations are transferred to Colorado now, 
 and so are those of the Patterson Brothers. On Box Elder Creek, which is a branch of 
 the Cach6 la Poudre, is the ranch and stock range of Mr. Whitcombe, an old settler of 
 Colorado. He has 2,000 stock cattle and some fine blooded bulls. This range and 
 shelter are perfect. 
 
 Reed & Wyatt, on the Platte, nearer Denver, have 1,000 head of stock and be«f 
 cattle. They are about adding largely to their number. 
 
 Farwell Brothers, Greeley, have 200 head of fine American cattle. 
 
 Baily, on the south side of the Platte from Greeley, has 400 head of Durham and 
 Devon stock, and 2,000 sheep. 
 
 Geary, on the Platte, has 300 head of American cattle. 
 
 The Lemons, at Greeley, have 400 head of American stock. In this neighborhood 
 Ashcraft has 400 head of American cattle ; Munson has 800 head of cattle and 3,000 
 sheep. Up the Cach6 la Poudre are twenty large stock-raisers. 
 
 On the Big and Little Thompsons there are some five herds of blooded stock. 
 
 After you leave Evans and go south toward Denver, the whole country seems one 
 pasture covered with stock. I traveled over this same ground in 18G9, and I am sure 
 there are fully three times as many cattle here now as then. There are hundreds of 
 farmers on the Lone Tree Creek, Cach6 la Poudre, Big and Little Thompson's Creeks, 
 St. Vrain's, and the many other streams which flow from the mountains to the Platte, 
 who have from one hundred to one thousand head of cattle, a description of whuse.herds 
 and grazing grounds would take too much space in an article of this kind. 
 
 Shipments of cattle West. — Colorado has sold an immense number of cattle this season 
 to Montana, Idaho, Nevada, and Utah. It is safe to say that Montana Avill receive 
 twenty thousand head of cattle during the season of 1870, four-fifths of which are from 
 Colorado. Many have gone to Utah, Nevada, and Idaho fi-om the same source, and yet, 
 ten years ago, the commercial and stock-growing jjeople of the East did not know that 
 Colorado contained a thousand acres of grass land. To-day they have no idea of the 
 magnitude of her grazing resources. 
 
 Leaving Colorado we find some herds along the base of the Black Hills. 
 
 JSforth of Cheyenne.— R. KeUy, on the "Chug," has 500 stock cattle. He sold 100 head 
 of American beeves at l$70 per head. 
 
 MesifS. Ward & Bullock, at Fort Laramie, have 200 head of American cattle. 
 
 Adolph Cuny, so long a resident on the North Platte, has a herd of 1,000 stock cattle 
 between Forts Laramie and Fetterman. 
 
 Between Cheyenne and Sidney, on the line of the railroad, there are several small 
 herds. At Sidney are the Moore Brothers, who have 12,000 sheep and lambs, and 1,400 
 cattle ; 400 of the latter are American and very fine. The sheep sheared an average of 
 five pounds of wool per head last spring. They are graded merinos, and are in fine 
 condition. There is no disease among them. The Moore Brothers were ranchmen on 
 the South Platte prior to the day of railroads, and are about returning to that stream 
 for grazing. Their place is the valley station of olden fame on the stage road. Above 
 them, on the Platte, at the old "Junction," Mr. Mark Boughton has 2,500 stock cattle. 
 He has as fine a cattle range as there is in the world, not excluding the Pampas of 
 South America nor table lands of Australia. 
 
 Farther down the Platte, at O'Fallon's Bluffs, on the north side of the South Platte, 
 Creighton & Parks have 3,500 stock cattle, 400 of which are Durhams. They range 
 twenty miles up and down the Platte. Near them, below, is the herd of Mr. Keith, of 
 North Platte Station, who has about 1,000 head. 
 
 Mr. M. H. Brown has 500 head of stock cattle and'beeves near the same place. 
 
 Across the Platte, in the neighborhood of McPherson, the Bent Brothers have 1,000 
 head of stock cattle, and will add another 1,000 the present season. 
 
 Messrs. Carter & Coe have a large herd near there, which numbers near a thousand. 
 
 Mr. Benjamin Gallagher has 1,200 head at the old Gilman ranche, twelve miles from 
 McPherson. 
 
 Progress this season. — Moi-e real progress has been made in stock matters west of the 
 Missouri this season than in all time before. We have not only added to the numbers of 
 our herds and flocks, but we have given confidence to all our stock-growers and to 
 eastern people in the permanency and profit of grazing in the Trans-Missouri country. 
 
 We are now in easy reach of eastern markets. The railways are landing the heaviest 
 cattle in Chicago from the Rocky Mountains at $9 and $10 per head ; we can sell thou- 
 
GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF THE TERRITORIES. 255 
 
 eauds and tens of thousands annually to tlio Pacific sloiie, and tliere is still an all-absorb- 
 ing home demand to stock our thousands of valleys. 
 
 The future. — As every couutry in the "West receives a new o migrant, and his plow 
 turns the grass under, that com and wheat may grow in its stead, the range of tho 
 stock-grower is that much contracted and the area of grazing lessened. By reason of 
 the high value of lands for grain-growing purposes the people of the country east of 
 the ilississippi River are already coming to us for beef and mutton. Chicago and New 
 York people arc eujoying the juicy steaks from cattle fattened on our nutritious grasses 
 that grow in our valleys and on our mountain sides, close up to tho perpetual snows of 
 the Rocky Mountains. 
 
 As immigration takes up moi'e and more of the pastures east of us for grain, drovers 
 will be obliged more aud more to come to us for beef. Texas, the great hive of cattle, 
 has received three hundred thousand settlers this season. Tho grazing area of that 
 State has been lessened at least a million acres thereby. Everywhere events point to 
 this Trans-jMissouri country as the future dependence of the east for wool, beef, mutton, 
 aud horses. 
 
 H. LATHAJI, 
 Surgeon Union Pacific Kailroad. 
 
 TEXAS CATTLE. 
 
 The following article from Dr. Latliara ou tlie cattle of Texas is very 
 iuterestiug, aud may be appropriately inserted here : 
 
 Texas is truly the cattle hive of North America. While New York, with her 4,000,000 
 inhabitants, aud her settlements two and a half centuries old, has 748,000 oxen and 
 stock cattle ; while Pennsylvania, with more than 3,000,000 people, has 721,000 cattle ; 
 while Ohio, with 3,000,000 people, has 749,000 cattle ; while Illinois, with 2,800,000 
 people, has 867,000 cattle; and while Iowa, with 1,200,000 people, has ()86,000 cattle, 
 Texas, and forty years of age, and with her 500,000 people, had 2,000,000 head of oxen 
 aud other cattle, exclusive of cows, in 18G7, as showu by the returns of the county as- 
 sessors. In 1870, allowing for the difference between the actual number of cattle owned 
 and the number returned for taxation, there must be fully 3,000,000 head of beeves and 
 stock cattle. This is exclusive of cows, which, at the same time, are reported at 600,000 
 head. In 1870, they must number 800,000, making a grand total of 3,800,000 head of 
 cattle in Texas. One-fourth of these are beeves, one-fourth are cows, aud the other 
 two-fourths are yearlings aud two-year-olds. There would, therefore, bo 950,000 beeves, 
 950,000 cows, and 1,900,000 young cattle. 
 
 There are annually raised and branded 750,000 calves. 
 
 These cattle are raised on the great iilains of Texas, which contains 152,000,0D0 acres. 
 
 Where they live. — In the vast regions watered by the Rio Grande, Nueces, Gaudalupc, 
 San Antonio, Colorado, Leon, Brazos, Trinity, Sabine, and Red Rivers, these millions 
 of cattle graze upon almost tropical growths of vegetation. They are owned by the 
 ranchmen, who own from 1,000 to 75,000 head each. 
 
 Great ranches. — I will describe one or two of these great ranches, which will repre- 
 sent to your readers the large ranches of this cattle hive. On the Santa Catrutos River 
 is the ranch of Colonel Richard Kiug, known as the " Santa Catrutos Ranch." This 
 ranch consists of nineteen Spanish triggeus of laud, or 84,132 acres. It is watered 
 lilentifully by the Santa Catrutos River and its tributaries. On this ranch are the 
 immense number of 65,000 cattle, 10,000 horses, 7,000 sheep, aud 8,000 goats. One 
 thousand saddle-horses and 300 Mexicans axe constantly employed in heiding, gather- 
 ing, and driving this stock. 
 
 Colonel King brands annually 12,000 calves ancl sells 10,000 beef cattle yearly, and 
 invests the proceeds in stock cattle, thereby adding to his vast herds, in addition to 
 their natural increase. 
 
 O'Connor's ranch, twenty miles below Goliad, on the San Antonio River, is another 
 princely estate. He had 40,000 cattle in 1862, aud branded 11,772 calves, aud was sell- 
 ing from $75,000 to $80,000 worth of beef-cattle annually. The foundations for this 
 wealth were laid in 1852, wheu he commenced grazing with 1,500 cattle. 
 
 The Robideaux ranch, on the Gulf, between the mouths of the Rio Grande and the 
 Nueces, owned by Mr. Kennedy, contains 142,840 acres. It is a fertile peninsula jut- 
 ting out into tho Gulf, aud is fenced ou three sideS by the waters of the Gulf. The other 
 side is fenced by thirty miles of plank fence ; every three miles of this fence has a 
 little ranch for Mexican herders. In this inclosure are 30,000 beef cattle aloue, besides 
 the other stock. These three are types of the men in the older cattle-growing region 
 near the Gulf. 
 
 The frontier counties are all rich in stock. Jack Young, Throgmorton, Stevens, Cal- 
 lahan, Coleman, Brown, Torrent, Elrath, Comanche, Palo Pinto, Hitt, and Johnson are 
 
256 GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF THE TERRITORIES. 
 
 all great stock counties. These counties comprise the country drained by the thousands 
 of streams that form the Rio Grande, Nueces, Gaudalupe, San Antonio, Colorado, Leon, 
 Brazos, Trinity, Sabine, and Red Rivers, and is one of the best-watered regions in 
 America. The bluffs and table lands bordering and between these streams are covered 
 with " bunch," " buffalo," and mesquit grasses. 
 
 The cattle princes of these counties are John Hittson, who has 50,000 cattle ; William 
 Hittson, who has 8,000 head; George Beavers, 6,000; Charles Rivers, 10,000; James 
 Brown, 15,000; C. J. Johnson, 8,000; S. E. Jackson, 4,000; Robert Sloan, 12,000, ^half 
 Durham stock) ; Anderson Brothers, 6,000 ; Coggins & Parks, 20,000 ; Samuel Vaughn, • 
 6,000 ; Martin Childors, 10.000 ; Cunningham, 8,000 ; Mauskow, 8,000 ; Lacy & Colmau, 
 12,000 ; John Chisholm, 30,000. ' 
 
 Jack HiUson.— John Hittson's ranch is in Palo Pinto County, on the Brazos River, 
 where he has r)0,000 cattle ; he has 300 saddle-horses and 50 herders. He drives about 
 10,000 head of cattle north annually. Eighteen years ago he was working from day- 
 light till dark in Rust County, Tennessee, a timbered section, felling trees, cutting, 
 rolling, and burning logs, and clearing the laud to raise a little corn and wheat. From 
 experience in the forests of Tenuessee, he knew that it would take the three score and 
 ten years of a natural life to clear away the trees and wear out the stumps, and not 
 fancying the doom of hard labor for life he sold his land, and with 60 Texan cows and 
 9 brood mares turned his face toward the setting sun and the grass regions of the 
 Brazos. Less than a score of years have passed and he has 50,000 head of cattle and 
 as many acres of land. Hittson is about forty years old, six feet in height, and broad- 
 shouldered. Has au honest, sunburnt face, with a square, firm-set under jaw, which, 
 as I looked at it, I thought was shut a little firmer, giving him a more determined look 
 than it would otherwise, but for a dozen or two encounters with the fierce and insatia- 
 ble Comanches, who knew Hittson and his old, long, muzzle-loading rifle well, and now 
 know him with his "Winchester." I have often wondered what they thought when they 
 pounced on him with his new " Winchester," and received ten shots in a mintite instead 
 of one in five minutes. They must have thought the old rifle bewitched. At any rate, 
 they will give him a wide berth, unless they can creep uiion him as the hunter does 
 upon the buffalo bull he does not dare to face. Mr. Hittson is establishing a ranch on 
 the South Platte, near old Fort Morgan, for use as his general northern headquarters. 
 He will winter 5,000 cattle there this year, and briug 10,000 head there for sale next 
 season. 
 
 John Chisholm, on the Concho River, is another of the cattle-raisers and drivers of 
 Northwestern Texas, who carries on the business on a princely scale, and whose experi- 
 ence is much like that of Hittson. 
 
 Of the thousands of owners of the 3,800,000 head of cattle in Texas, not one hundred 
 commenced with large means. They have built themselves up fi'om small beginnings, 
 like Hittson and Chisholm. 
 
 Markets. — The surplus stock is disposed of by packing, by shipping by steamer to the 
 Gulf States, by driving duo north to Abilene, Kansas, and Schuyler, Nebraska, and by 
 the northwestern route to the Pecos River, where the droves divide, some going to 
 Arizona and California by the southern route, the greater number, however, keeping a 
 northern course uj) the Pecos River to the Arkansas River, crossing at and above Bent's 
 Old Fort, and thence along the eastern base of the mountains, through Colorado and 
 across the Black Hills to the Union Pacific Railroad, and on to the great valleys and 
 markets of Wyoming, Utah, Montana, Idaho, Nevada, and the Pacific States. 
 
 Drovers of the northwestern trade. — The parties engaged in this trade are : John Hittson, 
 who has driven 7,000 cattle this season ; John Chisholm, 6,000 ; Frank Turkersly, 1,500 ; 
 McKidrick, 1,500; Stephen Jones, 2,000; W. A. & W. P. Black, 1,500; James Hart, 
 1,100; Wilson, 800; J. B. Henderson, 1,600; William Forsythe, 1,500; C. C. Campbell, 
 3,000 ; Henry Martin, 1,000 ; Robert Wyte, 1,500 ; Samuel Goldston, 1,500 ; John Ander- 
 son, 1,500 ; James Patterson, 8,000 ;. George F. Reynolds, 5,500 ; Charles Goodnight, 
 5,000, and Martin Caven, 1,200. It is estimated by Texas diovers, who have had fine 
 opportunities to judge, that 100,000 cattle have been driven from Texas on this route 
 during the season of 1870. Of this number Montana has taken 30,000, Wyoming 8,000, 
 Utah 8,000, Idaho 11,000, Nevada 7,000, and California 10,000; the other 36,000 have 
 been sold in New Mexico and Colorado — principally in Colorado. 
 
 The beeves are selected out before the herds leave the Black Hills west. If f:^t, they 
 are at once shipped for Chicago and New York; if thin, they are left in the valleys of 
 Colorado, Wyoming, and Nebraska to fatten. 
 
 The amount of money handled by 'bankers along the base of the mountains from 
 Cheyenne to Trinidad is enormous. I have no data from which to calculate the amount, 
 but it cannot be less than .$1,250,000. Every settler who comes into any of these moun- 
 tain Territories, every mine that is opened, every Indian who goes onto reserves and is 
 fed, every soldier who is brought into the country, creates an additional demand for 
 stock cattle and beef. As astounding as the figures may seem, the supply has not been 
 nearly adequate to meet the demand. 
 
GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF THE TEKRITOEIES. 257 
 
 Great preparations are being made in Northwestern Texas to gatlior together herds 
 "v\hieh iu numbers have not been heard of before. 
 
 Abilene and ScluajJer. — Abilene has been the great market this year. At that place 
 the receipts of cattle have reached the enormous figures of 200,000 head. The ship- 
 ments for the month of September amounted to 60,000 head, or 3,333 car loads, or 111 
 car loads per day, for the great corn-fields of Iowa, ^Missouri, and Illinois. It is antici- 
 pated that the shipments will reach 75,000 iu October. 
 
 This great cattle trade at Abilene, which has assumed such gigantic proportions, was 
 initiated iu 18G7, and has therefore counted only four seasons. In 18(57, 75.000 head of 
 stock were received; iu 18G8, 125,000; in 1861), 150,000 ; iu 1870, '200,000. In 1869, ono 
 bank alone in Kansas City handled $3,000,000 cattle money. The cattle driven audsold 
 here aie from the eastern part of the State, from the Eio Grande to the Eed Rivers. 
 
 At Schuyler, this year, which was an experiment only, 27,000 cattle were sold. The 
 First National Bank of Omaha handled 8500,000 in consequence of this cattle business. 
 I am informed l)y those Avho know that 40,000 more cattle could have been sold if thej' 
 had been at Schuyler. Next year it is hoped the supply will reach 100,000, as the de- 
 maud for Nebraska, Iowa, Southwestern Minnesota, and Dakota will certainly require 
 that number. 
 
 Packing is one of the great means of disposing of the cattle of Texas. Allen & Poole, 
 of Galveston, are packing immeuse numbers of cattle at Galveston, Indianola, aud at 
 Shreveport and other places. I am informed that they own more cattle than any other 
 firm iu the State. This salted beef finds market in our great eastern cities, with our 
 navy and merchant nuirine, aud in every beef-buying market of Earoi)e. 
 
 Refrigerator cars are looked forward anxiously to, to take the place of live shipments 
 as cheaper, healthier, and T\ith no loss by long travel without food. If such shipments 
 prove successful, every market east of the Missouri River and west of the Sierra 
 Nevadas will receive beef from Texas. 
 
 Such is the colossal cattle-raising, driving, and shipping in aud from Texas, built iTp 
 where there were no markets and no railroads to stinuilate it. What may we expect 
 it to be now that there is a demand for it in every valley and on every pi'airio west of 
 the Alleghany Mountains, and iu every beef-buying market iu the Atlantic States ? 
 
 GENERAL REMARKS. 
 THE PLAINS. 
 
 At pre.?ent one of the most importaut and interesting' of the many 
 questions relating to the great West is, How can the Plains be made 
 nsefnl to man f And this, so far as it relates to agriculture, involves 
 two other inquiries, as follows : How much of it can be irrigated to 
 that extent required for the production of useful crops"? Aud how 
 much of the remainder can be protitablj' used as pastoral lands? The 
 answers to these questions are of no small importance in the political 
 economy of the nation, but, on the contrary, deserve and should receive 
 the attention of our statesmen. That which adds to the material 
 wealth and productive energies of a nation is of far more importance 
 than that which simply represents value, although the latter often 
 receives more attention than the former. 
 
 Take, for instance, the broad belt of country situated between the 
 99th and ]04tli meridians, and reaching from the Big Horn 3Ioantains 
 on the north to the Llano Estacado on the south, containing about one 
 hundred and fifty thousand square miles. Must tliis vast area remain 
 forever unproductive and useless, without a vigorous eftbrt being made 
 to redeem it and make it valuable ? If but one-fifth of it could be 
 brought under culture and made productive, this alone, when fully im- 
 proved, would add $400,000,000 to the aggregate value of the lands 
 of the nation. And taking the lowest .estimate of the cash value of 
 the crops of 1869 per acre,* it would give an addition of more than 
 $200,000,000 per annum to the aggregate value of our products. 
 
 But returning to the inquiries before us, I may state with all confi- 
 dence, in answer to the latter, that the extent of'^ the pastoral lands is 
 fully equal to all the demands, for grazing purposes, of the population 
 
 'Agricultural Report, 1869. 
 17 G 
 
258 GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF THE TERRITORIES. 
 
 tliat will ever occupy tliis region. The lirst inquiry cannot be correctly 
 ansvvcred until we have received more data than at present in our pos- 
 session. Yet the answer is not impossible, for it may be given with suffi- 
 cient approximation for practical purposes. Let the following statistics 
 be procured, and then the solution can easily be obtained by simple cal- 
 culation. 
 
 First, the extent of the laud sufficiently level for cultivation and irri- 
 gation upon which water can be brought from the streams of this sec- 
 tion ; second, the rate of the descent of these streams and of the plains 
 across which they flow ; third, the amount of the rain-fall during that 
 portion of the year when it is needed to supply the growing crops with 
 moisture ; fourth, the A^olume of water that flows down from the mount- 
 ains and enters upon the plains during the same season. 
 
 Sufficient statistics in the first, second, and third classes have already 
 been obtained to indicate the result ; but, before presenting these I may 
 state, in order to limit our investigation as much as possible, that we 
 may confine them to that part of the Plains lying west of the 99th me- 
 ridian, as east of this the precipitation of rain is generally sufficient to 
 supply the demands of agriculture, and it is more than probable that 
 any deficiency that may exist there will be compensated by the increase 
 that will probably occur when the water is more equally distributed over 
 the western part of the Plains. 
 
 1. As to the extent of the level laud. The answer may be given, in 
 general terms, that this is equal to the utmost capacity of the streams 
 tbat traverse this section; nor is it worth while to give particulars to 
 prove this assertion, as a simple glance of the eye of the traveler, as he 
 passes across this broad expanse, will satisfy him of its truth. One 
 single view from a slightly-elevated i)oint often embraces a territory 
 equal to one of the smaller States, taking in at one sweep millions of 
 acres. Eastern Colorado and Eastern Wyoming each contains as much 
 land sufficiently level for cultivation as the entire cultivated area of 
 Egypt. 
 
 2. Is the rate of descent of the streams sufficient to carry the water 
 upon these lands '? In my description of the various sections I have 
 already answered this inquiry in part ; but as these statements have 
 principally applied to the country near the mountains, I will present 
 some statistics which are sufficient to give a general answer on this 
 point. The fall of the Arkansas from Caiion City to the mouth 
 of Pawnee Fork ^ which is about the 99th meridian) varies from 
 fifteen to eleven feet to the mile. This is sufficient, with a canal one 
 hundred miles in length, to send its waters over a plain one thousand 
 feet high. The average fall of the Canadian is about the same. From 
 Denver Junction to Fort Hays, near the assumed meridian, the descent 
 is nine feet to the mile ; sufficient, with a canal one hundred miles long, 
 to pour the waters of the South Platte on a plain six hundred feet high. 
 The fall of the South Platte between Denver and its junction with the 
 ]^orth Platte is about ten feet to the mile, and that of the North Platte 
 from Fort Fetterman to the same junction is a little over seven feet to 
 the mile. These figures give a favorable answer to the second inquiry, 
 showing that the descent of the streams and plains is sufficient to allow 
 even the higher table lands to be irrigated, leaving only the question of 
 a supply of water. I have not brought into this investigation the in- 
 quiry in regard to the productiveness of the soil, for I take it for granted 
 that wherever it can be irrigated it is productive. 
 
GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF TFIE TERRITORIES. 2' 9 
 
 TVarer is tlie tliinc: demaiKlotl, tlio only element needed except, tlie 
 ai)i)lication of bunum enerjjy, to render this broad area prodnctive; 
 Jsature lias supplied all the other elements, ready for use. But lio^r 
 mueli water is necessary ? From tlie best records at hand we learn that 
 the region around Washington City receives twenty-one inches rain-lall 
 during the spring and summer months ; that arouud I^ew York, 23; the 
 vicinity of Cincinnati, 25; Missouri, 20; Michigan, 18; and the region 
 around Leavenworth, 20. But George P. Marsh,* following tlie state- 
 inentof Boussingault, tells us that seventeen and one-third inches suKice 
 for the sandy soil and dry climate of Egypt, counting one hundred and 
 fifty days as the length of the irrigating season. As there is no rain 
 there, this entire amount must be furnished by irrigation. 
 
 As showu by experience in Jumna, in India, a discharge of one cubic 
 foot of water per second is sufficient to irrigate two hundred and eighteen 
 acres — one hundred and fifty days here, also, being assumed as the irri- 
 gating season.t This is equivalent to about sixteen and oue-third inches, 
 to which must be added one-fifth, (the rain supplying one-sixth of the 
 whole amount,) which gives a total of about nineteen and one-half 
 inches. This varies but little from the estimate giveu by Marsh, and 
 falls between the amounts as giveu for Michigan and Leavenworth. 
 Assuming the annount given by Marsh to be a sufticient supply for the 
 growing season ou the Plains, we arrive at the third inquiry. 
 
 3. What portion of this is furnished by the rain-tall during this part 
 of the year? We have but little data upon this point, yet sufficient is 
 known to enable us to make an approximate estimate. The meteor- 
 ological records kept at Fort Laramie, Santa Fe, and Fort Lyon (as giveu 
 by Blodget, Foster, and Elliot) show the average rain-fall for the spring 
 and summer, taken together, as follows : 
 
 Fort Laramie, 14.39 inches ; Santa Fe, 11.73 ; Fort Lyon, (5.36. An 
 average of these three places is 10.82 inches, which, deducted from 
 17.34, the amount of water necessary, leaves 6.52 inches to be supplied 
 by migation. But I think this estimate of the rain-fall on the Plains is 
 too large, and that a further examination of the more recent observa- 
 tions and records will reduce it. I judge that seven inches, or, to make 
 the remainder a round number, 7.34 inches, will be much nearer the 
 correct figure. Nor do I arbitrarily assume this average, but from 
 incomplete data, not necessary to be repeated here. If too small, the 
 calculations based upon it are certainly safe ; if too large, the error will 
 be much less than it would be if we assume the larger amount, and it 
 must be very near the lowest possible average, which, for the dryest 
 sections, is seldom placed less than five inches. Tliis, then, will leave 
 10.34, or, in round numbers, ten inches to be supplied by irrigation. 
 
 4. Now, an answer to the fourth question — what is the volume of 
 water brought down by the streams during the spring and summer ? — 
 would enable us to tell at once the area that can be rendered tillable by 
 the aid of irrigation. But, unfortunately, at this point we are without 
 reliable statistics. Few or no streams have been accurately measured 
 with this object in view, and but few have even been roughly estimated. 
 While in Italy and India this has been a matter of careful study; the 
 necessity for irrigating any of our lands having been -but recently felt, 
 it has not been attended to. But the rapid influx of population into 
 the gTcat plains and mountain regions of the West is causing the im- 
 portance of attention not only to this, but to all that bears upon irri- 
 gation, to be felt more and more each year. 
 
 * lu "Mail and Nature." 
 
 t Smith's Italian Irrigation, vol. I, p. 378. 
 
260 GEOLOGICAL STJEVEY OF THE TERRITORIES. 
 
 The rough estimate I made of the vohime of water in the Xorth 
 Platte, near the Okl Bridge, above Fort Fetterman, showed a discharge 
 of about fourteen hundred cubic feet per second. Tlie width at a nar- 
 row and somewhat rapid point was supposed to be about one hundred 
 and. sixty feet; the average depth two feet; the rate of the current 
 about three miles to the hour. The river at this season (August) was 
 low — at most, not more than two-thirds or oue half its usual size in the 
 spring. Supposing it to have been two-thirds, this would give, as the 
 average discharge during the irrigating season, two thousand one hun- 
 dred cubic feet per second. Calculating by the rule given by Captain 
 Smith as applicable to the dryer sub-Himalayan districts — that oue 
 cubic foot per second irrigates two hundred and eighteen acres — we 
 obtain the following result: As but ten-sixteenths of the water required 
 there is necessary here, it follows that one cubic foot will irrigate 348.8 
 af-res, or, in round numbers, three hundred and fifty acres. This gives 
 the total amount which can be watered during the season of one hun- 
 dred and fifty days, by a canal drawing oft' the water at this point, at 
 SHven hundred and thirty-five thousand acres, or nearly eleven hundred 
 and fifty square miles. As no area, when most densely populated and 
 in the highest state of cultivation, will ever require more than one-half 
 of the land to be absolutely and folly watered each year, we may esti- 
 mate the territory that can be brought into use by such a canal at one 
 million four hundred and se\^nty thousand acres, or two thousand three 
 hundred square miles; which would add at least $25,000,000 to the 
 value of our real estate, and fully $10,000,000 to the yearly value of our 
 productions. 
 
 Calculating by the method which Marsh has adopted, the result is 
 very nearly the same. The daily distribution would be .067 of an inch ; 
 at which rate the area irrigated would be eleven hundred and seventy 
 S(iuare miles, or about seven hundred and forty-nine thousand acres. 
 These results show a difference of less than two per cent., which is 
 somewhat remarkable considering the entirely different stand-j)oints 
 from which they start. 
 
 It may be argued that this calculation makes no allowance for the 
 loss ; but that it is based upon the assumption that all the water is made 
 effective. This is a mistake, for it is based u])on actual experiments, 
 showing the flow of water necessary to irrigate a given area, including 
 all loss except the absorjition by the bottom and walls of the canals ; 
 and this in India, even in the sandy districts, does not exceed five per 
 cent. 
 
 This calculation is certainly a safe one, as the rain-fall is reduced 
 nearly one-third below that given by the authorities on the subject, and 
 the lowest figures are used in regard to every other item. The point of 
 the Platte selected for observation was favorable, as it presented about 
 an average of velocity. Taking the average fall at only seven feet to 
 the mile, if we follow the rule given by Uwyer in his "Treatise on 
 Hydraulic Engineering," the velocity would be about two hundred and 
 ninety-five feet per minute, while I have assumed it to be but two hun- 
 dred and sixty four feet. 
 
 Another point connected with this subject, but upon which I have no 
 information, is certainly worthy of investigation; it is this: What will 
 be the result in the bed of the stream below the point from which the 
 water is drawn ? Will it contain only the water furnished by the trib- 
 utaries entering into it below this point? In the tract of country in 
 India lying along the base of the Siwalic Hills, both east and west of the 
 Gmges, it has been noticed that, although all the water was drawn 
 
GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF THE TERRITORIES. 201 
 
 from the bed of the stream, below this water would commeuce issuing 
 from the jiorous soil. So large is this supply in some instances, that 
 the amount due to percolation in the Jumna is estimated at one thou- 
 sand eight hundred and sixty cubic feet per second, while the total 
 amount at the canal heads is placed at but three thousand four hundred 
 and ninety cubic feet ; showing a restoration by percolation of over fifty 
 per cent. The same thing has been observed in Northern Italy. M. 
 Lombardini states that the Ticino at Tornavento, the Adda at Oassauo, 
 and the Oglio at Torre Pallavina, in times of great dryness, are entirely 
 closed and exhausted. Yet, without the aid of any visible afliuent 
 whatever, the streams soon reappear, formed by new supplies derived 
 from percolation through the banks and springs in the beds, so that 
 they early again become navigable. 
 
 While it is not probable this would be the case at that distance out 
 upon the Plains where the streams now begin to sink, yet there is noth- 
 ing to forbid the presumption that it would occur nearer the mountains 
 and along' those streams which have their sources in the snow^^ ranges. 
 But it is necessary to study carefully all these points before the agricul- 
 tural capacity of the great West can be known. 
 
 In my estimates of the heights which might be reached by irrigating 
 ditches I have confined myself to the rule generally adopted in the 
 West, of giving to them a descent of from three to five feet to the mile. 
 But the longitudinal slope of the Ganges Canal varies from twelve to 
 fifteen inches; and the larger canals in Italy generally have a descent 
 of fi'om seventeen to twenty -four inches to the mile. 
 
 LAND GRANTS. 
 
 It may not be improper for me to say something in respect to the in- 
 fluence of land grants upon agriculture in this part of the West. 
 
 While 1 believe that the laws granting homesteads to actual settlers 
 are wise and proper, and should not be abridged, yet I do not think 
 that a fear of encroaching upon them should prevent such judicious 
 grants in that section as would hiwe a tendency to develop it. I am 
 no advocate for the indiscriminate granting of land all over our country 
 wherever asked for. But where there is a section which cannot be de- 
 veloped without some aid of this kind, then it is wise in the Government 
 to bring it into use, if every foot of the soil be required to do it. The 
 question in such places is reduced to this one point : Shall the soil for- 
 ever remain idle and valueless, or shall it be brought into use by giving 
 portions of it for its redemption. "? 
 
 As remarked in the introduction, there are facts and principles -which 
 hold good in the rain-moistened sections which entirely fail in the West. 
 In the former each quarter-section can be brought under cultivation 
 without any other preparation than clearing it of timber, save the 
 swamps and rugged mountains. But in the latter water must be 
 brought to the lands by means of ditches and canals, which, as iu the 
 case of the higher levels and broader x>lains, often costs an outlay of 
 thousands of dollars. Hence co)nbination or capital is necessary, in 
 order to do this at a reasonable cost [)er acre. The immediate bottoms 
 of the streams can and will be brought into use chiefly by individual 
 efforts, as here each farm can have its own acequia at a moderate ex- 
 pense. But these compose only a small proi)ortion of the lands that are 
 susceptible of irrigation and culture. The greater i)art of the remainder 
 Avill require ditches or canals varying from five to fifty or inore miles in 
 length, yet by making these of proper dimensions and taking iu as large. 
 
262 GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF THE TERRITOEIES. 
 
 a scope of country as jiossible, the cost per acre will often be less tliau 
 tbat of the lower lands where each farmer digs his own ditch. Hence it 
 is not to be presumed that a man of small means, who is seeking a home- 
 stead under the law, will attempt to settle in a, i:)lace where such an 
 outlay as this is required ; and jet these lands when irrigated and culti- 
 vated*^ will generally prove as productive as the bottoms which skirt the 
 streams. No more likely is he to do this than he is to settle in a bog that 
 m.ust be drained at a heavy expense before it can be rendered tillable. 
 Therefore, while I believe it is proper and right to give every possible in- 
 ducement to actual settlers of "^mall means, that they may have permanent 
 homes of their own, I also oelieve that the chief impetus that can be 
 given to bring al)out the settlement and development of these Terri- 
 tories will be byjudicious land giants to colonies and railroad companies. 
 I Icnow there is a strong prejudice growing up in the minds of a large 
 portion of the people against such grants, and probably not without 
 reason ; yet, while striving to avoid one extreme, an evil is seldom cured 
 by mulling to the other. And while I would advocate limited and judi- 
 cious grants in sections where irrigation is necessary, I do not include 
 the giving of aid by money or subsidies, for these in the end generally 
 do more harm than good, sometimes absolutely retar(|ing that develop- 
 nient of the country which would be made through the eiforts of these 
 companies without such aid. '^^ov, as a general thing, is it best to make 
 grants to railroad companies along the valley of one large stream for 
 any great distance, if the price of the alternate sections is thereby in- 
 creased, as* this would abridge the privileges of settlers and purchasers 
 of small means. It would also present a strong temptation to the com- 
 pany to purchase the remaining sections and put up the price, and thus 
 fail to accomplish the very object for which such grants should be made. 
 
 I believe the true policy, so far as the country immediately east of 
 the Eo(^ky Mountains is concerned, is to grant inducements to the con- 
 struction of roads north and south, at such a distance from the base of 
 these mountains as to compel the companies to cut canals of considera- 
 ble length in order to bring their lands into market. For example, a 
 very judicious grant might be made for a road from some point on the 
 Kansas Paciftc Eailroad east of Denver, (fifty or one hundred miles.) 
 by way of Cimarron Pass to Albuquerque, iu New ]\Iexico, if not allowed 
 to run too close to the mountains. But the question may be asked, 
 Why prevent it from running near the mountain base? because here 
 the land is easily irrigated, and will be settled without this aid, and, 
 therefore, not only is such a grant unnecessary to the development of 
 this section, but it abridges the rights granted under the homestead 
 laws. Nor is it good policy, on account of the importance and influence 
 of an intermediate town or locality, to bend to any great degree to meet 
 this demand, for the importance of the place will ultimately give it a 
 railroad connection without Government aid, thus increasing the rail- 
 road facilities under the same grant. 
 
 South of Albuquerque, any aid given shoiild be for roads running 
 east and west, rather than north and south, as here the general course 
 of the streams is south instead of east. It w^ould be improper for me, in 
 this report, to attempt any lengthy argument to prove this position ; 
 nor is it ne(;essary, for the careful study of any good map of this part 
 of the West, by one not interested iu land grants or railroads there, 
 will convince him of the correctness of my position, if he takes agricul- 
 ture as his stand-point. 
 
 Another judicious grant might be made for a road running from 
 Cheyenne, or some point on the IJnion Pacific Railroad east of Cheyenne, 
 
GEOLOGICAL SIJEVEY OF THE TERRITORIES. 263 
 
 north into Montana, following- here also the rnle before laid down, that 
 is, not going too close to the monntains, and not allowing it to coutiuue 
 in the North Platte Valley for any great distance. 
 
 Such I conceive to be the true policy, looking at the matter from an 
 agricultural i)oint of view. But it may be said that the mining interests 
 demand roails into the mountains, and that Crovernnient should foster 
 this branch of industry as well as any other. This n)ay be true in part, 
 but I think the Government should look first to the development of 
 that which has the most elements of permanency, and which, when once 
 put in motion, will continue to grow and increase by its own inherent 
 vitality, that which gives homes, happiness, and stability to its citizens. 
 
 And besides all this, if the main trunks are built along the ])lains 
 parallel with the ranges, local interests will induce the construction of 
 shorter lines into tie' mountains wherever needed. It is not worth 
 while for me to elaborate 
 readily see their bearings. 
 
 The instances given are only used as illustrations, as there are other 
 sections where judicious grants Jiiight be made, and which would be 
 the means of bringing into use large bodies of land which will long remain 
 valueless without some aid of this kind. I mention these because they 
 are within the bounds of the territory under consideration in this report. 
 I might add, also, that a road from Salt Lake City to St. George, iu 
 Utah, would greatly assist in opening up a very important section, and 
 would form one link in the great line which will some day traverse the 
 length of the great inter-alpine trough from the Dalles to the mouth of 
 the Colorado. And perhaps it might render valuable assistance in 
 solving a troublesome question; and it is always better to cure an evil 
 by benefiting, where it can be done, than by harsh nieasures, be they 
 ever so just. 
 
 These roads, wherever they pass through Indian countries, would 
 not only greatly lessen the expense of military transportation, but 
 would also have a tendency to check their dei)redations. Therefore it 
 is not wise for the Government so to bind itself by treaties that the 
 right of way for railroads cannot be given through reservations. In 
 fact, it is my opinion that the policy, of making treaties with them, as 
 quasi-nationalities, is detrimental to the agricultural development and 
 best interests of the West. Perhajis I ought not to express my views 
 so strongly on a collateral topic. But the Indian question does have a 
 very important bearing on the subject of this report, and for this reason 
 I shall brietly allude to it again. 
 
 It is possible that some general law might be passed which would 
 induce colonies to settle isolated sections where bodies of arable land 
 of limited extent are to be found. Something of this kind is certainly 
 desirable in those portions of these Territories where there is no pros- 
 pect of railroads being extended to them for some time to come. Assist- 
 ance given by proper grants for the construction of leading canals, with 
 reserved rights to the settlers on the reserved sections, would certainly 
 be a means of bringing into market and into use large bodies of laud 
 which will otherwise remain for a long time idle. 
 
 INDIANS. 
 
 The present Indian policy, which doubtless looks forward to the local- 
 izing and settlement of these roving tribes, is intimately connected with 
 the agricultural development of the West. Unless they are localized 
 and made to enter upon agricultural and pastoral pursuits they nuist 
 ultimately be exterminated. There is no middle ground between these 
 
264 GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF THE TERRITORIES. 
 
 extremes — one or the other must be the final result. If this be so — and 
 I think it will be conceded by all who have given the subject any seri- 
 ous refleotiou — tlien it is very important that the agricultural capacity 
 of the Territories, where they are to be found, should be ascertained as 
 soon as possible, and the extent and locality of the arable district 
 adapted to such settlement determined. But these roving sons of the 
 Plains know nothing of agriculture, they know nothing of the princi- 
 ples of irrigation, and hence they must be taught, and to do this the 
 locality for each tribe must be fixed, and the experiment tried. Some 
 of the' Indian agents, I believe, have entered upon this work, which, if 
 properly managed, will in all probability result in more good than any 
 other that has been tried. But if persuasion, after a thorough trial, 
 fails to bring a tribe to terms, then compel them to it ; for one restless, 
 roving band may destroy all the good that might be effected with half 
 a dozen others. Lend a helping, fosteriug hand to all that are willing 
 to enter upon permanent settlements, but make no treaties and grant no 
 annuities to those that refuse to come to these terms. If extermhia- 
 tion is the result of non-compliance, then compulsion is an act of mercy. 
 The how, I leave to others to decide. But looking at it from the agri- 
 cultural side of the question, I certainly conceive it to be a necessity. 
 
 ARTESIAN WELLS. 
 
 The possibility of obtaining water upon the plains by means of arte- 
 sian wells has engaged the minds of many persons for a number of years, 
 but thus far the attempts have not proved successful. The one made by 
 General Pope on the Llano Estacado, in Xew Mexico, is well known, but 
 the failure in this case, if it can truly be called a failure, has not been sufii- 
 cient to decide the question, especially in regard to that portion of the coun- 
 try lying north of the " Staked Plains," where the conditions are different. 
 
 The latest attempt of which I have any knowledge is the one recently 
 made at Kit Carson, on the line of the Kansas Pacific Kailway. The 
 following account of this work I take from a recent communication on 
 the subject to Dr. F. V. Hayden, from Mr. R. S. Elliot, industrial agent 
 of this railroad company : 
 
 Strata passed through (iucluding the wood conductor near the surface) are as follows : 
 
 Feet. Feat. 
 
 Conductor of wood from the surface. 40 
 
 Blue mud 200 
 
 Gray slate 700 
 
 Magnesian limestone 70 
 
 Gray sand rock 30 
 
 Black slate 100 
 
 Slate and shale mixed 100 
 
 Black slate, (in which the boring stop- 
 ped) 160 
 
 Total depth 1,460 
 
 Captain Grant, who has charge of the work, states that at the depth of three hundred 
 feet a crevice was reached, another at three hundred and forty feet, and auother at four 
 hundred feet ; and tliat at the depth of four hundred and iifty feet a tloAv of salt water 
 was obtained, but that at no point has any fresh water been found. From the crevices 
 struck, and from the size of the pieces of shale, slate, &c., brought up, he infers that the 
 strata are inclined at a high angle. When the work stopped the water arose above the 
 point at Avhich it comes in, but" how near the surface it stands has not been ascertained. 
 Whether the company will continue its operations here, or not, has not been determined. 
 
 Although this experiment does not decide the question, yet on the 
 whole the result is unfavorable, and indicates, to say the least, that to 
 obtain flowing fresh water a great depth will be required. I am there- 
 fore inclined to think it is best not to count upon these as a means of 
 increasing the breadth of tillable land. 
 
 I believe an attempt has been made at Lincoln, in Nebraska, but am 
 not informed as to its progress or probability of success. 
 
L— A LIST AND DESCRIPTION OF NEW SPECIES OF 011- 
 
 THOPTERA. 
 
 By Prof. Cyrus Thomas. 
 
 LIST. 
 
 GRYLLIDES. 
 
 Stcnopelmafiis, Santa F<^, New Jloxico. Too mncli mutilated to be determined. 
 GriiUiifi abhnriaiiis, Serv. Found throughout eastern Colorado. 
 
 OiTanlhiis nlvcus, Harr. Found along the streams from Fort Fetterman to Eaton 
 Mountains. 
 
 LOCUSTARI.E. 
 
 Anahrus Haldcmanmi, Girard. South Park, Colorado, and near Laramie Kiver east of tho 
 Black Hills, Wyoming. 
 
 Anahrus Sievcnsoiiii, Thos. Northeastern New Mexico. 
 
 Anahrus minutus, Thos. Nertheastorn New Mexico. 
 
 Thamnoiri-on (Anahrus) 2)ur2)urasecens, Uhler. South Park, Colorado, and near Lara- 
 mie River, east of the Black Hills, Wyoming. 
 
 Thamnotrizon trilineafus, Thos. Northeastern New IMexico, and South Pass, Wyoming. 
 
 EpMppitiltlia gracilipes, Thos. Southeastern Colorado. 
 
 OrclitJhnum vulgare, Harr. Found throughout the eastern j^art of Colorado and 
 Wyoming. 
 
 Xiphidium yasciatum, Serv. Colorado. 
 
 L'dvopsijUa rohusta, Hald. Throughout Colorado, Wyoming, and Utah. 
 
 Ceuthophilus divergcns, Scudd. Hardscrabble Creek, Colorado, and Eed Buttes, 
 Wyoming. 
 
 ACRIDII. 
 
 Opnmola nco-mexkana, Thos. Northern New Mexico, and along Cottonwood Creek, 
 
 Wyoming. 
 Acridium flaro-fasciatum, De Geer. Southeastern Colorado. 
 Caloptenus hlvittatus, Say. Colorado, Wyoming, and Utah. 
 Calopienus sjiretus, Vhler. I have traced this species from the borders of Nevada and 
 
 Idaho on the west, to Missouri and Iowa on the east, and from the Eaton Mouutains 
 
 on the south to the Big Horn Mountains on the north, but have discovered its limits 
 
 oidy toward the south and east. 
 Caloptcnus femur-ruhrum, De Geer. Common east of the Eocky Mountains. 
 Fezotittix horealis, Scudd. Mountains east of Middle Park. 
 rccotettix picta, Thos. From Ciieyenne south to the Arkansas Eiver. 
 Brachjpeplus magnus, Girard. Along the head-Avaters of the Arkansas, and near the 
 
 Laramie Eiver east of the Black Hills. * 
 
 BoUjKdoH mihilum, Thos. Near Canon City, Colorado. 
 Boopcdonflavo-fasciaium, Thos. Southeastern Colorado. 
 Ocdipoda Carolina, Linn. Found at a few points in Colorado, especially south of 
 
 Denver. 
 Ocdipoda coraUipes, Hald. Colorado, Wyoming, and Utah. 
 Ocdipoda aequalis, Say. Common in Colorado and Wyoming. This is an extremely 
 
 variable species. 
 Ocdipoda trifasciata, Thos. Common throughout Wyoming, Colorado, Northern New 
 
 Mexico, and Northern Utah, on the elevated plateaus. 
 Ocdipoda ncjlecta, Thos. Eastern Colorado and North Platte Valley, west of Fort 
 
 Fetterman. I have also collected some specimens in Southern Illinois which appear 
 
 to be identical with this species. 
 Ocdipoda carlingiana, Thos. Colorado and Wyoming. 
 Ocdipoda cincia, Thos. ' Southeastern Colorado. 
 Tomonoins Alcxicanus, Sauss. New Mexico. 
 Tumonotus nietanus, Sauss. Southeastern Colorado and Southeastern Wyoming 
 
266 GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF THE TERRITORIES. 
 
 Tomonotns lisemJo-Juctanus, Thos. Near Canou City, Colorado, and near Fort Fetternian, 
 Wyoming-. 
 
 Stauronoliis ElliotU, Thos. Colorado and Wyoming. 
 
 {Grijllus) formosiis, Say. Southeastern Colorado. A new genus will have to be estab- 
 lished for the reception of this species. 
 
 AcroloplHius hiriijxs, Thos. Near Canon City, Colorado, and at Fort D. A. Russell 
 \Vyomiug. 
 
 Stenohothrus ohioims, Thos. Southern Colorado. 
 
 Stenohothnis britiuwus, Thos. Colorado and Wyoming. 
 
 Stenohothriw quadrimaculatus, Thos. Colorado and Wyoming. 
 
 DESCRIPTIONS. 
 
 Altbong'li most of tlie followiDg species have been described by me, 
 and the deseri])tions publisbed in the " Proceedings of the Academy of 
 Natural Sciences, Philadelphia," for 1870, (pp. 74-84,) yet it is proper 
 that the descriptions shonld be inserted here, as they constitute a part 
 of the work of the expedition. Those only will be marked as new which 
 are here described for the first time. 
 
 I follow the arrangement adopted by Scudder in hiscatalogaie, although 
 it is not altogether the one I should prefer. 
 
 LOCUSTARI^. 
 
 ANABRUS, (HALD.) 
 
 The characters of this genus were not fully given by Professor Ilal- 
 deman when he established it, and those subsequently added by Gi- 
 rard are scarcely sufficient to distinguish it from other closely allied 
 genera. Having both sexes of three species, I give the following as 
 the i)rincip?.l characters : 
 
 General character : Head large, smooth, advanced in front between the 
 antemne. Pronotum selliform, extending over the base of the abdomen ; 
 rounded and smooth ; anterior portion of the sides reaching below the 
 eyes ; posterior margin and angles round. Presternum bidentate ; pos- 
 terior angles of the meso-sternum elevated and acute. Elytra very short, 
 ha\'ing the form of scales in the males ; covered by the i)ronotum in the 
 females. Antenntr. longer than the body, sometimes extending beyond 
 the ovipositor. Eyes ovate; labrum round; maxillary palpi twice the 
 length of the labial, the three outer joints nearly equal, terminal enlarged 
 at the tip. Abdomen stout, of moderate length ; the sub-anal i)late of 
 the male large, slightly notched at the tip, furnished laterally with filiform 
 appendages which appear to be articulated at the base ; the cerci (or 
 substituted appendages) sub-cylindrical, enlarged and generally bifurcate 
 at the extremity. Ovipositor long, bent beyond the middle. Cerci in 
 the female small and generally hairy. Legs slender ; posterior pair very 
 long; femora enlarged next the body, but slender and straight beyond 
 the middle, as long as the body (omitting the head) ; posterior tibia 
 long as the femora, slender ; all the tibiiu provided with four rows of 
 spines, the anterior rows often scattered and irregular. A stout deutic- 
 uloid process above the anterior coxa. The tarsi broad, soles concave ; 
 third articulation cordate. 
 
 This genus dift'ers so slightly, in description, from Thyreonotus (Serv.,) 
 that there is scarcely a necessity for its retention ; but an examination 
 of the species is necessary to decide this jioint. A imrpurascens (Uhler) 
 not having the prosternum spined, has been removed to Thamnotrizon^ 
 (Fisch.) 
 
 A. ^Stevensonii, Thos. Syn., A. Stcvensonii, Thos. (Proc. Acad. Nat. 
 Sci., Phila., 1870, p. 75.) — Female: Purple mottled with yellow; form 
 
GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF THE TERRITORIES. 267 
 
 aud coloring somewhat similar to A. imrimrascens^ (Uhler,) but smaller 
 and slenderer in all its parts. Face wliite, the transverse suture below 
 the front fuscus ; tips of the mandibles piceous ; palpi pale, the penul- 
 timate joints of the maxillary palpi striped with purple above ; anteu- 
 nie long and slender, reaching nearly to the extremity of the ovipositor, 
 dusky ; cranium cinereous, with the vertex, and a line extending back 
 from each eye, dull white. Pronotum short, not carinated, a slight 
 transverse incision near the front ; two oblique dorsal impressions, dark 
 and very narrow ; surface smooth, lurid ; a large black spot occupying 
 the central portions of the sides behind the transverse incision ; lateral 
 margins broadly, and anterior nuirgins narrowly bordered with pale 
 yellow; posterior angles tipped with piceous black. Elytra hid beneath 
 the pronotum. Abdomen dull purple, somewhat darker along the sides. 
 Ovipositor vslightly curved beyond the middle, piceous at the tip ; cerci 
 slender, hairy ; beneath dull white. Anterior and middle legs short ; 
 femora slender and straight ; posterior legs very long and slender ; fe- 
 mora and tibia?, each the length of the body, omitting the head ; all pale 
 puri)lish-yeliow ; femora smooth; tibia? with spines irregularly placed ou 
 the angles, also on the rounded portion, black at the tips. The spine 
 above the anterior coxa pale, slender, and bent abruptly downward. 
 
 Length 1.13 inches; pronotum .20 inch; posterior femora .93 inch; 
 ovipositor .75 inch. 
 
 Habitat : Southern Colorado, on elevated grassy terraces near the 
 mountains and the parks. Named in honor of Mr. James Stevenson, 
 a member of the expedition, who has for a number of years accompanied 
 Dr. Ilayden in his western explorations, and has been a diligent collector 
 of specimens in all departments of natural history. 
 
 A. m'niutKs,T\iOii. )^yn., A. minutus, Thos. (Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci., 
 Phila., 1870, p. 75.) — Male: Similar in coloring and appearance to the 
 A. Steveusonii. Face mottled with purple ; a dark spot below each eye ; 
 a narrow line running back from the upper corner of each eye; craniuui 
 cinereous; head somewhat covered by the pronotum. Pronotum short, 
 rounded, smooth ; transverse incision almost obliterated ; oblique dorsal 
 iiui)ressions irregular; dorsal portions cinereous ; sides with a triangular 
 black spot, interrupted by light spaces, broadly margined with dull white: 
 lateral angles tipped with piceous-black. Elytra short, extending over 
 the second abdominal segment; margins pale yellow, central portions 
 brown. Abdomen cinereous, a darker line along the sides; notch of tlie 
 sub-anal plate very small ; appendages small, hair^* ; the tip of the last 
 dorsal segment strongly bitid, denticulate. The cerci (I nse this term 
 for those appendages supplying the place of cerci) slightly bent, bifurcate. 
 Legs same color as the abdomen and cranium ; anterior pair quite short ; 
 the middle pair a little longer ; the posterior xevy long, femora marked 
 with a dark line along the upper carina ; tibine slender, spines tipped with 
 brown. Antennae at least twice as long as the body. 
 
 Length, .75 inch ; posterior femora, .02 inch ; elytra, beyond the pro- 
 notum, .1 inch. 
 
 Female: Similar to the. male in appearance, coloring, and size. Cerci 
 small, hairy. Ovipositor bent, slightly narrowed in the middle; brotvn 
 at the tip. Length as in the male ; ovipositor, .55 inch. 
 
 Habitat : Elevated grassy terraces in Southern Colorado, South Park. 
 
 Some specimens of these two species have, ou the under side of the 
 posterior femora, about four or five abortive spines, especially the older 
 or more mature ones. Sometimes the places of these spines are indicated 
 l)y mere points, visible only under a glass. This fact may be important 
 in fixing the position of this geuus, which is evidently one of transition. 
 
268 GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF. THE TERRITORIES. 
 
 THAMjNfOTRIZON, (FISCHER.) 
 
 T.2)urpnrascens, Thos. Syn., Anabriis purpurascens, Uhler. (Proc. Acad. 
 iN'at. Sci., Phila., p. — .) — I liave removed tliis species from^ Ancihrus because 
 the prosteruum is not spined, which must be a promiueut character of 
 that geuus to retain the other species. The original description by Mr. 
 Uhler is so full and clear that any addition is wholly unnecessary. 
 
 Found in South Park in considerable numbers, also in Wyoming, east 
 of the Black Hills, on elevated plateaus. 
 
 T. trilineatus, Thos. Syn., T. triUneatus, Thos. (Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci., 
 Phila., 1870, p. 70.) — Female : Small, somewhat like Anahrus minutus, 
 (Thos.,) but showing some important variations which place it in a differ- 
 ent genus. Head moderate size, immersed in the pronotum nearly to 
 the eyes ; occiput very short, convex ; vertex rounded between the 
 antenna?, slightly advanced in front, this advanced portion triangular 
 and deilexed ; face short, broad, smooth and somewhat convex ; labrum 
 large, round. Palpi rather longer than usual, slender, cylindrical, ter- 
 minal joint of the maxillary palpi longest. Pronotum small, rounded, 
 not carinated; advanced in front over the back of the head, margin 
 round, or sub-truncate; posterior extremity advanced over the base of 
 the abdomen, round ; sides narrowed below, reaching down about as far 
 as the lower border of the eyes ; posterior margin of the sides sloped quite 
 obliquely, slightly sinuate. Antennne reach the tip of the ovipositor. 
 Ovipositor about the length of the body, slightly bent ; cerci short, stout, 
 covered with minute, d€?i)ressed hairs; the plate between them triangu- 
 lar. Prosternum not spined. Anterior tibiie with two spines in front; 
 medial with two rows on the outside, 4 (counting the one at the base) 
 and 2. Posterior legs wanting in the only specimen obtained. 
 
 Color (siccus :) testaceous green, striped and varied with pale yellow. 
 Face testaceous, palest below, with a brown spot at each lower corner. 
 Three pale, tolerably broad, yellow stripes reach from the head to the 
 end of the abdomen ; one along the middle of the back, and one along 
 each side. Two oblique black marks on the back of the pronotum about 
 the middle ; lower margins of the sides yellow ; beneath pale. Ovipos- 
 itor fuscus. Antennse dusky. Legs purplish ; tarsi piceous. 
 
 Dimensions: length, .75 inch; to the end of the pronotum from the 
 vertex, .34 inch; ovipositor, .73 inch. 
 
 Habitat: Southeast Colorado. Some specimens not yet examined, 
 which may belong to this species, found near South Pass. 
 
 ErHIPPITYTHA, (SERV.) 
 
 This group, which is given by Serville as a sub- geuus of Phaneroptera, 
 is distinguished from the rest of the Phaneropteres by characters of suf- 
 ficient importance to justify me in raising it to a genus. 1 have not 
 examined a sufficient number of specimens to enable me to write out the 
 generic characters in full, but will mention the following: 
 
 Pronotum selliform, somewhat scooped on ^ the latter half, which is 
 slightly elevated, and rounded; femora more or less spined; vertex 
 t'uberculate. Elytra and wings passing the abdomen, latter longest. 
 
 E. gracilipes, Thos. Syn., E. gnicilipes, Thos. (Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci., 
 Phila., 1870, p. 7G.) — IMale: Small, slender; legs very long and debcate; 
 occiput short, convex, terminating in a triangular tubercle at the vertex, 
 not raised above the first joint of the antennse, nor passing between them ; 
 face vertical, straight, flat, terminating upward just above the ceiiti'al 
 ocellus in a shar^) angle; ocellus situated exactly between the lower 
 
GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF THE TERRITORIES. 269 
 
 borders of the folds around tlie base of the auteniuw Pronotnm siib- 
 cvliudrical iu frout, widened and elevated ])osteriorly; a slight trans- 
 verse indenture each side, a little behind the middle; not cariin\ted, but 
 a medium line is visible along- the dorsum ; surface smooth. Elytra rery 
 narrow, nearly straight, passing" the abdomen one third their length. 
 Abdomen sub-cylindrical; the sub-anal plate notched and bi-spinose ; 
 cerci stout, hairy, curved and mucronate ; up[)er plate semicircular. 
 Prosternum not spined; meso- and meta-steruum obliquely elevated at 
 the i)Osterior angles, obtuse. 
 
 Color (siccus:) pale yellow. A roseate stripe on the frontal tubercle; 
 second joint of tlie antenna^ orange-yellow; a bright yellow curved line 
 runs from the upper canthus of each eye to the pronotum, where they 
 meet with broader lines on the pronotum, which, converging posteriorly, 
 fade near the middle of the dorsum. Anterior portion of the pronotum 
 dotted with red. Stridulating organs Aery small, roseate. Elytra and 
 wings pellucid. Abdomen minutely dotted with reddish-brown. Tips 
 of tlu^ cerci black. 
 
 Dimensions: length, .75 inch; to t'ip of the wings, 1.25 inch; Aviugs 
 l^ass the elytra (about) .25 inch; femora, .1 inch; tibia, .95 inch. 
 
 Habitat : Southern Colorado. Unique specimen. 
 
 ORCHELIMUM, (SERV.) 
 
 0. rulgare, Harr. — The specimens I have marked as belonging to this 
 species may prove to be new, as they vary considerably from the type. 
 
 CETJTHGPHILUS, (SCUDD.) 
 
 C. (lirergens, Scudd. — My specimens vary from the description of this 
 species in having the hind femora of the females spined, the spines verj- 
 short. There are also one or two slender spines on the front part of the 
 anterior tibi;e not mentioned in Mr. Scudder's description, yet I think 
 they belong to this species. 
 
 ACRIDID^E. 
 
 (Truxalides.) 
 OPOIVIOLA, (SERV.) 
 
 0. nco-mexicana, Thos. Syn., 0. neo-mexicana, Thos. (Proc. Acad. 
 Kat. Sci., Phila., 1870, i). 77.) — Female: Long, slender, truxaloid. Head 
 conical; occiput convex, ascending to the somewhat elevated vertex; 
 vertex convex, ascending, sub-margined, rotund, rather elongate before 
 the eyes ; face very oblique ; frontal ridge distinct, sides parallel, slightly 
 sulcate; lateral carmne distinct, obtuse, divergent, reaching the lower 
 corners of the face. Antenufe strongly ensiform, triquetrous, reaching 
 to the tip of the pronotum ; inserted in deep foveolfC under the frout of 
 the cone. Pronotum about as long as the head ; sides i)arallel ; all its 
 •parts very regular; tricarinate, carinas not elevated but distinct, all 
 about equal; obtusely rounded anteriorly and posteriorly. Elytra a 
 little shorter than the abdomen ; wings a little shorter than the elytra. 
 Posterior femora reach the extremity of the abdomen; very slender. 
 Prosternal point short and obtuse, scarcely more than a i)ointed 
 tubercle. 
 
 Color (immediately after being taken out of alcohol, in which it had 
 been immersid for some months:) Face yellow, dotted with red; lateral 
 
270 GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF THE TERRITORIES. 
 
 carinfe rosaceous; on the top of tlie head a faint roseate stripe runs 
 from the end of the cone to the pronotum, bordered on each side by a 
 yellow stripe ; from the lower part of each eye starts a bright-red stripe, 
 which, running back across the head, continues along- the upper portion 
 of the side of the pronotum to its extremity and is lost on the elytra. 
 Median carina of the pronotum re<l, the dorsal spaces yellow ; lower 
 portion of the sides yellow. Elytra semi-transparent ; base and strij^e 
 along the dorsal margin roseate. Wings transparent ; A'eins ochreous. 
 Abdomen dull yellow, reddish on the basal segments. Legs rufous; 
 posterior femora have a pale stripe along the upper edge ; spines of the 
 posterior tibia tipped with black. 
 
 Dimensions : Length 1.(52 inch ; to tip of elytra 1.50 inch ; to ex- 
 tremity of the pronotum, .52 inch ; femora, .88 inch ; tibia, .86 inch. 
 
 Habitat : Kortheast New Mexico. 
 
 I have not seen the male. This species comes near 0. mexicana^ 
 (Sauss.,) but differs from it in the following respects: The antenuiie are 
 not rotuudate, but sharply triquetrous ; the pronotum is carinate, al- 
 though the cariuPB are but raised lines, yet very distinct ; and although 
 the posterior lobe is minutely punctured, the pronotum cannot be truly 
 called " densely punctate." It approaches closely to Truxalis. 
 
 (Mucronati.) 
 
 PEZOTETTIX, (BURM.) 
 
 P. picta, Thos. Syn,, P. picta, Thos. (Proc. Acad. ISTat. Sci., Phila., 
 1870, 1). 78.) — Medium size, body elongate, stout sub-cylindrical, occiput 
 convex ; vertex deflexed, flat and narrow between the eyes, suddenly 
 expanding in front, this advanced portion transverse and triangular ; 
 the frontal ridge somewhat convex, with a very slight depression at the 
 central ocellus ; eyes large, i)rominent, oval ; antenniTe filiform, nearly as 
 long as the head and thorax. Sides of the pronotum parallel in the male, 
 and very slightly divergent posteriorly in the female; carinas obliterated 
 by the sub-cylindrical form ; posterior margins of the sides obliquely 
 sloped, but not sinuous ; posterior angle rounded ; a slight transverse 
 incision each side close to the front margin ; the three usual transverse 
 incisions distinct, crossing the dorsum in the female, the posterior one only 
 crossing in the male; anterior margin and posterior lobe densely punc- 
 tate, remainder smoother and sparsely punctate. Elytra very small, 
 oblong-ovate, reaching the tip of the second segment; not meeting on 
 the back ; nerves reticulate, prominent, wings minute. Posterior fem- 
 ora stout, short, not reaching the extremity of the abdomen. Sub-anal 
 plate of the male recurved with a kind of tubercle or prominence on 
 the convex surface ; upper plate falcate ; cerci small. Prosternal spine 
 stout, conical. 
 
 Color (siccus :) alternating rings of dark purple and white. The dark 
 stripes are placed as follows : down the frontal ridge ; on the occiput ; 
 down each cheek ; two interrupted broad stripes running obliquely 
 upward and backward from the anterior margin and angle of the prono- 
 tum; four spots on the base of each dorsal, and two on each ventral 
 segment of the abdomen, (sometimes running into a continuous ring ;) 
 posterior femora crossed by three broad bands. The nerves of the 
 elytra white, the spaces black. Colors of the male and female the same. 
 
 Dimensions: Female — length, 1.30 inch; femora, .6 inch; pronotum, 
 .28 inch. Male — length, .95 to 1 inch; femora, .5 inch; pronotum, .20 
 inch. 
 
GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF THE TERRITORIES. 271 
 
 Habitat : From Cheynne south to Eaton Mountains, on the plains and 
 foothills at the eastern base of the range. 
 
 When living tliis is a very pretty insect, the dark stripes being mar- 
 gined by red, which fades when immersed in alcohol, tlie black also be- 
 coming paler and assuming a purplish cast. This may possibly belong 
 to Bactylotum, Charp, but I am not fully acquainted with the characters 
 of tbat genus. 
 
 {Mi(ticL) 
 
 BEACHYPEPLUS, (CHARP.) 
 
 As Charpentier, at the time he established this genus, failed to give 
 its characters, and the description of Girard is so short and deficient, I 
 give, from a large number of specimens, what I conceive to be the dis- 
 tinguishing characteristics. 
 
 Generic characters: Body very robust, acridoid. Occiput broad, 
 convex, smooth ; vertex margined -, frontal ridge broad, short, slightly 
 sulcate, expanding below; lateral carinas distinct, with a sulcus behind 
 each; antenna! foveolte deep, oblong; cheeks prominent. Pronotum 
 large, elongate, tricarinate; carina distinct, continuous; widest below, 
 expanding posteriorly, sides straight, generally chagrined above, witli 
 the sides glabrous; no transverse incisions on the dorsum; anterior 
 margin rounded, extending slightly on the head; posterior margin 
 round. Elytra and wings rudimentary, (in the known species.) Legs 
 very robust; posterior femora long, as the abdomen, swollen; tibune 
 strongly spined nearly the entire length. Antennae filiform, joints dis- 
 tinct ; long as the head and thorax. Sub-anal plate of the male tumid 
 entire ; cerci very short ; female appendages stout, broad. Palpi short, 
 joints all enlarged at the tip ; the three outer joints of the maxillary 
 palpi nearly equal, the ultimate a little the longest. Prosternum neither 
 spined nor tuberculate. Abdomen somewhat compressed, carinated 
 above. A well-marked and distinct genus. 
 
 B. magnus^ Girard. (Marcy's Expl. Eed Eiver of Lous., p. 2G0, PI. 
 XV, figs. 1-4.) — This ponderous species is easily recognized by the 
 figures referred to, but the description is quite deficient; therefore, to 
 aid future investigations, I give it more minutely. 
 
 (Siccus.) Yellow, spotted with brown. Occiput convex, very slightly 
 scabrous, an indistinct line running along the middle to the vertex, a 
 few fine shallow pnnctures visible ; the elevated margins of the vertex 
 meet in about a right angle at the front ; frontal ridge, although nar- 
 row above and gradually exi)anding as it descends, is not narrowed 
 opposite the anteunte; margins distinct, obtuse ; sulcus shallow, expand- 
 ing and fading below, ininctured. Pronotum with three distinct, con- 
 tinuou's piceous carina} ; dorsum strongly chagrined, yellowish, with igne- 
 ous luster ; sometimes, especially in the females, there is a yellow line 
 along each margin of the dorsum ; sides purplish at the upper angles, 
 yellowish below. Elytra ovate, reaching the third abdominal segment; 
 nerves longitudinal, slightly branching near theextreuuty; light brown, 
 spotted with black. Wings very small, yellow. Abdomen marked with 
 a brown spot each side of each segment ; each segment is also margined 
 with a row of white dots. Legs as described by Girard. 
 
 Dimensions: Length, (female,) 2 inches; pronotum, .55 inch ; elytra, 
 .3 inch ; femora, 1.25 inch. Males about one-fourth less. Size varies 
 considerably. 
 
 Habitat : From Fort Laramie south to Santa Fe. The green and 
 brown varieties were both observed; but after being immersed for some 
 
272 GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF THE TERRITORIES. 
 
 time ill alcohol these colors fade, and all distinctions between the two 
 are lost. 
 
 BOOPEDOX, (THOS.) 
 
 Generic characters: Has somewhat the appearance of Fezoteftjx. 
 Body robnst. Head large, exceeding the thorax in width, widest below ; 
 seen from the side presents a somewhat semicircular outline, deflexed 
 below; occiput convex; vertex sloping, broad, sometimes exhibiting a 
 shallow foveola, usually rliomboidal, with a slight median carina; frontal 
 ridge prominent, not sulcate, margins obtuse and nearly parallel. An- 
 tennae nearly as long as the head and thorax, inserted in deep, oblong 
 foveolse. Pronotumof medium length, sides parallel; subtruncate in 
 front; posterior angle obtuse ; three transverse incisions; the posterior 
 about the middle, cutting the median carina ; median carina distinct, but 
 not elevated ; lateral carince obsolete. Elytra shorter than the abdomen 
 in the female, about the length of the abdomen in the male ; inflated 
 near the base, narrowed at the apex ; two longitudinal veins dividing 
 the entire surface into three nearly equal tields. Posterior femora stout, 
 narrowed at the tip, passing the abdomen ; tibia spined, enlarged at 
 the tip. Ultimate joint of'the maxillary palpi enlarged at the end, 
 truncate. Prosternum with the anterior half tumid ; the latter half 
 cleft by a longitudinal sulcus. Pectus sub-convex or flat. Anal ap- 
 pendages of the female short and obtuse ; sub-anal plate of the male 
 keeled, trigonal, and turned up. 
 
 This is a very distinct genus, having a somewhat acridoid appearance, 
 and forming, perhaps, the closest link between the Mucronati {Acridii 
 genuini) and the Miitici, (or Odqmdes,) and in a strictly natural arrange- 
 ment should precede BracliyiyepJiis. It would connect between the 
 Pezotettigi or Caloiiteni and the ^fenohothri. 
 
 B. mibilum, Tllos. Syn., B. nigrum^ Thos. (Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci., 
 Phila., 1S70, p. 83.) 
 
 Gryllus nuhiJus, Say. (Jour. Acad. Nat. Sci., Phila., IV, 308. Entom. 
 N. Am., Ed. Le Conte, II, 237.) — Having carefully examined the section 
 where Mr. Say found his species, I do not know what insect he refers to, 
 unless this be the one. But when he remarks " that it ascends into the 
 atmosphere in great numbers," he certainly cannot allude to this species, 
 unless he refers to the short flights of the males as they poise themselves 
 in the air, a well-known habit of the Oe. (eqiiaUs, and some other species. 
 There is another black species found in the same section, which flies 
 much in the air, [Tomonotus Nietanus, Sauss.,) but its bright red wings, 
 so apparent during flight, and its ample elytra, would seem to forbid 
 the supposition that this was the species intended. Yet I cannot ex- 
 plain Mr. Say's remark, unless he has confounded the two. 
 
 As his description is rather short 1 will add some other points, chiefly 
 from mv description, under the name of B. nigrum^ in the Proc. Acad. Nat. 
 Sci., Phila. 
 
 Medium size, female much larger than the male. 
 
 Female : Occiput smooth, a few punctures on the vertex, a faint median 
 line visible ; eyes about midway between the front and back margins ; 
 frontal ridge convex, with a very slight indentation at the ocellus, punc- 
 tured on the margins, reaching nearly to the cross suture, where it sud- 
 denly expands ; lateral carinfe distinct, obtuse, sinuate and divergent; 
 a deep sulcus below each eye. Pronotum nearly as broad as the head ; 
 median carina distinct, straight ; posterior lobe punctate ; central por- 
 tions of the sides levigate; cross incisions one and two not reaching the 
 median rariua. Elytra narrow, covering about two-thirds the length of 
 
GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF THE TERRITORIES. 273 
 
 tlie abdoiiieu, lanceolate ; the two longitudinal veins strong, approaching 
 each other at the apex along the external margin; the reticulate veins 
 coarse. Wings shorter than the elytra. 
 
 Color (siccus): Dark ferruginous; lower angles of the face and side of 
 the labrum black; tips of the elytra black ; apex of the wings dusky, 
 rest transparent ; two reddish spots inside the posterior femora ; tibia 
 transparent red. 
 
 Male : Similar in coloring, only darker. Elytra black, somewhat paler 
 at the base; wings transparent, cloudy at the apex. 
 
 Dimensions: Female — length, 1.5 inch ; pronotum .35 inch ; elytra, .55 
 inch ; femora, .95 inch ; tibia, .80 inch. Male — length, .87 inch ; prono- 
 tum, .25 inch ; elytra, .55 inch ; femora, .62 inch; tibia, .56 inch. 
 
 Habitat : Southern Colorado and northern New Mexico; mostly in the 
 valleys near the mountains. 
 
 [Note. — I regret very much two mistakes that occur in ray paper pub- 
 lished in the Proceedings of the Acad. Nat. Sci., Phila., 1870, Jul^-. One 
 occurs on page 80, where I have described as a new species, under the 
 name Oe. pruinosa., Say's Gryllus tnfasciatus, which isnotonly sufficiently 
 described for identification, but is also figured. The other mistake is on 
 page 83, where I have described Gryllus nubilus of Say as a new species, 
 under the name of B. nigrum. I had examined them and determined 
 them, and laid them aside for the purpose of referring, them to their 
 jiroper genera and had marked the place in Say's Ent. where they are 
 described. Having to close up my article rapidly, preparatory to my 
 departure west, forgetting these facts, and finding them among those 
 examined and to be described, I proceeded to describe them without far- 
 ther examination. A few days after I became aware of the mistake and 
 immediately wrote a letter to Dr. Hayden, making the correction, and 
 forwarded it to him at Washington, as I had forwarded the original man- 
 uscript through him, but it did not reach him in time. The synonyms 
 "v^ill now have to stand, and I sincerely trust they may be the only ones 
 in that paper.] 
 
 B. Jiavo-fasciatum, Thos. Syn., B. flavofasciatum, Thos. (Proc. Acad. 
 Nat. Sci., Phila,, 1870, p. 84.) — Female: Carving and figure much the 
 same as the female of jB. nuhilum, differing only in this, that the anterior 
 transverse incision (1) being more indistinct, and the incision on the side 
 of the pronotum near the front more distinct. Central foveola of vertex 
 very shallow, divided into two parts by a slight median carina; frontal 
 ridge convex, sparsely jDunctured. 
 
 Color (siccus:) Yellow, varied with brown. Head, yellow; lower 
 angles of the face black; a very distinct yellow line, starting from the 
 upper corner of each eye, reaches the posterior margin of the prono- 
 tum, bowing inward near the middle, bordered on each side by an irreg- 
 ular, dark-brown line ; a dark line borders each eye posteriorly. Median 
 carina of the pronotum dark brown or piceous black; the transverse 
 incision black; rest of the pronotum brownish, palest on the sides. 
 Eh'tra formed as in B. nuhilum, brown, a pale-yellow stripe near the u])per 
 and lower margins of each, the upper having a notch on its lower side ; 
 three oblong yellow spots in a line or row along the middle, and a few 
 smaller spots of the same color near the apex ; they reach the third ab- 
 dominal segment. Wings transparent, dusky at the tips. A brown 
 stripe along each side of the abdomen, near the dorsum; a yellow spot 
 in it on each segment near the upper border. Venter, yellow. 
 
 Male: Unknown. 
 
 Dimensions: Length, 1.5 inch; pronotum, 38 inch; elytra, .50 inch; 
 femora, .85 inch; tibia, .76 inch. 
 18 G 
 
274 GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF THE TERRITORIES. 
 
 Habitat : Found with the preceding, but a much rarer species. At first 
 glance, when seen hopping among the grass, the collector is apt to take 
 it for the jDupa of Calop. bivittatiis. 
 
 OEDIPODA, (LATE.) 
 
 Oe. coralli]}eSy Hald. (Stans. Eep. Salt Lake, p. 371, PI. X, flg. 3.)— 
 Dimensions: Female — length, 1.80 inch; femora, .90 inch; tibia, .75 
 inch ; to tip of elytra, 2 inches. Male about two-thirds the size of the 
 female. 
 
 Habitat : Colorado, Wyoming, and Utah. 
 
 The bright vermillion tiut of thfe posterior legs fades in alcohol. I am 
 inclined to believe that Oe. imrdaUna (Sauss.) is synonymous with this 
 species, but do not feel satisfied to decide positively on this point. 
 
 Oe. trlfasciata, Thos. Syn., Oe. pndnosa, Thos. (Proc. Acad. Nat. 
 Sci., Phila., 1870, p. 80.) — Gryllus trifasciatus, Say. (Amer. Ent. HI, 
 PI. XXXIV, fig. 3. (Ed. Le Conte, I, 78, PI. XXXIV, fig. 3.)— The figure 
 given in the edition by Dr. Le Conte is not a good one, nor, indeed, does it 
 correspond with the description, which is somewhat minute. I give the 
 following description, which I think will be sufficient to identify the 
 species : 
 
 About the size and somewhat similar in coloring and appearance to 
 Oe. aequalis, (Say,) but rather broader across the meso and meta thorax; 
 head, viewed from the side, oblong; occiput convex, ascending; vertex 
 broadly triangular, flat, not foveolate, declined, slightly margined and 
 slightly contracted between the eyes ; margins continuous with the frontal 
 ridge ; frontal ridge prominent, rounded above and somewhat sulcate 
 below, expanding at the ocellus ; lateral carinas distinct, sinuous, and 
 divergent below, (in the males these carinoe are more distinct and ex- 
 tended than in the females). Pronotum short, sub-cylindrical in fi'ont, 
 expanded and more angulate posteriorly; cross incisions 1 and 3 distinct, 
 2 very indistinct iu the males, apparent on the sides in the females, l' 
 arcuate above, .3 slightly sinuous and situated about the inidtlle of the 
 pronotum; median carina merely a raised line ; lateral carinte obliter- 
 ated in front, obtuse on the posterior lobe ; truncate in front, posterior 
 angle obtuse. Elytra and wings considerably longer than the abdomen. 
 Posterior femora broad, not reaching the extremity of the abdomen, 
 Antennie stout, central joints lengthened and distinct; reaching the 
 middle of the abdomen in the males, a little shorter in the females. 
 
 Color (siccus) : Varies considerably ; that which is described as green 
 by Say is often yellowish iu the living insect, and pruinose after im- 
 mersion in alcohol ; and that part of the head and thorax described by 
 him as brown often being a pale lilac, or mouse color. The iutermedi- . 
 ate cross band on the elytra is the broadest and darkest of the three. 
 The posterior femora are often pruinose at the base. (My remarks 
 apply to those dried after immersion in alcohol). 
 
 Since writing the description published in the Proceedings of th^ 
 Academy of Natural Sciences, Philadelphia, 1870, p. 80, I have had an 
 opportunity of examining a number of specimens taken at ^videly dif- 
 ferent points iu the West, and find the species is subject to considerable 
 variations, some specimens ai^proaching so near Oe. aequalis thaTt it is 
 almost imi)ossible to distinguish them from that species, if we rely upon 
 color. 
 
 Dimensions: Male — length, 1.10 inch ; to tip of elytra, 1.42 inch ; pro- 
 notum, .26 inch ; femora, .00 inch ; tibite, .58 inch. Female — length, 
 1.48 inch; to tip of elytra, 1.70 inch; pronotum, .34 inch; femora, .7(> 
 inch ; tibice, .70 inch. 
 
GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF THE TERRITORIES. 275 
 
 Habitat: Found throughout Wyoming, Colorado, Utah, and Northern 
 New Mexico, on the elevated table lands and ridges. 
 
 [Note. — For explanation in regard to my unfortunate mistake in des- 
 cribing this species as new, and thus adding another synonym to the 
 already too long list, see previous note under Boopedon nuhUum.] 
 
 The female is seldom pruinose ; occiput, brown ; ])rouotnm, reddish- 
 brown, varied with dots and lines of yellow. The posterior lobe of the 
 pronotum in each sex is densely punctured, but that of the female inter- 
 sected by irregular, slightly-raised lines. 
 
 Oe. cincif«, Thos. Syn., 0e.ci?jcfrt, Thos. (Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci.,rhila., 
 1870, 1^. 80.) — Female: Very similar in appearance and coloring to the 
 male of Oe. aeqnalis, (Say.) bnt in the carvings of the head approaching the 
 Tomonoti, (Sauss.,) of which Oe. stilphurea (Burm.) may be taken as the 
 North American type. The vertex channeled ; the margins strongly 
 and sharply elevated, waved, descending ; truncate squarely in front ; a 
 slight median line visible. Frontal ridge vertical, straight, sulcate, 
 narrowed immediately below the antennae, expanding at the base, 
 reaching the transverse suture ; lateral carinoe distinct, divergent. Pro- 
 notum rugose, tricarinate, truncate in front, angled at the posterior ex- 
 tremity; median carina only a raised line, cut by incisions land 3 5 
 lateral carinte distinct on fhe posterior lobe, obliterated in front, coarc- 
 tate in front, expanding j)osteriorly ; incision 3 situated before the 
 middle. Elytra narrow, passing the abdomen one-third their length. 
 Wings nearly the same length. Posterior femora not passing the ab- 
 domen. Antennce passing the pronotum slightly. 
 
 Color (siccus) : Eusty brown, varied with lighter and darker .shades. 
 Face and the sides of the pronotum yellow, mottled with brown ; two 
 black bands pass round the front, one immediately above, and the other 
 just below the antennae, (the lower a little broader than the upper;) con- 
 verging behind these, they pass through the eye (plainly to be seen in a 
 fresh specimen) and become a single black stripe behind the eye, which 
 reaches to the posterior incision of the pronotum, decreasing in width 
 as it passes along the lateral angle. Pronotum ash-colbred on the dor- 
 sum ; posterior lobe palest, with minute brown tubercles scattered over 
 it; a dark-brown spot on each side. Elytra brown, darkest next the 
 base; semi-transparent at the apex. Wings transparent, yellow next 
 the base; apical half dusky ; this dark marginal band is broad in front, 
 tapering toward the inner angle but does not reach it; stretches along 
 the front sub-margin nearly to the base ; is somewhat darker at the 
 inner and outer borders, reaching to the apex. Posterior femora red- 
 dish with two oblique darker bands on the outer face, and three black 
 bands inside. 
 
 Dimensions : Length, 1 inch ; to tip of elytra, 1.26 inch ; to end of 
 X)ronotum from vertex, ,31 inch ; femora, .54 inch ; tibiae, .44 inch. 
 
 Habitat : Northeastern New Mexico. 
 
 Oe. carlingiana, Thos. Syn., Oe. carliniana, Thos. (Proc. Acad. Nat. 
 Sci., Phila., 1870, j). 81.) — Female: This species at first sight has much 
 the appearance of Oe. Carolina., (Linn.,) but an examination of the head 
 or thorax, or spreading the wings, will soon undeceive, the observer. 
 Altho.ugh a little smaller than that species, it is more robust, compared 
 with its length. The carving of the head is much the same as Oe. cor- 
 edlipes. Occiput short, sub-convex, not ascending; vertex very broad, 
 slightly deflexed ; the broad, shallow, central foveola divided by a me- 
 dian carina into two elongate pentagonal spaces, the median carina and 
 margin next the eye being the longest sides; the lateral shallow foveolai 
 triangular ; at the top of the frontal ridge is a lunate depression ; frontal 
 
276 GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF THE TERRITORIES. 
 
 ridge somewhat broad, obtusely margined, expanded at the ocellus, ver- 
 tical, reaching the cross suture; lateral carinae distinct, reaching the 
 corners of the face. Antennae filiform, sub-planate. Pronotum sub- 
 cylindrical in front, flat on the posterior lobe, expanded posteriorly, not 
 constricted ; median carina, a raised line, cut by the cross incisions 1 
 and 3 ; posterior incision before the middle ; lateral carinae obliterated 
 in front, but distinct on the front of the posterior lobe ; posterior lobe 
 densely punctate. Elytra and vsdngs extend slightly beyond the abdo- 
 men. Posterior femora short, not reaching the extremity of the abdo- 
 men ; inflated. , 
 
 Color (siccus) : Ash-colored; vertex and posterior lobe of the pronotum 
 tinged with reddish brown. Elytra opaque and somewhat brownish at 
 the base, semi-transparent at the apex; dotted over with pale brown. 
 The wings, when fully expanded, present a very broad fuscus band across 
 the base, parallel with the body, the outer border lying a little beyond 
 the middle of the wing, (when thus expanded ;) a large triangular space 
 at the apex transparent, with dark and white veins. Posterior femora 
 spotted with black inside ; tibite yellowish. 
 
 Male : The male differs only in size, and in having the elytra crossed 
 by irregular brownish bands, somewhat a§ in Oe. aequaUs, but less 
 distinct. 
 
 Dimensions : Female — ^length, 1.38 inch ; to tip of the elytra, 1.58 inch ; 
 to tip of the pronotum , from the vertex, .45 inch ; femora, .64 inch. Male — 
 length, 1.16 inch ; to tip of elytra, 1.36 inch ; to tip of pronotum, .42 inch; 
 femora, .58 inch. 
 
 Habrtat : Found in Colorado and Wyoming ; somewhat rare in the 
 former, but abundant in the latter. It varies considerably in color, 
 sometimes assuming a very distinct purplish tinge throughout, but 
 especially on the elytra and wings ; at other times a pale, dirty yellow, 
 with the spots on the elytra wanting. The purplish variety I observed 
 on\j in Wyoming, between Chugwater and South Pass. This species 
 belongs to that group of Oedipodes of which the Oe. aeqiialis (Say) maj- 
 be taken as the type; to this belong Carolina at one extreme, and tri- 
 fasciata at the other, aequalis, carlingiana, and perhaps cincta and some 
 others. 
 
 Oe. neglecta, Thos. Syn., Oe. neglecta, Thos. (Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci., 
 Phila., 1870,p.81.) — Female: Much like Oe.coraUijJes, (Hald.,) being about 
 the size of the male of that species, for w^hich it has doubtless often been 
 taken. In its car\dngs, as well as size, it comes very near Oe. mexicana, 
 (Sauss.) Vertex very broad, transverse, foveolate; the large central 
 foveola divided, by the recurving margins, into three contiguous 
 foveolae ; these margins, seen from the front, form a W, with a line 
 across the middle angle ; lateral foveolsB obsolete ; frontal ridge bisul- 
 cate above the ocellus, sulcate below, expanded at the ocellus. Prono- 
 tum flat above and rough ; median carina a raised line, very distinctly' 
 severed by cross incision 3, before the middle ; incisions 2 and 3 come 
 together at the median carina ; anterior j)ortion rugose ; posterior lobe 
 covjered on the dorsum with elongate tubercles, its sides granulose. 
 Elytra and wings extend beyond the abdomen. Antennae filiform, 
 reaching the extremity of the pronotum. Posterior femora about the 
 length of the abdomen. 
 
 Color (siccu-s) : Dirty brown, with fuscus spots. Each elytron has a 
 narrow yellow stripe near the dorsal border; base brown, fading toward 
 the apex, which is semi-transparent; marked with groups of fuscus 
 spots, which, at two points, are grouped so as to form irregular bands. 
 Wings yellow at base; a dark band of moderate width crossing just 
 
GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF THE TERRITORIES. 277 
 
 beyond the middle, curving inward to the posterior angle ; apex trans- 
 parent, veins dusky. Posterior femora crossed on the outside by two 
 very indistinct, oblique, reddish bands; inside, beneath, and tibial orange 
 yellow ; spines of the tibia) tipped with black. Antennae i)ale at base, 
 apical portion dusky. 
 
 Dimensions : Female — length, I.IG inch ] to tip of elytra, 1.38 inch.* 
 to end of pronotum, from vertex, .44 inch ; femora, .03 inch. 
 
 Habitat : Northeast New Mexico, Colorado, and Wyoming. Since 
 my return home, I have taken here (Southern Illinois) some specimens 
 which appear to belong to this species. 
 
 This species agrees so nearly with Oe. mcxicana (Sauss.) that I would 
 have marked my specimens as such, but for the fact that the wings are 
 yellow at the base. 
 
 STAUEONOTUS, (FISCHER.) 
 
 S. Elliotti, Thos. Syn., S. ElUotti, Thos. (Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci., 
 Phila., 1870, p. 82.) — Male and female : Medium size, robust, sub-angu- 
 late. Head large, widest below ; face sub-vertical, strongly deflexed 
 below the transverse suture; occiput convex; vertex slightly declined, 
 foveolate ; foveolte shallow, the central broad, the lateral triangular, 
 the points of the three meeting in a sharp angle midway between the 
 upper angle of the eye and the base of the antennte ; frontal ridge not 
 sulcate, narrowed above; lateral carina? distinct, strongly divergent be- 
 low ; eyes medium size, ovate. Pronotum short, sub-truncate in front, 
 posterior angle obtuse and rounded ; the three transverse incisions dis- 
 tinct and closely approximate, 1 shortest, 2 and 3 connect at their ter- 
 mini on the side of the x)ronotum by an oblique depression ; incision 3 
 about the middle of the pronotum; median carina distinct, not elevated; 
 lateral carinre distinct on the anterior lobe, and front part of the pos- 
 terior lobe ; the spaces on the anterior lobe between the median and 
 lateral cariuie depressed like shallow basins. Elytra and wings about 
 as long as the abdomen. Posterior femora inflated near the base, atten- 
 uate near the tip. Pectus not broader than the head. Anteunfe fili- 
 form, reaching the end of the j^ronotum. Anal appendages of female 
 very short and blunt. Color (siccus) yellow, varied with brown. Head 
 yellow, occiput dotted with brown, sometimes forming imi)erfect waved 
 lines; antennce pale at the base, remainder brown. Pronotum with a 
 yellow cross on the back ; beginning at the lateral angles of the poste- 
 rior lobe, the stripes converge anteriorly, and. Crossing about tbe middle, 
 fade on the anterior lobe ; a triangular brown spot, between these stripes, 
 on the i)osterior lobe; sides brownish, fading below. Elytra brown, a 
 yellow stripe along the inner margin ; lower half dotted with dark 
 brown. Wings transparent, veins white except at the apex, where they 
 are dusky. Posterior femora yellow, with two or three oblique brown- 
 ish spots near the upper edge, which cross and become distinct bands 
 on the inside ; knee brown ; tibiae dusky above and at the tips, rest 
 yellow ; (I think bluish in the living specimens.) 
 
 Dimensions : Female — ^length, 1.07 inch ; to tip of the elytra, 1.10 inch ; 
 to end of pronotum, .34 inch; femur, .62 inch. Male— length .88 inch ; 
 to tip of elytra, .88 inch ; femur, .00 inch. 
 
 Habitat: Colorado and Wyoming. 
 
 Named in honor of Mr. Henry W. Elliott, artist of the expedition, 
 who, in addition to his arduous duties, was constant in his efibrts to col- 
 lect specimens of natural history, and who rendered me valuable assist- 
 ance in collecting plants and insects. 
 
 This sub-genus of Fischer (Orthop. Europ., p. 351) I have here given 
 
278 GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF THE TERRITOEIES. 
 
 as a genus, as the distinguisliing characters are sufficient to separate it 
 from StenohotJiriis. Sippopedon (Saussure) approaches rather too near 
 this genus to remain as a separate group. 
 
 ACROLOPHITUS, (NOV. GEN.) 
 
 Generic characters: (Edipodiform, head pyramidal, apex directed 
 upward. Occiput narrowed anteriorly, ascending ; vertex pyramidal, tri- 
 angular, pointing upward between the eyes and antennae ; eyes ovate, 
 placed high and well forward ; face vertical, carinated ; frontal ridge, 
 sulcate. Maxillary palpi medium length, terminal joints sub-equal, 
 rather short ; labial palpi proportionally longer, ultimate joint longest. 
 Antenuoe stout sub-plaiiate, basal joint very large, triangular, inserted 
 in deep oblong foveolie under the pyramidal vertex; medium length. 
 Prouotum of moderate length, coarctate; posterior lobe with the me- 
 dian carina elevated in the form of a crest arcuate on the top, the sharp 
 posterior angle extending over the base of the elytra ; the anterior por- 
 tion rounded on the dorsum, not carinated; the three transverse incis- 
 ions distinct, two sinuous, three bent abruptly forward round the point 
 of the crest. Elytra narrow, reaching beyond the abdomen ; wings 
 ample ; legs long, slender, and pilose. Presternum not spined ; pectus 
 narrow. 
 
 A. Jiirtijyes, Thos. Syn. Gryllus Mrtipes, Say. (Amer. Ent., Ill, PI. 
 XXXIV, Le Conte's Ed., I, 78, PI. XXXIY, Fig. 1.)— The description 
 given by Mr. Say, with the figure, will enable the entomologist readily 
 to determine this species. Tlie figure gives rather too dark a shade to 
 the abdomen and thorax, which is also the case with the next figure on 
 the same plate, {Gnjlliis formosus ;) the color of these parts varies from 
 a pale greenish yellow to a brownish yellow. I have formed the genus 
 AerolopJutus for the reception of this species, which should no longer 
 remain buried iu the old genus Gryllus, wiiich is now restricted to proper 
 limits. I may be permitted to remark here that I had the good fortune 
 while iu Colorado to pass over the same ground traversed by Mr. Say, 
 and to obtain specimens of all the species of Gryllus described by him, 
 viz : aqiialis, hivittatiis, formosus, Mrtipes, nuhilus, and trifasciatus. 
 All of these have now been placed in modern genera, except formosus, 
 for which probably a new genus will have to be formed, 
 
 TOMONOTUS, (SAUSS.) 
 
 T. niefanus, Sauss. (Ort'hop. l!fov. Amer. II, 24. Eev. et Mag. de Zool., 
 18G1, p. 321.) 
 
 T. mexicanus, Sauss. (Orthop. Nov. Amer. II, 23. Eev. et Mag. 
 et de Zool., 1861, p. 321.) — I have specimens of two species of Tomo- 
 noti, which, I think, belong to the species thus named by Saus- 
 sure; they certainly agree very closely with his short descriptions. 
 The T. nietanus, when living, appears quite black ; its bright-red wings 
 being visible at a considerable distance when flying, and the sharp 
 notes of the males being easily recognized by the ear which has once 
 heard them. It is closely allied to the Oe. sulplmrea Burm, which be- 
 longs to this genus ; the notes of the male of this species can also be 
 recognized by the practiced ear. It is jjossible that the notes of the 
 males may, under some circumstances, enable us to determine whether 
 certain differences are specific or only of variety. 
 
 The generic characters by which Saussure proposes to distinguish 
 this genus are not well chosen, as they scarcely cover the group he evi- 
 dently intended to embrace ; nor is the gap between Oedipoda and 
 Gomphocerus or Trayocepliala quite broad enough for the insertion of a 
 
.GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF THE TEREITORIES. 279 
 
 genus botween them. Before a true natural arrangement can be ob- 
 tained the species of these genera and of the heterogeneous Oedipoda 
 ■will have to be thrown together and then separated into groups by other 
 characters. 
 
 T. 2yseiido-nietanus, Thos. Syn., T.pseudo-nictanus, Thos. (Proc. Acad. 
 Nat. Sci., Phila., 1870, p. 82.) — Male: Size and appearance much like T. 
 nictanus, (Sauss.,) from which it diifers only as follows : The facial costa is 
 slightly broader and less excavated below the ocellus ; the occiput and 
 l^ronotum less rugose ; the antennae nearer cylindrical. The color is 
 darker, the sides being deep-black throughout to the extremity of the 
 elytra; the posterior part of the occiput and dorsum of the pronotum 
 an ashy yellow, the front lobe and lateral margins of the pronotum 
 dotted v.ith black; the upper edge of each posterior femur has two 
 yellow' spots, the one next the base the larger ; the entire under surface 
 a sbining black; wdugs, as \\\ nictanus ; base rosaceous ; posterior mar- 
 gin broadly margined with black, and a facia of the same running along 
 the anterior sub-margin nearly to the base. 
 
 Dimensions. Male: Length, 1 inch; to tip of elytra, 1.25 inch; femur, 
 .G7 inch. ; tibia, .53 inch. 
 
 Habitat: Found near Canon City, Colorado, close to the mountains 
 in a caQon; also near Fort Fettermau, Wyoming. I have not seen the 
 female. This may possibly be a variety of T. nietamis, but from the 
 permanent difference in the color of the pronotum, and from the fact 
 that it was found at but one point in Colorado, and over a very limited 
 territory in \Yyoming, while the other was found more generally distrib- 
 uted on the Plains, 1 conclude it is a different species. 
 
 [XoTE. — While passing from Fort Fettermau to Eed Buttes, in Wyom- 
 ing, we encountered a vast swarm of CaJoptenns spretus, not Hying but 
 on the ground pairing. I noticed here, as I had under sinrilar circum- 
 stances before, that where these were very numerous, few specimens of 
 any other species were to be found. In this case almost the only species 
 to be seen Avere T. nietanus and Oe. trifcificiata, whereas but a few. miles 
 back other species could be found in abundance.] 
 
 STENOBOTHEUS, (FISCHER.) 
 
 a. Antennre filiform or sub-filiform. 
 
 b. Lateral foveolse obsolete. 
 
 [Note. — It was with some hesitancy that I concluded to describe 
 any of the species which appear to belong to this genus. Although 
 Fischer is generally very careful and exact, the characters of this 
 genus, as given by him, show the difficulty he has fallen into by cling- 
 ing too closely to variations in a given part. The consequence is that 
 this genus has become the receptacle for a number of species varying 
 ■widely from the type. In fact, we may truly say that the distinguishing 
 character (if his italics are to be relied upon) is the exception instead of 
 the rule. Finding that neither Scudder nor Saussure had allowed them- 
 selves to be trammeled by this character, I have concluded to follow 
 them. The subdivisions given above are after Saussure, the latter 
 being in direct opposition to the leading character before alluded to. 
 But, notwithstanding these strictures, I admit there is a marked group 
 for which Fischer evidently intended this genus, the similarity being 
 easily detected by the eye.] 
 
 St. ohionus^uov. sp. — Female: Head somewhat narrow, face vSub-verti- 
 cal; vertex slightly deflexed, rounded in front, margins elevated, a slight 
 median line; frontal costa obtuse, convex above, with a very slight 
 depression at the ocellus; pronotum sub-truncate in front, posterior 
 
280 GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF THE TERRITORIES. 
 
 extremity obtuse-angled; tricarinate; median carina slightly elevated, 
 entire; lateral carinse converging before the middle, expanding pos- 
 teriorly, slightly arcnate in this part; cross incisions indistinct, and all 
 on the anterior half; anal appendages of moderate length ; elytra and 
 wings a little longer than the abdomen. 
 
 Color (siccus) : Testaceous brown, varied with ashy green. Face 
 greenish, varied with light and dark shades ; upper portion of the cheeks 
 and cranium brown; a very narrow yellow line running from the eye to 
 the lateral carina of the pronotum. Pronotum testaceous, the anterior 
 lobes being darkest ; sides brown ; posterior lobe an ashy green, with a 
 dusky median stripe. Elytra pale reddish brown, translucent at the 
 apex; fuscus spots along the middle field and lower border. Venter 
 and pectus dull yellow. 
 
 Male: Differs from the female only in size; in the face being more 
 rounded ; the upper portions of the head and pronotum being darker; 
 and the spots on the inside of the femora not so dark. 
 
 Dimensions : Female — length, 1 inch ; to tip of the elytra, 1.1 inch; to 
 end of pronotum, .35 inch ; antennfe, about the same ; femur, .52 inch. 
 Male — length, .65 inch ; femur, .40 inch. 
 
 Habitat : First seen on the Arkansas in the vicinity of Caiion City ; 
 found in abundance on a species of Obione. 
 
 St. hrunneus, nov. sp. — Female : Somewhat similar to St. prapinquans 
 (Scudd.) in size and appearance, but rather larger. Vertex broad, scarcely 
 expanding in front of the eyes; angle rounded; apex blunt, margins 
 raised; a faint median line visible. Frontal ridge convex, punctate on 
 the margins, expanding below, not depressed at the ocellus ; seen from 
 the side arcuate. Pronotum eub-truncate in front, posterior angle 
 rounded ; slightly convergent in the middle ; the three carinre about 
 equally prominent ; the three transverse incisions visible on the dorsum; 
 3 is situated about the middle and is the only one that cuts the median 
 carina. Elytra narrow, about the length of the abdomen; wings about 
 the same length. Posterior femora just the length of the abdomen. 
 Presternum transversely convex in front; the posterior part slightly 
 excavated in the middle. The superior anal corniculi covered by the 
 hood-like extension of the last abdominal segment; lower pair rather 
 short and slender. Antennae reach the tip of the pronotum. 
 
 Color (siccus) : Reddish brown. The vertex and the face bright red- 
 dish brown, bordered each side by a yellow stripe which descends in 
 front of the eyes ; parts of the mouth yellow ; cranium brown, palest in 
 the middle; a narrow yellow line runs from the eye to the lateral carina 
 of the pronotum. Pronotum brown. Wings hyaline, the nerves of the 
 apical portion dark. Femora on the disk testaceous; beneath yellow ; 
 inside crossed by two black bands. Tibiae surrounded by an indistinct 
 yellow ring below the knee ; rest a dull yellow (probably blue when 
 alive.) Venter and pectus dull yellow. 
 
 Male : Differs only in size and as follows: the face more arcuate; the 
 upper portions of the head and pronotum darker; inside of the femora 
 not so dark. 
 
 Dimensions: Female — length, 1 inch; to tip of the elytra, 1.10 inch; to 
 end of pronotum, .35 inch; antennse, .35 inch; femur, .52; inch. Male — 
 length, .65 inch ; femur, .40 inch. 
 
 Habitat: Found with preceding; and probably in Eastern Wyoming. 
 
 8t. quadri-maculatus^ nov. sp. — A little smaller than St. ohiomiSj simi- 
 lar in shape. Occiput convex, ascending ; vertex of moderate width, 
 not expanded in front of the eyes, front margins raised, meeting in a 
 blunt right- angle; face slightly arcuate, dellexed below; frontal costa 
 
GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF THE TERRITORIES. 281 
 
 prominent, flat, not sulcate; margins parallel, punctate, slightly de- 
 pressed at the ocellus, reaching the clypeus ; lateral carina? distinct and 
 ivrcurate, reaching the lower angles. Pronotum short, truncate in front, 
 angle behind, tricariuate; median carina slightly elevated ; the lateral 
 carinas more obtuse, convergent a little in front of the middle, forming 
 an entering obtuse angle ; divergent anteriorly and posteriorly ; cross 
 incision 3 sinuate, cutting all the carina?, and situated about the middle; 
 incisions 1 and 2 represented on the dorsum bj' cross rows of punctures. 
 Elytra narrow, and shorter than the abdomen. Posterior femora not 
 passing the abdomen. 
 
 Color (siccus) : Yellow with brownish spots and stripes. Face yellow ; 
 cheeks yellow and fuscus ; a narrow fuscns stripe along the cranium ; 
 a broad stripe of the same reaching from each eye to the pronotum. 
 Pronotum with alternating dashes of yellow and brown ; lateral carina? 
 yellow ; corners of the posterior lobe brown ; sides darkest above, yellow 
 below. Elytra pale reddish brown, fading toward the apex, with four 
 brown spots in a row along the middle field, and a little dash of the same 
 near the base. Wings hyaline ; nerves mostly white. Abdomen with 
 rings of yellow and brown. Disk and two spots on the upper carina of 
 the posterior femur reddish-brown. Antennie yellow, darkest at the 
 tips. Under surface pale yellow. 
 
 Dimensions : Female, length .88 inch ; to tip of the elytra, .75 inch ; 
 femur, .50 inch. 
 
 Habitat : Southern Colorado and, I think. Eastern Wyoming. 
 
 [Note. — The living insect is a pale pea-green where the dry is yellow. 
 This and all other species were placed in alcohol before being dried.] 
 
 Variety : a. Face nearly vertical ; frontal costa more prominent and 
 somewhat sulcate ; lateral carina^, not so niuch bent or so divergent ; cra- 
 nium not quite so convex. Lateral cariute of the pronotum less con- 
 stricted. The yellow spaces broader and paler ; the brown more 
 restricted. This may prove to be a distinct species, but the general 
 appearance is so much the same that I have preferred describing the 
 latter as a variety until more specimens can be obtained. Females 
 only seen. 
 
 REMARKS ON THE CALOPTENUS SPEETUS. 
 
 The following additional facts in regard to this destructive species 
 have been obtained since the publication of the report of last year. I 
 would remark, first, that a pretty full account of the incursions of this 
 insect into the Mississippi Valley has been published in the xVmerican 
 Entomologist by the lamented Walsh, who, after a thorough examina- 
 tion of all the data he could obtain, comes to the following conclusion, 
 which I quote in his own words : 
 
 The above facts, aud otJiers which it would be tedious to particularize, snfficieutly 
 show that the Hateful Grasshopper, when suddenly transferred from its native Alpine 
 home in the Rocky Mountains, some eight thousand feet above the level of the sea, to 
 the warm regions of the valley of the Mississippi, less than a thousand feet above the 
 sea level, gradually becomes diseased and barren, and loses, more or less, its natural 
 appetites and instincts. Why we do not observe the same phenomena in the case of 
 the Colorado potato bug, which was originally a denizen of the same cold Alpine 
 country, is not difficult to explain. The former insect reaches the Mississippi lowlands 
 at one sudden flight, and in one season ; it has therefore no opi)ortuiiity to become 
 gradually acclimatized and inured to the new conditions of life under whicli it is called 
 upon to exist. Consequently, it becomes diseased and barren, and finally perishes. 
 The latter insect, on the other hand, has reached the Mississippi lowlands only by slow 
 and gradual approaches, breeding at every way-station on the road, and thus becom- 
 ing, generation after generation, more and more acclimatized to a higher temperature, 
 as indicated by the thermometer, and to a greater atmospheric pressure, as indicated 
 by tlie barometer. Consequently, it may now be considered as a permanently accli- 
 matized resident of our great western valley ; though even here it thrives much better, 
 
282 GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF THE TERRITORIES. 
 
 r.:id extends eastward mucli faster in a cold northerly than in a warm southerly lati- 
 tude. Wo have traced hack the history of this insect as far as the year 1820 ; and in 
 all these forty-eight years, although no less than seven invasions of the country to tho 
 east of the Rocky Mountains have taken place, namely, in 1820, 1856, 1857, 1864, 1866, 
 1867, and 1868, it has never yet got within one hundred and twelve miles of the Mis- 
 sissippi River ; and there is uo reason to 8ui>pose it will ever do so for the future." 
 There must necessarily be some limit or other to the powers of flight of this insect. 
 It would be absurd, for example, to suppose that it could fly, in ono season, as far east- 
 ward as England or France, or even as far as the Atlantic Ocean. Consequently, as it 
 can be proved by historical records, that it has never, within the last half century, 
 reached within one hundred and twelve miles of the Mississiplii, the fair and reason- 
 able inference is that it never will do so in the future. 
 
 His views in regard to the liatcliing grounds or nativity of this insect 
 are strongly contested by William N. Byers, esquire, of Denver, who has 
 given the subject considerable attention. Wliile Mr. Walsh believes the 
 mountain canons are the points from which they issue, (with whicli I at 
 first agreed,) Mr. Byers, on the contrary, thinks they come from the i)Laius 
 west of the Eocky Mountains. I will hereafter give my present opinion, 
 my first view having been somewhat modified by subsequent investiga- 
 tion. I have received from Mr. Byers a full statement of his observations * 
 in regard to the history and habits of this insect, from which 1 make the 
 following quotations : 
 
 They generally enter Colorado from some jioiut between north and west, usually 
 about north 30^ west. Tho most destructive flight we ever had here was in 1864. 
 Early in the season we heard of great swarms of grasshoppers hatching out upon the 
 plains of Montana, in the valleys of the Three Forks of the Missouri River, and along tho 
 Yellowstone. Later we heard of their progress south and east. In August I .was with 
 Professor Parry (now botanist of the Department of Agriculture) and Velie in an 
 attempt to ascend Long's Peak. On the 21st we returned to the plains at the mouth of 
 St. Train's Canon, about flity miles north of Denver. A man came up the valley, in the 
 evening, to where we stopped, and reported tho grasshoppers entering the valley from 
 the north. The next morning, August 22d, I rode down the valley and found portions 
 of the corn fields and grass blackened by their nnmbers. About live days after, 
 August 27th, the swarm reached Denver, darkening the sky and often covering tho 
 streets. They devoured corn, tomatoes, ])otato vines, onions, &c., almost entirely, and 
 within the space of three to five days. The column moved on, say ten miles per day, 
 and left the (then) settled portions of Colorado within the valley or basin of tho 
 Arkansas. We heard no more of them. But myriads remained hei'e, or continued 
 arriving from the northwest, and deposited their eggs in plowed fields and upon rolling, 
 sandy, and gravelly land, where the sod was unbroken. In September and October 
 most of them died, The first swarm devoured all that Avas green, but Colorado's green 
 crops in August are of small value compared with those harvested in July and up to 
 August 10th. In March following the eggs deposited by them began hatching, first upon 
 aaudy, and gravelly hillsides, facing the sun, and later in plowed fields aiid in colder 
 soils, the outcoming brood reaching too late in May. In walking over the ground tho 
 young swarm rose about the feet like a gray mist or dust, the lit'tle creatures hopping 
 away like fleas. Where numerous they literally devoured every green thing. If a 
 wheat field (in which none were hatched) was attacked they moved across it, or from 
 the circumference to the center, with the regularity aud the effect of advancing flames. 
 
 The flights of 1864 destroyed corn aud other late crops ; the youug of 1865 ate up 
 wheat and other small grains. The comparative damage was probably as one to four, 
 the young brood being far the worst, simply because their opportunity was greatest. 
 Generally they move leisurely ; their direction influenced largely by the direction of 
 the wind. In fact I attribute mainly their general course to the prevailing wmds which 
 come during that portion of the season when they fly most, almost invariably from the 
 northwest. Along toward noon, in bright, warm days, they rise by circular flights, 
 each seeming to act individually, to a considerable height, and then sail awaj'', with 
 tolerable regularity, in one general direction. If there is no wind, many of them con- 
 tinue Avhirling about in the air, like bees swarming, but, away beyond, myriads can be 
 seen moving across the sun toward the southeast, looking hke snow-flakes. If there 
 is a change in the atmosphere, such as the approach of a thunder-storm, or gale of 
 wind, they come down precipitately, seeming to fold their wings and fall by the force 
 of gravity, thousands being killed by the fall, if it is upon stone, or other hard surface. 
 If not interrupted by such causes they descend during the afternoon. 
 
 The swarm of August, 1864, and the brood of April and May, 1865, are the only gen- 
 eral visitations that have scourged Colorado. Similar ones, both flights and broods, 
 
GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF THE TERRITORIES. 283 
 
 hnve visited portions of tlie Territory each year since, but generally coufiucdtoijartic- 
 ular localities or narrow belts. 
 
 The swarms that invaded Kansas and portions of Western Iowa in 18(57 were traced 
 from their hatching grounds in Western Dakota and Montana, along the east flank 
 of the Rochy Mountains, and in the valleys and plains of the Black Hills, and between 
 them and tlie main Rocky Mountain range. 
 
 The Hateful Grasshopper reaches perfection only in a hot dry atmosphere. The great- 
 er the heat of air and earth, the brighter the sun, the dryer everything, the more it 
 flourishes. The egg will hatch at a low temperatui-e ; cold will probably not destroy 
 ir ; individual insects will endure a wonderful degree of cold, some living through the 
 entire winter hero ; but under such circumstances I do not believe that the young will 
 become a perfect insect, capable of perpetuating its species. Heavy dews, frequent 
 showers with prevailing cloudy weather and humid atmosphere are very unfavorable 
 to their growth. Hence I argtie that there is no danger of their ever becoming a gen- 
 eral or permanent scourge in the United States. The exceptional seasons, like that of 
 13!)7, when the season has favored their early development, and prevailing westerly 
 ■winds carry them steadily and rapidly on their journey, they may invade some of the 
 States of the Mississippi Valley. Their eggs deposited there may even hatch, but I think 
 the product will be a feeble and comparatively harmless generation, from which none 
 v^ill follow. 
 
 In 185*2 I first observed the insect in question in the vally of the south fork of the 
 Columbia River, not far from Fort Hall. A swarm lasting two or three days passed 
 over from about W. S. W., moving with the wind, at times darkening the sun, cover- 
 ing horses, cattle, and wagons, against which they were driven. The Digger and 
 Snake Indians were gathering them for food. In 1865, when they hatched here, upon 
 attaining about half their full size, they were attacked by a fly, which, stinging them 
 in the back between the root of the wings, deposited one or more eggs, which produced 
 a large white maggot. The worm subsisted upon the grasshopper, finally causing its 
 death, when it cut its way out and entered the earth. In this way probably half were 
 destroyed, often covering the ground and filling the furrows in plowed fields with their 
 carcases. The remainder took to flight, moving southeast, when their Avings were 
 sufficiently develoiied, and we lost trace of them on the great Plains. In the same 
 year, about the last of August, I was in the valley of South Boulder Creek, close up to 
 the Snowy Range, and found the young grasshoppers very numerous, varying in size 
 fiom those just hatched to one-third grown. I know that winter caught and killed 
 tliem liefore they were able to fly out of the valley, or old enough to produce eggs. 
 
 In 1867 1 observedthe same thing in the valleys west of the Snowy Range. Late in that 
 year the Middle Park was also invaded by full-grown grasshoppers that came from the 
 northwest. They deposited eggs in favorable ground. In 1863 those eggs began hatching 
 in the lowest and warmest portions of the Park in June, increasing in Julj', and con- 
 tinuing through August and into September in the higher portions of the Park, uj) to- 
 ward its rim, where snow and frost continue later in the spring and summer. The first 
 hatched moved from their native idace up the Park eastward, but never got out of it. 
 The later broods never left their hatching ground. All were destroyed by the fall 
 snows. From the middle to the 25th of August, 1868, I was upon aud near the Snowy 
 Range east of Middle Park, and on Long's Peak. There was a large, daily flight of full- 
 grown grasshoppers, from about W. N. W., reaching, apjiarently, to the highest limit 
 of vision when on the highest peaks. Daily showers i^revailed of rain, snow and hail, 
 usually from 12 m. to 3 p. m., and most of the flying insects were beaten down by them, 
 when they became so chillecl aud benumbed that they never rose again. The snow- 
 fields in many places were literally covered with the dead aud dying. Bears were very 
 plentiful feeding and fatteuing upon them. Hundreds, yes, thousands of bushels might 
 have been shoveled up from the hard snow. 
 
 I know that they did not come from the adjacent Middle Park, because those bred 
 there had not then attained their full growth, and never did, as before stated. The 
 migrating swarms, therefore, must have come from beyond — from the Green River basin ; 
 or, as I think, from the wide, hot, dry plains of Utah. 
 
 These notes by Mr. Byers contain so many important fiicts in respect 
 to the historj' of this species, that I have thonght it best to make very 
 fall quotations from them, that they may be on record for future exam- 
 ination. During the expedition of the present year, while traveling" up 
 the Xorth Platte, between Fort Fetterman and Red Buttes, (August 
 2i)-23), we observed vast numbers of this species. They were not on 
 the wing, having to all appearance ended their flight, and were now 
 pairing, doubtless intending to deposit their eggs there. Fremont en- 
 countered a similar swarm in jiassiug over this part of the ]S'orth 
 Platte Valley. He remarks, " This insect has been so numerous since 
 
284 GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF THE TERRITORIES. 
 
 leaving Fort Laramie that the ground seemed alive with them; 
 and in walking a little moving cloud preceded our footsteps." They 
 had probably ceased their flight, and were preparing to deposit their 
 eggs. By reference to my present report on the agriculture of this sec- 
 tion it will be seen that here there appears to be an almost constant 
 current of air sweeping down the Platte Valley from the west. Wlien 
 we reached South Pass City I learned from Major Baldwin that about 
 the first of the month (August) a large swarm had crossed over the 
 pass from the west, moving eastward, and that they had not goue to 
 Wind River Valley. I am satisfied that they did not go upon the Lar- 
 amie Plains, as I visited that section twice during the season. Nor did 
 we meet with any swarms during our passage uj) the Sweetwater ; we 
 may, therefore, reasonably infer that those we saw on the North Platte 
 were the same that crossed the mountains at South Pass. From whence 
 did they come ? As we heard nothing of them during our passage down 
 Big Sandy along the stage road, I infer that they must have come from 
 the northwest; but what distance I have no means of ascertaining. As 
 heretofore stated, they have been very destructive in Utah for the past 
 three years, not only injuring very materially the growing crops, but 
 eating the leaves from the fruit trees to such an extent as to injure the 
 fruit. From Dr. A. T. McDonald, of Provo City, I learned the follow- 
 ing particulars in regard to the incursions of this insect into the Terri- 
 tory. That the i^revailing cold and winter storms are from the north- 
 west, but that the grasshoppers seldom come from that direction. On 
 the contrary, they generally came from the northeast through the 
 caiions, being brouglit in by the local currents which sweep through 
 these mountain openings, and that they generally pass oft" in a south- 
 west direction, though the swarms that come in often remain and de- 
 posit their eggs, from which another brood arises in the spring. Some- 
 times, after a swarm has departed to the southwest, the wind changes, 
 and they are driven back to be swallowed up in the lakes, or perish in 
 the valley. The time of coming varies from the middle of May to the 
 middle of August. The eggs that are deposited here usually hatch out 
 in April and May. The growing crops receive their greatest injury 
 from the young, which are hatched in the valley. The usual method of 
 fighting these young gormands is to drive them into the irrigating 
 ditches, where they are drowned in the water. When they are a little 
 older they are often checked by scattering straw along the edge of the 
 ditches, and driving them into it early in the morning, and then firing 
 it ; those which are not destroyed by the fire being caught in the water 
 of the ditch and drowned. But these methods of combating them are 
 practicable only when they are in the larvae and pupa states. 
 
 Dr. McDonald says that in Utah, at least, the females deposit their 
 eggs in the ground in sacks — a fact heretofore noticed and published — 
 on the gravelly elevated plateaus, or foot-hills. And from my observa- 
 tions this season I am inclined to agree with him in the opinion that 
 these elevated table lands, which are composed of coarse sand and 
 gravel, and but slightly covered with vegetation, are the principal hatch- 
 ing grounds of the migratory swarms. The local broods are to be found 
 all over the Eocky Mountain region, from Raton Mountains as far north 
 as I have been, and as far west, at least, as Salt Lake Valley. These 
 are found hatching out in the grassy valleys and broad plains of the 
 lower lands, and up the mountain canons almost to the snow limits. 
 And these broods appear to have little or no connection with the mi- 
 grating broods ; but the solution of these questions will require more 
 extended observations by those who can distinguish the species. 
 
PA.ET IV. 
 
 SPECIAL EEPOKTS 
 
 I. PKELIMINAEY PALEONTOLOGICAL REPORT. By F. B. MEEK. 
 II. ON THE TERTIARY COALS OF THE WEST. By JAS. T. HODGE, 
 ni. ON THE ANCIENT LAIvES OF WESTERN AMERICA : THEIR DEPOSITS 
 
 AND DRAINAGE. By J. S. NEWBERRY, LL.D. 
 IV. ON THE VERTEBRATE FOSSILS OF THE TERTIARY FORMATIONS OF 
 THE W^EST. By JOSEPH LEIDY, LL.D. 
 V. ON THE FOSSIL PLANTS OF THE CRETACEOUS AND TERTIARY FOR- 
 MATIONS OF ICANSAS AND NEBRASKA. By MR. L. LESQUEREUX. 
 VL ON THE FOSSIL REPTILES AND. FISHES OF THE CRETACEOUS ROCKS 
 
 OF KANSAS. By PROF. E. D. COPE. 
 VII. ON THE FOSSIL FISHES OF THE GREEN RIVER GROUP. By PROF. E. 
 
 D. COPE. 
 VIII. ON THE REPTILES AND FISHES OBTAINED BY THE NATURALISTS OF 
 THE EXPEDITION. By PROF. E. D. COPE. 
 IX. ON THE INDUSTRIAL RESOURCES OF WESTERN KANSAS AND EAST- 
 ERN COLORADO. By MR. R. S. ELLIOTT. 
 
I.— PRELIMINARY PALEONTOLOGICAL REPORT, 
 
 CONSISTING OF 
 
 LISTS OF FOSSILS, WITH DESCRIPTIONS OF SOME NEW 
 
 TYPES, ETC. 
 
 By F. B. Meek. 
 
 GENERAL EEMARKS.* 
 
 The few Silurian fossils enumerated in the following list appear, 
 judging from their affinities, to belong to a low horizon in that series or 
 system of rocks. OpMleta complanata, as is well known, occurs in the 
 calciferous group of the Lower Sikiriau in New York. The specimens 
 in the collection referred to this shell are smaller than the usual size of 
 Vanuxem's species, and may possibly belong to a distinct representative 
 form, though they seem to agree in all respects, excepting in size, with 
 0. compJanata. An associated sub-discoid shell, belonging apparently 
 to the genus RapJiistoma, is also nearlj^ allied to a species found along 
 with 0. eomplanata in rocks of about the age of the calciferous along 
 Lake Pepin in Minnesota and Wisconsin. Another little gasteropod, 
 however, found associated with those mentioned above, and for which I 
 have proposed the name Bucandla nana, is not only congeneric with, but 
 even specifically allied to one found in the Medina sandstone, and some 
 of the higher rocks in New York, though it is nevertheless specifically 
 distinct from the New York form. So far as these few fossils warrant 
 the expression of an opinion respecting the age of the rock from which 
 they were obtained, I should be inclined to place it nearly on a parallel 
 with the calciferous division of the Lower Silurian. 
 
 The rock from which the single Orthis was obtained at Colorado City 
 is probably also Lower Silurian, as this shell belongs to* a section of the 
 genus found in rocks of that age, and is unlike any carboniferous or 
 Devonian form known to me. 
 
 In regard to the carboniferous species mentioned in the following list, 
 I have elsewhere remarked that although some of them " are forms 
 known to be common to the lower carboniferous and the coal measures 
 of the Western States, they are all, with one or two exceptions, so far 
 as they have been identified, found in the coal measures of Illinois, Iowa, 
 Kansas, and Nebraska, while not a single one of them is identical with 
 any of the species peculiar to the carboniferous limestone series below 
 the horizon of the millstone grit in the Western States, though about 
 fourteen of them are peculiar to the coal measures there." t 
 
 From these facts it would seem that if the lower carboniferous lime- 
 stones of the Mississippi Valley are represented at the localities from 
 which these collections were obtained, they probably contain few fossils, 
 and that the principal fossiliferous carboniferous strata there belong to 
 the horizon of the coal measures, as developed farther eastward. We 
 
 * I am iiutler oblijrations to Professor Henry for the usual facilities at the Sniithsouiaa 
 Iii*titutiou, while preparing this paper, 
 t Proceed, Am. Philosoph. Soc, Phila., XI, p. 428, 1870. 
 
288 GEOLOGICAL SUEVEY OF THE TEKKITORIES. 
 
 bave reason to believe that tliere are, however, in the region of the Great 
 Salt Lake, beds representing some of the higher members of the lower 
 carboniferous series of the Mississippi Valley. Colonel Simpson brought 
 from there, in a dark, very hard limestone matrix, specimens of one of 
 those curious, screw-shaped Po??/2^o«, known by the generic name ^rc/iim- 
 cdes, so common in the lowev carboniferous limestones of the Western 
 States, but unknown in the coal measures. Some of the corals brought 
 by Colonel Simpson and others are also unlike any of those known in 
 the coal measures of the Mississippi Valley, and more nearly allied to 
 forms found in the upper members of the lower carboniferous lime- 
 stone series in the States east of the Rocky Mountains. 
 
 Among all of the carboniferous fossils yet brought from any part of 
 the llocky Mountains, as well as from localities west of there, I have 
 never seen a single species indicating the existence there of any repre- 
 sentative of the Burlington limestone, which, with its great profusion 
 of beautiful criuoids, forms so marked a horizon in the carboniferous 
 rocks as developed in some of the States farther eastward. This, how- 
 ever, is just what we might expect, since the Burlington limestone, even 
 in the States alluded to, is comparatively limited in its geographical 
 range, and evidently owes its origin to local physical conditions ; while 
 the Chester, St. Louis, and Keokuk limestones have a much wider geo- 
 graphical range in the Mississippi Valley, and hence would be more apt 
 to be represented at these distant western localities. 
 
 Judging from the few fossils yet brought from the far West that be- 
 long to the lower carboniferous, the evidence seems to favor the con- 
 clusion that the rocks from which they were collected rather represent 
 the Chester and St. Louis beds than any of the older divisions. It is 
 not improbable, however, that when the whole series of carboniferous 
 deposits in the Eocky Mountains can be thoroughl}' worked out in detail, 
 there may be found subdi%isions there that have no representatives in 
 the Mississippi Valley, as we have reason to believe several members of 
 the series, as made out in the latter districts, may be wanting farther 
 westward. So far as yet known we have no reason to believe, from any 
 paleontological evidence,' that the important oldest member of the car- 
 boniferous, known in Ohio as the Waverly group or series, occurs in the 
 Eocky Mountain region. 
 
 The small collection of fossils I have placed in a separate list, under 
 the heading " Permo-carboniferons," are contained in a brittle, whitish, 
 cherty matrix from Box Elder Station, on Platte River. Although 
 without exception, so far as they can be identified, forms that have an 
 extensive range in the coal measures of the Western States — most of 
 them even extending into the middle and lower coal measures, and one 
 even into the Chester limestone* — these fossils, when viewed together 
 as a group, point to a higher position in the series than those that pre- 
 cede them in the following lists. Indeed, there are probably few Euro- 
 pean geologists unacquainted with the range of these forms in the 
 carboniferous rocks of this country, that would hesitate to refer them to 
 the Permian. The genera Pseudo-monotis {Monotis of some, not of 
 Bronn) and BaJcevellia are generally regarded in Europe as characteristic 
 of the Permian, while the Schizodus, Myalina and Pleurojjhorus, particu- 
 larly the former two, are specifically closely allied to foreign Permian 
 types. The fact, too, that we find among the specimens from this chert 
 but one species of the BracMopoda {Remipromies crassus) so very com- 
 
 * I have recently identified Hemipronites crassus, from specimens sliowius; both thejn- 
 ternal and external characters, among some collections sent to me from Professor 
 Stevenson from the Chester limestone of West Virginia. 
 
GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF THE TERRITORIES. 2'S9 
 
 mou iu our western coal measures, and scarcely any of tbe coal-measure 
 Gasteropoda, and none of the Polyzoa, Fonwiiniferaj corals or fisli re- 
 mains, when viewed in connection with the affinities of the forms men- 
 tioned, certainly imparts quite a Permian aspect to this little group of 
 fossils. 
 
 On the other hand, when we bear in mind the fact above stated, that 
 «// of the species, so far as they can be identified, are certainly known 
 to rauge far down into the unquestionable coal-measures of the western 
 States, while we here also find associated with them a rhlUlpsiaj a 
 genus entirely unknown in the Permian of Europe, and even belonging 
 to an order or suborder of Crustacea, not certainly known to have ex- 
 isted after the close of the Carboniferous epoch, v;e at once see the ne- 
 cessity for caution in referring this rock to the Permian, on such evi- 
 dence. 
 
 Every one fji miliar with the organic remains of the coal-measures of 
 the 31ississippi Valley, is aware of the fact that we not unfrequently 
 meet with thin local beds and seams there, coutainiug preciselj' such a 
 group of fossils, and yet overlaid, where there is not the slightest dis- 
 turbance of the strata, by hundreds of feet of unmistakable coal-meas- 
 ures, filled with their characteristic plants, Foraminifcra, Brachiopoda., 
 LameUihranchiata, (rfl,stero/;of7fl, Trilobites, fish remains, &c. Hence it is 
 more probable that the association of these ten or twelve fossils iu this 
 bed of chert, and the absence, so far as known, of the other forms men- 
 tioned, resulted from some j)eculiar local physical conditions he/ore, rather 
 than at or after the close of the carboniferous period. The })robability is, 
 that this bed belongs to the same horizon as the rocks in Kansas, to which 
 we have applied the name Permo-carboniferous, though it may be even 
 somewhat older. 
 
 The few forms placed iu the list under the heading " Jurassic species," 
 nearly all came from the same horizon, and some of them from the same 
 localities, as those we have figured and described in the paleontology of 
 the Upper Missouri, and there referred to the Jura. Although the spe- 
 cies known from these beds are amply sufficient to prove them to be 
 of Jurassic age, they scarcely warrant, or, at any rate, have not yet been 
 sufficiently compared with European Jurassic species to justifj" a positive 
 opinion in regard to their precise horizon in that great series of rocks, 
 though the}' appear to occuj)y a rather low position iu the same, judging 
 from their affinities. The single Ammonite from between Sacramento 
 and Summit Station, described by Mr. Gabb, under the name A. N'eva- 
 densis, probably came from the horizon of some part of the Lias. 
 
 The cretaceous species enumerated in the list belong to horizons rep- 
 resenting all of the subdivisions of the cretaceous series as made out in 
 the Upper Missouri country, and serve to illustrate, to some extent, the 
 geographical extension of these several rocks or groups, southward and 
 westward from the original typical localities. The numbers 1, 2, 3, 4, 
 and 5, along the right-hand margin of the list, opposite the localities,, 
 show to which member of the Upper Missouri cretaceous each species- 
 belongs — the subdivisions of the Upper Missouri cretaceous having 
 been severally named and numbered from below upward, as follows : 
 Xo. 1, Dakota Group ; ]S"o. 2, Fort Benton Group ; Xo. 3, Niobrara Di- 
 vision ; No. 4, Fort Pierre Group, and No. 5, Fox Hills Beds ; the names 
 being derived from localities where the several formations are well de- 
 veloped. 
 
 The specimens from twelve miles southwest of Salina, Kansas, came 
 from a brown ferruginous sandstone belonging to the horizon of the 
 DakotaGroup, or oldest division of the Upper Missoiu*' cretaceous series. 
 19 G 
 
290 GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF THE TERRITORIES. 
 
 For these we are under many obligations to Professor B. F. Mudge, of 
 the Kansas Agricultural College, at Manhattan.* They are especially 
 interesting, because we have hitherto known only a few of the Molhisca 
 of this horizon, though the remains of many species of forest trees had 
 been obtained from this rock, both on the Missouri and in the interior 
 of Kansas. The shells discovered by Professor Mudge are marine 
 types, with probably the exception of two species of Corbimila ; while 
 on the Missouri we have obtained from this rock only a few marine 
 types, such as Mactra and Axincea, associated with Cyrena, Unio, and 
 Fha7'ella. 
 
 It is i^roper to remark here that, although we usually speak of this 
 Dakota Grouii or division as belonging to the earlier or lower cretaceous 
 of the Upper Missouri country, we do not thereby mean that it belongs 
 to the loiver part of the cretaceous system, as understood in Europe ; 
 but simply that it is the oldest member of the series yet certainly known 
 in the Upper Missouri country. It is probably not older than the lower 
 or gray chalk of British geologists, as we have elsewhere explained. 
 
 The specimens from near Fort Bridger and Medicine Bow Eiver, 
 Wyoming, as well as from six miles west of Caiion Station and Dodson's 
 Ranch, show that the Fort Benton Group or division of the Upper Mis- 
 souri cretaceous occurs at those localities. Among the specimens from 
 between Hardscrabble and St. Charles, from Fort Bascom, Medicine 
 Bow River, and Colorado City, there are characteristic forms of the 
 Niobrara Division ; and from the mouth of Deer Creek, Wyoming, val- 
 ley of Fountain Creek, and Box Elder Creek, Colorado, there are Fort 
 Pierre forms. The Fox Hills beds are also shown to be represented at 
 Fountain Creek, and Colorado City, Colorado. 
 
 Some of the specimens from near Bear River, and at Coalville, Utah, 
 from a light-colored sandstoue, containing beds of a good quality of 
 brown coal, appear to belong to a member of the cretaceous series not • 
 ■ corresponding to any of those named in the Upper Missouri country; 
 though it is, as I believe, represented by a similar sandstone under the 
 ■oldest estuary tertiary beds at the mouth of the Judith River, on the 
 Upper Missouri. In 1800 Colonel Simjison brought from this rock, on 
 Sulphur Creek, a small tributary of Bear River, in Utah, some casts of 
 Inoceramus, and other fossils ; and in some remarks on Colonel Simp- 
 son's collection, published by the writer, in connection with Mr. Henry 
 Engelmanu, the geologist of Colonel Simpson's survey,* we referred this 
 formation to tlie cretaceous. The collections that have since been 
 brought in from it, in Utah, by Mr. King's and Dr. Hayden's surveys, 
 confirm the conclusion that it belongs to the cretaceous, as they contain, 
 among other things, species of Inoceramus, Anchura, and (xyrodes — 
 genera that seem not to have survived the close of the cretaceous 
 period. In addition to this, there is among Dr. Hayden's collections 
 from this rock, at Coalville, a Turritella that I cannot distinguish by the 
 figure and description, even specifically, from T. Martinezensis, described 
 by Mr.^Gabb, from one of the upper beds in California referred to the 
 cretaceous. A Modiola from the same horizon also appears to be spe- 
 cifically identical with M. Pedernalis, of Tioemer, from the cretaceous 
 of Texas. Dr. Hay den also has, from a little above the coal beds at 
 Coalville, specimens of oyster that seem much like 0. Idriaensis and 0. 
 Breiccrii, of Gabb, from the upper beds of the California cretaceous. 
 As no. other fossils were found directly associated with these oy'sters, 
 
 * I have prepared a quarto plate fully illustratine; these fossils, to he i)uhlished in 
 ;tho Paleontology of the Upper Missouri. 
 
 * See Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci., Phila., 1860. 
 
GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF THE TERRITORIES. 291 
 
 however, nor any strictly marine forms above them, it is possible that 
 they may belong to the lower tertiary. 
 
 From the affinities of some of these fossils to forms found in the latest 
 of the beds referred in California to the cretaceous, and the intimate 
 relations of these marine coal-bearing; strata of Utah to the oldest ter- 
 tiary of the same region, and the apparent occurrence of equivalent 
 beds bearing the same relations to the oldest brackish-water tertiary 
 beds at the mouth of Judith River on the Upper Missouri,* I am in- 
 clined to believe that these Coalville beds occupy a higher horizon in 
 the cretaceous than even the Fox Hills beds of the Upper Missouri cre- 
 taceous series ; or, in other words, that they belong to the closing or 
 latest member of the cretaceous. 
 
 All of the explorers of this region concur in the statement that the 
 above-mentioned cretaceous beds are intimately related to the succeed- 
 ing brackish- water deposits that appear to belong to the oldest tertiary ; 
 the two formations, wherever they occur together, being conformable 
 and without any intermediate beds, so that the one seems to shade into 
 the other, without any abrupt or sharply-defined Hue of separation ; the 
 change being mainly indicated by a gradual transition from beds con- 
 taining cretaceous types of only marine origin, to those with brackish 
 and fresh water types, apparently most nearly allied to early eocene spe- 
 cies of the Old World. 
 
 So far as yet known, there would appear to be no strictly marine ter- 
 tiary deposits in all this interior region of the continent ; even the lower 
 parts of the surface here having been apparently gradually elevated 
 above the sea level at, or very near, the close of the cretaceous period. 
 For the same reason all of the beds hitherto referred with confidence to 
 the cretaceous are of undoubted marine origin, as they contain only 
 marine tyi)es. 
 
 These cretaceous gulfs or seas, however, evidently did not occupy the 
 whole country here, as we know from the absence of cretaceous deposits 
 throughout what were doubtless wide areas, or possibly, in some cases, 
 smaller islands of dry land at that time. As the whole surface was 
 gradually elevated, however, even the lowest iiortious rose finally to 
 near the tide level, thus, probably, leaving large iulets and estuaries of 
 brackish waters that subsequently became so far isolated by the contin- 
 ued elevation, and from sedimentary deposits, as to iirevent the influx 
 of the tides and form fresh-water lakes, in which the later fresh-water 
 and terrestrial types of fossils only were deposited. 
 
 That this change from marine to brackish- water conditions was exactly 
 contemporaneous with the close of the cretaceous epoch, and the intro- 
 duction of the tertiary in Europe, is not certain ; nor is it necessary that 
 this should have been the case to constitute the older rock cretaceous and 
 the later tertiary, because in the use of these terms we have reference 
 rather to the order of succession of certain great physical changes, affect- 
 ing life in distantly-separated parts of the earth, than to the exact time 
 of the occurrence of these changes. 
 
 * Associated with the estuary beds at the month of Judith River, ou the Upper Slis- 
 souri, there is a yellowish areuaceotis rock, agreeing exactly iu its litliological charac- 
 ters with the coal-beariug strata on Bear River, iu Utah, aud containing an oyster ap- 
 parently belonging to the same species as one found in the rock mentioned at the lat- 
 ter locality. All of the strata at this Judith River locality are upheaved, and more or 
 less mingled together, and I have long suspected that some vertebrate remains found 
 there by Dr. Hayden, and supposed bj- Dr. Leidy to be cretaceous types, belong rather 
 to the sandstone, that apjiears to be an equivalent of the Bear River coal strata of 
 Utah, than to the estuary beds. It is even possible that equivalent beds at other 
 localities in the Upper Missouri country may have been, from the absence of charac- 
 teristic fossils, included along with the tertiary. 
 
292 GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF THE TERRITORIES. 
 
 * The oldest beds in the Bear Eiver •country of Utah and Wyoming, 
 properly belonging to the tertiary, and, as above stated, so intimately 
 related to the latest cretaceous, contain species of Corbula, Gyrena, {Gor- 
 hicula), perhaps Ostrea and a univalve related to Melamjms, directly asso- 
 ciated with several species of Goniohasis, two of Unio, one or two of Me- 
 lantho, several species of Vivijjarus, one of Tiara, &c., showing clearly 
 that these strata were deposited in brackish waters.t These shells also 
 exist in great numbers, and are preserved in a condition showiug that 
 they could not have been transported far by currents, but that they must 
 have lived and died at least near where we now find them. 
 
 All i)aleontologists are aware of the fact that the remains of fresh and 
 brackish-water shells do not generally present such well-marked peculi- 
 arities of form, ornamentation, &c., in beds of different ages, as we see 
 in marine types, so that they cannot always be relied upon with the 
 same degree of confidence in identifying strata that we place ia marine 
 forms ; some of those from oldest cretaceous being, for instance, A-ery' 
 similar to existing species. So far as I have been able to compare the 
 species from this formation with described forms from other parts of the 
 world, they generally agree most nearly with lower eocene types ; the 
 Corbiculas and Tiara being very similar to forms found in the lower 
 lignites of the Paris basin, and at the mouth of the Ehone in France. At 
 the same time it is worthy of note, that most of these shells are quite 
 unlike any of the known existing Islorth American species, and one of 
 them {Tiara humerosa) belongs even to a gen as entirely unknown among 
 the existing Melanians of the American continent, though found inhab- 
 iting the streams of Madagascar, the Fejee Islands, &c. One of the 
 Uuiones ( JJ. hellipJicatus) resembles in its ornamentation some of the 
 South American species and the genus Gastalia, much more nearly than 
 it does any of the recent North American species, although having the 
 form and hiuge of a true Unio ; and another abundant bivalve, found in 
 the same associtiaou {GorhulaAnisotliyris xjyriformis) seems to be allied 
 in some respects to a peculiar group recently described from a pliocene 
 or miocene formation on the Upper Amazon of South America, by Mr. 
 Gabb, under the name Pachydon, and afterward renamed Anisothyris by 
 Mr. Conrad, because the name Fachyodon had been previously used for 
 another genus. 
 
 This last-mentioned shell [Gorljula pyriformis) was referred by me, pro- 
 visionally, to Azara, because it occurs in the sams beds with fresh and 
 brackish-water forms, and has the general aspect of some species of Gor- 
 hula, which group is believed by some good authorities on concholog.y 
 to include Azara as a sub-genus; while none of our specimens showed 
 the hinge. Among some of the latter collections, however, I found speci- 
 mens by which I was enabled with considerable difficulty to succeed in 
 working out the hinge, and found that it does not agree with that of Asara, 
 but apparently conforms almost exactly with that of GorbuJa, with prob- 
 ably the exception of some regidar furrows on the tooth of the right 
 valve. From its brackish-water habits, however, and its general simi- 
 larity of form to Anisothyris or {Pacliydon) erectus, Conrad, I referred it, in 
 manuscript, to Anisothyris, placing that group as a sub-genus under 
 Gorhula. Soon after I mentioned, in a letter to my friend Mr. Conrad, 
 that I had discovered that this shell does not possess the hinge of Azara, 
 and that I had referred it to Anisothyris. 
 
 * These remarks from this paragraph to the end of the first paragraph ending on 
 page 295, inchisive, Avere extracted and printed in pamphlet form, excepting the foot 
 notes, on the 18th February, 1871. 
 
 t The conditions, however, might have been such that the saltness of these estuaries 
 was, at first, xcvy little diluted by the streams that brought from the adjacent shores 
 the fresh-water types. 
 
GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF THE TERRITORIES. 293 
 
 Subsequently I received a note from Mr. Conrad, informing me that 
 be had proposed, in manuscript, a sub-genus, Anisorhynchus, for this spe- 
 cies. If this separation from Corhula is necessary, however, on account of 
 the habits of the species, I would think it should still stand as a sub-genus 
 under that group, or, in other words, that the name of the species should 
 be wiutten Corhula {Anisorhynchus) pyriformis, because it seems to me 
 even doubtful whether Aiiisothyris is more than sub generically distinct 
 from Corhula; while the species C. pyriformls is still more closely allied 
 to Corhula than Anisotliyris is ; in fact, it agrees almost exactly, in its 
 hinge, muscular, and pallial impressions, with Corhula, even in the very 
 few characters distinguishing Anisofhyris from the same, and we have 
 almost nothing left but its Neara-like form, and brackish-water habits,. b. 
 to separate it from Corhula; while some marine species, such as C. alee- ^ 
 formis of Gabb, present almost exactly the same form. (j_ -J 
 
 It may bo proper to remark in this connection that the South Ameri- q KT 
 can group Anisotliyris, or Packydon, is much more nearly allied to Corhula f\ 
 proper than was supposed by my friends Mr. Gabb and Mr. Conrad, ^ ^ 
 (although the latter placed it near Corhula) since they both thought it fc r~" 
 had an external ligament, and no internal cartilage. On examining [^ [ij 
 good specimens of six of the South American species sent on by Pro- n ^^ 
 fessor Orton to the Smithsonian Institution, however, I at once satis- q "^ 
 fied myself that these shells certainly had an internal cartilage in a pit (£ 
 behind the tooth in the right valve, and attached to a process in the(l, Li, 
 left, exactly as in Corhula, excepting that the process is more oblique , 
 
 and less flattened than is usual in that genus.* |^ 
 
 On mentioning these facts in regard to the presence of an internal 
 cartilage, in a letter to Mr. Conrad, he wrote back that a further exami- 
 nation had satisfied him that I was right in this, and that he now rests 
 the grouj) entirely upon its sub-si^iral beaks, a kind of rudimentary 
 l)osterior lateral tooth in the right valve, and a small accessory scar at 
 the upper end of that of the posterior adductor, together with the 
 brackish- water habits of the species. It should be borne in mind, how- 
 ever, that this faint rudimentary posterior lateral tooth does not exist in 
 all the typical species ; while it is obscurely represented in some marine 
 tertiarj' species of Corhula ; nor have I been able to find the posterior 
 pedal muscular scar in them all, more clearly defined than in some 
 marine tertiary species of Corhula. 
 
 Several of the other forms found in these Bear Eiver beds present 
 more marked peculiarities than are to be seen in Corhula pyriformis, 
 which may render it desirable to place them under separate sub-generic 
 groups; for instance, that I have described under the name Corhicula 
 Durl^eei, which is a remarkable trigonal, thick shell, has the posterior 
 dorsal margins of the valves inflected, and the cardinal teeth directed 
 more obliquely backward than we see in the recent species, w'hile its 
 elongated lateral teeth are nearly or quite smooth, instead of being 
 transversely striated. The posterior lateral tooth of its left valve is 
 also mainly formed by the beveling of the inflected margin, instead of 
 standing out as a distinct tooth. In some respects this shell is more 
 like Verlorita, from which, however, it differs materially in others. 
 
 * lu some interesting remarks, recently iiublislied by Mr. Henry "Woodward of the 
 British Museum, in the Ann. and Mag., N. A., <on the relations of Anisothjris to Corhula 
 and some allied groups, he mentions as one of the diffci'ences, that the latter have the 
 cardinal tooth in the left valve, while in Anisothyris it is in the right, and the sockc^t vice 
 versa. This, however, is probably due to some typograi^hical error, as there is certainly 
 no diiiercnce in the iiositiou of the cardinal tooth and socket, or in that of the cartilage 
 process with relation to each other, or to the two valves, Ijetween Corhula and -J«i"s- 
 ofln/ris; both having the tooth in the right valve, and the socket and cartilage process 
 in the left. 
 
294 GEOLOGICAL SUEVEY OF THE TERRITOEIES. 
 
 If it should be tliouglit desirable to make it tbetype of a distinct sub- 
 genus, it may be called Corbicula ( YeloritinaJ DurJceei. In the same 
 way, if the proposed sections of Unio should be sustained, the curiously 
 plicated species, described by me under the name U. hellqjUcata, may be 
 called U. fLoxopleurusJ bellijjJicatusA 
 
 I have elsewhere proposed, in manuscript, to make my Melanqms pris- 
 cus from this formation, the type of a new group, under the name Rhy- 
 tophorus priscus, on account of its i)eculiar costated surface, smooth 
 outer lip, and single weU-developed plait, and another obscure one, on 
 The columella. 
 
 Of the species of Tiara, already mentioned from this rock, thousands 
 of specimens have been obtained, and yet it is remarkable that not a 
 single one of them shows the lip about the lower part of the aperture 
 unbroken, and entirely free from the matrix. Some of those I have re- 
 cently seen, however, appear to show a kind of angularity about the 
 base of the aperture not seen in the typical forms of Tiara, and some 
 appearance of a peculiar furrow along the outer edge of the base of the 
 columella. If these are not due to accident — and they certainly seem 
 not to be — it may be found that this shell should be regarded as the 
 type of a sub-genus, bearing somewhat similar relations to Tiara to 
 those existing between Goniohasis and the elongated old world Melauians. 
 If so, it may be called Tiara fPyrguliferaJ liumerosa.\ 
 
 Of course, comparisons of the shells from this formation with those 
 of the tertiary beds of the Atlantic and Pacific slopes, afford no aid 
 whatever in fixing its precise position in the series, because the species 
 from the latter are, almost without exception, marine types. There is 
 less dilficulty, however, in drawing parallels between it and the tertiary 
 deposits of the Upper Missouri country, by a comparison of fossils, al- 
 though the species are mainly different, so far as yet known, in these 
 two districts. At least two of the known forms, however, from the Utah 
 and Wyoming beds under consideration, are believed to-be specifically 
 identical with species found in the oldest beds referred to the tertiary 
 at the mouth of Judith Eiver on the Upper Missouri, under the name 
 Fort Union Group. These are Unio prisciis and Viviparus Conradi. In 
 addition to this, the fossils at these two localities are in precisely the 
 same state of i)reservation, and have a more ancient appearance than 
 those of the later deposits of both districts, while they also agree exactly 
 in their mixture of brackish and fresh-water characters. Again, at both 
 localities, these deposits are intimately associated, as already stated, 
 with what appears to be the latest of the cretaceous series : while in 
 
 I I have had no opportuuity to consult Spix's work in which he proposed the groni> 
 Diplodon, hut had supposed from the strongly alate-shell figured by Sowerley as an 
 illustration of the same, that it was founded on a^ widely distinct type from our Utah 
 shell. From the diagnosis of Diplodon, given by H. and A. Adams, however, I am led 
 to think it may jiossibly include our type, though I cannot believe the North American 
 species ranged by the above-named authors should bo placed in the same section with 
 our species. 
 
 X Since these remarks wei'e in type and issued in pamphlet form, Mr. Conrad kindly 
 sent me a sketch of a specimen of this species at the Pliiladelphia Academy of Science, 
 showing more of the lip and base of the aperture than I had seen, and expressed the 
 oi)inion that it is a good genus. Soon after I succeeded in working the matrix from 
 the aperture of a perfect very largo specimen, and from this and Mr. Conrad's sketch, 
 the inner lip is seen to be quite thick all the way np, but iiarticularly below, and the 
 narrow base of the aperture sinnous. My sijecinjen also shows that there is a shallow 
 marginal sinus of the outer lij) at the termination of the shoulder, while beloAv this it 
 is prominent. It is therefore evident, that with the distinctly turreted sjnre, shouldered 
 and coronate wheels, as well as the general aspect of Tiara, in its thickened inner 
 lip and some other characters, it resembles Lithasia, and constitutes a distinct geuus 
 from Ijoth, in which oi^iuion Mr. Conrad and Professor Gill concur. 
 
GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF THE TERRITORIES. 205 
 
 both districts they contain lignite, and are sncceeded by later tertiary 
 beds of strictly fresh-water origin. 
 
 The fossils froni the later tertiary deposits of Wyoming and Utah, 
 mentioned in the lists, came from Henry's and Black's Forks of Green 
 iJiver, Chnrch Buttes, Barrel Springs, Fort Bridger, racitic Springs, 
 and other localities of the same region. They belong to the genera 
 Unio, Sj^hccrium, Goniohasis, BythineUa., PJiysa, Planorbis^ «S:c., most of 
 which are very numerous in individuals, though there are not many 
 species of any one of these genera. From the entire absence of marine 
 and brackish-water types in these beds, it seems evident that they were 
 deposited in fresh-water lakes, entirely isolated from the influx of tides, 
 in l)asins that were raised above the level of the sea, in part by the ac- 
 cumulation of sedimentary deposits, and probably in part fr(*ni the grad- 
 ual elevation of the whole country. These later beds may be susceptible 
 of subdivision into several subordinate groups, but the fossils yet known 
 show closer relations between the different beds of this series than be- 
 tween any of them and the brackish-water deposits beneath. Indeed, I 
 have not been able to identify a single species from the latter with any 
 of those from the strictly fresh-water beds under consideration, and they 
 are also equally distinct from all of those known from the Upper Mis- 
 souri country. 
 
 From the differences observable between the species found in these 
 fresh-water deposits and the older brackish- water beds of the same re- 
 gion, believed to belong to the eocene, and the superposition of the for- 
 mer, it is reasonable to infer that the later series belongs wholly or 
 maiuly to the horizon of the miocene, especially as none of the fossils 
 contained in thes6 beds are certainly known to belong to existing spe- 
 cies. 
 
 LISTS OF FOSSILS COLLECTED. 
 SILURLVX SPECIES. 
 
 1. Ortliis desmoplem-a, Meek' ; Colorado City. 
 
 2. Mcristella or Mcrista (imdetermiued species) ; Crater's Falls. 
 
 3. Ophileia complanata, var. nana; Crater's Falls. 
 
 4. BucancUa nana,Mee\i.^; Crater's Falls. 
 
 5. I\a2)lustoma ; Crater's Falls. 
 
 6. Endoceras (undetermined sj)ecies) ; Crater's Falls. 
 
 CARBONIFEROUS SPECIES. 
 
 1. Fusnlina cylindrica, Fischer ; Moleeu Station. 
 
 2. Suringopora (undetermined specimen); Moleen Station. 
 
 3. Campoj^IniUiim, like C. iorquium, Owen ; Hot Springs, Salinas Creek, Salt Lake. 
 
 4. Zaphrcntis (Z); Head Black Fork Bear River, Utah. 
 
 5. Crinoid columns ; Pecos Chiu'ch, Mora Creek, and Hot Spriuf^-s. 
 
 6. Chwtetes (undetermined massive and ramose forms); Moleen Station, Salinas 
 Creek. 
 
 7. Fenestella and Polypora ; near Pecos Range, 10 miles south'of Kosylowiski, New 
 Mexico, and Mora Station. 
 
 8. Sijnocladia (Scptojyora) Cesfriensis, Prout (sp.); Mora River. 
 
 9. dw/u's (undetermined species) ; Santa Fe, New Mexico. 
 
 10. Hcmipronitcs crassus, M. and W.; Santa Fe, New Mexico, Box Elder Canon, North 
 Platte. 
 
 11. Choneks (undetermined .species) ; Santa Fe, New Mexico, Box Elder Caiiou. 
 V2. rroducius Xebrascensis, Owen ; Moleen Station, Santa Fe, New Mexico. 
 
 13. Productus jmnctatus, Martin, (sp.) ; Sangre de Christo Pass, Colorado, 
 
 1. I proposed for this species the name O. Coloradoensis, in the Proceed. Am. Philosoph. Soc, xi, p. 
 425. 1370: but .is Dr. Shnmard had previously used that name for another species of this genus, it be- 
 comes necessary to make a change. 
 
 2. Proceed. Am. Philosoph. Soc, xi, p. 420, 1870. 
 
296 GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF THE TEKRITORIES. 
 
 14. Productus semireticulatus, Martin, (sp.) ; Saugre de Christo Pass, Colorado, and 
 Pecos ChiTrch, Mora City, Weber Mountains, Box Elder, North Platte. 
 
 15. Productus nodosus,'NewheTvj ; Mora Creek, New Mexico, Hot Springs, Salinas 
 Creek, Santa Fe, New Mexico. 
 
 16. Productus Prattenianus, N. ; head Black's Fork, Bear River, Utah. 
 
 17. Productus lonri'isjunns, Sow., Far. TVahashensis, N. and P. ; Hot Springs, Salinas 
 Creek, Santa Fc^ New Mexico. 
 
 18. Productus (two or more nndetermined species) ; Santa F6, New Mexico. 
 
 19. Spirifer (Martinia) like S. planoconvexus, Shum.; Moleeu Station. 
 
 20. Spirifer cameratus, Morton; Pecos Church, Mora Creek and River, New Mexico. 
 
 21. Spirifer Pocly-Montam, Marcou (?) ; Santa Fe, Mora Creek, New Mexico. 
 
 22. Athyris suhtiUfa, Hall, (sp.) ; Santa F6, Mora Creek, 10 miles south of Kosylo- 
 wiski ; near Pecos, New INIexico, and Sangro de Christo Pass, Colorado. 
 
 23. Aviculopccten (nndetermined species); near Pecos River, New Mexico. 
 
 24. AvicuJopccten carhonarius, Stevens ; near Pecos River, New Mexico. 
 
 25. Myalina'Swallovi, ilcChesney; 10 miles south of Kosylowiski. 
 
 26. Avicula (undetermined species); 10 miles south of Kosylowiski. 
 
 27. Pleurophorus angulatus, M. and W. ; 10 miles south of Kosylowiski. 
 
 28. Belleroplion (fragments of large undetermined species) ; Moleen Station. 
 
 PEKMO-CARBONIFEROUS. (?) 
 
 1. Fragments of Crinoid columns,- Box Elder Station, Platte River. 
 
 2. Hemipronites crassus, M. and H. ; Box Elder Station, Platte River. 
 
 3. Aviculopccten oceidcutalis, aimm.; Box Elder Station, Platte River. 
 
 4. MyaUna perattenuata, M. and H. ; Box Elder Station, Platte River. 
 
 5. Pscudomonotis Uawni, M. and H. ; Box Elder Station, Platte River. 
 
 6. Balcevcllia (nndetermined species); Box Elder Station, Platte River. 
 
 7. Pinna pcracuta,^\mm.; Box Elder Statiou, Platte River. 
 
 8. Sclxizodus curtus, M. and W. ; Box Elder Station, Platte River. 
 
 9. Edmondia Aspenicallensis, M. (New species; see description at end of list.) Bos 
 Elder Statio^i, Platte River. 
 
 10. Pleuroplwrus (?) (undetermined casts); Box Elder Station. Platte River. 
 
 11. Macrocltcilus, (nndetermined species) ; Box Elder Statiou, Platte River. 
 
 12. Orthoceras (?) (small undetermiued species) ; Box Elder Station, Platte River. 
 
 13. P/ij?/(23sfa (fragments of an undetermined species); Box Elder Station, Platte 
 River. 
 
 JURASSIC SPECIES. 
 
 1. Ostrea (a very small, undetermined species, with beak truncated) ; mouth Henry's 
 Fork of Green River, Dakota Teritory. 
 
 2. Campionectes cxtenuaius, M. and H. ; mouth Hemy Fork of Green River, Dakota Ter- 
 ritory. 
 
 3. Camptonectcs bellistriatus, M. and W. ; Red Buttes, Green River, Dakota Territory. 
 
 4. Trigonia (a small, undetermined species of Jurassic type); Red Buttes. Green 
 River, Dakota Territory. 
 
 5. Bivalves (casts of several small, undetermined species) ; Red Buttes, Green River, 
 Dakota Territory. 
 
 6. Cardinia (?) ; Salinas Creek, Hot Springs. 
 
 7. Plwladomya (mere rude undeterminable casts) ; Salinas Creek, Hot Springs. 
 
 8. BeJemnilcs densus, M. and W. ; Como. 
 
 9. Ammonites Nevadensis, Gabb; between Sacramento and Supmit Station. 
 
 CRETACEOUS SPECIES. 
 
 1. Ostrea congesia, Conrad; between Hardscrabble and St. Charles. Cret., No. 3. 
 
 2. Ostrea solcniscus, Meek ; near Bear River, assctciated with coal. Cret., No. — (?) 
 
 3. Ostrea ajyjn-essa, Gahh P ; Coalville. No. — (?) 
 
 4. Gryphcea navia,'C(mvad; FovtBascom. Cret., No. 3. 
 
 5. Inoceramus Sagensis, Owen (?) ; Fountain Creek, Colorado Citj', Colorado. Cret., 
 No. 4. 
 
 6. Inoceramus fragilis, H. and M. ; Medicine Bow River. Cret., No. 3. 
 
 7. Inoceramus 2)y obi emaiicus, Sch\ot\i, (sT^); Fountain Creek, between Hardscrable, 
 Dodson Ranch, and St. Charles. Cret., Nos. 2 and 3. 
 
 8. Inoceramus (undetermined species) ; six miles east Como Station, Union Pacific 
 Railroad. Cret., No. 2. 
 
 9. Inoceramus diformis, Jleek-* ; Colorado City. Cret., No. 3. 
 
 3. This may be cither Mr. Gnbh's O. appccssa or his O. Idriacnsis, if they .ire distinct, as there are 
 among the specimens indivichials that agi'oe pretty -svell with both, and yet .seem to bo only varieties of 
 one species. These and O. Solcniscus are found Just above a bed of brown coal, and may possibly bo 
 lower tertiary, bat are more probably upper cretaceous. 
 
 4. Sec Fremont's Report, pi. iv, iig. 2. 
 
GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF THE TERRITORIES. 297 
 
 10. Inoccmmus (nndetermined species®) ; Caclie la Poiulre River, near Greeley, Den- 
 ver and Pacitic Railroad. Cret., No. 3. 
 
 11. Inoccramus aultus, Meek: ;aear Medicine Bow Station, Pacific Railroad. Cret., 
 No. 3. 
 
 12. (7HC»Z?a'« (niKlctcrniiued si>ecies) ; Dodson Ranch. Cret. No. 2. 
 
 13. Modiola rcdernalis, Rocmev ; Near Coalville. Cret., (?) 
 
 14. Xucidana (luuletcrmiucd species); Near Coalville. Cret., (?) 
 
 l.^>. Pachymija (?) iruncaia, Meek, (new siiecies, see descrii^tion,) (?) 4. Exact locally 
 nukuown. 
 
 16. CrassatolUna oZ)?o»i7<7, Meek, (now species, see description); twelve miles south- 
 west of Saliiia, Kansas, Professor Mudge. Cret. No. 1. 
 
 17. Unio Nebrascciisis, Mecli. (ne'w species, see descrij)tion) ; opposite Sioiix City, Da- 
 kota County, Nebraska. Cret. No. 1. 
 
 18. Area (?) iKindlda, Meek (new species, see descrij)tiou) ; twelve miles southwest 
 of Salina, Kansas, Professor Mudge. Cret. No. 1. 
 
 19. Toldia microdoiiia, Meek (new species, sec description); twelve miles southwest 
 of Salina, Kansas, Professor Mudge. Cret. No. 1. 
 
 '.^0. Coj-dium paupcrculum, Meek (new species, see description) ; near Fort Bridger, 
 Wyoming. Cret. No. 2. 
 
 21. Cardium Eansascnsi^, Meek (new species, see description) ; twelve southwest o± 
 Salina, Kansas, Professor Mudge. Cret. No. 1. 
 
 22. Cardium (Frotocardia) sal'utens, Meek (new species, see description); twelve miles 
 southwest of Salina Kansas, Professor iludge. Cret. No. 1. 
 
 23. Ctjrcna (Corhknia ?) nucalis, Meek (new species, see description); twelve miles 
 southwest of Saliua, Kansas, Professor Mudge. Cret. No. 1. 
 
 24. Cyrena (Corhicula?) subirigonalis, Meek (new species, see description); twelve 
 miles so;ithwest of Salina, Kansas, Professor Mudge. Cret. No. 1. 
 
 25. Alacfra (.?) Canonensis, Meek (new species, see descrij)tion.) 
 
 26. TajKS Tt'iiomiuf/cnsis, Meek (new species, see description) ; mouth Deer Creek, Wy- 
 omijig. Cret. No. 4. 
 
 27. TclUna sithscltula, Meek (new species, see description) ; twelve miles southwest 
 of Salina Kansas, Professor Mudge. Cret. No. 1. 
 
 28. TeUina (?) maclroidcs, Meek (new species, see description) ; twelve miles southwest 
 of Salina, Kansas, Professor Mudge. Cret. No. 1. 
 
 29. Lcptosolcii Conradi, Meek (new species, see descrij)tion) ; twelve miles southwest 
 of Salina, Kansas, Professor Mudge. Cret No. 1. 
 
 30. AHchnra {/) (uudetermiued species) ; Dodson's Ranch. 
 
 31. Turritella Mart'mezcnsis, Gabb (?) ; Coalville, Utah. 
 
 32. Turritella Kansasensis, Meek (new species) ; twelve miles southwest of Salina, Kan- 
 sas, Professor Mudge. Cret. No. 1. 
 
 33. Anisomijon centrale, Meek (new species); Valley of Fountain Creek and Box Elder 
 Creek, Colorado. Cret. No. 4. 
 
 34. Plcurotomaria (?) (undetermined species) ; near Coalville, Utah. 
 
 35. Turho Mudgcanus, Meek (new species); twelve miles southwest of Salina, Kansas, 
 Professor Mudge. Cret. No. 1. 
 
 36. BaeuUtes compressus, Say ; Fountain Creek, Colorado City. Cret. No. 4. 
 
 37. Baeulities ovatus, Say; Fountain Creek, Colorado City, Miser Station, and Como. 
 Cret. No. 4. 
 
 38. ScapMtes {DiscoscajMtes) Conradi, Morton^ ; Fountain Creek, Colorado City. Cret. 
 No. 5. 
 
 39. Scajyliites {DiscoscapMtes) Cheyennensis, Owen; Foimtain Creek, Colorado City. 
 Cret. No. 5. 
 
 40. ScapMtes nodosus, Owen ; Fountain Creek, Colorado. Cret. No. 4. 
 
 41. Seapltiies Warrcnanus, M. and H. ; Mediciue Bow River. Cret. No. 2. 
 
 42. Ammonites (rmdetermined, not a typical ammonite.) Fountain Creek, Colorado. 
 
 5. This is a rather large, longitudinally oblong or depressed suboval, very gibbous, oquivalve species, 
 ■with a long, straight hinge lino, and with posteiior side long and subtruncatedor more or less obliquely 
 rounded. Its beaks are equal, very gibbous, oblique, depressed, and almost terminal, while its internal 
 casts only show more or less irregular, sometimes obscure, concentric undulations. It seems to be dis- 
 tinct from all of the previously known far-western species, and if new may be called I. oblongus. 
 
 ij. This is the type of a group of Scaphites, for which I have proposed (troced. Am. I'hil., Soc, xi, p. 
 429) the name Discoscaphiies, compared with the typical species of Parkinson's genus, such as »5)'. cequcdis, 
 Sowerby, these shells are seen to differ in having the characteristic extension of the body volutions so 
 very slightly developed that they have often been referred to the genus Ammonites. They also dilitr 
 in having the peripheny, especia'lly in the adult, more or less flattened, and the sides of the volutions 
 occupied'by numerous small nodes, arranged in regular revolving rows. The group includes two sec- 
 tions, the lirst of which (represented by S. Conradi) has the volutions so broad and deeply enveloping 
 as to leave only a very small umbilicus, while the second (represented by S. [Disco.] Chcjcniicnsis, Owen, 
 and Ammonites {Disco.] Mandanensis, Morton) has a wider umbilicus, with the body volution very nar- 
 row and but little enveloping. 
 
 7. This may be regarded as the type of a group of Ammonites, for which I proposed (Proc. Philos. 
 Soc, xi, p. 4-29) the name Placcntoccrus. Compared with Ammonites bisidcatus, lli iiguii re (v.hich it 
 seems to me should be regarded as the type of that genus, because it was long back cited alone as th« 
 typical form by Lamarck.) This shell will be observed to differ remarkably in sover.al respects, par- 
 ticukuli- in its broad, profoundly-enveloping volutions, with flattened nou-costato sides, and very nar- 
 
298 GEOLOGICAL SUKVEY OF THE TERRITORIES. 
 
 43. Ammonites (Placentocerus) placenta, BeKay; Fountaiu Creek, Colorado Citj-. Cret. 
 
 No. 4. 
 
 44. Ammonites (Pleuroceras ?) scrrato-carinatiis, Meek 8; Medicine Bow Creek, 2. 
 
 TERTLVKY SPECIES. 
 
 1. Unio imscus, M. and H."; Limestone Hill, Bear River City, and Parley's Park, 
 Utah, Gilmore, Wyoming. Eocene. ^ -. ^,. ,s „r , , tt , 
 
 2. Unio Waslialceei, Meek (new species, description at end of list) ; Wasliakee, Henry s 
 Fork, Green River, and on the latter stream, Wyoming. Eocene. 
 
 3. Unio Haijdeni, Meek ; between Grand and Green Rivers, Fort Bridger. 
 
 4. ?7jao/e/iu)oirfes, Hall (?)(sp.)io; Barrel Springs, Muddy Creek, Wyoming. 
 
 5. Unio Lecuuis, Meek (new species, see end of list) ; Church Buttes, Henry's Fork, 
 Barrel Spriugs, and other localities in Wyoming. Miocene. 
 
 6. Unio (Diplodon?) lemplicatus, Meek; Parley's Park, Utah; Gilmore, Wyoming. 
 
 7. Corhicida (Veloritina) Durheei, Meek; Bear River. City, Parley's Park, Utah, and 
 
 Gilmore, Wyoming. Eocene. . x- x tt n -n i 
 
 8. Cyrena {CorUcidaf) frada, Meek (new species, see description); HaUviUe coal 
 
 mines. Eocene. . s -n- ni -ii ^ 
 
 9. Cijrcna (CorlicuJa?) crassaielliformis, Meek (new species); Hallville coal mmcs. 
 
 Eocene. , t-. -j^ -i i 
 
 10. S2)]i(vnum (undetermined, perhaps 2 species); Elktou, Central Pacific railroad, 
 
 beyond Salt Lake. Miocene. 
 
 11. /^nhayium (undetermined species) ; Barrel Springs, Wyoming. Miocene. • 
 
 12. Corbula (Anisorhynchtts) piriformis, Meek; Parley's Park, Limestone Hill, and 
 Bear River City, Utah ; Gilmore, Wyoming. Eocene. 
 
 Corbula (Anisorhynclms) pyriformis var. consentrica, Meek. -, „ i i n i 
 
 13. Corbula {Anisorhjnclnis) Engelmanni, Meek; Limestone Hill and Sulphur Creek, 
 
 Utah. Eocene. ,, ,-, 1^,1 i t-. i 
 
 14. Goniobasis Simpsoni, Meek ; Fort Bridger, divide between Muddy and Black Forks. 
 
 Miocene. 
 
 15. GonJo&asisfenera, Hall? (s p.)^i; Barrel Springs, W yoming. Miocene. 
 
 rowly-trnncated aud flattened, or sliglitly-concavo periphery, small umbilicus, &c. ; also in the miich 
 more numerous lateral lobes of its septa, Tvliich increase in size to tlie tliird one inclusive, and thence be- 
 come eraduaUv and re<^ularly smaller to the umbilicus. It probably includes several cretaceous species. 
 In the same way, Ammonites lobatus of Tuomey may be regarded as the type of another group, difler- 
 injr from Placento'cerus in ha^-ing the periphery shaiidy cuneate all around, and the sinuses or saddles 
 between its numerous lateral lobes (which agree in number aud proportional size with those in riacen- 
 toccrus), presenting very curious obtusely-lobed or uniform outlines. For this type I would propose the 
 name Sphcnodiscus, in allusion to its sharplycuneate periphery. 
 
 8 This is not a true Ammonite, according to the latest classifications ot this group ot Cephalopoda hwt 
 it i.s more nearly allied to some of the forms included by ilr. Hyatt in his group Pluroccras. Indeed, al- 
 thou'Th unquestionably a cretaceous species, I cannot see how it can be properly placed in a distinct group 
 from'the middle liassic species A. spinatus, Brug., which Mr. Hyatt includes lu Pluroccras, since it 
 seems only to differ specifically from that form in having its keel more promment, and another series ot 
 obscure nodes on the costaj at their inner ends, with a few smaller intermediate costoe, Mnerally with- 
 out nodes, between the larger nodiferous ones. If, however, there is anything in the development ot 
 these shells that would place them in different gi-oup.s, the cretaceou.s group, including the form under 
 consideration, might be appropriately U-rmtiCi Prionocyclus, and would include A. percarinatus, i±. and M., 
 aud A. 'Woolgari,'oit]io English gray chalk. 
 
 9 I am led to think, from the comparison of more extensive coUections that have como in since I pro- 
 posed the name Vnio vetustus for one of the Utah forms, that it is only a more depressed variety ot U. 
 
 ^'m"lt is wltii considerable doubt that I refer this shell to TT. tellinoidcs {-M^ja tclUnoides, Hall, in Fre- 
 mont's Report, PI. in, figs. 1 and 2), the mature specimens being generally three or tour times as largo 
 as that represented by Prof. HaU's larger figure, and proportionally less '^^P^f s^''^'; J/^h the poaLiior 
 margin more broadly rounded or subtruncated. Still, by tollowing the lines ot giowth, it ma> be seen 
 that when the shell'had only attained the same size as that figured by Proi. Hall, it ^"st J^a^t Pie- 
 sented a very similar outline. None of them, however, .seem to have the beaks so "^aiV. c«itral ot 
 quite so ele^-ated, as represented by his Figure 2, which may have been drawn Irom a distinct species 
 from that represented by Figure L 
 
 Our sjiecimens i 
 one rather oblique 
 
 eral teeth are long, IV iimv. ui.^ii..v., .."" «-^- = n 1 •* t 1 
 
 face only ehows lines of growth, and some traces of a few very small longitudinal i„„„^i, _,• .,,„ 
 
 mediate points of the beaks, which are rather depressed and placed about oJ^e-thmltlie length ol the 
 valves from the anterior end. Should this form be found to be distinct from that named by Prot. Hall, 
 it may be called U. suhcomprcssus. ,, ~ i, , n ^ „,t u„ T>../^^• ttoII r.n "Pi 
 
 It may be proper to remark here, that nearly or quite all of tho shells flgm-ed by r^of;Hall, on P . 
 m of Fremont's Eeport, although there referred to marine genera, arc really, as suspected by him, 
 fresh-water tyiies. 
 
 11 This is probably the CcritUum Uneniin, Hall (see Fi-emont's Kepprt), aud is a true Gomohasis. Ina. 
 genus like this, however, containing so many closely-allied species, it is scarcely PO«?'Wt,J,Vet "neA' 
 with confidence, a form only known from a three or four-hue description and figures ot imperfect speti- 
 mens. At one time I had supposed the species, for which I have here proposed ^^^.■^f^^^^rfl^^^l''^ 
 to 1>e the tmcra. But specimens of the form I have above referred doubtfully t" tli^t -jPecies^^^ j^v ng 
 been brought in from that region among the later collections I find, on comparison that the j as;ie« m"'« 
 nearly in most respects with the fi^ires and description ot the species «««<^'-« ,'• ^ 'V n \?,n!.h htXr iwBi' 
 they are clearly distinct from that I had at first supposed to be the Unera, aud hold a much highei pcBi- 
 
GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF THE TERRITORIES. 299 
 
 16. Goniobasis nodulifera, MeeW" ; Barrel Springs, AVyomiug. Miocene. 
 
 17. Goniobasis Cartei-i, Conrad ; Barrel Springs, Wyoming. Miocene. 
 
 18. Goniobasis clirnsalis, Moek; Snlplmr Creek and Bear River, Utah. Eocene. 
 
 19. Goniobasis Siiiqisoni, Meek ; Fort Bridger, Wyoming. 
 
 20. Pyrffulifcra humerosa, Meek ; Sulphur Creek, Bear River City, and Parley's Park, 
 Utah, and Gilmore, Wyoming. Eocene. 
 
 21. Viviparm palt(dina]formis, Hall? (sp.)'^, Henry's Fork, and Green River, Arctic 
 Springs, &.C., Wyoming. Eocene. 
 
 22. Fivi2)arus Conradi, M. and H.; Suli^hur Creek, on Bear River, Utah. Eocene. 
 
 23. Viviparns ? TViiomingcnis, Meek, (now species, see description) ; Henry's and Black's 
 Forks, and Church But tes. Miocene. 
 
 24. Melantho (Campcloma) macrospira, Meek (new species) ; Sulphur Creek, Bear River 
 City, and Parley's Park, Utah. Eocene. 
 
 25. Physa (one or two undetermined species) ; Church Buttes, Utah. Miocene. 
 
 26. Planorbis spectabilis, Meek; Henry's Fork. Miocene. 
 
 27. P/(n(or6is (undetermined species) ; Church Buttes. Miocene. 
 
 2$. IiJnjtophontsp>riscus,MGok; Sulphur Creek, Utah. Eocene. > 
 
 29. Bi/thincUaf gregoria, Meek (new species, see description); Pacific Springs, 
 Wyoming. Miocene. 
 
 30. C)/j;m, (undetermined species); Fort Bridger and Pacific Springs. Miocene. 
 
 DESCRIPTIONS OF NEW SPECIES AND GENEEA.* 
 
 Carhoniferaus species. 
 
 EDMONDIA ASPEN WALLENSIS, (MEEK.) 
 
 Shell ovate, moderately coDvex ; anterior side short and subtruneated, 
 or more or less rounded ; i^osterior margin rounded ; iDallial margin 
 forming a semiovate curve, being more abruptly rounded up anteriorly 
 than behind ; cardinal border rather short, and rounding into the pos- 
 terior outline ; beaks moderately, prominent, oblique, only about one- 
 fourth to one-fifth the length of the valves from the anterior margin. 
 Surface marked with more or less regular and distinct concentric ridges 
 and strije. 
 
 Length, 1.40 inches ; height, 1.04 inches; convexity, about 0.70 inch. 
 
 It may possibly have been a variety of this species that was figured 
 by Professor Geinitz under the name Asturte gihhosa (McCoj^), in his 
 " Carbonformation und Dyas in Nebraska " (PL I, Fig. 23), as we know it 
 to occur at the same locality from which his specimen was obtained. 
 His figure, however, would seem to represent a more rounded or shorter 
 and less depressed shell, with a broader posterior outline and more gib- 
 bous beaks. At any rate, the shell under consideration is very distinct 
 from that named by Professor McCoy, and is certainlj- not an Astarte., 
 as its internal casts show no indications of the hinge characters of that 
 genus, but on the contrary, impressions apparently like those left by the 
 
 tiou iu tlie series. These specimens are also extremely abundant, while those of G. chrysalis are rare, 
 and hence it is more probable that the former is the species named iu Fremont's llcport. 
 
 It is worthy of note, that the very abundant shell, here referred doubtfully to Piolessor Hall's species, 
 is exceedingly variable in its ornamentation, some specimens having the veitieal costa; rather strongly 
 developed oii'all the volutions, while others have them only on the upper ones ; and on still others tney 
 are nearly or quite wanting on all the volutions so as to leave only the finer revolving lines, and yet we 
 see all gradations between these extremes. 
 
 '^Thi.s is the form figured and described in Frgmont's Eeport under the name Cerithmm nodidosr'm. 
 As it is a true Goniobasis, however, and Doctor Lea had previously described a species of that genua 
 under the name nodulosa, it is necessary to propose a new name for the Utah species. 
 
 •'It is not possible, from the published figure and description of the species called Turbo pdhtdincefor- 
 mis^in Fremont's Report, to decide, with confidence which one of several species of YiviXMrus and 
 Mclantho, now known from the tertiary fresh-water deposits of the Green Itiver country, that uamo 
 was originally proposed for. From the nature of the matrix, however, and its association -vrith the 
 species "described under the name Ccrithimn nodulosum, it is much more probable that the shell I have 
 hero referred doubtfully to Yiviparus paludinforcemis, is really the form originally described as Turbo 
 paludinceformis, than the less-abundant species of Melantho, from the Bear beds, composed of a diflerent 
 material. 
 
 * Drawings of tliese fossils are in course of jpreparation, to be published along with 
 full descriptions in final report. 
 
300 GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF THE TEREITORIES. 
 
 cartilage processes, in the casts of Udmondia, tlioiigli I am not quite 
 sure tbat it belongs properly to the latter genus. It is a rather thin 
 shell, that leaves impressions of the concentric ridges rather distinct ou 
 internal casts, where very faint traces of radiating lines are also some- 
 times seen. Its muscular and pallial impressions are ohscm^e, and not 
 well known. 
 
 Locality and position. This shell has a very wide distribution in the 
 coal measures of this country, through nearly the entire thickness of which 
 it ranges. The typical sijeciraen was found in the upper part of the coal 
 measures at Aspenwall,on the Missouri River, in Southeastern Nebraska. 
 It also occurs at nearly all the other outcrops along the Missouri in that 
 region, as well as in the upper and lower part of the coal measures of 
 Illinois ; likewise in the lower i^art of the seres in West Virginia, and 
 apparently' at Box Elder CaQon, on the ^STorth Platte, Wyoming. The 
 specimens from the latter locality, however, are shorter and more gib- 
 bous, and agree more nearly with Professor Geinitz's figure. 
 
 Cretaceous forms. 
 
 GENUS CEASSATELLINA, (meek.) 
 
 Shell subtrapezoidal, equivalve, inequilateral, with the margins closed 
 and smooth within. Hinge with two cardial teeth and one elongated 
 anterior and posterior lateral tooth in each valve. Anterior cardinal 
 tooth of left valve trigonal and deeply emargiuate below; i^osterior very 
 oblique, and separated from the other by an oblique pit divided longi- 
 tudinally by a thin lamina. Cardinal teeth of right valve diverging, 
 with a triangular pit between for the reception of the triangular cardi- 
 nal tooth of the other valve ; anterior one small, and connected with the 
 anterior lateral tooth ; i)osterior one larger, oblique, and divided longi- 
 tudinally by a deep slit for the reception of the lamina in the corres- 
 ponding pit of the other valve. Ligament external (?) Muscular im- 
 pressions shallow. Pallial line simple (f) Surface without radiating 
 markings. 
 
 The typical and only known species of this genus has very much the 
 external aspect of a CrassatcUa, from which, however, it is widely re- 
 moved, generically, by its hinge characters, though probably belonging 
 to the same family. Its muscular impressions are very faintlj^ marked, 
 as is also the case Mith its pallial line, which I have not been able to 
 trace along its entire length, though enough of it can be seen to leave 
 little, if any, room for doubting that it is simj^le. Its lateral teeth are 
 elongated parallel to the cardinal margin, the posterior being rather 
 remote from the cardinal, while the anterior one in the right valve con- 
 nects at its posterior end with the small anterior cardinal, and in the 
 left extends back to the small pit for the reception of this anterior cardi- 
 nal tooth of the right valve, just in front of the larger, trigonal cardinal 
 tooth of the left valve. The anterior lateral tooth of the right valve seems 
 to fit under that of the left, and the posterior one of the right over that 
 of the left, though I am not positively sure of this. The cardinal teeth 
 are very peculiar, those of the right being rather widely diverging, with 
 the very oblique posterior and larger one so deeply divided longitudi- 
 nally by a very narrow slit, that it may possibly sometimes rather pre- 
 sent the character of two teeth, though" the posterior half seems scarcely 
 prominent enough to be considered a distinct tooth. The principal or 
 anterior trigonal cardinal tooth of the left valve, which fits between the 
 two diverging ones of the right, is sometimes so deeply emargiuate be- 
 
GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OP THE TERRITORIES. 301 
 
 low tbat it might almost be described as A-sliaperl, wliile the posterior 
 cardiual of this valve is directed very obliquely backward and down- 
 ward, aud compressed. The thin lamina dividing longitudinally the pit 
 between this oblique tooth and the trigonal, emarginate one, is another 
 peculiar feature. 
 
 CRASSATELLINA OBLONGA, (MEEK.) 
 
 A B 
 
 A shows hinge aud iuterior of right valve ; B hinge and interior of left valve ; both 
 2 diam. 
 
 Shell small, short oblong-subtrapezoidal in outline, less than twice 
 as long as high ; valves rather distinctly convex, with flattened sides ; 
 anterior margin rounded ; i^allial margin nearly straight, or sometimes 
 slightly sinuous along the middle ; posterior oblquely truncated above 
 aud narrowly rounded below ; dorsal outline sloping rather abruptl^^ in 
 front of the beal^s and less distinctly so behind ; beaks moderately 
 prominent, and placed a little in advance of the middle ; posterior um- 
 boual slopes prominently rounded from the beaks to posterior basal ex- 
 tremity ; posterior dorsal region above the umbonal prominences flat- 
 tened : flanks sometimes a little concave toward the pallial margin. 
 Surface with rather distinct lines of growth. 
 
 Length, 0.73 inch ; height, 0.32 inch ; convexity, 0.30 inch. 
 
 Specifically, this shell is more nearly like the form I have described 
 from the cretaceous near Caiion City, under the name Mactra f Caiio- 
 nensis, than it is like any other form with which I am acquainted ; 
 though it differs too widely to be confounded with that shell, even where 
 the hinge could not be seen. They both have so much the appearance of 
 the genus Crassatella, externally, that few would hesitate to refer them 
 to that genus where their external characters only could be examined. 
 
 Locality and position: Twelve miles southwest of Salina, Saline 
 County, Kansas; Dakota Group of the Upper Missouri cretaceous 
 series. Collected by Professor B. F. Mudge. 
 
 PACHYMYA ? TRUNCATA. (MEEK.) 
 
 Shell small, longitudinally oblong, very convex ; posterior side long, 
 distinctly and rectangularly truncated, apparently closed 5 pallial mar- 
 gin nearly straight, and slightly sinuous along its entire length ; 
 anterior margin truncated a little obliquely forward from the beaks to 
 the rather prominent and abruptly-rounded, or subangularly-anterior 
 basal extremity ; cardinal margin nearly straight and parallel to the 
 base ; beaks depressed nearly to the horizon of the dorsal margin, very 
 oblique, somewhat compressed, and placed less than one-fifth the length 
 of the valves behind the anterior extremity ; posterior umbonal slopes 
 quite prominent or subangular, and continued obliquely to the posterior 
 basal angle, so as to divide the surface of each valve into two nearly 
 equal, elongated, inequilateral triangles, the lower of which forms the 
 concave flanks ; anterior muscular scar small, but very deep ; posterior 
 ditto, larger, shallow, suboval; pallial line not distinctly seen, but 
 
302 GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF THE TERRITORIES. 
 
 appareutly with a small sinus. Surface with rather coarse, irregular 
 marks of growth. 
 
 Length, 1.15 inches ; height, 0.55 inch ; convexity, 0.58 inch. 
 
 This shell is much smaller than the typical species of Sowerby's genus 
 Pachymya, which it resembles in general habit and in the thickness of 
 its valves. Its ligament seems to have been short and rather deeply 
 inserted behind and between the beaks. I have not seen the hinge, 
 but judging from internal casts it would seem to be edentulous. Its 
 j)eculiar oblong form and squarely-truncated posterior margin give it 
 somewhat the aspect of a Saxicava, or . a miniature Panopcca, but it 
 differs from these genera, in having thicker valves, and nearly or quite 
 closed margins. I am not sure that it belongs properly to the genus 
 Pachymya, though it must be nearly related to that genus, which seems 
 rather to beloug to the MytiUda; than to be nearly allied to Pholadomya 
 or Panopcca, with which some have associated it. 
 
 Specifically, the shell under consideration will be readily distinguished 
 from all of our other known cretaceous forms by its i^eculiar oblong, 
 truncated form and ijrominent umbonal slopes, concave flanks, &c. The 
 only other form known to me that approaches it in these characters is 
 Mr. Gabb's Eemondia furcata, which is a much larger shell, with more 
 regular undulations, a more prominent base in front of the middle, a 
 less narrowly-rounded anterior basal extremity, and a more obliquely- 
 truncated posterior margin. Our shell also seems not to have the hinge 
 characters of Eemondia. 
 
 Locality and position : The specimen was given to Dr. Hayden at the 
 Salt Lake, and was found in that region, but he could not ascertain 
 the precise locality. It is almost certainly a cretaceous species. 
 
 INOCERAMUS ALTUS. (MEEK.) 
 
 Shell attaining a medium size, vertically, or a little obliquely, subovate, 
 being in the adult higher than long, and widening from the hinge down- 
 ward; moderately convex; equivalve, very inequilateral; hiuge very 
 short, and ranging nearly at right angles to the longer axis in the adult, 
 but a little more oblique in young shells ; anterior side straight, long, 
 and truncated vertically or nearly at right augles to the hinge, iaimedi- 
 ately in front of the beaks ; base regularly rounded ; posterior outline 
 forming a broad, somewhat oblique, gentle curve from the posterior 
 end of the hinge into the base; beaks nearly or quite equal, rising 
 little above the hinge line, pointed, obliquely incurved, and placed 
 immediately over the anterior margin. Surface of cast showing more 
 or less regular, rather obscure concentric undulations, and faint traces of 
 radiating markings, the latter probably not being defined on the exterior. 
 
 Height, about 6.50 inches; length, about 4.90 inches; convexity, 2.70 
 inclies; length of hiuge, about 2.40 inches. 
 
 This species belongs to the section of the genus that includes perna- 
 like forms; that is, shells with their vertical diameter greater than their 
 atero-posterior, and with a short hinge ranging nearly at right angles 
 to the longer (vertical) axis of the valves, terminal or anterior Ijeaks, etc. 
 It differs, however, decidedly from all of the described species of that 
 type with which I am acquainted, in being almost exactly equivalve, with 
 its beaks also very nearly if not quite equal. In size and general 
 appearance it reminds one of I. nohilis, Miinster, as figured in Goldfnss' 
 Petref. Germ., PI. CIX, Fig. 4 and 4a ; but it differs from that species, 
 not only in its equal beaks, but in having its truncated anterior side 
 straight instead of concave in outline, and its surface undulated instead 
 of merely striated. 
 
GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF THE TERRITORIES. 303 
 
 Locality and position: Near Medicine Bow Station, Union Pacific 
 Railroad; Fort Pierre Group of the Upper Missiouri cretaceous section. 
 
 UNTO (BAPHIA?) NEBRASCENSIS. (MEEK.) 
 
 Shell attaining a medium or larger size, cuneate-subovate, being in 
 the adult very gibbous anteriorly and cuneate behind ; anterior side 
 very short and rounded ; posterior sloping above obliquely from the end 
 of the hinge to the posterior basal extremity, which is narrowly rounded; 
 basal border sinuous behind the middle, and convex in front of it ; car- 
 dinal margin rather short and nearly straight or slightly arched ; um- 
 bones very gibbous, but depressed, oblique, incurved, and ^ilaced near 
 the anterior extremity ; posterior umbonal slopes subaugular from the 
 beaks obliquely backward and downward to near the middle, beyond 
 which thej' are continued as broadly-rounded ridges to the posterior basal 
 extremity ; below and parallel to these ridges there are also, on the Hanks, 
 one or two large, oblique, irregular, rounded plications or undulations, 
 that continue on to the sinuous posterior basal margin, to which they 
 sometimes impart a distorted or waved appearance. Surface otherwise 
 smooth, excepting moderately-distinct lines of growth, which are strongly 
 undulated in places, as they cross the oblique plications of the flanks. 
 
 Length, 4.10 inches ; height, 2.36 inches ; convexity, 2.07 inches. 
 
 Specimens of this large shell were brought by Dr. Hayden from Ne- 
 braska, some years back, but I have delayed describing it, with the hope 
 that other specimens would be found that might show the nature of the 
 hinge. It has so much the external aspect of the Unionidcn as strongly 
 to impress one with the belief that it belongs to the genus Unio^ as un- 
 derstood in its wider signification. It certainlj' has an external ligament 
 exactly as we see in that genus; while one of the casts shows the im- 
 lu'ession of a single compressed, oblique cardinal tooth in the right 
 valve just over the scar of the anterior adductor, and near the margin. 
 The anterior adductor scar is rather deep and also near the margin. I 
 have not, however, seen the small scar placed just behind that of the 
 anterior adductor of Unio^ in the internal casts of this shell. So far as 
 can be made out from the casts, there would seem to have been no lateral 
 teeth, but the specimens are not in a condition to warrant a positive 
 opinion on this x)oint ; nor do they show the nature of the pallial line. 
 
 Locality and position: Dakota Group, or No. 1, of the Upper Mis- 
 souri cretaceous, opposite Sioux City, on the Missouri, in Dakota County, 
 Nebraska, where it occurs associated with Cyrena arenaria. 
 
 ARC A? PARALLEL A. (JIEEK.) 
 
 Shell small, longitudinally oblong, being about twice and a half as 
 long as high, moderately convex ; cardinal and pallial margins straight 
 and nearly parallel ; anterior side short and rounding up regularly from 
 below and intersecting the cardinal margin at an obtuse angle above ; 
 posterior side long, a little wider than the other, with its margin com- 
 pressed and obliquely truncated above, but rounded below ; beaks de- 
 pressed, somewhat flattened, incurved, not very remote, and placed 
 about one-fifth the length of the valves from the anterior margin ; car- 
 dinal area very narrow, and apparently smooth ; muscular and pallial 
 impressions very obscure; hinge with denticles longest posteriorly, where 
 they are directed upward and backward at an angle of about fortyflve 
 degrees to the cardinal margin ; from the posterior side they diminish 
 rather rapidly in size and length forward, so that^ they become very 
 
304 GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF THE TERRITORIES. 
 
 minute and crowded between the beaks, which is as far forward as they 
 have been traced in the specimens examined. Surface showing very 
 fine, crowded, radiating strice, with stronger marks of growth. 
 
 Length, 0.95 inch ; height, 0.37 inch ; convexity, 0.27 inch. 
 
 This is not a typical Area, if we follow conchologists in viewing A. 
 Now as the type of the genus, because it wants the broad, divaricately- 
 furrowed cardinal area, and is not gaping in the anterior ventral region. 
 Its hinge denticles are also more oblique and longer posteriorly, more 
 like those of Scapliula. In form and general appearance it is very much 
 like some species of Macrodon, but 'its hinge characters are widely dif- 
 ferent. I know of no established section of the old genus Area into 
 which it cofild be properly placed, and if it is thought desirable to have 
 a section for such forms, they might be separated under the name 
 Areina. 
 
 Loeality and jyosition: Twelve miles southwest of Salina, Saline 
 County, Kansas ; Dakota Group of the Upper Missouri cretaceous series. 
 Professor B. F. Mudge. 
 
 YOLDIA MICRODONTA, (MEEK.) 
 
 Shell small, longitudinallj' subovate, rather compressed ; anterior 
 margin more or less narrowly rounded, being generally more promi- 
 nent above the middle ; pallial margin forming a semiovate curve, 
 being more prominent before than behind the middle, and curving uj) 
 gradually and obliquely at both ends ; posterior side compressed, and 
 with its margin narrowly rounded, or almost subangular at its con- 
 nection with the hinge above ; cardinal margin sloping gradually from 
 the beaks, the posterior slope being very slightly concave in outline, 
 knd the anterior nearly straight ; beaks rather depressed and placed 
 a little in advance of the middle; hiuge line equaling about three- 
 fourths the entire length, and provided with verj- line, regular, pointed 
 denticles, of which twenty-six may be counted behind and twenty be- 
 fore the beaks, in each valve. Muscular and pallial impressions very 
 obscure, and not visible on internal casts. Surface not well known. 
 
 Length, 0.50 inch ; height, 0.28 inch ; convexity, 0.14 inch. 
 
 In general outline, and the nearly central positions of its beaks, this 
 shell bears some relation to Yoldia hisulcata, M. and W., from the Fox 
 Hills Group of the Upper Missouri cretaceous, but it is a very decidedly 
 more compressed species 5 and, judging from impressions left in the ma- 
 trix, it was evidently less strongly striated. Indeed it seems to have 
 been nearly smooth, in which character, as well as in some other re- 
 spects, it is probably more nearly related to T. JEvansi, M. and W., from 
 which it differs in l3eiug j)roportionally shorter, higher, and more com- 
 pressed. Among European species, it is represented by such forms as 
 Yoldia scaplia {Nueiila scapha, d'Orbiguy, Paloeont., Francaise, t. iii, PI. 
 301, Fig. 1-3), from Avhich it also differs in being more compressed, with 
 the posterior side wider, and the posterior dorsal slope distinctly less 
 concave in outline. 
 
 Loeality and position : Twelve miles southwest of Salina, Kansas, from 
 a brown sandstone of the age of the Dakota Group of the Upper Mis- 
 souri cretaceous. Discovered by Professor Mudge, of the Kansas Agri- 
 cultural College. 
 
 CORBICULA? NUCALIS, (MEEK.) 
 
 Shell small, trigonoid-subcircular, moderately gibbous, the greatest 
 convexity being above the middle; pallial margin forming a semi-elliptic 
 
GEOLOGICAL SUKVEY OF THE TERRITORIES. 305 
 
 curve; posterior margin subtruncatecl or rounded; anterior margin 
 rather more narrowly rounded; dorsal outline sloping rather abruptly 
 and nearly equally, with slight convexity in front and rear of beaks, the 
 anterior slope being somewhat more abrupt than the other ; beaks nearly 
 or quite central, curved inward and slightly forward ; posterior dorsal 
 surfaces a little flattened ; post-unibonal slopes somewhat prominent, or 
 sometimes almost subangular in internal casts; muscular impressions 
 shallow and oval ; pallial line with a small obtuse sinus. External sur- 
 face unknown ; surface of internal casts smooth. 
 
 Length, 0.47 inch ; height, 0.42 inch ; convexity, 0.20 inch. 
 
 Impressions of the hinge of this little shell, left in the matrix, show 
 that it has elongated anterior and posterior lateral teeth that are striated 
 transversely, as in Corhieula. In the left valve there is one elongated 
 anterior, and one similar posterior lateral tooth, each of which fits into 
 a corresponding furrow in the margin of the other valve. Immediately 
 above this furrow, in the posterior and anterior margin of the right valve, 
 there is a smaller linear, striated lateral tooth, while the margin below 
 the furrow seems hardly to project enough to be properly regarded as a 
 second anterior and posterior lateral tooth. The specimens of the im- 
 pressions of the cardinal teeth are not so clearly seen, being mainly 
 hidden behind the cast of the umbones, in the only specimen that I have 
 seen with this part of the hinge well preserved. So far as they can be 
 made out, they seem to be much as in the existing species of Corbicula, 
 excepting that the anterior cardinal tooth of the left valve is directed 
 almost horizontallj^ forward instead of obliquely forward and downward; 
 it is also much compressed from above and below, and very prominent, 
 and curved upward. The corresponding tooth of the other valve is 
 much smaller and overlaps that of the right valve. Behind this promi- 
 nent anterior cardinal tooth of the left valve, I ihink I have seen two 
 other diverging and emarginate cardinal teeth, with pits for two corres- 
 ponding diverging teeth in the right valve. The number and arrange- 
 ment of the teethof the hinge would, therefore, if correctly understood 
 in the specimen, seem to be almost exactly as in Corhieula, with the 
 exception of the horizontal direction of the anterior cardinal teeth, and 
 the prominence of that of the left valve. 
 
 It is quite possible, however, that if we had specimens showing more 
 clearly the cardinal teeth, we might find differences enough to warrant 
 the establishment of a distinct section, allied to Corbicula. 
 
 Locality and position : Twelve miles southwest of Saliua, Kansas ; 
 Dakota Group of the Upper Missouri cretaceous series. Professor 
 Mudge. 
 
 CORBICULA? SIIBTRIGONALIS, (MEEK.) 
 
 Shell oval-subtrigonal, about one-fourth longer than wide, rather 
 gibbous, the greatest convexity being above the middle; basal outline 
 forming a semi-elliptic curve; extremities rather narrowly and very 
 nearly equally rounded; beaks somewhat depressed and very nearly 
 central ; dorsal outline sloping before and behind the beaks, the latter 
 slope being convex and the former nearly straight. Surface only show- 
 ing five lines of growth. Pallial line with a small, obtusely-subangular 
 sinus. 
 
 Length, 1.16 inches; height, 0.90 inch; convexity, about 0.66 inch. 
 
 The only cast of the hinge of this species I have seen, is that of a left 
 
 valve. It shows the impressions of the same elongated and striated 
 
 lateral teeth seen in the last. The cardinal teeth, however, seem to 
 
 have unfortunately been much injured by maceration or erosion, before 
 
 20 G 
 
306 GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF THE TERRITORIES. 
 
 they left their imprint in the matrix. It shows the mold of a promi- 
 nent triangular anterior cardinal tooth in front, apparently like that of 
 the last, and behind this there are remains of two prominences, that 
 look like they might be casts of two somewhat diverging cardinal teeth 
 in the right valve, with impressions for two other cardinal teeth in the 
 left; hence, so far as can be made out, the teeth of the hinge seem to 
 agree with those of the last-described species. Specifically, however, 
 this form differs from the last in its more depressed and transverse out- 
 line, as well as in having its lateral extremities more nearly equal and 
 more narrowly rounded ; the posterior margin not being truncated as 
 in the last. 
 
 Locality and position : Same as last. Collected by Professor Mudge. 
 
 CAEDnJlVI PAITPERCULUIVI, (i\IEEK.) 
 
 Shell small, very thin, rather compressed, subovate or subcircular ; 
 beaks moderately i)rominent and nearlj- central; surface ornamented 
 by about thirty regular, simple, distinctly defined, radiating costae, 
 which about equal the intermediate furrows, and (owing to the thinness 
 of the valves) are well-defined internally, and thus impart a plicated or 
 crenated character to the margins; crossing these are numerous very 
 regular, well-defined, delicate marks of growth, that are usually less 
 distinct on the posterior third, but give a neatly crenulated appearance 
 to the costos farther forward. 
 
 The specimens yet seen of this little shell are rarely more than about 
 €.50 inch in diameter, and are all more or less flattened or otherwise 
 distorted. Sometimes thej' are distorted by antero-posterior pressure, 
 so as to present somewhat the appearance and outline of a Lima, being 
 higher than wide, and more or less oblique; while in other examples 
 they are distorted by vertical i^ressure, so as to present little or no 
 obliquity, and to show a greater antero-posterior diameter than height. 
 1 have not seen the hinge, but some imj^ressions in the matrix show 
 that it has anterior and posterior lateral teeth like those of Cardium ; 
 it, however, does not belong properlj- to the tyiiical section of that genus. 
 
 Locality and position : Fort Benton Grouj), or No. 2 of the Upper 
 Missouri cretaceous series, at the Oil Springs, twenty miles west of Fort 
 Bridger, Wyoming Territory. 
 
 CARDIIJM (PEOTOCARDIA) SALINAENSE, (MEEK.) 
 
 Shell small, orbicular-subtrigonal, slightly longer than high, rather 
 gibbous ; pallial margin forming a semicircular curve ; anterior margin 
 rounded, most prominent at or a little above the middle, where it is 
 sometimes inclined to be rather narrowly rounded, while below this it 
 ourves off obliquely into the base ; posterior margin broader than the 
 anterior, and faintly subtruncated, or broadly rounded ; beaks moder- 
 iitely prominent, convex, and incurved, located slightly in advance of 
 the middle ; dorsal outline sloping more abruptly in front than behind 
 the beak's ; surface ornamented on the sides and front by comparatively 
 rather large, rounded, very regular, concentric costae, separated by 
 smaller furrows, and on the jDosterior side by sixteen to twenty-two 
 smaller radiating costae, that are provided with very regularly-disposed, 
 little, vaulted, scale-like prominences, formed by undulating marks of 
 growth. 
 
 Height, 0.66 inch ; length, 0.68 inch ; convexity, about 0.49 inch. 
 
 This little shell is allied to C. percgrinosum, d'Orbigny, and C. Hilla- 
 
GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF THE TERRITORIES. 307 
 
 mum, Sowerby. It is much smaller than tlie latter, however, and has a 
 different outline, not being near so truncated behind, nor so regularly 
 rounded in front. Its concentric costtu are likewise propiwtionally much 
 larger and less numerous, while the radiating ribs on its posterior side 
 differ in being provided with the numerous little projections mentioued 
 in the description. In the latter character it agrees more nearly with 
 C. pcrcfjrinosum^ d'Orbigny. It also differs from the latter, however, in 
 having its concentric costJB proportionally much larger and less numer- 
 ous, and the radiating ones straighter and occupying a larger area of 
 the valves, while the anterior margin is less broadly and regularly 
 rounded in outline. 
 
 Locality and position : Twelve miles southwest of Salina, Saline 
 County, Kansas; Dakota Group of cretaceous. Professor Mudge, col- 
 lector. 
 
 CARDIUM KANSASENSE, (MEEK.) 
 
 Shell rather small, oval-suborbicular, being generally slightly higher 
 than the anteroposterior diameter, and rather gibbons, with the greatest 
 convexity usually above the middle; j)allial margin rounded, or sub- 
 semicircular in outline, being in most cases more prominent behind the 
 middle ; anterior margin more or less regularly rounded ; posterior out- 
 line rounded, or very faintly subtruncated ; dorsal outline sloping 
 abruptlv from the beaks before and behind ; beaks elevated, gibbous, 
 incurved, and subcentral, or a little in advance of the middle, and but 
 slightly oblique ; posterior dorsal slopes somewhat flattened ; surface 
 marked by numerous regular, simi:)le, radiating stria^, or small costae, 
 that are sometimes interrupted by marks of growth. Hinge strong, 
 with. cardinal and anterior lateral teeth stout; posterior lateral remote 
 and less i)rominent. Anterior muscular scar rather deep; posterior 
 shallow. Scar of pedal muscle (?) small, very deep, and situated on the 
 inner anterior side, and near the i^oints of the beaks, almost opposite 
 the cardinal teeth. 
 
 Length, 0.94 inch ; height, 1 inch; convexity, about 0.63 inch. 
 
 This and the last-described species are the two most common shells 
 found at the locality where they were obtained, and being, like the other 
 fossils with which they are associated, found in the condition of casts, 
 not always showing even traces of the surface markings, it is sometimes 
 difticult to distinguish them. Where any remains of the surface mark- 
 ings can be seen, however, they can be at once distinguished by the con- 
 centric cost?e on the sides and front of the former, and the radiating 
 costa? on the corresponding jjarts of that under consideration. The 
 latter seems also to have generally attained a somewhat larger size. 
 The inner margins of both appear, from the casts, to be generally nearly 
 smooth, though some of the casts of the form under consideration show 
 faint traces of what seem to have been crenulatious, near the middle of 
 the base. I at first thought the peculiar projecting point left b}' what 
 I have supposed might be the scar of the pedal mucles, near the point 
 of each beak of internal casts, might distinguish the form under consid- 
 eration ; but this is also seen on some of the casts of the other species, 
 which, likewise, has the hinge teeth very similar, so that the only sure 
 means of distinguishing them seems to be the surface markings. These 
 markings are sometimes distinctly and sharply impressed in the matrix, 
 and by taking gutta-percha impressions from these molds, the nature 
 of the surface markings can be very clearly made out. No traces of 
 nodes, or projecting points of any kind, exist on the costa; of this 
 species. In some respects it resembles G. Cottaldinum, d'Orbigny (Pah 
 
308 GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF THE TEREITORIES. 
 
 Fr. Ill, PI. 1-4), from the Neocomiaii ; but it is ratber more coarsely stri' 
 ated, and wants the posterior dorsal impression of that shell, from which 
 It also differs in being less evenly convex. 
 Locality and 'position : Same as last. Discovered by Professor Mudge. 
 
 MACTEA*? CANONENSIS, (MEEK.) 
 
 Shell small, very thin, transversely subovate, rather compressed or 
 moderately convex, with length about once and a half the height; 
 anterior side rounded; posterior side longer, narrower, and obliquely 
 subtruncated at the extremity ; pallial margin forming nearly a semi- 
 ovate curve, being most prominent anteriorly, straight or very slightly 
 sinuous behind the middle, and rounding up very abruptly to the lower 
 part of the truncated posterior margin; dorsal outliue nearly straight 
 and sloping to the truncated posterior, and declining more abruptly in 
 front; beaks small, moderately prominent, and placed one-third the 
 length of the valves from the anterior margin; posterior umbonal 
 slopes rather prominent to the posterior basal extremity, while the sides 
 in front of this j)rominence are flattened, or even very slightly concave 
 below. Surface with rather regular but distinct lines and farrows ot 
 growth. Muscular impressions shallow; posterior round-oval; anterior 
 narrower, with a slencler prolongation above; pallial line with a shallow, 
 rather rounded sinus. 
 
 Leugth, 0.78 inch; height, 0.53 inch; convexity, 0.31 inch. 
 
 At the same time that I refer this species, for the present, to the 
 genus Mactra, I really do not believe that it belongs properly to that 
 genus, as restricted by late authorities on conchology. I merely place 
 it there, however, because its hinge is unknown, and it presents some 
 characters indicating relations to that group. In form it is very unlike 
 Mactra, and more nearly resembles Grassatella. Its thinness and sinu- 
 ous pallial line, however, at once forbid its reference to that group, 
 while the latter character, and especially a triangular fissure seen in the 
 hinge margin between the beaks, as in Mactra (ScMzodesma), indicate 
 relations to that genus. Its hinge, however, will probably be found 
 presenting characters that warrant its separation as a distinct genus, 
 judging from its general i^hysiognomy. 
 
 Locality and position : Caiion City. 
 
 -GENUS AECOPAGELLA, (meek.) 
 
 Shell equivalve, more or less nearly equilateral, longer than high, 
 with margins closed all around and smooth within. Hinge with two 
 'cardinal, and one anterior and one posterior lateral teeth in each valve. 
 Left valve with anterior cardinal tooth larger than the posterior and 
 trigonal in form, but sometimes rather deeply emarginated below, 
 placed directly under the beak; posterior cardinal tooth small, slender, 
 and ranging obliquely backward and downward close to the larger one, 
 so as to leave only a slender pit between, corresponding to another on 
 the anterior sioe of the principal cardinal tooth, which two pits are for 
 the reception of the cardinal teeth of the right valve; anterior and 
 posterior lateral teeth both elongated parallel to the cardinal margin, 
 the former approaching more nearly to the cardinal teeth. Right a alve 
 with, under the apex, two diverging, slender cardinal teeth, like the 
 posterior one of the other valve, with a triangular pit between them for 
 the reception of the principal cardinal tooth of the other valve; ante- 
 rior one more oblique than the other, and nearly or quite connecting 
 
GEOLOGICAL SUEVEY OF THE TERRITOKIES. 309 
 
 with the lateral tooth on that side; lateral teeth like those of the left 
 valve; the anterior one apparently fitting under that of the other 
 valve, and the posterior above that of the other. Muscular impressions 
 shallow; pallial impression with a moderate rounded sinus, directed 
 obliquely forward and upward. Ligament unknown, but believed to be 
 external. Surface without ornamentation. 
 
 After searching in vain to find some defined group under which 1 
 could range this shell, with a reasonabl-e degree of probability of its 
 properly belonging to the same, I have concluded to propose a new 
 genus for its reception. It seems to be related to Arcoijagia, but dift'ers 
 in having anterior and posterior lateral teeth in both valves, as well as 
 in the form of the anterior cardinal tooth of the left valve and its 
 arrangement with relation to the other. At first I was inclined to think 
 it might find a i)lace in Mr. Conrad's cretaceous genus TeUimera, but a 
 sketch of the hinge of his type received fi-om him shows the latter to be 
 quite distinct, having a double anterior lateral tooth in the right valve, 
 and the cardinal teeth of the same. consisting of one bifid very oblique 
 cardinal tooth, and* immediately behind this a minnte vertical second 
 cardinal. The hinge plate of his genus is also distinctly wider on the 
 anterior side than in the type under consideration. 
 
 It is somewhat remarkable that the hinge structure of the type of 
 this genus is, in most respects, very similar to that of the grou'^j for 
 which I have proposed the name Crassatellina, while the whole aspect 
 of the two shells is so entirely different that I can scarcely doubt that 
 they really belong to two distinct families — CrassateUina probably 
 belonging to the CrassateUedce., and Arcopagclla, apparently to the Tel- 
 linidce. As closely as their hiuges resemble, however, a critical compari- 
 son of the accompanying cuts will show them to present important dif- 
 ferences of details. 
 
 It is probable this genus will ,be found to include other tellinoid 
 cretaceous shells, the hinges of which are yet unknown. 
 
 ARCOPAGELLA MACTROIDES, (IVIEEK.) 
 
 A B 
 
 A, hinge and interior of right valve. 
 
 B, hinge and interior of left valve ; both nat. size. 
 
 Shell longitudinally-subovate, width or height about two-thirds the 
 length, rather compressed or moderately convex ; pallial margin forming' 
 a regular semi-elliptic curve from end to end ; anterior margin narrowly 
 rounded, with the most prominent part near the middle ; posterior bor- 
 der more narrowly rounded than the anterior, particularly below, where 
 there seems to be the faintest possible tendency to form a flexure or 
 fold ; beaks moderately prominent, located very nearly centrally ; dor- 
 sal outline sloping almost equally before and behind the beaks, but with 
 the anterior slope slightly concav^e in outline above, and the posterior a 
 little convex ; muscular impressions faintly marked and rather narrow 
 subovate ; pallial line with its rather shallow, broadly-rounded sinus di- 
 rected very obliquely forward and upward. Surface apparently with 
 only fine lives of growth. 
 
 Length of one of the larger specimens, 0.78 inch ; Tieight, 0.53 inch ; 
 convexity, about 0.2G inch. 
 
310 GEOLOGICAL SUEVEY OF THE TERRITORIES. 
 
 This shell will be readily distinguished fi?oin the Tellinas of our cre- 
 taceous rocks by its shorter, slightly more convex, subtrigoual, or sub- 
 ovate nearlj' equilateral form, even where its hinge cannot be seen. In 
 some respects it looks externally like a compressed and depressed Mac- 
 tra. I am unacquainted with any tertiary species with a similar hinge. 
 
 Locality and iwsition : Twelve miles southwest of Saliua, Saline 
 County, Kansas ; Dakota Group of Upper Missouri cretaceous. Profes- 
 sor B. F. Mudge. 
 
 TELLINA SUBSCITULA, (MEEK.) 
 
 Shell small; elliptic-suboval, much compressed; pallia! margin form- 
 ing a regular semi-elliptic curve ; extremities narrowly rounded, the pos- 
 terior being a little shorter, with a very obscure flexure, and more ab- 
 ruptly or narrowly rounded below ; dorsal outline sloping gently in both 
 directions from the beaks, the posterior slope being a little convex in 
 outline, and the anterior nearly straight ; beaks depressed, compressed 
 and placed a little behind the middle ; muscular impressions moderately 
 distinct, the posterior one being broader than the other ; pallial sinus 
 very deep, nearly horizontal, and rather broadly rounded. Surface with 
 only fine lives of growth. 
 
 Length, 0.84 inch; height, 0.47 inch; convexity, about 0.15 inch. 
 
 This shell is much like Tellina scitula, M. and H., from the upper mem- 
 ber of the Upper Missouri cretaceous series ; but on comparison it is 
 found to be proportionally more depressed, while its pallial sinus is very 
 different, being much broader and more obtusely rounded at the end. 
 Impressions of its surface in the matrix also indicate less strongly-de- 
 fined lines of growth. Casts show that it has no lateral teeth. 
 
 Locality and position : Same as last. Professor Mudge. 
 
 TAPES WYOMINGENSIS, (MEEK.) 
 
 Shell elongate-subelliptic in outline, much compressed; extremities 
 nearly equally rounded ; pallial margin straight and nearly parallel to 
 the dorsal, but rounding up regularly at both ends ; dorsal side straight, 
 or very slightly convex in outline ; beaks depressed nearly or quite to 
 the dorsal margin, and placed about one-fourth the length of the valves 
 from the anterior end ; anterior muscular impression ovate, rather well 
 defined, and with its longer diameter ranging vertically; pedal scar 
 distinct near the upper end of that of the anterior adductor ; posterior 
 muscular impression very shallow ; pallial line with its sinus rather 
 deep, horizontal, and obtuse at the end. Surface with lines and some 
 small ridges of growth. 
 
 Length, 1.70 inches ; height, 0.82 inch ; convexity, about 0.28 inch. 
 
 The only specimens of this species yet obtained are mainly casts re- 
 taining some portions of the shell. They give very little idea of the 
 nature of the hinge beyond the fact that it seems to have three diverging 
 cardinal teeth, the exact form and arrangement of which cannot be 
 made oat. The general expression of the shell, however, is very nearly 
 that of some European cretaceous forms that seem to have essentially 
 the hinge characters of Tapes, though they may not be exact!}' congeneric 
 with the recent species of that genus. Among the foreign species our 
 shell seems to be most nearly represented by Venus fragilis, d'Orbigny 
 (from the cretaceous of France), which is not a true Venus, but has been 
 referred by Mr. Zittel to the genus Tapes. (See Bivalven der Gosaug., 
 I^ord Alpen.) 
 
GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF THE TERRITORIES. oil 
 
 Compared with d'Orbiguy's figure and description of his V. fragilis, 
 given in the Pala3ont. Francaise, our shell differs in being regularly 
 rounded instead of truncated posteriorly. It is also straighter on the 
 basal margin, and more broadly rounded in front. In some of these 
 characters it agrees more nearly with Professor Zittel's figures, which I 
 suspect may represent a distinct species from that figured by d'Orbigny. 
 Still it differs from Professor Zittell's figures, in having its anterior 
 margin more broadly rounded, and its pallial margin' straighter in out- 
 line. 
 
 Locality and position: Mouth of Deer Creeh, on North Platte, in 
 Wyoming Territory ; Fox Hills Group of the Upper Missouri cretaceous 
 series. 
 
 LEPTOSOLEN CONRADI, (MEEK.) 
 
 Shell elongate-oblong, nearly three times as long as high, moderately 
 convex ; dorsal margin straight, pallial margin more or less nearly 
 straight, and subparallel to the dorsal, being a little convex in outline in 
 front of the middle, thence ascending obliquely forward to the narrowly- 
 rounded anterior end ; posterior margin truncated vertically, but 
 rounding abruptly into the dorsal and ventral borders above and below; 
 beaks not raised above the dorsal margin, and very inconspicuous, their 
 position only being indicated externally by the curves of the marks of 
 growth, located about one-third the length of the valves from the ante- 
 rior end ; surface only showing fine lines of growth. 
 
 Length, 1.04 inches ; height, 0.36 inch ; convexity, 0.28 inch. 
 
 Internal casts of this species show the impression of the strong 
 internal ridge, extending directly downward from the beaks, and grad- 
 ually dying out below the middle of the valves. These casts also show 
 the imi^ression of a single small tooth in the right valve, just in front of 
 the upper termination of the deep furrow left by the strong internal 
 ridge. From these characters it is evident that this genus is allied to 
 Siliqna, Miililfeldt {Lcguminaria, Schum.), but differs, as pointed out 
 by Mr. Conrad, in having but a single hinge tooth in the right valve, 
 instead of three in each valve. It almost certainly includes Lcgumi- 
 naria Moreana^ d'Orbigny (Pal. France Ter. Cret., Ill, PI. 350, Figs. 
 8, 9, 10), and L. Petersi, Reuss {Siliqna Pctcrsi, Zittel, Bivalven der 
 Cos., JSTordiistlien Alpen, taf. 1, Fig. 3), both of which, like Mr. Conrad's 
 tj'pe, are cretaceous species. 
 
 Compared with Mr. Conrad's typical species, L. hiplicata {Siliguaria 
 hipUcata^ Con., Jour. Acad. N. Sci., Ill, PI. 34, Fig. 17), our shell is seen 
 not only to be much smaller and proportionally shorter, but to differ in 
 not having the two broad prominences radiating forward and downward 
 from the beak of each valve, as in that species, though it shows a single 
 very obscure, broad ijrominence extending directly downward under the 
 beaks, and widening as it descends. In front and behind this there is also, 
 in each valve, a scarcely perceptible concavity. This broad prominence 
 also imparts a slight convexity to the outline of the base, just at the 
 point where the base in Mr. Conrad's species is sinuous. 
 
 It is probably more nearly allied to Leptosolen Moreana, d'Orbigny 
 (sp.), already cited, but differs from d'Orbigny's figure in being decidedly 
 straighter on the dorsal margin, and wider, as well as more distinctly 
 truncated posteriorly. Compared with Lept. Petersi, Eeuss (sp.), as 
 figured by Professor Zittel, our species will be readil}^ distinguished by 
 having its internal ridge at right angles to the dorsal margin, instead of 
 extending obliquely backward and downward ; also in having its dorsal 
 
/ 
 
 312 GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF THE TERRITORIES. 
 
 margin straight from end to end, instead of declining forward from the 
 beaks. 
 
 Locality and position: Twelve miles southwest of Saliua, Kansas; 
 Dakota Group of the cretaceous series of the Upper Missouri. Pro- 
 fessor Mudge. 
 
 ANISOMYON CENTRALE, (MEEK.) 
 
 Shell depressed, conical, somewhat wider than high, apex central, or 
 very nearly so ; slopes nearly equal all around, or with sometimes the an- 
 terior and sometimes the posterior sides a little convex, and the others 
 more nearly straight; aperture circular; surface apparently smooth, ex- 
 cepting obscure lines of growth, crossed by several irregular, diverging, 
 obscure, radiating ridges and more strongly defined furrows ; the former 
 being mainly on the posterior and the latter on the interior and lateral 
 slopes. 
 
 Breadth of largest specimen seen, 1.16 inches ; height about 0.95 inch. 
 
 I have seen only two specimens of this species, and these are internal 
 casts, with merely some fragments of the very thin shell remaining, while 
 the extreme apex of both is broken away. The radiating furrows are rather 
 distinctly defined on the anterior slope of the internal cast, while one 
 (apparently not exactl;^ the middle one) is narrower and distinctly deeper 
 than the others on each side of it, which latter are about twice as wide, 
 shallow, and often somewhat divided by a small ridge down the center of 
 each. On the posterior slope one of the ridges is more strongly defined 
 than the others, especially near the apex, and seems to correspond to 
 the deeper furrows of the anterior slope, though not exactly opposite 
 to it. The broken apex in one of the specimens looks as if it might have 
 curved a little backward, though in the other it evidently curved for- 
 ward at the point, if I have rightly determined the relative sides. 
 
 One of the specimens shows obscure traces of the oval muscular scar 
 on each side, and these are connected across the side I regard as the 
 anterior, by a slender line, but the specimen being a little worn on the 
 opposite or posterior side, I have been unable to make out the broader 
 interrupted band that ought to pass around the posterior side, if the 
 species really belongs to this genus. 
 
 This species will be readily distinguished from all of the others yet 
 known from the far western cretaceous rocks by its conical form and 
 elevated apex. 
 
 Locality and position : Box Elder and Colorado City, Colorado ; Fox 
 Hills Group of the Upper Missouri cretaceous series. 
 
 TUERITELLA KANSASENSIS, (MEEK.) 
 
 Shell elongate conical, or gradually and regularly tapering from below 
 to the apex, with the lateral slopes of the spire straight ; volutions eight 
 to ten, increasing regularly in size, flattened, or only very slightly convex ; 
 last one rounded below ; suture nearly linear ; aperture ovate. Surface 
 with small, thread-like, revolving lines, varying much in their arrange- 
 ment and distinctness, but usually more strongly defined on the lower 
 half of the last turn ; lines of growth very fine, obscure, and strongly 
 arched or sigmoid, so as to indicate a rather deep sinuosity in the outer 
 lip above the middle. 
 
 Length of large specimen, 1.10 inch ; breadth, 0.31 inch ; divergence 
 of slopes of the spire, about 22°. 
 
 This shell varies much in its surface marking, some of the specimens 
 appearing almost smooth, or only showing faint indications of a few 
 
GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF THE TERRITORIES. 313 
 
 revolving lines, while others show a few distantly-separated, very slen- 
 der, raised lines. In still others five or six well-defined slender lines 
 may be seen on some of the volutions, and a smaller number of less 
 distinctly-defined ones on the other turns. The arrangement of these 
 lines and their comparative size on different individuals, as well as on 
 different parts of the same specimen, vary much. Usually the upper 
 turns near the apex of the spire appear to be smooth, though this may 
 be partly due to accidental erosion before the shells Avere imbedded in 
 the matrix. 
 
 Locality and iwsition : Twelve miles sonthwest of Salina, Kansas ; 
 Dakota Groui? of cretaceous. Professor B. F. Mudge, collector. 
 
 TURBO MUDGE ANUS, (MEEK.) 
 
 Shell small, turbinate, about as high as wide ; spire moderately prom- 
 inent ; volutions, four and a-half to five, increasing rather rapidly in 
 size, convex ; last one somewhat obliquely flattened below, and laterally 
 compressed or flattened around the middle of the outer side ; suture 
 more or less channeled ; aperture circular ; outer lip thin and oblique ; 
 columella arched and flattened below j axis imperforate. Surface orna- 
 mented by strong, raised, oblique lines of growth, which are crossed by 
 four equidistant, rather sharp, revolving cariuae, only three of which are 
 seen on the volutions of the spire. 
 
 Height, 0.66 inch ; breadth, about 0.64 inch ; divergence of slopes of 
 the spire about 75°. 
 
 This shell is evidently related to Turho tricostatus, d'Orbigny (Palse- 
 ont. Fr. Ter. Cret., t. II, PI. 186 bis, fig. 5, 6), but clearly differs in hav- 
 ing its spire decidedly more depressed, and in having four revolving 
 carinse on its body volution, instead of only three. Its body whorl is also 
 more rounded, in consequence of its greater convexity on the upper 
 side, which also imparts a more rounded outline to its aperture. It like- 
 wise wants the small umbilicus said to exist in d'Orbigny's species, and 
 does not show the lower carina of the body turn above the suture on 
 those of the spire. 
 
 The specific name is given in honor of Professor Mudge, of the Kan- 
 sas State Agricultural College, to whom I am indebted for the typical 
 specimens of this, as well as of the other species here described from the 
 same locality. 
 
 Locality and position : Same as last. Professor B. F. Mudge. 
 
 Tertiary species. 
 
 UNIO LEANUS, (MEEK.) 
 
 Shell attaining a medium size or larger, rather thin ; longitudinally 
 ovate, being somewhat less than twice as long as high, with the widest 
 (highest) point in advance of the middle, rather distinctly convex ; an- 
 terior side wider than the other, and regularly rounded ; posterior margin 
 more narrowly rounded, or sometimes obliquely subtruncate above; basal 
 outline forming a broad, semiovate curve, with the most prominent part in 
 advance of the middle ; beaks moderately depressed and placed between 
 one-third and one-fourth the length of the valves from the anterior 
 margin ; surface smooth or only showing marks of growth ; hinge 
 strong, cardinal teeth prominent, and leaving in internal casts a very 
 profound impression, ranging vertically just behind the anterior musculai 
 scar ; lateral teeth long and straight ; two in the left and one in the right 
 valve. 
 
314 GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF THE TERRITORIES. 
 
 Length, 3.80 inches ; height, 2.20 inches ; convexity, 1.40 inches. 
 
 This will be readily distinguished from that I have provisionailly 
 referred to JJ. tellhioldes, H., by its proportionally longer and more con- 
 vex valves, stouter hinge, and particularly by having larger, thicker, and 
 more prominent cardinal teeth, ranging vertically, instead of very 
 obliquely forward and downward. The specific name is given in honor 
 of Dr. Isaac Lea, of Philadelphia. 
 
 Locality and ijosition : Church Buttes, Wyoming Territory ; miocene 
 tertiary, in a rather coarse, greenish grit. 
 
 UNIO WASHAKIENSIS, (JIEEK.) 
 
 Shell scarcely attaining a medium size ; thin, depressed, rather com- 
 pressed, longitudinally subovate ; anterior side short, rounded ; posterior 
 side long, with a narrowly-rounded or sometimes taintly subtruncated 
 extremity, the most x>rominent point being below the middle, while 
 above this there is usually an oblique slope from the posterior extremity 
 of the hinge 5 basal margin, forming a broad, semi-elliptic or semi-ovate 
 curve, in the latter case the most iirominent part being a little in ad- 
 vance of the middle ; dorsal or hinge margin straight from the beaks to 
 the upper slope of the posterior margin ; beaks depressed nearly to the 
 dorsal margin, rather regularly convex, but not ventricose, and placed 
 about one-fourth the length of the valves from the anterior extremity ; 
 umbonal slopes moderately and evenly convex ; surface smooth, or only 
 showing more or less distinct marks of growth, excepting near the im- 
 mediate points of the beaks, where well-preserved specimens show 
 traces of minute, regular, longitudinal w^rinkles, which terminate pos- 
 teriorly at two faint, oblique, obsolescent, linear ridges ; hinge, slender ; 
 cardinal teeth small, oblique, and apparently consisting of one in the 
 right and two in the left valve; lateral teeth straight, rather long, two 
 in the left, and one or two in the right valve. 
 
 Length of a large specimen, 2.37 inches; height, 1.26 inches; convex- 
 ity, 0.72 inch. 
 
 This species is related to TJ. priscus^ M. & H., with which it agrees 
 nearly in form and surface characters. It is constantly smaller, how- 
 ever, and distinctly thinner, while its hinge is weaker and its cardinal 
 teeth smaller and much more oblique. The wrinkles on its beaks, and 
 the two oblique linear ridges on their posterior dorsal sides, are similar 
 to those on JJ. priscus, excepting that they are less distinctly defined 
 and occupy a nuich smaller space only near the points, instead of the 
 whole surface of the umbones, being in fact so obscure and so near the 
 points of the beaks as to be readily overlooked and entirely obsolete in 
 most cases. 
 
 It will be distinguished from U. Raydeni mainly by its constantly more 
 depressed and more elongated form. Its stratigraphical position is also, 
 according to Dr. Hayden's observations, one thousand to two thousand 
 feet lower in the series than that of JJ. Haydeni. 
 
 Locality and. position : Washakie, Wyoming ; also on Henry's Fork 
 and on Green itiver, Wyoming Territory, at all of which i^laces it is as- 
 sociated with Viviporus paludinceformis (=Tm'l)o paludinceformis Hall) 
 and Goniobasis nodulifera f=Cerithiuni nodulosuniy Hall, not G. nodu 
 losa, Lea.) 
 
 CORBICULA? FRACTA, (MEEK.) 
 
 Shell attaining a rather large size, longitudinally ovate, wider 
 (higher) anteriorly, compressed, very thin and fragile ; anterior margin 
 
GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF THE TERRITORIES. 315 
 
 rounded ; pallia! margin semiovate in outline ; posterior margin nar- 
 rowcT than the other, and snbtruncate ; dorsal outline sloping gradually, 
 with slight convexity behind the beaks, and more abruptly in front ; 
 beaks rather depressed, oblique, and placed about one-third the length 
 of the valves from the anterior extremity ; surface only showing very 
 obscure lines and somewhat stronger ridges of growth. 
 
 Length, 2.24 inches; height at the beaks, 1.48 inches; convexity, ap- 
 parently about 0.40 inch. 
 
 The specimens of this species are all more or less flattened by acci- 
 dental compression, but show the outline and surface characters per- 
 fectly, even to remains of the thin epidermis. With considerable diffi- 
 culty I have succeeded in cleaning away the matrix so far as to see that 
 the hinge margin is comparatively strong for so thin a shell. It shows 
 apparently three diverging cardinal teeth in each valve, and a linear 
 anterior lateral tooth extending parallel to the anterior margin, while 
 the posterior lateral teeth are somewhat remote from the cardinal, and 
 rather elongated. On these posterior lateral teeth I have seen fine trans- 
 verse striae, which doubtless also exist on the anterior lateral, though I 
 have not seen a specimen in a condition to show them. 
 
 Internal casts show the anterior muscular impression to be ovate, and 
 the posterior broader, or more nearly circular, while the pallial line 
 shows a shallow, rounded sinus, forming less than a semicircle. 
 
 Locality and imsition : Hallville coal mines, just above a bed of coal, 
 in a black, argillaceous, rather hard rock, that may be shaly at some 
 places. 
 
 CORBICULA? CRASSATBLLIFORMIS, (MEEK.) 
 
 Shell attaining about a medium size, longitudinally ovate-subtrigonal- 
 compressed, very thin and fragile; anterior side rounded ; pallial mar, 
 gin forming a semiovate curve, being more prominent anteriorly than be- 
 hind ; posterior side longer than the other, but much narrower, being 
 very narrowly truncated at the immediate extremity ; dorsal margin 
 forming along straight slope behind the beaks, and sloping more abrupt- 
 ly in front; beaks rather depressed, oblique, and located rather more 
 than one-third the length of the valves from the anterior margin ; 
 posterior umbonal slopes showing some tendency to form a verj* slight 
 prominence from the beaks toward the posterior basal extremity. Sur- 
 face marked with fine lines, and a few irregular, stronger ridges and 
 furrows of gTowth. Hinge not well made out. 
 
 Length, 0.95 inch ; height, 0.60 inch ; convexity, about 0.20 inch. 
 
 This form will be distinguished from the last, not only by its much 
 smaller size, but by its more trigonal outline (caused mainly by the 
 greater obliquity and straightness of its posterior dorsal slope), the 
 greater prominence of its post-umbonal slopes, and its proportionally 
 stronger ridges of growth. I have not seen its pallial line and know lit- 
 tle of its hinge, though some of the specimens seem to show iudicatious 
 of three diverging cardinal teeth, as in the last. Like that species, it 
 is a very thin, fragile shell. 
 
 In form and general appearance, this shell is much like Cyrena {Cor- 
 dicnla) anfjiistata, Deshayes (An. Saus. Yert. Bassin de Paris, 1, p. 508, 
 PI. XXXVII, Figs. 9, 10, 11 et 12), but it not only attains a larger size, 
 but differs in being more attenuated posteriorly, and more distinctly 
 truncated at the immediate extremitj^ of the narrowed posterior end. 
 
 Both this and the last-described species very nearly resemble some of 
 the depressed, elongated species of Gmssatella, in outline, and .belong 
 
316 GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF THE TERRITORIES. 
 
 to Deshayes' section " oblongues transverses " of Cyre?ia, which in- 
 cludes some very thin species from the Paris Basin. 
 
 It is a curious fact, that at the same time these forms differ so very 
 materially in form from the existing typical species of CorMcula, they 
 have the lateral teeth of the hinge, in most cases, like those of that 
 group, often even to the fine transverse striae, instead of like those of 
 the true Cyrenas. As Deshayes has remarked, the fossil species show 
 gradations in form and hiuge characters, that seem to indicate that 
 those groups can scarcely be regarded as forming distinct genera, al- 
 though it may be convenient to distinguish them subgeuerically. There 
 would still, however, ai^parently be as good reasons for forming for 
 these longitudinally-ovate or subtrigonal, very thin shells, with hinge 
 teeth more like those of Corbicula, a third subgeneric section. If so, I 
 would propose for this group the name Leptesthes, with the first of the 
 foregoing species as its type. 
 
 Locality and position : Same as last. 
 
 GONIOBASIS CHYSALLIS, (MEEK.) 
 
 Shell generally almost cylindrical below the middle, but more abruptly 
 tapering above; volutions six or seven, flattened, with the upper margin 
 thickened, last one not angular, and scarcely larger than the next above 
 it; suture well defined. Surface ornamented by distinct vertical costse, 
 often ranging nearly in the same line all the way up the spire ; these are 
 partly interrupted by an effort to form three, or rarely four, obscure re- 
 volving lines or ridges, the upper of which is larger and more prominent 
 than the others, which character, with the slightly enlarged upper ends 
 of the vertical costce, causes the thickened appearance of the ujjper mar- 
 gins of the volutions ; several other slender and more distinct revolving 
 lines also occur on the under side of the last turn. Aj)erture somewhat 
 rhombic-ovate. 
 
 Length, about .60 inch ; breadth, .18 inch. 
 
 I have seen no well-preserved specimens of this shell, but its peculiar 
 form and the thickened character of the upper margins of its volutions 
 distinguish it readily, even in very imperfect examples, from all of the 
 other known species of this region. I had long back referred it, with 
 much doubt, to Goniobasis tenera, Hall, ^sp.,) (not Anthony;) but as the 
 later collections brought from Utah and Wyoming contain a great 
 number of another, but clearly distinct species, that agrees more nearly 
 with Professor Hall's figure, both in form and the number of revolving 
 lines on each volution, I am led to think that he must have had the 
 latter species before him when he described his G. tenera. The fact, too, 
 that it occurs in vastly greater numbers than the form under consid- 
 eration, seems to sustain this conclusion. 
 
 Locality and positien : Bear Eiver, near Sulphur Creek, Utah ; Lower 
 tertiary. 
 
 GONIOBASIS NODULIFERA, (MEEK.) 
 
 Ceritlimm nodulosum, Hall, 1845. Fr6niont'8 Roport Explorations, p. 309, PL III, Figs. 
 11 and 12. (Not Goniobasis nodiilosa, Lea, 1841.) 
 
 Shell attaining a rather large size, elongate-conical ; spire much pro- 
 duced ; volutions seven or eight, convex, and increasing gradually and 
 regularly in size ; last one not larger in iiroj)ortiou than the others, and 
 rounded ; suture well defined and sometimes presenting a slightly banded 
 appearance ; aperture ovate ; outer lip very strongly sinuous above the 
 middle, and prominent below it. Surface ornamented with rather dis- 
 
GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF THE TERRITORIES. 317 
 
 tinct lines of growth, that arch strongly parallel to the margins of the 
 lip, and are crossed on the lower part of the last turn by from three or 
 four to about six distinct, raised revolving lines, and near the middle, 
 especially on those of the spire, by a stoall nodular carina or ridge. 
 
 Length of a large specimen, about 1.40 inches ; breadth of same, 0.46 
 inch. Angle of spire regular, with a divergence of 18 to 20 degrees. 
 
 The surface markings of this shell, excepting sometimes the lines on 
 the lower part of the last turn, are not seen on internal casts ; while on 
 the exterior, the revolving, slightly-nodular ridge is often obsolete on the 
 last turn, and apparently sometimes nearly or quite so on some of those 
 above. The revolving lines of the under side of the last volution are 
 strongly defined, and it seems to be the upper one of these, continued 
 upon those of the spire, just above the suture, that gives it the banded 
 appearance. In some instances a few smaller revolving lines are seen 
 farther up on the last turn, and even continued upon the lower half of 
 the exposed part of some of those of the spire. Where the nodular ridge 
 is most distinctly developed, the surface of the volutions above it is 
 sometimes slightly concave. 
 
 Professor Hall's figures, especially his Fig. 12 of GeritMum nodu- 
 losum, represent the suture as being more oblique than in our specimens, 
 but this is probably due to lateral compression. None of his figures 
 show the strongly-arched lines of growth, nor more than one of the 
 revolving lines on the lower part of the last turn. Both are mentioned, 
 however, in his description. The arching character of the lines of growth 
 is a distinctly-marked feature in this shell. 
 
 As the name nodulosa had been used by Dr. Lea for a species now in- 
 cluded in the genus Goniohasis, it becomes necessary to find a new name 
 for the shell under consideration, in placing it in that genus, consequently 
 1 have called it G. noduUfera. 
 
 Locality and position : Colonel Fremont's specimens of this species, 
 according to his observations, came from latitude 41030' ; longitude 111^ 
 where they were found in a yellowish-gray oolitic limestone. Dr. Hay- 
 den's collections of it came from a locality a short distance farther to the 
 southeast. They are in a yellowish-gray limestone, that sometimes 
 shows a few oolitic grains. Dr. E. Palmer brought specimens of it from 
 White Eiver, still farther southeast in Colorado, in a yellowish, distinctly 
 oolitic matrix. Lower tertiary. 
 
 BYTHINELLA GREGAEIA, IVIEEK. 
 
 Shell small, conoid-subovate, spire rather elevated ; volutions five, 
 rounded, or very convex ; suture strongly impressed ; aperture ovate, 
 or slightly longer than wide, with the upper extremity subangular, and 
 the lower rounded ; inner lip not reflected, and leaving by its side a very 
 small umbilical impression that seems not to perforate the axis. Sur- 
 face smooth, or only showing, under a strong magnifier, very minute 
 lines of growth. 
 
 Length, 0.15 inch ; breadth, 0.08 inch ; length of aperture, 0.06 inch ; 
 breadth of aperture, scarcely 0.04 inch. 
 
 This little shell so nearly resembles, in form and proportions, the 
 figures of Bythinella tenuipes, of Couper, that it is with some hesitation 
 I have concluded to regard it as a distinct species. As that shell, how- 
 ever, is described as having its suture " slightly impressed," and as being 
 '' sub-umbilicated," while that under consideration has its suture very 
 deep, and could not be properly described as even ,s<<&-umbilicated, I do 
 not feel warranted in referring our tertiary form to the existing species. 
 
318 GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF THE TERRITORIES. 
 
 Of course we have no certain means of determining whether we ought 
 not to call this shell Amnicola gregaria, or Pomatiopsis gregaria, instead 
 of referring- it to Bythinella,t\ie distinctions between these groups being 
 mainly based on characters not apparent in the shell. The fact, how- 
 ever, that it is found in vast numbers associated with a small Planorhis, 
 and millions of the carapace-valves of a minute Ci/pris, would seem to 
 indicate that it was aquatic in its habits, like BytMnella and Amnicola. 
 It is true, terrestrial shells are often swept by streams into lakes, and 
 deposited along with those of aquatic species; but it is exceedingly im- 
 probable that millions of so small a terrestrial shell as this would havf 
 been deposited all together, so as almost to form an entire bed of limf > 
 stone, especially without some other terrestrial types. 
 
 Locality and position: : Pacific Springs. Tertiary. 
 
 11.— ON THE TERTIARY COALS OF THE WEST. 
 
 By Jas. T. Hodge, Geologist. 
 
 The occurrence of coal in the Eocky Mountains was observed and re- 
 ported on by most of the early explorers on the different routes they 
 traversed across the continent. Little importance, howerver, was at- 
 tached to these discoveries, and, as the coal-beds were seen only in 
 their outcrop, little knowledge was acquired of their real character. It 
 was understood that they belonged, not to the true coal formation, but 
 either to the lower tertiary or iipi^er cretaceous, and the coal was conse- 
 quently classed among the lignites or brown coals, and generally con- 
 sidered to be far inferior in quality to the genuine coals of the Eastern 
 and Middle States. As the country began to be settled, the scarcity ol 
 timber soon caused these deposits of fuel to be looked up, and mines oi 
 coal to be opened and worked in Utah and in Colorado. The construc- 
 tion of the Union Pacific and Central Pacific Railroads created a still 
 greater demand for fuel for the supply of their locomotives, and new 
 mines were opened along the line of the former road in Wyoming Terri- 
 tory, which, with those worked on the eastern border of Utah, near the 
 same road, supply both these long lines of road with all the coal they 
 require. No mines have been found near the Central Pacific Eailroad, 
 either in Utah, Nevada, or California, so that this road is wholly depend- 
 ent for fuel upon the coals brought to it from the Union Pacific. Though 
 it is scarcely three years since these coal-mines began to be developed, 
 they have already jiroduced large quantities of coal, and several among 
 them have tlie appearance of thriving collieries, well furnished with 
 powerful machinery for pumping and hoisting, and all the appliances 
 of first-class establishments. 
 
 In Colorado, mines were opened along the eastern base of the Rocky 
 Mountains about eight years since, and a number of them have been 
 worked to a moderate extent from that time, supplying Denver and the 
 settlements below the mountains. The coal was found very serviceable 
 for domestic purposes, but was deficient in caloric quantities, such as 
 are required for founderies and otiier metallurgical works. The writer 
 in 18G3 found the blacksmiths for the most part unable to produce a 
 welding heat with the coal in their forges, and coke was brought from 
 Kansas for a foundery at Black Hawk at an expense of $100 per ton. 
 The coal-mines were then esteemed of very little value. The opening oi 
 
GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF THE TERRITORIES. 319 
 
 the Kansas Pacific Railroad to Denver, of the Denver Pacific to Cheyenne, 
 and of the Colorado Central from Denver to Golden City, with the pros- 
 pect of its extension in another year to the mining towns in the mount- 
 ains, has greatly added to the importance of these mines, and led to 
 arrangements for working them upon a large scale. In September and 
 October last the writer again examined them, and also visited all the 
 coal-mines of importance in Wyoming and in Utah near the Union 
 Pacific road, and the following are some of the results of his investi- 
 gations and of the analyses he has made of the coals he has collected : 
 
 All these coal-mines are found in a series of sandstones and tire-clay, 
 probably of lower tertiary age. No limestones occur with these strata, 
 and black slate is met with in small quantity only. The sandstones are 
 generally somewhat friable in texture, and are often exposed in bold 
 cliffs, the faces of which have weathered in very irregular shapes, and 
 frequently present deep holes and cavernous depressions. Its color is 
 from a light-yellowish to reddish brown, and sometimes gray. In j)laces 
 it is sufficiently sound and firm to make a good building stone. The 
 fossils it contains are chiefly leaves of deciduous trees. No ferns and 
 other fossil plants are found in the formation like those common to the 
 true coal-measures. The black slates forming the roof of a coal-bed at 
 one locality in Wyoming Territory are found filled with fossil Unios, 
 which, as the writer is informed by Dr. J. S. Newberry, are probably an 
 undescribed species. Fire-clay is perhaps the predominant material of 
 the formation. It occurs in beds of great thickness, especially in Col- 
 orado, and at Golden City it is manufactured into fire-bricks of excellent 
 quality. Clay iron-stone is occasionally interstratifled with the clays 
 and black shales, and in Boulder County, Colorado, the summits and 
 sides of some of the hills near the coal-mines are partially covered with 
 masses of brown iron ore, that have the appearance of solid ledges, bnt 
 which were no doubt collections of clay iron-stone, left behind when the 
 lighter materials of the strata containing them were removed, and con- 
 verted subsequently by atmospheric agency into those brown hydrates. 
 
 The coal-beds are often of great size, the largest now worked being 
 twenty-six or twenty-seven feet thick. This is on Bear Eiver, on the 
 eastern border of Utah. For the most jjart they are remarkably free 
 from impurities, it being not rare to see a face of eight or even ten feet 
 of clean coal of brilliant luster, perfectly sound and solid in the mine, 
 without a particle of slate or any visible foreign matter that would injure 
 it. Iron pyrites, however, may generally be detected in small flakes and 
 thin disks, but very rarely in sufficient quantit}^ to be injurious. Mineral 
 resin is a common ingredient of the Colorado coals, and was met with 
 at one of the mines only on the Union Pacific Railroad, that at Carbon. 
 The beds lie at an angle with the horizon ; some are vertical, none were 
 observed level. 
 
 All the coals tend to crumble soon after being exposed to the weather; 
 but when protected they remain a long time unchanged, as is shown by 
 a large lump in the possession of the writer, which he obtained at a 
 mine in Boulder County, Colorado, in 18G3, and which is still sound. 
 This tendency to crumble is the cause of great waste at the mines — all 
 the greater that these tertiary coals can scarcely ever be made to melt 
 and agglutinate into a firm coke. With rare exceptions, when submitted 
 to the coking process, they retain their form or crumble into a dry pow- 
 der. As seem by their analysis they all contain water in their composi- 
 tion, and this is very slowly given up even at the boiling temperature. 
 Its pressure necessarily detracts from the calorific power of the coals, 
 not merely by reason of the water takiug the place of so much carbon, 
 
320 GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF THE TERRITORIES. 
 
 but by the cousumption of more to produce the heat required to expel 
 this water. Heuce it is difficult to obtain a strong-, concentrated heat, 
 such as is needed for welding iron in the forge-fire, and it is only by 
 I)articular care and skill that the blacksmiths have generally succeeded 
 in making it answer their purposes. At the machine shops of the Union 
 Pacific Railroad it is not yet admitted as a substitute for eastern bitu- 
 minous coals, though some of these are brought from Pennsylvania 
 mines, about two thousand miles distant, and the very best of the Rocky 
 Mountain coals are obtained directly on the line of the railroad. As a 
 fuel for locomotives and for domestic puri^oses, including cooking as 
 well as warming, the coal in general answers very well. It kindles and 
 burns freely, making a bright tire, with a yellow blaze and comparatively 
 little smoke ; the odor of this is not so strong or disagreeable as that of 
 the bituminous coals, and somewhat resembles the smell of burning peat. 
 The smoke is not always dark and thick, but is sometimes of a light gray 
 color. The ashes are remarkably light and bulky. The engineers of the 
 locomotives find that some A^arieties crumble more than others in the fire, 
 and sift through the gro.te bars; these require closer screens at the top 
 of the smoke-stacks. They endeavor to obtain t\iQ coal as freshly mined 
 as possible on account of its sounder condition. Clinker's sometimes 
 form sufficiently to be troublesome when the coals are obtained from 
 those mines that contain seams of slate. There have been a few cases 
 of combustion of refuse heaps of coal, supposed to have occurred spon- 
 taneously. The presence of iron pyrites in coals so easy to crumble and 
 ignite as these cannot fail to suggest this danger, mid the importance of 
 guarding all heaps of it from becoming wet. It is not unusual in the 
 Eiockj' Mountain region to meet among the strata of sandstones beds of 
 ashes, which are evidently the ruins of coal-beds, some of which are of 
 large size. The writer has seen many such in the banks of the upper 
 part of the Missouri River. 
 
 The geological position of these coals, together with the considerable 
 proportion of water in their composition, places them in the class of 
 brown coals or lignites, which are for the most part distinguished by 
 their fibrous structure and close resemblance to the wood from which 
 they are derived. The braunlcohle of the tertiary formations of Saxony 
 and Brandenburg, when dug and stacked in the fields, looks more like 
 brown logs of wood than like mineral coal. Other varieties are met with 
 in various conditions of change, and among them some that closely resem- 
 ble the ordinary bituminous coals in their compact texture, brilliant 
 luster, and black color, both of the coal anxl of its powder, thus differing 
 entirely in appearance from the brown coals or lignites that give a name 
 to the class. This is the general character of the coals of the Rocky 
 Mountains, and their composition shows they are far superior in quality 
 to what the name of the class would indicate. Indeed they appear 
 to be better than the best of the foreign coals of their own variety, and, 
 as they present a wonderful degree of uniformity over extensive terri- 
 tories, it seems they are really entitled to an appropriate name, that 
 should distinguish them, not merely from the common bituminous coals, 
 but from the other lignites also, to which they bear still less resemblance. 
 
 The European lignite deposits are of very limited area, scattered here 
 and there through Prussia, France, Great Britain, «&c., and in these 
 small basins the composition of the fuel is very variable. In the Prus- 
 sian provinces above named its value is rated at only one-third that of 
 the genuine coals ; while in the north of Ireland it is considered to be 
 worth two-thirds as much as the bituminous coals. The weight of the 
 ash in the published analyses for the most part exceeds four per cent., 
 
GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF THE TEREITORIES. 
 
 321 
 
 oil bath below the ten,,erature of boiHn^ o Hn^ W S o? bo i^" 
 water, contuunno- the drying for several hours till the coal ceattS 
 lo.e weight. The fixed carbon in all these analyses is i.ceitaiu in 
 (juantity, as its amount varies through a few per ccMit accoi bn' J' ti ^ 
 greater or less heat employed in expSling the\^lati!e Sels^ 
 
 ANALYSES OF COALS FROM THE KOOKY MOIT^^TATXS. 
 
 Locality. 
 
 •-0 
 
 Golileu City. C. T, 56 feet 110 S 
 
 Ix'lnw snitaoc. 
 GoMen City, C. T.. north end 
 
 of I (.0 feet level. 
 
 Do- 
 
 Golden City. C. T., .soutli end 
 
 <>i 100 feet level. 
 iIuipIiy\s,KalstouCreek,C. T.l 105 S 
 
 no 
 
 Do ..'.'..' 
 
 Marshall's, Boulder Co., C. f OG S 
 
 JjiJSffts'.s, Boulder Co., C. T 84 S 
 
 Uakers, Boulder Co., C. T . 8C S 
 
 Carbon, W. T. 
 
 HallviUe, W. T., ujiper bed .. 
 
 HaUville, W. T.. lower bed 
 
 Van Dvko, W. T 
 
 Eock Springs, W. i' ...]!' ' 
 
 Evanston, tj. T [[ 
 
 Crissman's, Coalville TJ T 
 Monte Diablo, Cal ...'...'.. _ 
 
 to 10 1.3: 
 'i to 10 1. 354 
 
 fi to lo! 
 C to lOl. 
 
 1-1 to 16; 1. 345 
 
 13. 43 
 13.67 
 
 13. 10 
 12. 70 
 
 140 W. 
 
 313 W 
 315 W. 
 44i2 W. 
 480 W. 
 
 10 
 13 
 4i 
 
 7 
 
 6 
 
 3 
 
 4J- 
 Oh- 
 
 26'| 
 
 12 
 
 13.83 
 13.70 
 13. CO 
 1. 33H 12. 00 
 
 1.27 
 1.32 
 
 1.33 
 
 1.32 
 
 1.32 
 
 1.27 
 1.2D 
 1.30 
 1.32 
 
 14.80 
 15.00 
 
 6.80 
 
 12.12 
 
 13. 20 
 
 8.12 
 7.00 
 8. .58 
 10. GO 
 3.28 
 
 3. £5 37. 15 
 4.00 
 
 3.70 
 4.10 
 
 5.85 
 5.80 
 4. 3) 
 .5.20 
 3. 40 
 3.85 
 
 8.00 
 
 3.76 
 
 4.87 
 2.00 
 1.73 
 6. .30 
 3.11 
 4.71 
 
 Description. 
 
 45.57i Gray ash. 
 
 47. 58' 
 
 35. 88) 44. 44 Orange-oolored ash. 
 
 33.08 
 34.50 
 30.50 
 
 35.48 
 
 29.75 
 
 29.46 
 3G. 65 
 3G. 81 
 3, 
 38.23 
 47.05 
 
 49.72 
 
 47. 30' 
 50. 65' 
 
 4D. 72' 
 
 Gray ash -. light, bulky. 
 Onmgc-colored ash. 
 Olive-browu ash ; coal 
 _ hard and tongh; 
 Light-gray ash; nearly 
 I vrhite. 
 54. 37 Gray ash ; smoke -whit- 
 
 Tellowish-gray ash. 
 ? Light-gri'y ash: these 
 i coals make coke. 
 
 52. 41 i 
 
 53. 23' 
 
 54. 46 
 49. 90l 
 48. 00 
 44. 90 
 
 By W. P. BlSike, Jann. 
 ary, 1867. 
 
 ln^f- «PP,.i f^ K 1 "^''^' ^^ ^ moderate elevation of temperature. These 
 
 Locality. 
 
 rtweOer, right bank of the Ehine 
 
 Germany 
 
 Edon, Charente 
 
 St. Lon, LoTTer P^Teneeg 
 
 Lilian t Dort, mouths of tile Rhone 
 
 Mmerve L'Aude 
 
 Dauphin, Lower Alps 
 
 Description. 
 
 u 
 
 0. 9 31. 8 
 
 4. G 
 
 11.0 
 
 5.0 
 3.9 
 10.0 
 
 52.5 
 
 50.0 
 
 46.0 
 46.8 
 57.4 
 
 21 G 
 
 67.3 
 
 42.9 
 
 39.0 
 
 48.4 
 49.3 
 32.6 
 
 43.6 
 
 ^^ih/n"^^.^t"ri^''','^°"*^'°^ ^■«-^^; compact, with 
 tliui,.iet-hko laver.s. 
 
 Dull black ; fractuie, smooth and dull. 
 
 Llack. with irregular, shining fiartnrc 
 
 Compact; briUiant black color : iiiv-ular frac- 
 
 turc ; powder, brownish bhu'k : vu' Ids ooke. 
 Compact; black, gre.isy luster ; powder, clear 
 
 brown ; useid by blacksmiths. 
 
322 GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF THE TEERITORIES. 
 
 DESCRIPTION OF LOCALITIES. 
 
 Colorado. — Coal has been found in Colorado both on the east and west 
 sides of the Platte Eiver; but the only mines of importance are near 
 tlie eastern foot of the easternmost or Blue Hills range of the mount- 
 ains. Ihe formation to which they belong is a series of sandstones and 
 lire-clay, probably of lower tertiary age, which ranges north and south, 
 and along its western margin is found uptilted in a vertical position, 
 and sometimes dipping toward the metamorphic rocks that make up 
 the steep mountain slope not half a mile distant. Farther away from 
 tlie mountains the inclination is eastward, and so gentle that the coal 
 strata overspread large tracts of country. The formation follows the 
 range of the mountains north and south to an undetermined extent, 
 and coal is met with in it for more than a hundred miles from Denver 
 in each direction; but the only mines of value, excepting a lew to the 
 south, are at Golden City, fifteen miles west from Denver, and thence 
 north for ten to fifteen miles into Boulder County, along the banks of 
 the creeks that descend from the mouutains eastward toward the Platte. 
 
 Golden City. — The first discoveries of coal at this j^lace Mere several 
 small and nearly vertical beds near together in the steep bank of Clear 
 Creek, about half a mile below where it passes out from the mountains. 
 These were followed but a short distance under the bank toward the 
 south, when the extension of one of the beds in this direction was 
 opened at the sumuiit of the ridge, a quarter of a mile from the creek. 
 The bed was here found so large — from ten to fourteen feet thick — that 
 the lower workings were abandoned, and a vertical shaft was sunk on 
 the hill, one hundred feet ,deep in the coal bed, and levels have been 
 driven north and south from the bottom, and also fifty-six feet below the 
 surface. The bed proved to be very irregular in thickness, sometimes 
 pinching in to a, few inches and then expanding to eight or ten feet. 
 Its average thickness is not probably more than five feet. A small 
 steam-engine is used for pumi)ing and hoisting. Little water, however, 
 is encountered. A cross cut from the bottom, driven seventy feet east, 
 penetrated the following strata: clay, 4 feet thick ; sandstone, 4; coal, 2; 
 sandstone, 12; clay, 3; sandstone, 7; clay, 8; black slate, 3; clay, 4; 
 sandstone, 3 ; clay, 2 ; coal, 2 ; clay, 8 ; coal, 2 ; sandstone, 0. The last 
 stratum is probably the extension below of a heavy ledge of sand- 
 stone that forms the crest of the ridge. The clay is all tire-clay, of 
 pretty uniform and excellent quality, very similar in api>earance to that 
 of the true coal-measures. It seems to be the prevailing material of 
 the formation, and is used for the manufacture of fire-brick in an exten- 
 sive manufactory at the base of the hill. The coal mine has been worked 
 only to the moderate extent of about ten tons a day, for the supply 
 chiefly of the local demand. The appearance of the coal itself — of a 
 dull black without the bright luster common to the coals from the other 
 mines — has dperattnl unfavorably to its reputation in the Denver mar- 
 ket, though no inferiority of quality is indicated by the analyses. It is 
 obtained, too, in pieces of very irregular shape, quite unlike the hand- 
 some rectangular blocks of the other coals. Like them, however, it is 
 almost entirely free from slate and iron pyrites. Eesiu occurs in it in 
 scattered particles and bunches more abundantly than in the coals of 
 the other mines. It may, perhaps, prove a better coal for gas than the 
 other mines *af[;brd, which will soon be ascertained, if it has not been 
 already, at the new gas works at Denver. The locality is very favorably 
 situated for supplying the mining towns in the mountains with fi;el, so 
 soon as the railroad now in progress up the gorge of Clear Creek readies 
 
GEOLOGICAL SURVFA' OF THE TERRITORIES. 323 
 
 tliem. Tlie ])iue woods there available have already been greatly thinned, 
 and the question of the future supply of fuel would be a serious one but 
 for the supplies promised by these mines below the mountains. 
 
 The rauge of the coal-belt to the nortli side of Clear Creek was traced 
 by the writer, in October last, and a point selected for trial shafts on the 
 hills half a mile from the creek. The line of these vertical beds is but 
 ]>oorIy indicated on the surface, and may be easily missed. Faint 
 streaks of coal-smut or blossom were in this instance followed to the 
 depth of seventy feet in tire-clay before they led to solid coal. The bed 
 was here found about ten feet thick. From this side of the creek the 
 railroad will be most conveniently supplied. 
 
 The outcrop of coal has been detected at intervals between Golden 
 City and Ralston Creek, live miles to the north, and the formation ev^i- 
 dently continues through, but no mines are worked in the intervening 
 tracts. 
 
 Ii((hfo}t Creel: — Two large coal beds are opened in the banks of this 
 stream, live miles north from Golden City, and about two miles below 
 the foot of the mountain range. They lie in a vertical i^osition, about 
 twenty-live feet apart. The upper or western one has been followed 
 under fhe south bank some thirty feet, and was found to be abt)ut nine 
 feet thick of good coal. But the other bed, proving to be quite as good 
 as to quality of the coal, and aftbrding in actual working full fourteen 
 feet li-ee from slate and all foreign matters, it has been worked in i)ref- 
 erence. Other small beds have been met with farther up the stream ; 
 but these two are probably all of importance. The large bed is worked 
 on both sides of the creek, and on the north side a large shaft was sunk 
 the last season sixty feet deep in the coal, from the bottom of Avhich 
 levels are to be run north and south. The price paid for mining was 
 $1 50 per ton — the coal run out by the miners, who found their own 
 tools, powder, and lights. The timber required for stulls, &c., was pro- 
 vided by the owner from the mountains. IS^ot so much of this is re- 
 quired in working a vertical bed as is needed in one inclined. But, on 
 the other hand, the trouble, danger, and expense of working the former 
 are essentially greater, and the amount of coal available over large 
 areas materially less. In this case, estimating with allowance for waste, 
 that the production should average twelve feet of coal, and tliat a cubic 
 yard of this weighs two thousand pounds, the mine should aiford, if 
 v.orked to the depth of two hundred yards and a mile in length, about 
 one million and lifty thousand tons. The quantity obtained, however, 
 will depend verj^ much upon the skill with which the work is conducted, 
 and tlie freedom from accidents, especially fire, the danger of which 
 has already been experienced. The coal appears very well, being of 
 deep-black color with brilliant luster. It soon crumbles, however, on 
 exposure, and the waste from fine coal in the mine has been so great 
 that, if continued, a larger deduction would have to be maile than that 
 allowed in the above estimate. The coal has met with a ready sale at 
 the mine at 81 per ton, and $10 at Denver, fourteen miles distant. The 
 construction of the railroad to Golden City must so reduce the cost of 
 transportation that Denver will hereafter be supplied at lower rates. 
 
 Half a mile south from Ralston Creek, towards Golden, coal was dis- 
 covered sometime ago directly on the range of the bed worked, of which 
 it is no doubt the continuation. The exploration thus made developed 
 a large bed with a gentle dip toward the mountains. Whenever this 
 is opened again it will be a matter of interest to trace out the extent of 
 this change of dip. ^ 
 
 Leidcu'S. — The next opening in the coal-bed to the north is in a gap 
 
324 GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF THE TERRITORIES. 
 
 thronali the sandstone ricljje about a mile and a half from Ralstou Greek, 
 
 and is known as Leiden's mine, from the name of the late owner, who 
 with two other men lost their lives by entering the mine last September, 
 when the air was foul in consequence of its having been left unworked. 
 It continued for some time inaccessible, and smoke was issuing from 
 the entrance, when the writer visited the i)lace five days after the occur- 
 rence mentioned above. The locality is of interest as showing the con- 
 tinuity of the coal. The formation is easily traced northward from this 
 point over a broad and highly-elevated o[)en plateau, by the strata of 
 sandstone projecting in vertical layers above the surface; and the coal 
 can, without doubt, be found anywhere against the western edge of the 
 strata, or in the depressions below the general level now occupied by 
 ponds. The lands, however, are not likely to be soon occupied, the soil 
 being tilled and covered with small boulders from the mountains; still, 
 by irrigation, a considerable }>ortion of them may be made productive; 
 and the fact that several ditches are already made across these tracts to 
 the lower and better lands to the east shows that water is available 
 even at their high levels. But the coal is more ]n'ofitably obtained in 
 the valleys of the creeks than in the elevated divides. 
 
 In the next valley crossed by the belt, that of Coal Creek, some seven 
 miles from Ealston Creek, another opening is met with under the western 
 edge of the same sandstone ridge. The mine, however, is not now 
 worked, the owners finding it more convenient to develop their other 
 property near South Boidder Creek, two or three miles over the next 
 divide to the north. 
 
 2Iarshairs. — The mines in the valley of South Boulder Creek, known 
 as Marshall's, are among the earliest worked in Colorado. They were 
 in operation in 1SG3, and have continued without interruption to fur- 
 nish coal to Denver twenty-two miles distant, and to the neighboring 
 settlements. The locality is a little to the south of the creek, iu the 
 hills bordering a small branch about two miles below the foot of the 
 mountains. As uiauy as four beds of coal have here been opened, two 
 of which may, however, prove to be the same. One of them — the 
 highest in the series — is found Just iinder the summit of the divide, dip- 
 ping gently toward the southeast. It is known as the Dabney bed — is 
 said to be nine feet thick, and '«;hen worked, furnished coal of a superior 
 quality, especially for blacksmiths" use. At a lower level, and also 
 lower in the formation, is found the main bed, which is worked to the 
 thickness of ten feet, through the whole of which the coal is remarkably 
 clean and free from slate and other impurities. It contains very little 
 pyrites in their disks and some resin in small particles. In the mine 
 the freshly-exposed face presents a beautifully brilliant appearance, and 
 the coal is so found that a cubic block of it, said to weigh over three 
 tons, was taken out for exhibition at the fair in Denver. It i.msed very 
 generally by the blacksmiths, who have overcome the difficidty they 
 formerly experienced in not being able to get up a welding heat with it. 
 The mine is worked by two parallel headings, or levels, driven in from the 
 north side of the hill, and rising a little up the slope of the bed. These 
 extend about six hundred feet in, and rooms are worked on each side, 
 but chiefly up the slope. In the other direction the bed passes under 
 a meadow, when the coal will have to be worked and drained by means 
 of vertical shafts. It is now mined for 81 --"> per ton beside cost of 
 l^rops and keeping the track, &c., in good condition. 
 
 A third bed of coal three feet thick is found across the meadow just 
 spoken of, in the hill to the east, not half a mile from the main bed. It 
 dips eastwardly into the hill, and has been followed down the slope sixty 
 
GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF THE TERRITORIES. 325 
 
 or seventy feet, under a roof of fire-claj. This appears to lie between 
 the Dabney and the main bed. 
 
 The fourth bed is not far Ironi tlie small bed just described, bein^" a 
 little to the north of a line connecting it with the mine now worked. It 
 differs from the others in lying in a vertical i)osition ; and it is not clear 
 where its position is in the series. A shaft was sunk ui)on the bed some 
 years ago to the depth of fifty feet, and the coal was raised by a horse- 
 whim. The bed was seven feet thick. 
 
 A small blast furnace was built at this place in ISO."} for the purpose 
 of working tlie brown hematite iron ores found scattered about the hills 
 in the vicinity. It ran but a short time, when the enter[)rise was aban- 
 doned. Though the coal mines were so conveniently near, no attem)»ts 
 were made to use the coal ; but pine-wood charcoal from the mountains 
 "was employed as fuel. The iron made was of superior<iuality, and it is 
 evident from the ap]iearance of the cinder heap that the furnace, not- 
 withstanding its diminutive size, must have worked well. 
 
 Wilson-s. — From IMarslialfs north it is less than a mile over the pla- 
 teau into the next depression, where the large coal-bed, easily traced 
 by the outcrop of the sandstone ledge that overlies it, is again opened 
 and worked. This place is known as Wilson's mine. The bed has been 
 followed down the slope toward the south southeast about two hundred 
 feet, and the height of the excavation in the coal is from six to seven 
 feet. Probably the whole is not taken out. The coal itself is the same 
 in appearance as that obtained at Marshall's. 
 
 Tbe continuation of the coal-bearing belt toward the north here ap- 
 pears to be interrupted, as no more mines are opened in this direction. 
 The dip of the strata is with the slope of the surface toward the east, but 
 somewhat steeper, so that the coal beds are carried under and. disap- 
 pear. It seems, however, that the dip must change and a sharp uprise 
 to the east take place, followed again by a long gentle slope in the same 
 direction ; for the surface of the country appears to indicate this in the 
 steepness of its short western slopes, and also the reappearance of large 
 coal beds some thirteen miles northeast of the last mine described. 
 These are found in the side of a steep hill that ranges along the east 
 side of Coal Creek, the same stream noticed before as being crossed by 
 the coal-bearing belt near the mountain range; and which below turns 
 from an eastern to a northerly course. 
 
 Briggn^s. — The most northern opening in these beds is that of the 
 Messrs. Briggs. It is on the side of the hill facing the creek and fol- 
 lows the slope of the bed into the hill east-northeast, the inclination not 
 being so steep but one can walk easily down. The length of the head- 
 ing is about live hundred feet, and rooms have been worked to the right 
 and left. No water has yet been encoutitered in quantity to be trouble- 
 some. The coal bed is about thirteen feet thick, including in this a seam 
 of slate a foot and three inches thick at three to three and a half feet 
 above the floor. The coal presents a handsome appearance, being of a 
 bright glistening black, and coming out in sound blocks of rectangular 
 fracture. It has been mined for the Denver market, twenty-three miles 
 distant ; and arrangements are now in progress for extending a branch 
 of the Denver Pacific liailroad to the mine. 
 
 • Balcr\s. — The Baker or Douglass coal-bed is three and a half miles 
 farther up the creek, toward the south, and on the same side of it with 
 the Briggs bed. It lies about two hundred feet lower down than this 
 in the formation, as the extension of the latter is found at this greater 
 elevation near by. The mine was -originally opened in the bank of the 
 creek, and this being an inconvenient place to work it, an inclined shaft 
 
326 GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF THE TERRITORIES. 
 
 was started on tlie beucli above and carried down through the over- 
 lying tire-clays and sandstone to the coal, when it followed the regular 
 slope of the bed. A steam-engine is employed to hoist the coal and the 
 water. The bed is four and a half to live feet thick, dips east into the 
 hill, and produces a coal very different in appearance from that of 
 the other mines. A part of it is a dull jet-black, hard and ll)rittle, break- 
 ing in cuboidal fragments ; and streaks of this caunel-like character are 
 seen in the more brilliant varieties that are also found. Iron pyrites in. 
 extremely thin disks and resin also are noticed in the coal. 
 
 Two or three other small beds of coal appear in the bank of the creek, 
 and in the slates or shales over them are courses of kidney iron ore that 
 may possibly prove sufficient for the support of a blast furnace. 
 
 Other coal-beds will doubtless be opened in this region, and also far- 
 ther back toward the other mines. The only one discovered the last 
 season was by Mr. Davidson, in exi)loring the strata near the highest 
 elevation of the country, probably far above the great coal-bed. It proved 
 to be a bed about three and a half feet thick. 
 
 Wyomimj Territory. — Although the coal-belt of Colorado extends north, 
 into Wyoming Territory, and indications of coal have been found near 
 the liue of the Union Pacific Kailroad, it has nowhere been found \)V0- 
 ductive of good coal to the east o£the Black Hills. Beyond this range 
 of mountains, in the Laramie Valley, the same formation is again met 
 with, and valuable mines of coal are worked at intervals near the road 
 even to Salt Lake Valley. 
 
 Carbon. — The first of these is at Carbon, a station one hundred and 
 forty miles by the road from Cheyenne, which is at the east foot of the 
 Black Hills. Here, by the side of the track, a large shaft has been sunk 
 seventy feet deep down to a coal bed sev(?n feet thick; a steam-engine 
 for pumping and hoisting is in operation, and all the appliances are pro- 
 vided in the way of good machinery and buildings of a first-class col- 
 liery. A considerable proportion of the coal used on the railroad is here 
 obtained; and it is transported for sale to Omaha, five hundred and 
 fifty-six miles b3^ railroad, and to Denver, tw^o hundred and fifty miles. 
 The coal is iu fair repute, though it makes some clinker, and the analysis 
 shows it has more mineral impurity than the other coals. This comes 
 in part from small seams of slate in the bed, and also from a coating of 
 a white powder observed in the seams of the coal, which proves to be 
 carbonate with a little sulphate of lime. If it contains more ash, it is, 
 on the other hand, comparatively free from water, sliowing the least 
 percentage of this of any coal analyzed. The smoke of this coal is black, 
 like that of the bituminous coals. 
 
 Halh'iUe. — The next mining establishment is at Hallville, one hundred 
 and forty-two miles farther west. Several coal-beds (probably four) are 
 here found in a hill about three hundred jards south from the railroad, 
 and a side track leads from this to the mine. The main bed of coal is 
 from five and a half to six feet thick; and below it is another bed three 
 feet thick, which in one place comes within a foot of it, and in others is 
 separated froui it by several feet of slates. Other irregularities of 
 stratification are noticed in the main coal-bed itself, which near the 
 entrance of the mine has iu the lower half some small seams of slate, 
 and near the roof a layer of " bony," inferior coal, eight inches thick,' 
 none of which are found in the inner or extreme i)art of the workings. 
 The coal itself is hard and solid, and burns with a white smoke and little 
 odor. The mine is worked without trouble from water, and the coal is 
 drawn out on an iron track by mules'. 
 
 The black slate roof of the main bed abounds in fossil remains of fresh- 
 
GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF THE TERRITORIES. 327 
 
 water shells — iinios of umlescribecl species. lu the inner part of tlie 
 mine, when the roof lias been allowed to come down, many tons of these 
 slates might be collected charged Avilh the shells, still white, and often 
 both valves preserved side by side. The brown sandstones interstratified 
 with the coal-beds contain stems of trees C(mverted into the same rock, 
 and im])ressions of the leaves — all, however, very obscnre. 
 
 Van JJiilxC. — The next coal mine along the road is known as the Van Dyke, 
 -thirty miles farther west. This is in a bill on tbe north side of the rail- 
 road track, and so conveniently near to it that the coal is discharged by 
 a chute from the mine directly into the cars. The bed is four and a 
 half feet thick, entirely free from any admixture of foreign substance, 
 except a trifling amount of iron pyrites in thin flakes in the seams, and 
 dips gently to the northwest into the dry, barren hill in which it is 
 found. The roof over it is remarkably smooth and sound, so that all 
 the coal can be taken out clean, and comparatively few props are required 
 for supi)orting it. This is an important consideration in a country so 
 barren of trees as this Bitter Creek region. No water is met v.ith in the 
 mine, and the bed can apparently be followed over an extensive range 
 northeast and west without encountering any. The mine fronts upon 
 the valley of Bitter Creek toward the south; and in the hills opposite 
 it seems as if the same bed must again strike in. 
 
 The Van Dyke coal and that of Bock Springs, two miles beyond, have 
 the best rei)utatiou of any of the Bocky Mountain coals, and this by 
 their analysis seems to be well deserved. These were the only coals 
 that afforded anything like coke by distillation ; and they should give 
 a more concentrated heat than any of the others, showing the best 
 adaptation for metallurgical purposes. 
 
 Rode Springs. — The mines known by this name are two miles west 
 from the Van Dyke bed, and one mile east from the station of the same 
 name. The coal of this locality has been obtained chiefly from a dry, 
 barren knoll of cavernous sandstone, about sixty feet high, situated about 
 fifty rods southeast from the railroad, Avith Avhich it is connected by a 
 branch track. On the south side — away from the railroad — the knoll 
 ends abruptly in vertical cliffs; and in these near the summit is the out- 
 crop of the coal-bed, and the entrance to the mine. The slope of the 
 strata is north-northwest, which carries the coal-bed under the main 
 track of the railroad ; and as the knoll is now almost exhausted of coal, 
 arrangements have been made for Avorking the bed close to the main 
 road, Avhere also is the village of miners' houses. The bed is about nine 
 and one-half feet thick, but only about seven feet are Avorked ; for within 
 two feet of the top is a thin seam of slate, that, Avith the coal above it, 
 makes a better roof than the dry and crumbling slates and sandstones 
 above would make. The coal, like t!)e Van Dyke, is A^ery sound and 
 clean, igniting readily and burning away entirely without crumbling in 
 the fire. The smoke is black, like that of the bituminous coals. The 
 mine is Avorked by contract — the miners riddling the coal in the mine, 
 and deliA'ering the lump coal only outside tor $1 25 per ton. The work- 
 men have evidently been left to th.eir own discretion, without any regard 
 to obtaining the greatest amount of coal the mine should afford. 
 
 The opening hy the railroad track is a slope passing under Bitter 
 Creek. This had not in October passed quite through the " rusty" coal 
 into the sounder part of the bed. The mine has to be proA'ided with a 
 steam-engine for pumping and hoisting, and will no doubt be productive 
 in large quantities of excellent coal. 
 
 This vicinity, like most of the Bitter Creek Valley, is deficient in good 
 water ; so that, for about sixty miles east from Green Kiver, this has to 
 
328 GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF THE TERRITORIES. I 
 
 be brought for the supply of the inhabitants and for the locomotives in 
 cars speciallj" provided for the purpose, and making what is called the 
 water train. The cars, nine in number, have each two tanks about nine 
 feet high and seven and one-half feet average diameter, all of which are 
 connected by a large hose. Following the water-cars is a box car, in 
 which is a locomotive-boiler and a large steam-pump. Bj^ means of this 
 the water is pumped into the stationary tanks at the stations, and into 
 the barrels, casks, tubs, and even kettles and cooking stove boilers, with 
 which the inhabitants near the stations run, on the arrival of the train 
 three times a week, to receive their supi^lies of water, paying for it at 
 the rate of twenty-five cents a barrel. 
 
 Utah — Evanston. — The station of this name on the Union Pacific Rail- 
 road is four hundred and forty-one miles from Cheyenne, or one hundred 
 and twenty-six from Rock Springs. The mines are two miles northwest 
 from the station across Bear River, in a hill on the north side of the line, 
 wide valley of this stream. Seen from the mines this valley presents 
 the appcnrance of a beautiful plain stretching out about four miles to 
 the hills on the opposite side. Were the regions less elevated and the 
 winters less severe, this would be a most attra(!tive site for a large set- 
 tlement. Bear River is a swift stream of good water, well stocked with 
 large brook trout. The Wahsatch Mountains, in view to the west, fur- 
 nish i)ine timber from their extensive forests. Bnilding stone of superior 
 quality is quarried from the sandstone beds near the coal-mines, and 
 clay- beds are worked for the manufacture of bricks at the foot of the 
 hill. 
 
 A branch railroad has been constructed to the mines, and is used for 
 the benefit of both the Union Pacific and the Central Pacific Railroads, 
 the former being supplied with coal by the Wyoming Coal Company, 
 and the latter by the Rocky Mountain Coal Company, whose mines 
 adjoin each other in the same coal bed. This bed, whit;h is nowhere 
 exi)osed of its full thickness, is said to measure twenty-six or twenty- 
 seven feet from the floor to the roof. It is evidently a bed of extraordi- 
 nary size; but the workings are limited to the lower portion of it only, 
 not more than eight or ten feet being taken out. This is for the sake 
 of greater convenience in getting the coal now^ required and of economy 
 in timber for props. It must be, however, at the probable sacrifice of 
 all that is left, which is hardly likely ever to be recovered in good con- 
 dition. The bed dips into the hill at an angle of about fifteen degrees 
 with the horizon, becoming suddeuly steeper at the lower end of the 
 slope, which is already down over one thousand feet in the mine of the 
 Wyoming Company. Horizontal levels as long as the slope are driven 
 each way from it, and many rooms worked. Many small seams of slate 
 are seen in the bed, which, not being easily separated from the coal, 
 must considerably impair its value. This damage would be overlooked 
 in analyzing specimens of the coal, which would always be selected free 
 from the slate. Iron pyrites are more abundant than in the coals of other 
 mines ; and it is stated that spontaneous combustion of a waste heap 
 has occurred, attributable, no doubt, to decomposition of the pyrites. 
 The locomotive engineers complain that the coal does not burn up clean 
 and clinkers ; still it is used by blacksmiths, who manage to get up a 
 welding heat with it. The arrangements for working the mines with 
 powerful engines and machinery are those of extensive collieries, and 
 the business is evidently bound to be large. The coal must be obtained 
 in any desired quantity, and at the minimum of cost. The formation 
 containing the coal beds is obviously of the same period with that to 
 which the Colorado coals belong. 
 
GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF THE TERRITORIES. 329 
 
 Coalville. — The Mornions liave worked several coal mines :it tliis vil- 
 laf^e ami in the neighborhood, sendinj;- the coal to Salt Lake City, al)out 
 fit'ty miles distant by the old stajic road, and more recently to Corinne, 
 on the Central Pacitic railroad, (yoalville is live mih's south from the 
 Uni(m Pacitic Railroad at Echo Station, and this is thirty-four miles 
 Avest from Evanston. At the villaj^e is Spraij;uc's mine, which was not 
 in operation last October; and two unles up a narrow valley to the 
 northeast is liobinson's mine, and immediately above this Crissman's 
 mine. All these are apparently on the same bed of (H)al. Jligher up in 
 the hills are two other small beds, not Vvorked. Pobinson's and Criss- 
 man's mines are both oi)ened in the bottom of a ravine, and the former 
 is supplied with a small steam-engine for hoisting the coal up the s!()})i'. 
 The latter mine is entered by an adit level; and again farther ui» by a, 
 slope. The dip is to the northwest, and so gentle tluit a mule can liaul 
 a ton weight up the iron-covered track. The bed is Iroin eleven and a 
 lialf to thirteen feet thick, nil solid coal. Tlie roof is sandstone, and 
 not very secure; so that nearly the upper half of the coal bed is left for 
 safety, with the idea of some time taking it out. Tliis makes a secure 
 covering. Though tlie coal is very sound in the mine, and presents a 
 handsome appearance after it is extracted, it soon crumbles on exposure 
 to the air, and the railroad men do not speak well of it for locomotive 
 use. It crumbles in the tire, and makes clinkers, that melt and stick 
 to the bars. Blacksmiths, however, use it satisfactorily. It is mined 
 for 81- -5 per ton, and sells for $2 50 on fhe ground. The bed must 
 extend under large areas, whi(;li have not yet been explored for it. Its 
 dip, if continued, would carry it under the sandstone cliffs of Echo Canon. 
 
 Ill— THE ANCIENT LAKES OF WESTERN AMERICA: 
 
 THEIR DEPOSITS AND DRAINAGE. 
 
 By J. S. Newberry, LL. D. 
 
 The wonderful collections of fossil plants and animal remains brought 
 by Dr. Hayden from the country bordering the Upper Missouri have 
 been shown, by his observations and the researches of Mr. Meek, to 
 have been derived from deposits made in extensive fresh-water lakes — 
 lakes which once occupied much of the region lying iaunediately east of 
 the Rocky Mountains, but which have now totally disappeared. The 
 sediments that accumulated in the bottoms of these old lakes show that 
 in the earliest periods of their history they contained salt water, at least 
 that the sea had access to them, and their waters were more or less im- 
 l^regnated with salt, so as to be inhabited by oyster and other nmriue or 
 estuary mollusks. In due time the continental elevation which brought 
 all the country west of the Mississippi u]) out of the widespread cre- 
 taceous sea, raised these lake basins altogether above the sea level, and 
 surrounded them with a broad expanse of dry laud. Then ensued one 
 of the most interesting chapters in the geological history of our conti- 
 nent, and one that, if lairly written out, could not fail to be read with 
 pleasure by all intelligent persons. The details of this history are, how- 
 ever, in a great measure yet to be supplied, inasmuch as the great area 
 of our western ijossessious is still but very partially explored, and it is 
 
330 GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF THE TERRITOEIES. 
 
 certain that it forms a great treasure-house of geological knowledge, 
 from wbicli many genei'atious will draw fresh and interesting material 
 before its riches shall be exhausted. 
 
 The enlightened measures adopted by our Government for the ex- 
 ploration of the i^ublic domain, the organization and thorough equip- 
 ment of the numerous surveying parties that have traversed the region 
 west of the Mississippi within the last twenty years, together witli the 
 still more extensive exjdorations by private enterprise of our great 
 mining districts, have resulted in giving us materials from which an out- 
 line sketch can now be made that may be accepted in all its essential 
 particulars as accurate and worthy of confidence. 
 
 It has happened to me to be connected with three of the Government 
 surveys to which I have referred, and to speud several years iu travers- 
 ing the great area lying between the Columbia Eiver and the Gulf of 
 Mexico. The observations which I have made on the geological structure 
 of our Western Territories su])ijlement in a somewhat remarkable way 
 those made by Dr. Hay den, so that, taken together, our reports embody 
 the results of a reconnoissance stretching over nearly the whole of our 
 vast possessions west of the Mississippi. 
 
 Our knowledge of the geology of this region has also been largely 
 increased by the no less important contributions of other exi^lorers. 
 Among those who deserve most honorable mention in this connection 
 are Mr. George Gibbs, to whom we are indebted for most that we know 
 of the geology of Washington Territorj-; to Professors W. P. Blake and 
 Thomas Antisell; to Professor W^hitney and the other members of the 
 California geological survey ; to Baron Eichthofeu, the lameutedEemoud, 
 Drs. Shiel, Wislizeuus, and others. 
 
 The results obtained by the last, largest, and best-organized party 
 which has been engaged in western explorations — that of Mr. Clarence 
 King — have not yet been given to the public ; but, from an examination 
 of some of the materials which are to compose the reports of this expe- 
 dition, I feel justified in saying that it will prove to be among the most 
 important of all the series of explorations of which it forms partj and 
 that the published results of this expedition will be not only an import- 
 ant contribution to science and our knowledge of our own country, but 
 a high honor to those by whom the work has been performed, and to the 
 Government, by which it was organized. 
 
 Without going into details or citing the facts or authorities on which 
 our conclusions rest, I will in a few words give the generalities of the 
 geological and topographical structure of that portion of our continent 
 which includes the peculiar features that are to be more specially the 
 subject of this paper. 
 
 It is known to most persons that the general character of the topog- 
 raphy of the region west of the Mississippi has been given by three great 
 lines of elevation which traverse our territory from north to south: the 
 Eocky Mountain Belt, the Sierra Xevada, and tiie Coast Eauges. Of 
 these the last is the most modern, and is composed, for the most part, 
 of mioceue tertiary rocks. It forms a raised margin along the western 
 edge of the continent, and has produced that "iron-bound coast" de- 
 scribed by all those who have navigated that portion of the Pacific which 
 washes our shores. 
 
 Parallel with the Coast Mountains lies a narrow trough, which, in 
 California, is traversed by the Sacramento and San Joachin Eivers, and 
 portions of it have received their names. Farther north this trough is 
 l)artially filled, and for some distance nearly obliterated by the encroach- 
 ment of the neighboring- mountain ranges, but iu Oregon and Washing- 
 
GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF THE TERRITORIES. 331 
 
 ton it reappears essentially the same in structure as farther south, and 
 is here traversed by the Willamette and ('owlitz IJivers. 
 
 These two seetioiis of this ^reat valley have now Iree draiiiai^e to the 
 Pacific, throuiih the Golden Gate and the tronj^h ot the Columbia, both 
 of Avhich are channels cut by the draimige water through mountain bar- 
 riers that formerly obstructed its tlow,'aml produced an accumulation 
 behind them that made these valleys inhuul lakes; the first of the series 
 I am to describe of extensive fresh-water basins that formerly gave char- 
 acter to the surface of onr Western Territory, and that have now almost 
 all been drained away and disappeared. 
 
 East of the California Valley the Sierra Nevada lies, like a lofty 
 mountain chain, reaching all the way from our northern to our southern 
 boundary. The crest of the Sierra Nevada is so high and continuous 
 that for one thousand miles it shows no passes less than five thousand 
 feet above the sea, and yet at three points there arc g'ateways o]Kmed 
 in this wall, by which it may be passed but little above the sea level. 
 These are the canons of the Sacramento, (Pit Eiver,) the Klamath, and 
 the Columbia. All these are gorges cut through this great dam by the 
 drainage of the interior of the continent. In the lapse of ages the cut- 
 ting" down of this barrier has progressed to such an extent as almost 
 comi)letely to empty the great water basins that once existed behind it, 
 and leave the interior the arid waste that it is — the only real desert on 
 the North American continent. 
 
 The Sierrh Nevada is older than the Coast Mountains, and projected 
 above the ocean, though not to its present altitude, previous to the ter- 
 tiary and even cretaceous ages. This we learn from the fact that strata 
 belonging to these formations cover its base, but reach only a few hun- 
 dred feet up its flanks. The mass of the Sierra Nevada is composed of 
 granitic rocks, associated with which are metamorphic slates, proved by 
 the California survey to be of triassic and Jurassic age. These slates 
 are traversed in many localities by veins of quartz, which are the reposi- ' 
 tories of the gold that has made California so famous among the mining 
 districts of the world. 
 
 East of the Sierra Nevada we find a high and broad plateau, five hun- 
 dred miles in width, and from four thousand to eight thousand feet in 
 altitude, which stretches eastward to the base of the Rocky Mountains, 
 and reaches southward far into Mexico. Of this interior elevated area 
 the Sierra Nevada forms the western margin, on which it rises like a 
 wall. It is evident that this mountain belt once formed the Pacific 
 coast ; and it would seem that then this lofty wall was raised upon the 
 edge of the continent to defend it from the action of the ocean waves. 
 In tracing the sinuous outline of the Sierra Nevada, it will be seen that 
 its crest is crowned by a series of lofty volcanic cones, and that one of 
 these is placed at each conspicuous angle in its line of bearing, so that it 
 has the appearance of a gigantic fortification, of which each salient and 
 reentering angle is defended by a massive and lofty tower. 
 
 The central i)ortion of the high table-lands to which I have referred 
 was called bj' Fremont the " Great Basin," from the fact that it is a 
 hydrographic basin, its waters having no outlet to the ocean. The 
 northern part of this area is drained by the Columbia; the southern by 
 the Colorado. Of these the Columbia makes its way into the ocean by 
 the gorge it has cut in the Cascade Mountains, through which it flows 
 nearly at the sea level ; while the Colorado flows to the Gulf of Cali- 
 fornia through a series of canons, of which the most important is nearly 
 one thonsand miles in length, and from three thousand to six thousand 
 feet in depth. In volume of the Pacific Eailroad Eeports I have 
 
332 GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF THE TEREITORIES. 
 
 described a j)ortion of the country drained by the Columbia, and hare 
 given the facts that lead me to assert that the goroe through T\hich it 
 passes the Cascade Mountains has been excavated by its waters; and 
 that previous to the cutting down of this barrier these waters accumu- 
 lated to form great fresh-water lakes, which left deposits at an elevation 
 of more than two thousand feet above the present bed of the Columbia. 
 Similar facts were observed in the country drained by the Klamath and 
 Pit Elvers, and all pointed to the same conclusion. 
 
 In all this region 1 observed certain peculiarities of geological struc- 
 ture that have been remarked by most of those who have traversed the 
 interval between the Sierra Xevada and the Rocky ]\Iountains. In the 
 northern and middle portions of the great table-lauds the general surface 
 is somewhat thickly set by short and isolated mountain ranges, which 
 have been denominated the " Lost Mountains." These rise like islands 
 above the level of the plain, and are generally composed of volcanic or 
 metamorphic rocks. The spaces between these mountains are nearly 
 level, desert surfaces, of which the underlying geological structure is 
 often not easilj- observed. Toward the north and west, however, wher- 
 ever we come upon the tributaries of the Columbia, the Klamath, or 
 Pit Elvers, we find the plateaus more or less cut b}" these streams and 
 their substructure revealed. 
 
 Here the underlying rocks are nearly horizontal, and consist of a 
 variety of deposits, varying much in color and consistence. Some are 
 coarse volcanic ash, with fragments of pumice and scoria. Others I 
 have in my notes denominated " concrete," as they precisely resemble 
 the old Eoman cement and are composed of the same materials. In many 
 localities these strata are as fine and white as chalk, and, though con- 
 taining little or no carbonate of lime, they have been referred to as " chalk- 
 beds" by most travelers who have visited this region. Specimens of this 
 chalk-like material gave me my first hint of the true history of these 
 deposits. These, collected on the head- waters of Pit Eiver, the Klamath, 
 the Des Chutes, Columbia, and elsewhere, were transmitted to Professor 
 Bailey, then our most skilled microscopist, for examination. Almost the 
 last work he did before his untimely death was to report to me the results 
 of his observation on them. This report was as harmonious as it was 
 unexpected. In every one of the chalk-like deposits to which I have 
 referred he found fresh-icater diatomacece. 
 
 From the stratification and horizontality of these deposits, I had been 
 fully assured that they were thrown down from great bodies of water 
 that filled the spaces separating the more elevated portions of the interior 
 basin, and here I had evidence that this water was fresh. Since that 
 time a vast amount of evidence has accumulated to confirm the general 
 view then taken of the changes through which the surface of this por- 
 tion of our continent has passed. From Southwestern Idaho and East- 
 ern Oregon I have now received large collections of animal and vege- 
 table fossils of great variety and interest. Of these the plants have 
 been, for the most part, collected by Eev. Thomas Condon, of Tlie Dalles, 
 Oregon, who has exposed himself to great hardship and danger in his 
 several expeditions to the localities in Eastern Oregon where these fos- 
 sils are found. The plants obtained by Mr. Condon are apparentlj^ of 
 miocene age, forming twenty to thirty species, nearly all new, and such 
 as represent a forest growth as varied and luxuriant as can be now found 
 on any portion of our continent. 
 
 The animal remains contained in these fresh-water deposits have come 
 mostly from the banks of Castle Creek, in the Owyhee district, Idaho. 
 The specimens I have received were sent me by Mr. J. 31. Adams, of 
 
GEOLOGICAL SUEVEY OF THE TERRITORIES. 333 
 
 Euby City. Tliey consist of bones of tlic mastodon, rhinoceros, horse, 
 elk, and other large nianiuials, of which the species are probably in some 
 cases new, in others identical with those obtained from the fresh-Avater 
 tertiaries of the "bad lands" by Dr. Ilayden. With these mammalian 
 remains are a few bones of birds and p-eat nnmbers of the bones and 
 teeth of lishes. These last are cyprinoids allied to Mijlophayodon^ Milo- 
 clicilus, &c., and some of the species attained a length of three feet or 
 more. There are also in this collection large nnmbers of fiesh-water 
 shells of the genera Unio, CorbicuJa, Jllclania, and PJanorhis. All these 
 fossils show that at one period in the history of onr continent, and that, 
 geologically speaking', qnite recent, the region nnder consideration Avas 
 thickly set with lakes, some of which were of larger size and greater 
 depth than the great fresh-water lakes which now lie npon our northern 
 frontier. Between these lakes were areas of dry land covered with a 
 luxuriant and beautiful vegetation, and inhabited by herds of elephants 
 and other great jnammals, such as could only inhabit a well-watered 
 and fertile country. In the streams flowing- into these lakes, and in the 
 lakes themselves, were great inimbers of fishes and moUusks of species 
 which, like the others I have enumerated, have now disappeared. At 
 that time, as now, the great lakes formed evaporating surfaces, which. 
 l)rodnced showers that vivified all their shores. Everj^ year, however, 
 saw something removed from the barriers over which their surplus water 
 flowed to the sea, and, in the lapse of time, they were drained to the 
 dregs. In the Klamath Lakes, and in San Francisco, San Pablo, and 
 Suisnn Bays, Ave have the last remnants of these great bodies of water; 
 while the drainage of the Columbia lakes has-been so comi)lete that in 
 some instances the streams which traA^erse their old basins have cut two 
 thousand feet into the sediments Avhich accumulated beneath their 
 waters. 
 
 The history of this old lake country, as it is recorded in the alterna- 
 tions of strata which accumulated at the bottoms of its water basins, will 
 be found to be full of interest. For Avhile these strata furnish evidence 
 that there were long iuterA\als when peace and quiet prevailed over this 
 region, and animal and A'egetable life flourished as they now do nowhere 
 on the continent, they also prove that this quiet was at times disturbed 
 by the most violent volcanic eru])tions, from a number of distinct centers 
 of action, but especiallj' from the great craters Avhich crowned the sum- 
 mit of the Sierra Nevada. From these came showers of ashes which 
 must have covered the laud and tilled the water so as to destroy immense 
 numbers of the inhabitants of both. These ashes formed strata which 
 were, in some instances, ten or twenty feet in thickness. At other times 
 the Aolcanic action was still more intense, and floods of lava Avere poured 
 out, which formed continuous sheets hundreds of miles in extent, pene- 
 trating far into the lake basins, and giving to their bottoms floors of 
 solid basalt. When these cataclysms had passed, quiet Avas again re- 
 stored, forests again covered the land, herds dotted its pastures, fishes 
 peopled the waters, and fine sediments abounding in forms of life accu- 
 mulated in new sheets above the strata of cooled laA^a. The banks of 
 the Des Chutes Biver and Columbia afford splendid sections of these 
 lake deposits, where the history I have so hastily sketched may be read 
 as from an open book. 
 
 But it will be said that there are portions of the great central plateau 
 Avhich haA'e not been drained in the manner I haA^e described. For here 
 are basins Avhich hav€ no outlets, and which still hold sheets of water of 
 greater or less area, such as those of Pyramid Lake, Salt Lake, &c. The 
 history of these basins is very different from that of those already 
 
334 GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF THE TERRITORIES. 
 
 mentioned, and not less interesting" or easily read. By the complete 
 drainage of the nortliern and soutliern thirds of tbe plateau through 
 the channels of the Columbia and Colorado, the water surlace of this 
 great area was reduced to the tenth or liundredth part of the si)ace it 
 previously occupied. Hence the moisture susjieuded in tlie atmosphere 
 was diminished in like degree, and the dry hot air, sweeping over the 
 plains, licked up the water from the undrained lakes until they were re- 
 duced to their present dimensions. Now, as formerly, they receive the 
 constant flow of the streams that drain into them from the mountains 
 on the east and west. But the evaporation is so rapid that their di- 
 mensions are not only not increased thereby^ but are steadily diminish- 
 ing- from year to year. Around many of these lakes, as Salt Lake, for 
 example, just as around the margins of the old drained lakes, we can 
 trace former shore lines and measure the depression of the water level. 
 Many of these lakes of the Great Basin have been completely dried up 
 by evaporation, and now their places are marked by alkaline plains or 
 "salt flats." Others exist as lakes only during a portion of the year, 
 and in the dry season are represented by sheets of glittering salt. Even 
 those that remain as lakes are necessarily salt, as they are but grejtt 
 evaporating pans where the drainage froui the mountains — which al- 
 ways contains a portion of saline matter — is concentrated l>y the vsun and 
 wind until it becomes a saturated solution and deposits its surplus salts 
 upon the bottom. 
 
 The southern portion of the great central table-land — that which has 
 been denominated the Colorado plateau — is almost without mountain 
 barriers or local basins, and we therefore find upon it fewer traces of 
 ancient lakes, though they are not entirely wanting. It is a])i)arent, how- 
 ever, that thishigh plateau, which stretchesaway for several hundred miles 
 west of the Bocky Mountains, was once a beautiful and fertile district. 
 The (Colorado draining then, as now, the Avestern ranges of the Eocky 
 Mountains, spread over the surface of this plateau, enriching and vivi- 
 fying all parts of it. When it reached the western margin of the table- 
 land, however, it poured over a precipice or slope five thousand feet in 
 height, into the Gulf of California, which then reached several hundred 
 miles farther north than now. In process of time the power developed 
 by this stupendous tall cut away the rock beneath the flowing water, and 
 formed that remarkable gorge to which I have already referred. This 
 gorge is nearly one thousand miles in length and from tliree thousand 
 to six thousand feet in depth, and is cut through all the series of sedi- 
 mentary rocks from the tertiary to the granite, and has worn out the 
 granite to a depth of from six hundred to eight hundred feet. Just in 
 proportion as the Colorado dee])ened its channel, the region bordering 
 it became more dry, until ultimately the drainage from the mountains 
 I)assed through it, in what may be even termed underground channels, 
 and contributed almost nothing to the moisture of the surrounding* 
 country. The reason why the walls of this cahon stand up in such 
 awful precipices of thousands of feet is, that the perennial flow of the 
 stream is derived in far distant mountains ; almost no rain falls upon 
 its banks, and when any portion of the bordering cliff has passed be- 
 yond the reach of the stream, it stands almost unaffected by atmospheric 
 influences. 
 
 On the east of the Eocky Mountains lies the country of the "Plains," 
 a region not unlike in its topography to the great plateau of the West, 
 but diftering in this, that it is not bordered on the east by a continuous 
 mountain chain ; that it slopes gently downward to the Mississippi, and 
 that its eastern half has been so well watered that its valleys have been 
 
GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF THE TERRITORIES. 335 
 
 made broad and all its topographical features softened down. In former 
 times, however, the topographical unity now consi)icuous on the Plains 
 did not exist, and the surface was marked by a series of, great basins 
 which received the How of water from the Eocl^y Mountains and formed 
 lakes, less numerous, it is true, but of greater extent than those of the tar 
 West. The northern i)ortion of the eastern plateau has been Dr. iJayden's 
 chosen field of exi)loration for many years; a tield he has well tilled, and 
 from which he has obtained a harvest of scientitic truth v, hich will form 
 for him an enduring and enviable monument. 
 
 Among the most interesting researches ot Dr. Ilayden in this region 
 are the studies he has made of the deposits which have accunudated in 
 these great fresh-water basins. The story he has written of his explora- 
 tions of this district has been so well and I'ully told that I shall not 
 attempt to review it. Suffice it to say, that the series of fresh-water 
 basins discovered by Dr. Hayden in the country bordering the U])per 
 Missouri have proved to be as rich in new and interesting forms of animal 
 and vegetable life as any that have been found upon the earth's surface. 
 The vertebrate remains collected by Dr. Hayden have been carefully 
 studied, fully described and illustrated by Dr. Leidy, and the splendid 
 monograph which he has published of these fossils forms a contribu- 
 tion to paleontology not second in value or interest to that made by 
 Cuvier in his iliUvStrations of the fossils from the Paris basin ; nor to 
 that of Falconer and Cautley, descrijitive of the fossils of the Sewalik 
 Hills of India. 
 
 The scarcely less voluminous and interesting' collections of fossil 
 plants made by Dr. Hayden have been placed in my hands for examin- 
 ation. Of these, the first installments were described and drawn some 
 years since as a contribution to the report of Colonel W. F. Eaynolds, 
 United States Army, a report not yet published by the Government. 
 The descriptions, however, were printed in the annals of the Lyceum of 
 Xatural History of New York, vol. 9, 1868. 
 
 The general conclusions drav/n from a study of this portion of Dr. 
 Hayden's collections as regards the floras of the tertiary and cretaceous 
 periods, the topography and climate of the interior of the continent — and 
 which form a x)artof my contribution to Colonel Eaynolds's re{>ort — will 
 be found quoted on another page. Since that report was written very 
 large additions have been made to our knowledge of our late extinct 
 tloras, by collections of fossil plants made in different portions of the 
 western part of our continent by Dr. Hayden, Mr. Condon, Dr. Le Conte, 
 and myself; and also by the collections made by Mr. W. H. Dall and 
 Captain Howard in Alaska, and by several explorers on the continent 
 of Greenland. 
 
 Deferring for the present a comparison of the plants derived from 
 strata of similar age in these widely separated localities, and the infer- 
 ences deducible from them as regards the physical geography of our 
 continent, I should say that the flora and fauna of the lake deposits on 
 both sides of the Rocky i'ilountains apparently belong to one and the 
 same geological age, and tell the same story in regard to the topography, 
 cli-uate, conditions, and development of animal and vegetable life. There 
 is this striking diflerence, however, perceptible at the first glance be- 
 tween the fresh-water tertiaries of the East and West. In Oregon, Idaho, 
 and Nevada, volcanic materials have accumulated in the lake basins to 
 a nuich greater extent than east of the Eocky Mountains ; and we have 
 abundant evidence that during the tertiary period the western margin 
 of the continent was the scene of far greater volcanic activity than we 
 have any record of in the Eocky Mountain belt. 
 
336 GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF THE TERRITORIES. 
 
 The deposits formed by the lake basins of the Upper Missouri region 
 are shales, marls, and earthy limestones, with immense quantities of lig- 
 nite, but with almost no traces of volcanic products. The number of fossil 
 plants and animals is much greater there than farther west; and we have 
 in these deposits proof thatduring unnumbered ages this portion of the 
 continent exhibited a diversified and beautiful surface, which sustained 
 a luxuriant growth of vegetation and an amount of animal life far in 
 excess of what it has done in modern times. This condition of things ex- 
 isted long enough for hundreds and even thousands of feet of sediments 
 to accumulate in the bottoms of extensive fresh-water lakes. These 
 lakes were gradually and slowly diminished in area by the filling up of 
 their basins and by the wearing away of the barriers over which passed 
 their gently flowing, draining" streams. Since the deposition of the 
 fresh-water tertiaries which occupy the places of the old lakes, great 
 changes have taken place in the topography of this region by the up- 
 heaval of portions of the Eocky Mountain ranges. In some localities 
 these lake deposits are found 'turned up on edge and resting on the 
 flanks of the mountains which border the plains on the west. It is cer- 
 tain, however, that much of the Eocky Mountain belt existed anterior 
 to this date. We have in these, aiul many other facts that might be 
 cited, proofs of the truth of the assertion I have elsewhere made that 
 these great mountain chains, though existing at least in embryo from 
 the earliest paleozoic ages, have since then been subject to many and 
 varied modifications; that they have been, in fact, hinges upon which 
 the great plates of the continent have turned ; lines of weakness where 
 the changes of level experienced by the continent have been most sen- 
 sibly felt. 
 
 It is a somewhat remarkable fact that the collections of fossil plants 
 made by Dr. Hayden from different localities differ so much among 
 themselves. In every newly, discovered plant-bed he has obtained more 
 or less species of which we before had no knowledge, and it is even true 
 that between some of his collections there are no connecting links. It is 
 also true that much of the material he has collected has not yet received 
 the study it needs. From these fticts it will be seen that much yet re- 
 mains to be done before the great interval of time during which this series 
 of fresh- water tertiaries accumulated can be divided into definite periods, 
 and before we can venture to affirm that such an epoch had a flora of 
 such or such a botanical character, and, therefore, this or that average 
 annual temperature. Some interesting facts came out, however, at once 
 in the examination of these materials ; to these I will briefly refer. 
 
 In the beginning of the cretaceous age, North America, as we learn, 
 presented a broad land surface, having a climate similar to the present, 
 and covered with forests consisting, for the most part, of trees belonging 
 to the same genera with those that now flourish ui)on it. In the progress 
 of the cretaceous age, the greater part of the continent west of the Mis- 
 sissippi sank beneath the ocean, and the deposits made during the later 
 portions of the cretaceous age contain a vegetation more tropical in 
 character than that which had preceded it. it seems probable that at 
 this time the lauds which existed as such west of the Mississippi were 
 islands of limited extent, washed by the Gulf Stream, which apparently 
 had then a course north and west from the Gulf of Mexico to the Arctic 
 Sea. 
 
 The earlier tertiary epochs were, however, marked by an emergence of 
 the continent and a gradual approach to previous and present conditions. 
 This is indicated by the fact that the oldest tertiary deposits (eocene"?) 
 contain a flora less like the present than is that ofthemiocene or middle 
 
GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF THE TERRITORIES. 337 
 
 tertiary. 'In this category of older deposits, with a more tropical flora, I 
 would place the Green Eiver tertiary beds, those of Mississippi, studied 
 by Lesquereux, and those of Braudon, Vermont. 
 
 In the miocene age the continental surface was broader, the lake 
 basins of the West contained only fresh water, and the land surface 
 was covered with vegetation very much like that of the present day, a 
 number of miocene species still existiug. The climate of the continent 
 in the miocene age was much milder than now. Fan-palms then grew 
 as far north as the Yellowstone Elver, and a flora flourished in Alaska 
 and on Greenland as varied and as luxuriant as now grows along the 
 fortieth parallel. At this time there must have been some sort of land 
 connection between our continent and Europe on the one hand and Asia 
 on the other. The flora of all these regions was essentially the same, 
 and a large number of plants were common to the three continents. In 
 this age tlie mammalian fauna of our continent exliibited the same re- 
 markable development that it did in Europe and Asia ; and over our 
 western plains roved herds of great quadrupeds, rivaling in number 
 and variety those that have struck with wonder and surprise every 
 traveler in South Africa. 
 
 This state of things seems to have continued through the pliocene 
 age and up to the time when the climate of the continent was completely 
 revolutionized by the advent of the " ice period." The chauge vrhicli 
 took place at that time was such as taxes the imagination to conceive 
 of as much as it taxes the reasoning powers to account for. 
 
 We have seen that in the nwddle tertiary age the climate of Alaska 
 and Greenland was that of New York and St. Louis at present. In the 
 next succeeding period, the glacial epoch, the present climate of Green- 
 laud v.as brought down to New York, and all the northern portion of 
 the continent wrapped in ice and snow. This change was imdoubtedly 
 gradual, (for nature does not often " turn a corner,") but it is plain that 
 it must have resulted in the gradual driving southward of all the varied 
 forms of animal and vegetable life that were spread over the continent to 
 the Arctic Sea. When glaciers reached as far south as the fortieth parallel 
 it is evident that a cold, temperate climate prevailed in Mexico, and that 
 only in the south of Mexico would the average annual temperature have 
 been what it was previously in the latitude of New York. \Te must con- 
 clude, therefore, that the herds of mammals which once covered the plains 
 of the interior of North America were forced by the advancing cold into 
 such narrow limits in Southern Mexico that nearly all were exterminated. 
 Plants bore their expatriation better ; inasmuch as a tree, even of the 
 most gigantic size, will live upon the space occupied by its roots, pro- 
 vided the climatic conditions are favorable ,• while one of the larger 
 mammals would require at least a thousand times this space for its sup- 
 port. As a consequence, we find the present flora of our continent much 
 more like that of the miocene than is our fauna, though the change to 
 which I have referred seems to have been fatal to quite a number of the 
 most abundant and iuterestiug of our miocene forest trees. Of these, 
 the Glyptostrohus may be taken as an example. This was a beautiful 
 conifer which, in miocene times, grew all over our continent and over 
 Northern Europe. In the change to the glacial period, however, it wa^ 
 exterminated, both there and here, yet continued to exist in Chinix — 
 where a miocene colony from America had taken root — and it is grovring 
 there at the present time. This great ice- wedge which came down from 
 the north separated very widely many elements in our miocene flora 
 which have never since been reunited, so that when the storm had 
 passed and better days had come, and the Mississippi Yalley and Atlan- 
 22 G 
 
338 GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF THE TERRITORIES. 
 
 tic States were repossessed by tlie descendants of the tertiai'y plants, 
 they were still separated, hy many thousand miles, from their brethren 
 which had formerly crossed the now submerged bridge of Behring's 
 Straits ; and thus the two kindreds have been growing, and flowering, 
 and seeding, and dying in each colony far beyond the reach of the other 
 and developing their peculiarities each in its own way from generation 
 to generation. When now we come to ^compare the present flora of 
 China and Japan with that of the eastern half of our continent, we find 
 the strongest proofs of their intimate relationship. Many of the species 
 are identical, while others are but slightly changed, and, on the whole, 
 the diflerences are less than such as have grown out of separation in 
 human kindred colonies in an infinitely shorter period. 
 
 Among the great mammals that formerly inhabited our contiuent, 
 but such as are now extinct, there were some which seem to have bid 
 defiance to the changes I have detailed. These were particularly the 
 mastodon and elephant, both of which were probably capable of endur- 
 ing great severity of climate. The mammoth, we know, was vrell de- 
 fended from the cold by a thick coat of hair and wool, and was probably 
 capable of enduring a degree of cold as severe as that in vrhich the 
 musk-ox now lives. We know that both these great monsters — the 
 elephant and mastodon — continued to inhabit the interior of our con- 
 tinent long after the glaciers had retreated beyond the upper lakes, 
 and when the minutest details of surface topography were the same 
 as now. This is proven by the fact that we not unfrequently find them 
 embedded in peat in marshes which are still marshes, where they have 
 been mired and sufibcated. It is even claimed that here, as on the 
 European continent, man was a cotemporary of the mammoth, and that 
 here, as there, he contributed largely to its final extinction. On this 
 point, however, more and better evidence than any yet obtained is 
 necessarj^, before we can consider the cotemporaneity of man and the 
 elephant in America as proven. The wanting proof may be obtained 
 to-morrow, but to-day we are without it. 
 
 The pictures w^hich geology holds up to our view of North America 
 during the tertiary ages are in all respects, but one, more attractive 
 and interesting than could be drawn from its present aspects. Then a 
 warm and genial climate prevailed from the Gulf to the Arctic Sea ; the 
 Canadian highlands were higher, but the Eocky Mountains lower and 
 less broad. Most of the continent exhibited an undulating surface, 
 rounded hills and broad valleys covered with forests grander than any of 
 the present day, or wide expanses of rich savannah, over which roamed 
 countless herds of animals, many of gigantic size, of which our present 
 meager fauna retains but a few dwarfed representatives. Noble rivers 
 flowed through plains and valleys, and sea-like lakes, broader and more 
 numerous than those the continent now bears, diversified the scenery. 
 Through unnumbered ages the seasons ran their ceaseless course, the sun 
 rose and set, moons waxed and waned over this fair land, but no human 
 eye was there to mark its beauty, nor human intellect to control and use its 
 exuberimt fertility. Flowers opened their many-colored petals on mea- 
 dow and hill-side, and filled the air with their perfumes, but only for the 
 delectation of the wandering bee. Fruits ripened in the sun, but there 
 was no hand there to i)luck, nor any speaking tongue to taste. Birds 
 sang in the trees, but for no ears but their own. The surface of lake or 
 river was whitened by no sail, nor furrowed by any prow but the breast 
 of the water-fowl ; and the far-reaching shores echoed no sound but the 
 dash of the waves and the lowing of the herds that slaked their thirst in 
 the crystal waters. 
 
GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF THE TERRITORIES. 339 
 
 Life aud beauty were everywhere, and man, tbe great destroyer, bad 
 not yet come; but not all was peace and barmony in tbis Arcadia. The 
 forces of nature are always at war, and redundant life compels abundant 
 deatb. Tbe innumerable species of animals and plants bad eacb its 
 hereditary enemy, and tbe struggle of life was so sharp and bitter that 
 in tbe lapse of ages many genera and species were blotted out forever. 
 
 The herds of herbivores — which included all the genera now living on 
 tbe earth's surface, with many strange forms long since extinct — formed 
 the prey of carnivores commensurate to these in power and numbers. 
 The coo of the dove and tbe whistle of the quail were answered by the 
 scream of the eagle, and tbe lowing of herds and the bleating of flocks 
 come to the ear of the imagination mingled with the roar of the lion, the 
 bowl of the wolf, and the despairing cry of tbe victim. Yielding to the 
 slow-acting but irresistible forces of nature, eacb in succession of these 
 various animal forms has disappeared till all have passed away or been 
 changed to their modern representatives, while tbe country they inhab- 
 ited, by the upheaval of its mountains, the deepening of its valleys, tbe 
 filling and draining of its great lakes has become what it is. 
 
 These changes which I Iiave reviewed in an hour seem like the swiftly- 
 consecutive pictures of the phantasmagoria or the shifting scenes of the 
 drama, but the ajons of time in which they were effected are simply infinite 
 and incomprehensible to us. We have no reason to suppose that terra 
 firma was less firm, or that the order of nature in which no change is 
 recorded within the historic period, was less constant then than now\ 
 At the present rate of change — throwing out man's influence — a period 
 infinite to us would be required to revolutionize the climate, flora, and 
 fauna, but there is no evidence that changes were more rapid during tbe 
 tertiary ages. 
 
 Every day sees something taken from tbe rocky barrier of Niagara ; 
 and, geologically speaking, at no remote time our great lakes will have 
 shared the fate of those that once existed at tbeftir West. • Already they 
 have been reduced to less than half their former area, and the water level 
 has been depressed three hundred feet or more. This process is i^retty 
 sure to go until they are completely emptied. 
 
 The cities that now stand upon their banks will, ere that time, have 
 gTown colossal in size, then gray with age, then have fallen into decadence 
 and their sites be long forgotten, but in tbe sediments that are now 
 accumulating in these lake basins will lie many a wreck and skeleton, 
 tree trunk and floated leaf. Near tbe city sites and old river mouths 
 these sediments will be full of relics that will illustrate and explain the 
 mingled comedy and tragedy of human life. These relics the geologist 
 of the future will doubtless gather and study and moralize over, as we 
 do the records of the tertiary ages. Doubtless be will be taught the 
 same lesson we are, that human life is infinitely short, and human achieve- 
 ment utterly insignificant. Let us hope that this future man, purer in 
 morals and clearer in intellect than we, may find as much to admire in 
 the records of this first epoch of the reign of man as we do in those or 
 the reign of mammals. 
 
340 GEOLOGICAL SUEVEY OF THE TEERITORIES. 
 
 IV.— REPORT ON THE VERTEBRATE FOSSILS OF 
 THE TERTIARY FORMATIONS OF THE WEST. 
 
 By Peof. Joseph Leidy. 
 
 In tbe present report the Avriter has simply given a brief notice of 
 the various vertebrated animals whose fossil remains hfive been collected 
 in the tertiary deposits of the West. For a full account of most of the 
 extinct mammals which are subjects of notice, the reader is referred to 
 the work entitled " The Extinct Mammalian Fauna of Dakota and Ne- 
 braska," published in the seventh volume of the Journal of the Academy 
 of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia. More or less full accounts of the 
 other animals, also the subjects of notice, are published in Owen's Geo- 
 logical Survey, the fifth volume of the Pacific Railroad Eeports, the con- 
 tributions of the Smithsonian Institution, and the Proceedings of the 
 Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia. 
 
 The vertebrate fossils collected in Professor Hayden's last two expe- 
 ditions, though forming part of the material of the report, will be more 
 fully described and illustrated in an extended treatise in future. 
 
 The short time allowed for the preparation of the report amid the 
 many duties of the writer, must serve as his apology for its imperfect 
 character. 
 
 The. tertiary formations of the North AmeHcan continent west of the 
 Mississippi, so far as they have been explored, in the States and Terri- 
 tories of Kansas, Dakota, Nebraska, Wyoming, Colorado, Idaho, Cali- 
 fornia, and Oregon, have yielded a great quantity of remains of verte- 
 brated animals, indicating ditfereut races whicli existed in earlier a^^es, 
 and which have entirely passed away. The principal deposits from 
 which tbe greater number of fossil remains have been obtained are 
 those of the mauvaises terres of White Eiver, Dakota, those of the 
 valley of the Niobrara River, Nebraska, and the Bridger Group of rocks, 
 near Fort Bridger, Wyoming. The deposits especially referred to ap- 
 pear to be all of fresh-water origin, and to have belonged to the middle 
 and later tertiary epochs. 
 
 Most of the vertebrated remains submitted to the examination of the 
 author are part of the valuable fruits of the geological explorations of 
 Professor Hayden, either engaged in expeditions of others, or under his 
 own control. Many have been obtained in the explorations of Dr. 
 David Dale Owen, i)r. John Evans, Mr. F. B. Meek, Mr. Clarence King, 
 and others. 
 
 By far the greater number of vertebrated remains are those of 
 mammals, though some of the same or cotemporaneous formations are 
 rich in the evidences of reptilian life, and likewise those of fishes. 
 
 MAMMALIA. 
 
 The mammalian remains of the western tertiary formations appear 
 mainly to belong to the miocene period, though many evidently isertain 
 to a later age than tbe others, and most likely belong to the pliocene 
 period. Perhaps also a few of the remains belong at least to the later 
 part of the eocene period, especially those found in the lowest strata of 
 the mauvaises terres of White River, Dakota, and those found in the 
 Bridger Group of tertiary rocks of Wyoming. 
 
 The fossil remains of mammals thus far collected in the western 
 
GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF THE TERRITORIES. 341 
 
 tertiary formations indicate upwards of one hundred species, mostly of 
 extinct genera, and many of tliose peculiar to tbe Xortli American con- 
 tinent. Notwitbstandinj^- the large number mentioned, it is but a 
 meager representation of tbe extensive faunne to which they belonged. 
 Probably, also, it is but a small proportion of the nuiuber which will be 
 discovered in future explorations. Tbe fossils represent nearly all the 
 orders, especially tbose of Carnivora^ Buminantia, Artiodactyla, Ferris- 
 sodactyla, and Solkhmgida. Tbe Rodenfia and Insectivora are also fairly 
 represented. No remains of Quadrumana, Cheirojytera, and, singularly 
 enough, of IlarsupiaUa, have been discovered. 
 
 CARNIYOEA. 
 
 The carnivorous order of mammals is well represented by remains in 
 the tertiary deposits of our Western Territories. The number and 
 variety of the fossils indicate a development proportionate to the teeming 
 population of cotemporaneous herbivora which supplied the flesh-eaters 
 with food. 
 
 CAT^ID^. 
 
 The canine family during the iDliocene was represented, as in later 
 times, by several species of wolves ; during the miocene period it was 
 represented by an allied and subsequently extinct genus, the Ampliicyon^ 
 which also existed cotemporaneously in Europe. 
 
 CANIS, 
 
 The genus to which our wolves, dogs, and foxes belong. 
 
 Canis sa'viis. — An extinct species of wolf, i)robably a near relative, if 
 not the progenitor of the existing American wolf, {Canis occidentalism) is 
 indicated by portions of two lower jaws obtained by Professor Hayden 
 from the sands of the Niobrara Eiver, Nebraska, 
 
 Canis femerarius. — A second species of wolf, intermediate in size with 
 theprairie wolf {Canis latrans,) and the red fox {Canis fiilvus ;) is indi- 
 cated by fragments of jaws found in company with the preceding speci- 
 mens. 
 
 Canis vafer. — A species of fox, about the size of the living swift fox 
 {Canis velox,) is indicated by portions of jaws obtained by Professor 
 Hayden, in association with the preceding specimens. 
 
 Canis Haydeni. — An extinct species, of more robust ijroportions than 
 any of the living American wolves ; indicated by the greater portion of 
 one side of a lower jaw ; also found by Professor Hayden in the same 
 locality as the former specimens. 
 
 The remains of four species of wolves found in association, in the 
 Niobrara sands, indicate that these ravenous animals were abundant 
 during the later tertiary period. Their number appears to have held a 
 relationship with the cotemporaneous abundance of herbivorous ani- 
 mals. 
 
 AMPHICYON. 
 
 An extinct genus of carnivorous animals, to which the above name 
 has been given, was established on fossil remains discovered in the 
 middle tertiary deposits of France and Germany. The general form and 
 construction of the skull and the character of the teeth indicate a near 
 relationship in the animals of this genus to the w^olves. A dozen species 
 have been indicated as having formerly lived in Europe; one of them 
 having been viewed by Cuvier as a " dog of gigantic proportions." 
 
 The remains of two species referable to the same genus have been dis- 
 
342 GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF THE TERRITORIES. 
 
 covered in the miocene tertiary deposits of the Mauvaises Terres of White 
 Eiver, Dakota. They are as follows : 
 
 Ampliicyon vetus. — A species about the size of the living prairie wolf 
 {Canis latrans,) indicated by the mutilated cranium and fragments of 
 jaws, with teeth ; discovered by Dr. John Evans and Professsor ITayden. 
 
 AmjpMcyon gracilis. — A small species, less in size than any of the ex- 
 isting American foxes. It is indicated by fragments of jaws, with teeth, 
 and the facial portion of a skull of several individuals ; all discovered by 
 Professor Hay den. 
 
 HY^NODONTIDiE 
 
 Is the name given to an extinct and remarkable family of animals, 
 exhibiting a relationship to the canine family on one hand, and the fe- 
 line family on the other, together with ties to others. 
 
 HY^NODON. 
 
 One of the most remarkable extinct genera of carnivorous animals is 
 that to which the above name has been given. It belongs to no exist- 
 ing family, and, indeed, is so peculiar as to have become the type of an 
 independent family. In anatomical character it partakes of those of 
 the wolf, the tiger, the hyena, and the weasel, the raccoon, and the 
 opossum. Originally discovered in Prance, the remains of five or six 
 species have been obtained from the lower miocene and upper eocene 
 formations of that country. Three American species are indicated by 
 fossil remains obtained in the lower miocene tertiary beds of the Mau- 
 vaises Terres of White Eiver, by Dr. John Evans, Dr. Benjamin "Shu- 
 mard, Professor Hayden, and Mr. Meek. These species are as follows: 
 
 Hywnodon horridus. — The largest known species, and one of the most 
 sanguinary of terrestrial mammals that has ever existed. Cotempora- 
 neous with a multitude of herbivorous animals, many of which were 
 gregarious in extensive herds, it was no doubt a fearful scourge to 
 them. It is indicated by the greater i)ortious of three skulls, together 
 with fragments of jaws and teeth of other individuals. The size of 
 the aniuial was about equal to that of the largest black bears. The 
 specimens of jaws and teeth discovered have afforded us a view of the 
 entire dentition of the animal, which is truly formidable. Besides the 
 l)owerfnl canine teeth, the series of molars affords the unusual exhibi- 
 tion of three teeth, constructed nearly after the model of the single sec- 
 torial tooth of other carnivorous mammals, though the last one alone 
 reaches the full development of the corresponding tooth in the latter. 
 
 The true sectorial molars of hysenodon, the last of the series of teeth, 
 are constructed like those of the lion and tiger. These teeth, the 
 broadest and strongest of all, combine the mechanism of the wedge 
 and the scissors, and are admirably adapted to cutting animal tissues, 
 including bones. 
 
 The large temporal fossae occupying the sides of the skull, and sepa- 
 rated only by a long and high median ridge, sufficiently prove the 
 great power of the muscles v/hich operated on the long levers of the 
 lower jaw. Certainly no other animal which lived cotemporaneously 
 mth tills formidable creature could have resisted its power. The skull 
 of the species measures about a foot in length. 
 
 Hyccnodon crucians. — This is the name given to a species not much 
 exceeding in size the red fox (Canis Jiilr us.) A half dozen imperfect 
 skulls of the animal, together with fragments of jaws and teeth, and 
 other bones, have been discovered. Though small, compared with the 
 
GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF THE TERRITORIES. 343 
 
 preceding species, this one was no doubt equally destructive to tlie 
 smaller herbivorous animals. 
 
 Hyccnodon crucntus. — A species thus named, intermediate in size to 
 the two foregoiug, is indicated by several fragments of jaws and teeth 
 found in association with the remains of the former. 
 
 FELIDiE. 
 
 The feline animals forming the family with the above name were 
 well represented among the carnivores of both the middle and later 
 tertiary periods of Dakota and Nebraska. 
 
 PSEUD^LTJRTJS. 
 
 This genus, differing from that of felis or the true cats only in the 
 possession of an additional small tooth to the molar series of the lower 
 jaw, was originally named from remains found in the middle tertiary 
 formation of France. 
 
 Pseudaiunts intrejyidus. — This species is indicated by a well-preserved 
 lower jaw, discovered by Professor Hayden in the pliocene sands of 
 the Niobrara Valley of Nebraska. It was intermediate in size to the 
 panther f Felis concolorj and the lynx, f Fells canadensis J and in ana- 
 tomical character and habits was no doubt verj^ similar. 
 
 DREPANODON. 
 
 This remarkable feline genus, fortunately for animals of a more peace- 
 ful nature, now utterly extinct, during the tertiary period appears to 
 have had a wide range of distribution throughout the earth. Its re- 
 mains have been discovered in the middl<3t.,and later tertiary formations 
 of Western Europe, Greece, the sub-Himalayan Mountains of Asia, and 
 of both Americas. Several of the larger species equaled in size the 
 lion and tiger, and, judging from their formidable array of destructive 
 weapons, were of even greater ferocity. In comparison with the exist- 
 ing feline animals they are especially marked by the greater propor- 
 tionate size and compressed form of the upper canine teeth, which have 
 given to the animals the name of saber-toothed tigers. 
 
 Two species of the genus appear to have inhabited Dakota during 
 the formation of the mauvaises terres deposits of White Eiver. 
 
 Drepaiwdon primwvus. — A species not quite so large as the living 
 panther is indicated by a number of skulls, jaw fragments with teeth, 
 and other bones, first collected by the late Drs. Evans and Shumard, and 
 subsequently by Professor Hayden and Mr. Meek. Two of the skulls 
 that have been found exhibit the marks of conflict with some equally 
 rapacious animal, most probably the largest Hyamodon, as the depres- 
 sions made by the teeth on opposite sides of the specimens exactly cor- 
 respond with the prints of tbe canines of the latter. 
 
 Brepanodon occidentalis. — The second si)ecies, indicated by several jaw 
 fragments, discovered by Dr. Hayden, Avas about the size of the exist- 
 ing panther. 
 
 DINICTIS. 
 
 This name has been appropriated to an extinct genus of feline ani- 
 mals, represented by remains, thus far only discovered in the mauvaises 
 terres miocene deposits of AVhite Eiver, Dakota. It is nearly allied to 
 the preceding genus, but differs from it in the possession of two addi- 
 tional teeth to the molar series of the lov.er jaw. 
 
 JDinictis feUna.—A unique species, indicated by two nearly comijlete 
 
344 GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF THE TERRITORIES. 
 
 skulls, botli discovered by Professor Hayden. The animal was rather 
 less in size than the existing panther, and about equaled the smaller spe- 
 cies of Drepanodon, with which it was cotemporaneous. It possessed the 
 same formidable character of upper canines as in the latter genus. From 
 the number and disposition of the teeth, according with those of the 
 weasel, it has been called the saber-toothed weasel. The skull measures 
 six and a quarter inches in length. 
 
 ^LUEODON. 
 
 An extinct genus, probably feline, perhaps canine, distinguished by 
 the above name, is founded on an isolated tooth discovered by Professor 
 Hayden in the pliocene sands of the Mobrara Valley. The tooth is an 
 upper sectorial molar, and is intermediate in character to that of the 
 wolves and cats. 
 
 ^lurodon ferox. — The species was nearly as large as the Bengal tiger. 
 
 PATKIOFELIS. 
 
 This name has been appropriated to another extinct and supposed 
 feline genus, founded on fragments of a fossil jaw obtained by Profes- 
 sor Hayden from the tertiary formation near Port Bridger, Wyoming. 
 
 Patriofelis ulta. — The species was rather larger than our panther. 
 The length of its lower jaw is about six inches. 
 
 LEPTARCTUS. 
 
 An extinct genus, to which the above name has been given, is in- 
 ferred to have existed during the tertiary period, from a single tooth 
 discovered by Professor Hayden, in association with remains of extinct 
 equine genera, at Bijou Hill, east of the Missouri Eiver, about ten miles 
 below the mouth of White Eiver, Dakota. The tooth apparently indi- 
 cates a carnivorous animal allied to the living coati of South America. 
 
 Leptarctus primus. — The siiecies was about the size of the raccoon. 
 
 NOTHARCTUS. 
 
 An extinct genus, with the above name, is founded on a portion of 
 the lower jaw, obtained during the last expedition of Professor Hayden. 
 It was discovered on Black's Fork, and pertains to the Bridger tertiary 
 deposit. 
 
 XotJiarctns tenehrosns. — The species distinguished by this name was 
 about two-thirds the size of the raccoon, to which it was also related. 
 
 EUMINANTIA. 
 
 The ruminating order of mammals is represented by an abundance of 
 remains in the western tertiary deposits. Most of the members not only 
 belong to extinct genera, but to such as are peculiar to the North Amer- 
 ican continent. 
 
 BOVID^. 
 Bison. 
 
 Our western bufialo, or bison, was probably represented during 
 the post-pliocene or quaternary period by a much larger animal, the 
 remains of which have been found, in association with those of the 
 
GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF THE TERRITORIES. 345 
 
 American mastodon, both in the eastern and western portions of the 
 . continent. 
 
 Bison latifrons. — The great extinct "bison of America was originally 
 indicated by a portion of a skull discovered on a tributary of the Ohio 
 Eiver about a dozen miles from the famous deposit of bones, Big-Bone 
 Lick, Kentucky. Remains liave also been found in the latter locality, on 
 the Brazos River, Texas, and elsewhere. The cranial portion of a skull, 
 apparently of the same species, was discovered in California, by Walter 
 Brown, of San Francisco, and was presented to the Academy oi' Natural 
 Sciences of Philadelphia. The species was about as large as the living 
 buffalo or arnee of India and Java. 
 
 OREODONTIDJE. 
 
 The above name is given to an extinct family of animals, the remains 
 of which, discovered in the AVestern Territories of the United States, 
 indicate that during the tertiary period it embraced many genera and 
 species. The members of the family in anatomical character exhibit 
 strong suilline affinities, while the structure of their grinding teeth 
 indicate them to have chewed the cud like our ruminating animals. 
 Their feet were constructed nearly as in. the hog, and, as in this animal, 
 were provided with four toes. 
 
 The skull of the oreodonts approaches in form that of the peccaries. 
 The cranial portion resembles that of the camel, and, as in this, is horn- 
 less. The temporal fossse are large and separated by a median sagit- 
 tal crest, as in the camel. The orbits are closed behind by an arch, as 
 in the latter, and other living ruminants. Large and comparatively 
 deep depressions occupy a position just in advance of the orbits, as in 
 the living deer family, but no unossilied spaces occupy any part of the 
 face. The teeth in both jaws form nearly unbroken arches, a condition 
 in which we find none of the allied living families, and but few of any 
 other living mammalia. Well-developed incisors occupy both jaws, such 
 as exist alone in the lower jaw of living ruminating animals. The 
 canine teeth approach in character most nearly those of suilline ani- 
 mals. The grinders are constructed like those of the living ruminants, 
 resembling most nearly those of the deer family. 
 
 OREODON. 
 
 The remains of this genus are of all other fossils the most abundant 
 of those which have been discovered in the miocene tertiary deposits of 
 the mauvaises terres of White River, Dakota. Two species especially, 
 judging from the great quantity of their remains which have been col- 
 lected, appear to have formerly existed in immense numbers. They 
 were most likely gregarious, in the manner of the existing peccaries, and, 
 like the modern bison, roamed together in great herds over the exten- 
 sive prairies of the West. Compared with the latter animal they were 
 insignificant in size, and in this respect approached the former. 
 
 Oreodon Culbertsoni. — This species, the remains of which have been dis- 
 covered in the greatest abundance, was first brought to our notice by 
 Messrs Alexander and Thaddeus Culbertson. These gentlemen, brothers, 
 engagediu the fur trade, were the first to collect fossils from the mauvaises 
 terres, and place them in the hands of naturalists. Oreodon Culbertsoni, 
 named in their honor, was intermediate in size and apijcarance to the do- 
 mestic sheep and the collared peccary. Skulls, fragments of jaws with 
 teeth, and other bones of the skeleton of upwards of a thousand individu- 
 als of this species have come under the inspection of the writer. * In the 
 
346 GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF THE TEREITORIES. 
 
 large number of specimens representing so many individuals, consider- 
 ablte variation in the details of structure liave been noticed. The fossils 
 also exhibit great variety in the condition of preservation. Among them 
 are some crushed in such a way as to indicate that the condition was due 
 to the bite of certain of the powerful carnivores which were contemxjo- 
 raneous with the animals. 
 
 Oreodon gracilis. — A small species, about the size of a musk deer ; was 
 an associate of the former. It was probably equally abundant, but the 
 greater delicacy of its skeleton rendered it more liable to a variety of ac- 
 cidents insuring destruction. 
 
 Oreodon major. — A larger sj)eciesthan either of the former, indicated by 
 a few remains, among them a nearly entire and well-preserved skull, dis- 
 covered by Professor Hay den in the mauvaises terres deposits of White 
 Eiver. The skull measures about ten inches in length ; and the animal was 
 about as large as the ordinary wolf or the largest-sized dog. The species is 
 remarkable for the large size of its ear capsules, which not only greatly 
 exceeded in i^roportion those of the Oreodon Culhertsoni and O. gracilis, 
 but are larger than in the existing hog. What relationship the inflated 
 or enlarged condition of the ear capsules has with the aciiteness of hear- 
 ing or the habits of animals has not been clearly indicated. The com- 
 parative scarcity of the remains of Oreodon major in the localities in 
 which those of the preceding species were obtained leads me to suspect 
 that the former was i)robably not cotemporaneous with the latter, or 
 at least did not inhabit the same places. 
 
 A few remains from the maxivaises terres of White Eiver, which the 
 writer had referred to two species of oreodon, distinct from the preceding 
 under the names of Oreodon affinis and 0. hyhridus, I suspect to have per- 
 tained to hybrids ; probably of 0. gracilis and 0. major. 
 
 In ISGG, Professor Hayden obtained among a number of reiuains of 
 Oreodon Culbertsoni, from the mauvaises terres, a specimen of a skull, 
 agreeing in size, form, and details with that of the species just named, 
 except that it had the ear capsules proportionately as well developed as 
 in 0. major. I referred it to a distinct species with the name of Oreodon 
 bullatus, but I suspect it pertained to a hybrid between 0. major 
 and 0. Culbertsoni. It is not unlikely that Oreodon major may have lived 
 in a locality skirting that inhabited by the species 0. Culhertsoni 
 and 0. gracilis. The intimate relationship anatomically and physiolo- 
 gically would readily allow of the hybridization which has been sus- 
 pected. 
 
 Oreodon siqierbus. — Last autumn the writer received through the 
 Smithsonian Institution, for examination, a collection of mammalian 
 fossils from the Eeverend Thomas Condon, of Dalles City, Oregon. 
 They were mainly collected in the valley of Bridge Creek, a tributary of 
 John Day's Eiver, Oregon. The fossils in general appearance and con- 
 dition of petrifaction resemble those of the mauvaises terres of White 
 Eiver, Dakota. 
 
 The greater number and more striking specimens belong apparently 
 to a species of oreodon larger than any of those from the locality last 
 named. The skull of the animal was about fourteen inches in length. 
 The ear capsules are inflated and liroportionately as large as in 0. major. 
 The face is rather more abruptly narrowed in advance of the orbits than 
 in the latter ; the infra-orbital arches are proportionately deeper, and 
 the lachrymal depressions are shallower. The teeth have the same con- 
 stitution as in the mauvaises terres oreodons, but the canines and pre- 
 molars are x)roportiouate]y wider and thinner, and thus appear of a more 
 compressed character. The inferior canine tooth, at the base of the 
 
GEOLOGICAL SUEVEY OF THE TERRITOEIES. 347 
 
 c^o^yn is an inch in breadtb fore and aft. The species I have distinguished 
 by the name heading this article. 
 
 Mingled with the remains of 0. sujperhtis are a few fragments, appa- 
 rently referable to 0. Culhertsoni. 
 
 MEEYCOCHCERUS. 
 
 As the name of the genus indicates, a ruminating hog, like oreodon, 
 and pertaining to the same family. It is closely related to the latter 
 genus, and perhaps by many naturalists would be regarded as the same. 
 Its chief differences consist in the proportionately great depth of the 
 infra-orbital arch, the abruptly-narrowed face, the comparatively-shallow 
 lachrymal depression, and the more posterior position of the infra-orb- 
 ital foramen. The characters thus presented were more sharply defined 
 previous to the recent discovery of a second species of the genus, 
 which is intermediate, and therefore still more nearly approximates the 
 two genera, if it does not merge the one into the other. 
 
 Merycocliccrus proprius — The remains of this species were discovered by 
 ProfessorHayden, during Warren's expedition of 1857, on the head- waters 
 of the Niobrara Eiver, opposite Fort Laramie. They were embedded in a 
 dull, reddish-brown sandstone, which Professor Haydeu refers to the mio- 
 cene tertiary period. The animal was larger than any of the species of ore- 
 odon, except the 0. superhus of Oregon, which it approximated in size. 
 The jaws are of more robust proportions than in the oreodons, and the 
 infra-orbital arches of greater depth. In this the latter measure nearly 
 two inches; in 0. supcrhus^ an animal of about the same size, an inch and 
 a half; in 0. major, three-fourths of an inch. 
 
 Merycoclioerus proprius appears not to have inhabited the same local- 
 ities with the oreodons, at least cotemporaneously. I suspect it to have 
 lived at a later period, and perhaps, on the theory of the distinguished 
 philosopher Darwin, may have been the successor by selection of the 
 oreodons. 
 
 Merycochcerus rusticns. — A second species of the genus distinguished by 
 his name is indicated by remains recently discovered by Professor Hayden, 
 on the Sweetwater River, eighteen miles west of Devil's Gate, Wyoming 
 Territory. The animal was about the size of Oreodon major, but is readily 
 distinguishable through the anatomical characters that separate the two 
 genera to which they belong. The number of remains of M. rusticus ob- 
 tained during a short period from a circumscribed locality indicate the 
 animal to have been abundant. 
 
 MEEYCHYUS. 
 
 Anothei" genus of the oreodont family to which the above name has 
 been given is indicated by a comparative abundance of remains discov- 
 ered by Professor Hayden during Warren's expedition in 1857. The 
 fossils were found in the loose sands of the Niobrara Eiver, and are 
 i;egarded by Professor Hayden as being of more recent date than those 
 of the oreodons, the age of the formation being considered as later ter- 
 tiarj- or pliocene. 
 
 Merychyus is clearly related to oreodon and Merycocliccriis, and, like 
 the latter, most probably is the successor of oreodon. The construction 
 and form of the skull and teeth are nearly alike in all the genera men- 
 tioned. 
 
 The true molars or grinding teeth of Merychyus are constructed on 
 the same plan as in all ordinary ruminants, recent and extinct, and are 
 intermediate in character with those which have short crowns, as' in the 
 
348 GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF THE TEERITORIES. 
 
 otber oreodouts and the deer, and those wliicli liave long crowns, as 
 in the camel and sheep. 
 
 The species of Merycliyus^ during the later tertiary period, appear 
 to have taken the place of the oreodons of the middle tertiary period. 
 The remains discovered appear to indicate three species of the geuns. 
 
 MerijcJujns elegans. — A small S])ecies, distinguished l)y this name, was 
 intermediate in size to Oreodon Culhertsoni and 0. gracilis, or \f as about the 
 size of the existing collared peccar^'. 
 
 Merychyus medius. — This species, indicated by a few fragments, was 
 rather larger than the existing lama of South America. 
 
 Merychyus major. — Fragments of jaws and teeth indicate this species 
 to have been about the size otMerycoclioiriisiwopriuSy and nearly as large 
 as the existing camel. 
 
 LEPTAUCHENIA. ^ 
 
 Another esitinct genus of ruminants of the same family as the pre- 
 ceding, distinguished by the above name, was first indicated by a few 
 remains discovered by Professor Hayden in 1855, on one of the tributa- 
 ries of White Eiver, near Eagle Nest Butte, Dakota. Subsequently, 
 Professor Hayden, during his exploration of 186G, discovered additional 
 and more complete remains of the same genus on White Earth Creek, 
 a tributary of White Eiver, Dakota. The fossils are attributed by 
 Professor Hayden to the miocene formation. 
 
 The skull of Leptauclienia has the general form Snd construction as 
 in the i^receding genera of oreodouts, and the number, form, and con- 
 stitution of the teeth are nearly the same. 
 
 The ear capsules are proportionately larger than in any of the other 
 members of the family. Large unossified spaces exist at the sides of 
 the face, extending from the forehead and in advance of the lachrymal 
 bones. Similar spaces exist in the living deer and lama, but not in the 
 other oreodouts so far as known. 
 
 Thetruemolar teeth or grinders of Leptauclienia most nearly resem- 
 ble those of Merycliyus, but exhibit differences. The median Ibuttress- 
 like ridges on the outer part of the upper grinders divide the crown to 
 the fangs more completely than in Merychyus; and in the lower grind- 
 ers the crown internally is divided by corresponding ridges, which are 
 nearly or quite obsolete in Merychyus. 
 
 The fossil remains thus far discovered indicate the existence of three 
 species of Leptauchenia during the miocene period. Cotemporaneous 
 with the species of Oreodon and Merycochcerus they appear to have been 
 the i^redecessors of the species of Merychyus of the pliocene period . They 
 were all comparatively small, and have been distinguished by the follow- 
 ing names : 
 
 Leptauchenia major. — The largest species of the genus was intermedi- 
 ate in size with Oreodon Culhertsoni and 0. gracilis. The length of its 
 skull was about five and three-quarter inches. 
 
 Lejitauchenia decora. — Eather smaller than 0. gracilis, had the skull 
 about four iuches long. 
 
 Leptauclienia nitida. — The smallest of the species was about the size 
 of the living musk deer. Its skull is three and a half inches in length. 
 
 AGRIOOHOSRID^. 
 
 Another genus of extinct, hog-like ruminants, allied to the genera of 
 the preceding family, is nevertheless so peculiar that the author luis 
 viewed it as the representative of a distinct family to which he has 
 
GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF THE TERRITORIES. 349 
 
 given the above name. Its principal features clistiuguishiug it from the 
 oreouonts are as follows : 
 
 The orbits are open behind, or not separated from, the temporal fossfe, 
 in which character they differ from those of all known ruminants, recent 
 or extinct, having the same form of grinding teeth. No lachrymal 
 fossae exist in front of the orbits as in the oreodonts. 
 
 The number, relation, and general constitution of the teeth are the 
 same as in the latter ; but the grinders or true molars, though con- 
 structed on the same phm as in the oreodonts and the ruminants gen- 
 erally, are remarkable for their transversely spreading character, or the 
 comparative shallowness and breadth of their crowns. The last pre- 
 molar departs from the usual ruminant pattern, the upper having three 
 lobes to the crown, the lower four lobes. 
 
 AGRIOCHCERUS. 
 
 Three species of this genus have apparently been recognized, differ- 
 ing little in size, and in this respect approaching 0. Culbertsoni. 
 The form and general construction of the skull are nearly the same as 
 in the latter. Besides the orbits being open behind, and the absence of 
 lachrymal fossae, as above mentioned, the face, in comparison with that 
 of oreodon, is proportionately wider and of less depth. The remains of 
 Agriochcenis have been discovered in the mauvaises tcrres of Dakota, 
 but are comparatively rare. 
 
 Agrioclwerus antiqiius. — The remains of this species, consisting of frag- 
 ments of jaws and teeth, together with the facial portion of a skull, of 
 two individuals, were among the first of the mammalian fossils collected 
 in the mauvaises terrcs of Dakota. They were obtained from a fur 
 trader by the late Drt Hiram A. Prout, of St. Louis, by whom they were 
 submitted to the examination of the writer. Among several tons of 
 fossil bones subsequently collected in the mauvaises terres and brought 
 to our notice, only the smallest traces of this species were detected. 
 
 The size of the skull was about equal to that of 0. Culbertsoni. 
 
 Acjrioclioerus latifrons. — This species is indicated by an almost com- 
 plete skull, obtained by Professor Hayden, in the mauvaises terres of 
 Dakota, during his expedition of the summer of 1866. It differed little 
 in size from the preceding species, but is distinguishable by the breadth 
 of its forehead, which is almost one-third greater. Large inflated ear 
 capsules are present in the skull ot A. latifrons, proportionately as well 
 developed as in O. major. 
 
 The skull of A. latifrons is eight and a half inches long. 
 
 AgriocJicerus major. — A somewhat larger species than the two preced- 
 ing, apparently indicated by a few fragments. 
 
 CA3IELID^. 
 
 The camel family at the present time is represented among the indig-' 
 enous animals of the western hemisphere by the various species of 
 the lama genus of South America. During the tertiary period many 
 members of the same family were largely distributed in the western 
 part of Xorth America. Recently some remains discovered in Califor- 
 nia, and submitted to the examination of the writer by Professor J. D. 
 Whitney, indicate a species of lama exceeding in size the existing 
 camel. The species has been named Auchenia or Lama calif ornica. 
 
 CAMELOPS 
 
 Is the name of an extinct genus allied to the lama, indicated by a jaw 
 tragment found in the post pliocene gravel drifts of Kansas. The si^ecies 
 is named 6'. Icansanus. 
 
350 GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF THE TERRITOEIES. 
 
 PROCAMELUS. 
 
 An extinct genus established on remains discovered by Professor Hay- 
 den in the pliocene sands of the Niobrara Eiver, Nebraska. Fragments 
 of jaws and teeth exhibit a near relationship in the anatomical charac- 
 ters of the skull to that of the existing members of the camel family. It 
 possessed a greater number of molar teeth than the camels and lamas. 
 Three species of the genus are apparently indicated by the fossil re- 
 mains. 
 
 Procamelus rohustus. — The largest species, founded on a portion of a 
 lower jaw, pertaining to an animal about the size of the living camel. 
 Its teeth were smaller than in the latter, but this difference was fully com- 
 pensated in the greater number of these organs. 
 
 Some additional remains of the same species were subsequently dis- 
 covered by Professor Hayden, on Little White lliver, Dakota. 
 
 Procamelus occidei\taUs. — A species indicated by a greater number of 
 fossil specimens than the preceding, was about two-thirds the size of 
 the former. Some remains, apparen^tly of the same animal, subsequently 
 discovered on the Little White Elver, Dakota, lead to the probability 
 that all referred to the si^ecies thus named may belong to the female of 
 the former one. 
 
 Procamelus gracilis. — A small species, not larger than the domestic 
 sheep, indicated by several fragments of jaws and teeth. 
 
 HOMOCAMELUS. 
 
 An extinct genus, closely allied to the former, to which the above 
 name is given, is indicated by several fragments of jaws with teeth, ob- 
 tained by Professor Hayden in the pliocene sands of the Niobrara River. 
 
 Homocamelus caninus. — The species, named from the conspicuous char- 
 acter of the anterior teeth of the upper jaw, was about the size of the 
 living lama. 
 
 MERYCODUS. 
 
 This extinct genus of ruminants was originally founded on a jaw frag- 
 ment discovered by Messrs. Meek and Hayden, in 1853, on Bijou Hill, 
 east of the Missouri Eiver. Subsequently Professor Hayden discovered 
 additional and more characteristic remains of the same, mainly consist- 
 ing of fragments of lower jaws with teeth, on the Niobrara Eiver, and 
 on Little White Eiver. 
 
 Merycodus necatus. — The species was smaller than the domestic sheep. 
 
 PCEBROTHERIUM, 
 
 Another extinct genus of the camel family, was founded on the greater 
 portion of a skull, which was one of the first fossil specimens produced 
 from the great tertiary cemeteries of the West. The specimen was dis- 
 covered by Mr. Alexander Culbertson, in the mauvaises terres of White 
 Eiver, Dakota, and was presented in 1846 to the Academy of Natural 
 Sciences of Philadelphia. The remains of the genus appear to be exceed- 
 ingly rare, as a very few trifling fragments have been since discovered. 
 Pcebrotlierium Wilsoni. — The species, approximating in size the domestic 
 sheep, is named in honor of Dr. T. B. Wilson, late of Philadelphia, and a 
 distinguished patron of natural history. 
 
 PROTOMERYX. 
 
 • 
 
 Another extinct member of the camel family, distinguished by the 
 above name, is founded on a jaw fragment obtained by Professor Hay- 
 
GEOLOGICAL SURVFA' OF THE TERRITORIES. 351 
 
 den from the miocene deposit of Bear Creek, a tributary of White Eiver, 
 Dakota. It api)arently possessed the same number and arrangement of 
 teeth as the former two genera. 
 
 Frotomeryx Halll. — The species, about the size of the domestic sheep, 
 is named in honor of James Hall, the eminent geologist and paleontol- 
 ogist. 
 
 MEGALO^IEEYX. 
 
 This generic name has been appropriated to a large ruminant appa- 
 rently of the camel family. It is founded on a couple of specimens of 
 large, inferior molar teeth obtained by Professor Hayden from the plio- 
 cene sands of the Mobrara Eiver. The genus is probably the same as 
 that to which our living lama and alpaca belong. 
 
 Mcgalomeryx niohrarensls. — The species exceeded in size the existing 
 camel. 
 
 MOSCHID^. 
 
 The family to which pertain the musks, or musk-deers at the present 
 period, is chiefly confined to the continent of Asia and the adjacent 
 islands. It was represented during the miocene tertiary period in 
 ]!!J"orth America, by an extinct genus to Avhich the following name has 
 been given : 
 
 LEPTO:MErtYX. 
 
 The genus was first characterized by a mutilated skull, discovered by 
 Dr. John Evans, in the Mauvaises Terres of White Eiver, Dakota. Sub- 
 sequently Professor Hayden obtained portions of several less well-pre- 
 served skulls, together with many fragments of jaws and teeth, partly 
 from the same locality and iDartly from Bear Creek, a tributary of the 
 Cheyenne Eiver. 
 
 Leptomeryx Evansi. — The skull indicatesan animal about the size of the 
 musk deer of Thibet. The species is named in honor of its discoverer, 
 the late Dr. John Evans. 
 
 CERVID^. 
 
 The deer family, so far as known, is poorly represented in the tertiary 
 and quaternary deposits of the Xorth American continent. However, 
 a larger species of deer than any now living is indicated by remains 
 found in association with those of the American mastodon. 
 
 CERVUS. 
 
 The genus was probably in existence in the pliocene fauna of Nebraska. 
 A few remains, attributed to an extinct species, have been found in the 
 sands of the Mobrara Eiver. 
 
 Cervus Warreni. — The species was about the size of the living Virginia 
 deer. It is named in honor of General G. K. Warren, during whose expe- 
 dition its remains were discovered b^" Professor Haj^den. 
 
 ANTILOPID^. 
 
 The antelope family appears to have been represented in the pliocene 
 fauna of Nebraska, by a peculiar genus, having furcated horn cores. 
 
 COSORYX. 
 
 The peculiar genus thus named and just alluded to is founded on 
 several fragments of horn cores — they may be of antlers — discovered by 
 Professor Hayden in the sands of the Niobrara Eiver. A species, ap- 
 
352 GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF THE TERRITORIES. 
 
 parently of the same genus, has beeu described under the name of Anti- 
 lope dichotojiia, from the tertiary formations of Gers, in France. 
 
 Cosorijx furcatus. — The Niobrara species thus named was about the 
 size of the sheep. 
 
 CAilELOPEEDALID^. 
 
 A singular fossil, obtained by Professor Hayden from Dr. Gehrung, 
 of Colorado City, submitted to the writer for examination, leads to the 
 suppositon that it belonged to a large ruminant, probably of the same 
 family as the existing camelopard of Airica. It has been referred to 
 an unknown genus, with the following name : 
 
 :megacerops. 
 
 The genus is based on a skull fragment, of remarkable character, 
 found in Colorado. The fossil calls to mind the wonderful but also ex- 
 tinct Sivatherium of the Sevalik Hills of India. The specimen corre- 
 sponds with that portion of the face of the latter animal which comprises 
 the upper part of the nose, together with the forehead and anterior horn 
 cores. As in Sivatherium, all the bones comprising tiie specimen are 
 completely coossified, and of great comparative massiveness. The 
 genus was probably the American representative of the Sivatherium, 
 which was the largest of all known ruminants. In its bulk and i^ro- 
 portions it approached the elephant, and it was provided with two pair 
 of horns and probably a proboscis like the taper. 
 
 Megaeerops coloradensis. — The species was not so large as the Sivath- 
 erium (jiganteum of India, but may be regarded as having been the largest 
 of all the known ruminants of America, recent and extinct. 
 
 ARTIODACTYLA. 
 
 Under this ordinal name the writer has included the thick-skinned 
 animals or pachyderms of Cuvier, which have an even number of toes, 
 and has excluded the ruminants of the artiodactyle pachyderms of Pro- 
 fessor Owen. 
 
 SUIDJE. 
 
 The suilline family at the present time is not represented in America 
 by any of the old-world genera, nor at any past time, so f\ir as the ob- 
 servation of the writer is concerned, was it inhabited by them. !N"ot- 
 with standing many reports of discoveries of remains of the hog and 
 the hippopotamus, the writer has as yet seen no undoubted traces of 
 these animals which pertained to the American continents. 
 
 DICOTYLES. 
 
 The peccaries appear to have represented in the western hemisphere 
 the hogs of the other part of the world ; at least the writer has not yet 
 seen fossil remains which appeared to him as indubitable evidences of 
 the existence at any time of an indigenous species of hog in America. 
 At the present time two species of peccary inhabit South America, and 
 one of them, the collared peccary, extends into North America as far 
 as the Eed Eiver in Arkansas. 
 
 At an earlier period several species, now extinct, inhabited North 
 America. Professor Hayden found an upper canine tooth of a i^eccary 
 on the Niobrara River, but its age and reference to a particular species 
 are uncertain. A portion of a skull, found in digging a well, at the 
 depth of thirty feet, in Gibson Couniy, Indiana, indicates a species which 
 has been named Dicotyles nasutus. It was rather larger than either of 
 
GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF THE TEKRITORIES. 353 
 
 the existing species, and liad a proportionately longer and narrower 
 muzzle. Several teetli fouud in the niioeeue deposit of Monmouth 
 ConDtj', New Jersey, I suspect to belong to the same. 
 
 A lew remains fouud in Maryland, Virginia, and South Carolina ap- 
 parently indicate a species smaller than the collared peccary. It has 
 been named Bicotyles lenis. 
 
 PLATYGONUS. 
 
 This name has been given to an extinct genus of peccary-like ani- 
 mals which appear to have been abundant during the i>ost-pliocene 
 period. Numerous remains of a species, the Flatygonns co^npressus, have 
 been fouud in the lead-bearing crevices of the clilf limestone at Galena, 
 Illinois. An entire skull, as fresh in appearance as if taken from a liv- 
 ing animal, and of the same species, was discovered as early as 1805, 
 in a cave in Kentucky. Eemains have also been found in Iowa. 
 
 ELOTHEKIUM. 
 
 This is an extinct genus of suilline animals, originally characterized 
 by remains discovered in the miocene tertiary deposits of France, and 
 was first described in 1847. Its nearest allies now living are the hog, the 
 peccary,and the hippopotamus. The remains of two and perhaps three 
 species of the genus have been found in the miocene deposits of the 
 inanvaises terres of Dakota. 
 
 Elotlierium Mortoni. — The remains from upwards of a dozen individ- 
 uals of this species have come under the notice of the Avriter. It was 
 about the size of the domestic hog. The skull bears some resemblance 
 to that of the latter animal. Capacious temporal fossre for the accom- 
 modation of powerful muscles, separated by a median crest, give the 
 cranial portion of the skull a decidedly tiger-like aspect. The strong 
 jaws are provided w4th a full series of seven molars, a canine, and three 
 incisors on each side above and below. 
 
 The jiointed character of the latter teeth, the long, bear-like canine 
 teeth, and the conical premolars, probably indicate at least a partially- 
 carnivorous habit. The true molars or grinders a]>proach in character 
 the corresponding teeth of the living sui»lline animals. 
 
 The si)ecies was named in honor of the late Dr. S. G. Morton. 
 
 Elotlierium ingens. — The second species, about a third longer than the 
 former, is founded on a few jaw fragments and teeth obtained by Pro- 
 fessor Ilayden in the mauvaises terres. 
 
 Elotlierium superhus. — A third species, even larger than the former, 
 indicated by an incisor tooth, from Douglas Flat, Calaveras County, Cali- 
 fornia. The specimen was submitted to the writter by Professor J. D. 
 Whitney. 
 
 PERCHCERUS. 
 
 An extinct genus allied to the peccary. It is indicated by small 
 fragments of jaws and teeth, from the miocene tertiary deposit of the 
 mauvaises terres of White River. 
 
 Ferchcerus prohus. — The species thus designated was about the size of 
 the living Bicotijles labiatus of South America. 
 23 G 
 
354 GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF THE TERRITORIES. 
 
 LEPTOCHCERTJS. 
 
 Another extinct genus thus named is also allied to the peccaries. 
 It is indicated by fragments of jaws and teeth found in association with 
 those of the preceding animal. . ^^-u • ^ 4-1 ..^nnr^^ri 
 
 Leptochcerus spectahilis.— This species was about the size of the collared 
 
 peccary. 
 
 NANOHYUS 
 
 Is the name applied to another extinct genus of suiUine animals, indi- 
 cated by a lower-jaw fragment, from the same locality as the remains 
 of the preceding two genera. . 
 
 Nanohyus porcinus.— The si^ecies was about the size of the common 
 
 rabbit. 
 
 MICROSUS. 
 
 A small suilline animal of an extinct genus, thus named, is inferred 
 from a iaw fragment with teeth, obtained during the last expedition ot 
 Professor Hayden, on Black's Fork of Green Kiver, near Fort Bridger, 
 
 ^^Mi^rosus cuspidatus.— The species named from the pointed condition 
 of the tubercles of the teeth was about the size of the common rabbit. 
 
 HYOPSODUS. 
 
 A fragment of the lower jaw with teeth, found in association with the 
 specimen last mentioned, appears to indicate a hitherto unknown genus 
 to which the above name is given. . . n -, , ^ 
 
 Eijopsodus yaulus.— The species was about the size of a large hare. 
 
 Anoplotlieridm. 
 
 This ancient and extinct family is typified by the singular genus Ano- 
 plotherium, originally described by Cuvier, from remains obtained trora 
 the eocene formation of the Paris basin. In the ear best part of the 
 tertiary period it appears to have been the genus which most nearly 
 approached in character the ruminants of later epochs. In Anoiylotiie- 
 riim the teeth formed closed series in both jaws, as we now observe to 
 be the case in no mammals except man. 
 
 TITANOTHERIUM. 
 
 This genus is apparently allied to the A^wplotlierium of Europe, and 
 another extinct genus named ChaUcother ium, v^'ho&e remains were dis- 
 covered in the Sevalik Hills of India. , ,. , , . . „ i,„„^ 
 
 Titanotherium proiiti.— This species is established on remains of a huge 
 animal, the largest of those yet indicated by the tossils obtained in the 
 mauvaises terrcs of White Eiver, Dakota. It approached in size the ele- 
 phant, and it was no doubt the conspicuous size ot its remains which led 
 to its having been the first noticed of all the extinct animals whose bones 
 have been collected in the mauvaises terres cemetery. 
 
 The first notice of it was published in 184G, by the late Dr. Hiram A. 
 Prout, of St. Louis, who, from the character of the lower teeth, supposed 
 it to belong to the genus Palwothcrium, originally established by Cuvier 
 from remains obtained from the eocene formation of Pans, i^ ranee. 
 
GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF THE TERRITORIES. • 355 
 
 Many remains, consistingof fragments of jaws, teeth, and articular ends 
 of different bones of the skeleton, collected by Messrs. Meek, Haydeu, 
 and Evans, indicate a nearer alliance of the animal to the companion of 
 the Palceothere, that is to say, the Anoplothere. 
 
 The remains of the species, named in honor of its discoverer, Dr. Prout, 
 belong;- to the lowest beds of the miocene deposits of the mauvaises terres, 
 according- to the authority of Professor Hayden. 
 
 The teeth of Prout's Titanothere formed nearly unbroken rows, though 
 not so completely as in the Anopothere. It appears to huxe possessed 
 an incisor less on each side than in the latter, and its canines were pro- 
 portionately larger, differences which induced small breaks or intervals 
 in the dental series. Among living animals, the grinding teeth of 
 the Titanothere approached most nearly in appearance those of the rhi- 
 noceros. In the best preserved specimen of the jaws of Titanothere the 
 series of teeth measure nearly a foot and a half in length. 
 
 Various fragments of the skeletons of different individuals indicate 
 considerable variation in size, probably due to difference in sex. 
 
 Dr. John Evans rei^orted the discovery of the skeleton of an individ- 
 ual imbedded in the rock in the mauvaises terres, which measured, in 
 position, about eighteen feet in length and nine feet in height. This 
 appears much too large in iiroportion to the size of the jaws above 
 referred to, and the measurement is probably greatly exaggerated, if it, 
 perhaps, does not apply to some other and larger animal. The speci- 
 mens upon which the species T. Proiiti is established indicate an animal 
 intermediate in size to the Indian rhinoceros and the elephant. 
 
 PAL^OSYOPS. 
 
 This extinct genus is indicated by some remains obtained during Pro- 
 fessor Hayden's last expedition. The specimens consisting of small 
 fragments of jaws, with molar teeth, were found at Church Buttes, and 
 on Henry's Fork of Green Eiver, Wyoming. The remains belong to the 
 Bridger Group of tertiary rocks, probably of miocene age. The genus 
 is closely allied to Titanotherium of the mauvaises terres, and to Chal- 
 icotherium of the Sevalik Hills of India. 
 
 Fakcosijops paludosus. — The only species of the genus approximated in 
 size the common ox. 
 
 AntJiracotheridce. 
 
 This name has been given to an extinct family of even-toed pachy- 
 derms whose types are the genera Antliracoflierium and Chccropotamus^ 
 of the early and medial tertiary formations of Europe. It is also rep- 
 resented in the miocene tertiary formation of the mciuvaises terres of 
 White liiver by the remains of a genus which had been previously 
 recognized as occurring in England and France. 
 
 HYOPOTA]VIUS. 
 
 This genus was established by Professor Owen from some remains 
 found in the eocene deposit of the Isle of Wight. The true molar teeth, 
 or grinders, resemble those of ruminating animals, except that the upper 
 ones present the remarkable character of an additional or fifth lobe 
 introduced between the anterior pair of lobes. The whole number of 
 teeth and the kind correspond with those of the existing hog. 
 
 Hyojyotamiis Amcricanus. — A species based upon fragments of jaws and 
 
356 GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF THE TERRITORIES, 
 
 teeth discovered by Professor Hay den, who refers them to the lowest bed 
 of the tertiary formation of the mauvaises terres. The animal approached 
 in size the common ox. 
 
 PERISSODACTYLA. 
 
 This name, originally employed by Professor Owen, I have used to 
 include all the uneven -toed pachyderms of Cuvier, except the solid un- 
 gulate or equine animals. Thus restricted, the order is represented by 
 seven genera, in the tertiary formations of our Western States and 
 Territories. 
 
 BMnocerotidce, 
 
 Among the most interesting paleontological discoveries in this coun- 
 try is that of the former existence of the rhinoceros family on the 
 North American continent. Remains of a number of species have been 
 detected in Dakota, Nebraska, Texas, California, Oregon, Colorado, 
 Wyoming, and traces even in New Jersey. 
 
 RHINOCEROS. 
 
 The existing species of this genus are now confined to Asia and 
 Africa. Eemains of extinct species have been found in great abund- 
 ance throughout Europe and Northern Asia. The living species are 
 X)rovided with one or two horns ; some of the extinct ones were hornless, 
 and have, on this account, been referred to a different genus, with the 
 name of Aceratheriuni. 
 
 Rhinoceros occidentalis. — A hornless species, distinguished by the above 
 name, and little more than half the size of the common Indian rhinoceros, 
 is indicated by an abundance of remains in the miocene tertiary deposits 
 of the mauvaises terres, of White Eiver, Dakota. Its dentition is the same 
 as in the living unicorn rhinoceroses ; that is, it possesses two incisor and 
 seven molar teeth on each side of both jaws. 
 
 The length of the skull of this species is one foot and a half 
 
 Rhinoceros crassus. — This species, about the size of the Indian rhinoce- 
 ros, is indicated by a few fragments of jaws and teeth discovered by Pro- 
 fessor Hayden in the pliocene sands of the Niobrara Eiver, Nebraska. 
 
 Rhinoceros meridianus. — A third species, intermediate in size with the 
 two former, is indicated by an imperfect molar tooth, discovered by the 
 late Dr. B. F. Shumard in a tertiary formation of Washington County, 
 Texas. 
 
 Rhinoceros hesperius. — A fourth species, under this name, has been 
 viewed as distinct from the former ones, and was founded on specimens 
 submitted to the writer by Professor J. D. Whitney. The specimens, con- 
 sisting of the greater portion of a lower jaw with the teeth, and some' 
 fragments of upper molars, were derived from a tertiary deposit of Cal- 
 averas County, California. The species was about the size of the R. 
 occidentaUs of the mauvaises terres. 
 
 Eecently some remains, probably of the same species, were sent to 
 the writer for examination by the Eev. Thomas Condon, who obtained 
 them on the John Day Eiver, Oregon. 
 
 HYRACODON. 
 
 This genus has been proposed by the writer, founded on abundance 
 of remains of a small rhinoceros, which differs from all others previously 
 
GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF THE TERRITORIES. 357 
 
 doscribed, whether recent or extinct, in the possession of canines and a 
 full series of incisors in both jaws. The genus was also hornless. 
 
 Hi/racodon nehrascensis. — The only species of the genus indicated was 
 the smallest of its American kindred, and was about the size of the little 
 hippopotamus of Liberia,. AYestern Africa. During the miocene period 
 it existed in great numbers, associated with the R. occidentalism as proved 
 by the abundance of its remains in the mauvaises tcrrcs deposits. 
 Remains, apparently of the same species, have been discovered in Colo- 
 rado, Wyoming, and Oregon. The skull of H. nebfasceusis is about ten 
 inches in length. 
 
 HYRACHYUS. 
 
 An extinct genus, allied to Hyracodon, is founded on a fragment of a 
 lower jaw of a young animal, obtained, during Professor Hayden's recent 
 expedition, on Black's Fork of Green Eiver, Wyoming. In the mature 
 animal seven molar teeth formed a continuous series in the jaws. The 
 upper molars are unknown. The lower true molars resemble those of 
 Hyraoodon, but the crowns have their constituent lobes more deeply sep- 
 arated externally by an angular notch. The i)remolars in comparison 
 with the true molars are proportionately smaller than in Hyracodon. 
 
 Hyrachyus agrestis. — The species was smaller than Hyracodon nehras- 
 censis, and was about the size of the larger living peccary. The molar 
 series occupied a space of about three inches. The first premolar has a 
 laterally-compressed conical crown spreading in a slight posterior heel. 
 
 Hyrachyus agrarius. — A supposed secoiul species, probably of the 
 same genus, is inferred from the portion of a lower jaw about the size 
 and form of the corresponding part in Hyracodon nehrascensis. The 
 specimen was obtained on Smith's Fork of Green River, Wyoming. 
 The jaw below, the last molar is about an inch and three-fourths deep. 
 Its ascending portion in front rises vertically, and externally is deeply 
 concave. The molar series, consisting of seven teeth, is broken away 
 in the specimen. The space occupied by the series is about three inches 
 and three-fourths. The true molars occupied a space of full two inches. 
 
 Tapiridce. 
 
 The existing members of the tapir family in this part of the world 
 are confined to Central and South America. During the quaternary 
 period, contemporaneously with the well-known mastodon, several spe- 
 cies of tapir inhabited !North America. 
 
 LOPHIODON. 
 
 An extinct genus, described under the above name, by Cuvier, from 
 remains found in the middle tertiary formations of Europe, appears also 
 to have existed contemporaneously in North America. 
 
 LopModon occidentalis. — A species, about the size of the common 
 tapir (T. terrestris) of South America, is indicated by a single tooth dis- 
 covered by Professor Hayden in the mauvaises terres of White River. 
 A fragment of an upper jaw, with two teeth, obtained by the Rev. 
 Thomas Condon, from Bridge Creek, Oregon, is i)erhaps referable to 
 the same species. 
 
 Lophiodon modestus. — A small species of the«same genus, thus named, 
 is indicated by a single tooth, discovered in Professor Hayden's last 
 expedition, near Fort JBridger, Wyoming. 
 
358 GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF THE TEERITOEIES. 
 
 LOPHIOTHERIUM. 
 
 An extiDct genus of this name, described by Professor Gervais, from 
 remains found in the eocene formation of France, appears also to have 
 been represented by a small species during the formation of the Bridger 
 Group of tertiary deposits. 
 
 LopMoflierium sylvaticum.— The species is indicated by a jaw frag- 
 ment with teeth, obtained during Professor Hayden's last expedition on 
 Henry's Fork of Green Eiver, Wyoming. The animal was about two- 
 thirds the size of the collared peccary. 
 
 Proboscidece. 
 
 Of all extinct animals none are more familiar to the community than 
 the great proboscideans. Their huge bones, strewed over the eartli, 
 have excited the attention of the least observant, and in former years 
 were viewed as uumistahable evidences of the earlier existence of a 
 race of giant men. Even now, to the uninformed their remains have 
 not ceased to be objects of wonder and the most convincing proofs that 
 in former ages huge animals roamed over the country where now they 
 no longer exist. 
 
 MASTODON. 
 
 This extinct genus of elephants appears to have once lived throughout 
 the greater part of the world. A half dozen species inhabited Europe, 
 the same number Asia, two South America, and at least three, if not 
 four or five, North America. 
 
 Mastodon americanns — The great American mastodon appears to 
 have extended throughout the whole of North America during the 
 quaternary period, ifs remains are among the most abundant of fossils 
 and have 'been found in almost every state and territory of tbe United 
 States. Complete skeletons, together with skulls of others, in a fine 
 state of preservation, are among the most conspicuous and striking 
 objects of several of our museums. It is probable that this species 
 still continued to exist at the time of man's appearance on the stage 
 
 of life. . ^ , .,. 
 
 Mastodon oniriJlms.—Thi^ species, whose remains were first discov- 
 ered by Professor Hayden, on the Loup Fork of the Niobrara River, 
 lived at an earlier period than the preceding, pertaining, as supposed, 
 to the pliocene age. It was about the size of the common mastodon. 
 
 Mastodon ShepardL—A third species, probably of miocene age, has 
 been recently characterized from a fragment of a tusk, from Stanislaus 
 County, California. The tusk of the common American mastodon is 
 composed alone of ivory, as in the modern elephants; but the fragment 
 iust alluded to presents a broad baud of enamel, as m the tusks of the 
 narrow-toothed mastodon of the miocene formation of Europe. The 
 species is named in honor of Professor C. U. Shepard, of Amherst Col- 
 lege, by whom the fossil was submitted to the writer. 
 
 Mastodon obscurus.— This name has been appropriated to a supposed 
 species, founded on a tooth which was reported to have been discovered 
 in the miocene deposit of Maryland. Fragments of similar teeth from 
 North Carolina and Georgia appear to confirm the distinctness of this 
 species from 31. amerieamis and 31. mirificus. A portion of a lower jaw 
 containing a last molar, like the Maryland tooth, was recently discov- 
 ered in Contra Costa County, California. This specimen also clearly 
 
GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF THE TERRITORIES. 359 
 
 ilistiugriiishes the species from those just named, bat we have no evi- 
 ieuce to prove that it is not identical with the M. Shcparcli. 
 
 ELEPHAS. 
 
 The most colossal of all terrestrial animals, the elephants, are now 
 confined to Sontheru Asia and Africa. Prior to the actual iieriod spe- 
 cies existed in Asia, Enrope, and North America which are now extinct. 
 
 Elephas americanus. — Remains of an extinct specie^ of elephant have 
 been discovered thronghout the greater ])art of the North American 
 Continent. Generally these remains have been viewed as pertaining to 
 the Elephas primifienius, an extinct species of Europe and Northern Asia, 
 and which i)robal)ly also extended into the extreme northwest of North 
 America. There appear now to be snfticient grounds to consider the 
 American elepliant a distinct species from the one just named. The late 
 Dr. Falconer, of England, who ])erhaps more than any one else had studied 
 the characters of the elephant family, supposed that among the remains 
 found throughout North America there were evidences of two species, 
 one of which he called Elephas columhi^ and the other he viewed as the 
 E. primigenlus. The writer also thouglit he recognized a diiferent spe- 
 cies from the common one in some remains obtained by Professor Hay- 
 den on the Niobrara River. Upon a review of all the material pertaining 
 to the subject, he now considers that the remains of North America, 
 which have been referred to several species of elephant, belong to but; 
 one, distinguished by the name heading this article. 
 
 SOLIDUNGULA. 
 
 This order is now represented by the single genus Equns, of which 
 no living species is indigenous to America. Fossil remains go to show 
 that during earlier geological i^eriods the order was nowhere so 'well 
 represented as it was in America. The members of the order are divis- 
 ible into two gronps or families, which have been named the Equidce 
 and the Anchitheridce. 
 
 Equidce. 
 
 The equine family is represented at this time by nine or ten species 
 of equns, which appear all to be indigenous to Asia and Africa. Other 
 species of the same genus inhabited Europe, Asia, and North America 
 during the middle and later tertiary periods extending into the quater- 
 nary period. 
 
 EQUUS. 
 
 Though no indigenous species of horse appears to have existed on the 
 American continent duringthe period of man, auumber of them inhabited 
 the country just previously and contemporaneously with the great masto- 
 don, the elephant, the giant sloths of both North and South America, 
 &c. Dr. Lund and Professor Owen have indicated several species from 
 remains found in the latter continent. A number of species have like- 
 wise been indicated from remains pertaining to the pliocene and quater- 
 nary deposits of North America. 
 
 Equns fossilis. — This name has been appropriated to a species whose re- 
 mains are found in the quaternary deposits of Europe and Northern Asia. 
 
360 GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF THE TERRITORIES. 
 
 By many the species is supposed to have been the ancestor of the com- 
 mon domestic horse. A few remains found in the frozen cliffs of Esch- 
 scholtz Bay, Alaska, in association with remains of the extinct northern 
 Asiatic elephant, are supposed to belong to the same species. 
 
 JEquus major. — Eemaius of a species of horse have been discovered in 
 the United States, in association with those of the mastodon, &c. The 
 arrangement of the enamel folding in the iipper molar teeth is of a more 
 complex character than in the domestic horse. The species was larger 
 than ordinary vafieties of the latter, which led to its being named Eqiius 
 major, though it did not exceed in size the English dray horse. 
 
 Equus fraternus. — This name has been proposed for a second species, 
 based on" remains found in association with those of the former, together 
 with those of the mastodon, (Sec, although they are neither distinguish- 
 able in gize nor details of form from corresponding parts in the domes- 
 tic horse. 
 
 Equus excelsus. — A third species, whose remains are found in the plio- 
 cene deposits of the Niobrara Eiver, was about the size of the domestic 
 horse. Its remains have also been found in Califoruia and Oregon. The 
 grinders of this species differed in the arrangement of their enamel from 
 those of the domestic horse in the same manner as do those of the ass. 
 
 Equus 2)acificus. — Another species, indicated by remains from Califor- 
 nia, was about the size of the English dray horse. The arrangement of 
 the enamel folds of its molar teeth is of the utmost comparative sim- 
 -plicity. 
 
 Equus parvulus. — This name has been assigned to a supposed diminu- 
 tive species, by Professor Marsh, on some remains found in a tertiary 
 deposit of Antelope Station, Nebraska, four hundred and fifty miles 
 west of Omaha. It i)robably pertained to the succeeding genus. 
 
 Equus conversidens — Equus tau. — These are tlie names of two species 
 recently indicated by Professor Owen, of London, froju remains dis- 
 covered in the tertiary deposits of the valley "hf Mexico. 
 
 PROTOHIPPUS. 
 
 An extinct genus of equine animals, distinguished by the above name, 
 was originally characterized from remains discovered by Professor Hay- 
 den in the pliocene sands of the Niobrara River. Remains of the same 
 genus have likewise been found in South America, but were referred to 
 species of the former genus by Dr. Lund and Professor Gervais. Pro- 
 fessor Owen, recognizing their distinction, has recently referred them 
 to a different genus with the name of Hippidion. The remains from the 
 Niobrara River indicate three species of the genus, all of which were 
 smaller than the domestic horse. 
 
 FrotoMppus pcrditus. — This species approximated in size the ass. 
 
 ProtoMppus pkicidus. — This second species was not more than two- 
 thirds the size of the former one. 
 
 ProtoMppus supremus. — A third species, intermediate in size to the 
 ass and the domestic horse, is indicated by some remains, found by 
 Professor Hayden in 1860, on the Little White River, or the South Fork 
 of White River, Dakota. 
 
 The South American species of the genus have been named ProtoMp- 
 pus arcidens, P. principalis, and P. neogwus. 
 
 niPPARION. 
 
 This is the name of an extinct genus of equine animals, whose re- 
 mains have been found in the middle and later tertiary deposits of Eu- 
 
GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF THE TERRITORIES. 361 
 
 rope, Asia, and North America. The skeleton was constructed on the 
 same general plan as in the preceding- genera, but in addition to the 
 ■\vell-developed toe or hoof, which sui)ported the animal, it possessed an 
 additional i)air of toes to each foot. These, however, were not sufh- 
 cicntly developed to touch the ground, but projected belaud and later- 
 ally like the rudimental toes of hogs aud rnmiuants. The arrangement 
 of the enamel in the molar teeth is of a more complex character than 
 in EquHS and Profohippus. A species is indicated by remains found in the 
 Ashley River deposits of Charleston, South Carolina. It was not more 
 than about half the size of the ass, and has been named Riiqmrion 
 venustiim. 
 
 Rippnrlon occidentale. — This species, about the size of an ass, is indi- 
 cated by remains which were found in the mcmvaises tcrrcs of White 
 Eiver, Dakota; but which clearly do not belong to the mioceue forma- 
 tion of that region. They pertain to a superficial portion of the tertiary 
 deposit, cotemporaneous with the pliocene deposits of the iSTiobrara 
 lliver. 
 
 Hipparion speciosum. — A supposed second species, nearly the same 
 size as the' preceding, is indicated by molar teeth found at Bijou Hill, 
 on the Missouri Eiver, and in the pliocene sands of the Niobrara Eiver. 
 A fragment of a tooth, likewise apparently belonging to this species, 
 was found in digging a well, at the dex^th of forty feet, in Washington 
 County, Texas. 
 
 Hipparion affine. — A third species, also about the same size as the 
 preceding, is indicated by teeth discovered by Professor Hayden in the 
 pliocene sands of the Mobrara River. The enamel folding of the ui)per 
 grinders is of a simpler character than in the former species. 
 
 Hipparion gratum. — This species, based ui)on a number of teeth 
 obtained by Professor Hayden in the pliocene sands of the Niobrara 
 Eiver, was considerably smaller than the other species with which it was 
 associated. 
 
 MEEYCHIPPUS. 
 
 Another extinct equine genus, has jiermanent molar teeth like those 
 of Protohippus, but the skull presents deep lachrymal depressions in 
 advance of the orbit, as appears also to be the case in Hipparion^ but 
 which, in the former, as in the true horse, are absent. The temporary 
 te^iXioi Merycliippus resemble more nearly in appearance the permanent 
 ones of the members of the next family than they do those of the other 
 known equine genera. It was from the remarkable resemblance of 
 these to the large grinders of ruminating animals that led to the adop- 
 tion of the name of Merychipjnis, which literally signifies ruminating 
 horse. The name, however, refers to the resemblance alone, and does 
 not indicate that the animal^ partook of the peculiar habits of the 
 ruminants. 
 
 Merychippus insignis. — This species, about the size of the ass, was 
 originally established on a jaw fragment, containing teeth, which was 
 discovered by Professor Playden at Bijou Hill. Many additional re- 
 mains, referable to the same species, were subsequently found in the 
 pliocene sands of the Niobrara Eiver, during Warren's expedition in 
 1857. 
 
 Merycliippus mirahilis. — This second species, rather larger than the 
 preceding, is indicated by remains discovered by Professor Hayden 
 in the pliocene sands of the Niobrara Eiver and on Little White Eiver, 
 Dakota. 
 
362 GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF THE TERRITORIES. 
 
 AncMtheridce. 
 
 This extinct family of tliree-toed, liorse-like animals, lias for its type 
 the genus AncMtherium, the first known species of which was described 
 by Ouvier under the name of Palceotherium aureUanense. Its remains 
 were obtained from the miocene tertiary deposits of France. Lartet 
 and DeBJainville call the same animal Palceotherium Mjypoides, or horse- 
 like Pala?othere. 
 
 In the Equine family the teeth have long crowns, which are gradually 
 protruded as they are worn away; in the AnchitJierine family the teeth 
 have comparatively short crowns, which are quickly protruded and in- 
 serted into the jaws by long fangs. Their skeleton in general form 
 closely ax)X)roxi mates that of the horse, and most nearly that of Hq)- 
 parion. 
 
 ANCHITHERITJIVI. 
 
 This genus is represented in the miocene deposits of our Western 
 Territories by two species. 
 
 AncMtherium Bairdi. — The remains of this species are comparatively 
 abundant, in association with those of oreodous, rhinoceros, &c., in the 
 mauvaises terres of White Eiver, Dakota. The skull of the species is 
 a miniature form of that of the horse, except that the face is propor- 
 tionately^ shallower. Its length is rather less than seven inches. The 
 size of the animal was about half that of the domestic horse. The spe- 
 cies was named in honor of Professor Baird, of the Smithsonian Insti- 
 tution. * 
 
 Anchitherium Condoni. — A second species is inferred to have existed 
 from a fragment of an upper jaw with a mutilated tooth, discovered by 
 the Eev. Thomas Condon, of Dalles City, on Bridge Creek, a tributary 
 of John Day's River, Oregon. It was rather larger than the preceding 
 species, and is named in honor of its discoverer. 
 
 HYPOHIPPUS. 
 
 An extinct genus to which this name is given is represented by the 
 following si)ecies : 
 
 Hypohipims ajfijiis. — Established on a single tooth, indicating an ani- 
 mal about the size of the domestic horse. 
 
 ANCHIPPUS. 
 
 Another extinct genus, allied to the preceding, is represented by the 
 following species : 
 
 Anchipims texamis. — The species is established on a molar tooth ob- 
 tained by the late Dr. Shumard in Washington County, Texas. It was 
 found in digging a well at the depth of 50 feet in a sandstone supposed 
 to be of miocene age. The animal indicated by the tooth was rather 
 smaller than the ass. 
 
 PAEAHIPPUS. 
 
 A fourth genus of the extinct Anchitherine family, named as above, is 
 indicated by some teeth discovered by Professor Hayden in the plio- 
 cene sands of the Niobrara Eiver. The teeth resemble in their char- 
 acters those of Anchitherium more nearly than they do those of any of 
 the equine genera ; nevertheless they exhibit more complexity than in 
 the former or any other member of the same family. 
 
 Paraliippus cognatus. — The species thus designated is established 
 upon an incomplete series of well-preserved teeth. The animal was 
 about a third less in size than the ass. 
 
GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF THE TERRITORIES. 363 
 
 EODENTIA. 
 
 The order of gnawing animals is represented in the tertiary formations 
 of the West by half a dozen genera, onost of which are extinct. The 
 comparative smalluess of the animals of this order renders their remains 
 njore liable to total destruction than those of larger animals, and also to 
 their escaping notice when preserved. No doubt many remains of un- 
 known species and genera will be discovered in future explorations of 
 the tertiary deposits. 
 
 Leporidce. 
 
 The hare family is represented in the miocene formation of the mau- 
 vaises terres by a peculiar genus, which j)robably was the remote ances- 
 tor of our rabbits. 
 
 PAL^OLAaus. 
 
 The genus is established on a number of fragments of jaws and teeth 
 discovered by Professor Hayden at the head of Bear Creek, a tributary 
 of the Sheyeuue Eiver, Dakota. Palseolagus had the same number of 
 teeth as in the rabbit, but the first lower molar is composed of a double 
 column, as in the other molars, whereas in the latter it has an additional 
 column. 
 
 Palceolagus Haydeni. — The species, named in honor of its discoverer, 
 was rather less in size than our common gray rabbit. 
 
 Sciuridce. 
 
 The family of the squirrels and marmots was represented by a pecu- 
 liar genus, whose remains were discovered by Professor Hayden in 
 association with those of the former. Similar remains were subsequently 
 obtained from the mauvaises terres of White Eiver. The genus is 
 distinguished by the following name : 
 
 « ISCHYROMTk=«. 
 
 The skull of the genus approaches most nearly in form that of the 
 living beaver, but the teeth more nearly resemble those of the squirrel. 
 
 Ischyromys typiLS. — The species was about the size of the common 
 muskrat. 
 
 Castoi'idcB. 
 
 The beaver family is represented both in the miocene and pliocene 
 formations of Dakota and Nebraska. 
 
 PAL^OCASTOR. 
 
 A rodent or gnawer, to which this name is given, is founded on several 
 incomplete skulls, together with a number of fragments of jaws with 
 teeth, obtained by Professor Hayden in the miocene deposit of the 
 mauvaises terres of White Eiver, Dakota. 
 
 Falceocastor nebrascensis. — The species was about half the size of the 
 existing beaver. 
 
 CASTOR. 
 
 The sole representatives of this genus now living are the American 
 and the European beaver. ^ 
 
 Castor tortus. — An extinct species, thus named, is indicated by a por- 
 tion of a skull, with teeth, found by Professor Hayden in the pliocene 
 sands of the Niobrara Eiver. It was only half the size of the living 
 species. 
 
364 GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF THE TERRITORIES. ' 
 
 Muridw. 
 
 The rat family is represented in the mioceue deposit of the man- 
 raises terres of White Eiver by ai^ extinct genus, to which the following 
 name has been applied : 
 
 EIJMYS. 
 
 This genns is founded upon the fragment of a jaw discovered by Pro- 
 fessor Hayden. 
 
 Eumys elegans. — The species was about the size of the brown rat. 
 
 Hystricidce. 
 
 The porcupine family is represented by a species whose remains were 
 found by Professor Haj^len in the pliocene sands of the Mobrara Eiver. 
 
 HYSTRIX. 
 
 The living species of this genus are confined to the Old World, none 
 having been discovered in America. 
 
 Hystrix venustus. — An extinct species, indicated by several isolated 
 teeth from the Niobrara Eiver. Judging from the characters of the teeth 
 it was more nearly related with the crested porcupine of Europe than 
 with our own living porcupine, j^ertaining to another genu.s. 
 
 mSECTIVOEA. 
 
 The insectivorous order of animals, mainly consisting of the smallest 
 forms of the mammalian class, as might be supposed, are among the 
 rarest of those wliose remains are found i^reserved in fossiliferous 
 strata. Professor Haydeu's exj)lorations in the West have led to the dis- 
 covery of three extinct genera of the order, pertaining to the miocene 
 tertiary formation of the mmtvaises terres of White Eiver, Dakota, 
 and a third genus was discovered by Dr. J. Van A. Carter, of Fort 
 Bridger, Wyoming, in the Bridger Group of tertiary deposits of his 
 vicinity. • 
 
 LEPTICTIS. 
 
 The genus to which this name is given is established on the speci- 
 men of an almost complete skull, which was found imbedded in a soft 
 rock near the mouth of one of the small tributaries of White Eiver, in 
 the mauvaises terres. Ifc possessed three incisor, a canine, and seven 
 molar teeth on each side of the jaws. The top of the skull presents a 
 l)air of i)romiuent ridges, defining the temi)oral fossse. The animal was 
 allied more nearly to the hedgehogs than to any other of the living 
 members of the order. 
 
 Leptictis Haydeni. — The species, named in honor of its discoverer, was 
 scarcely as large as a mink. The skull is barely two and a half inches 
 long. 
 
 ICTOPS. 
 
 A second genus, closely allied to the preceding, is indicated by a small 
 fragment of a skull, found in association with the former specimen. It is 
 distinguishable from it by difference in the form of the molar teeth. 
 
 Icto2)s dalcotensis. — A species about the same size as the preceding, 
 with which it lived cotemporaneously. 
 
 OMOMYS. 
 
 This extinct genus, probably pertaining to the same family as the 
 European hedgehog, was established on the fragment of a lower jaw, 
 with teeth, from the tertiary formation near Fort Bridger, Wyoming. 
 
GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF THE TERRITORIES. 365 
 
 Omomys Carteri. — The species, named in lionor of its discoverer, was 
 about lialf as large again as our common mole, [Scalops aquaiicus.) 
 
 EDEIS^TATA. 
 
 Among the great multitude of vertebrate fossils brought to our notice 
 from the western part of the continent, we have detected almost no 
 traces of remains of the giant sloths, which existed so extensively dur- 
 ing the quaternary period in both North and South America, liemains 
 of Afylodon Ilarlani have been found on the Willamette Kiver, Oregon, 
 and recently we have seen the fragment of. a claw phalanx, apparently 
 of a large, sloth-like animal, from Castle Creek, Idaho. 
 
 CETACEA. 
 
 Eemains of cetaceans, thus far, have been but sparingly found in the 
 tertiary and quaternary formations of the West. Vertebrae from the 
 later deposits have been indicated from Oregon. 
 
 . DELPHINUS. 
 
 Eemains of porpoises have been discovered in the npper miocene 
 formation of Half- Moon Bay, California. 
 
 Delphinus occiduus. — A species, founded upon a jaw fragment from 
 the locality just named, submitted to the examination of the writer by 
 Professor J. D.Whitney. It was about the size of our common porpoise. 
 
 BIRDS. 
 
 The remains of birds are among the rarest of vertebrate fossils iu 
 most of the explored rocks of the world. From the peculiarities of these 
 animals, enabling them to escape many of the catastrophes or accidents 
 to which more terrestrial and aquatic animals would be liable, and from 
 the generally lighter construction of their bodies, they are less likely to be 
 placed iu positions where their remains would be preserved and become 
 fossils. Among the large collections of fossils made iu the mauvaises 
 terres of White Eiver, Dakota, amounting to several tons in weight, 
 which have been subujitted to the writer's examination, he discovered 
 no trace of birds. In all other collections from the West there was 
 likewise no trace detected, except a single bone fragment discovered 
 by Dr. Hayden in the pliocene sands of the Niobrara Eiver, Nebraska. 
 This specimen has been recently described by Professor O. C. Marsh, 
 who views it as pertaining to an extinct species, to which he has given 
 the name of Grus Raydeni. 
 
 EEPTILES. 
 
 The remains of reptiles occur in the greatest abundance in the second- 
 ary formations of the West. Those best known have been derived from 
 the cretaceous deposits of Kansas, Dakota, and of the head-waters of 
 the Missouri Eiver. Eemains of the same order, though less abundant, 
 are nevertheless quite numerous in the tertiary dei)Osits of the country, 
 especially those of turtles. 
 
 CHELONIA. 
 
 The chelonians or turtles aj^pear to have been exceedingly abundant 
 in the AVest during the tertiary period. They, however, appear not to 
 
366 GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF THE TERRITORIES. 
 
 have been so rich in the number of genera and species relatively as 
 they do in the multitude of individuals of a few genera and species. 
 Their remains are found in association with the numerous mauimalian 
 fossils of the mauvaises terres of Dakota and those of the Niobrara 
 Eiver. A greater number of species and genera are indicated by the 
 remains in the tertiary deposits of the vicinity of Fort Bridger, 
 Wyoming. 
 
 EMYS. 
 
 The genus emys includes many of our living fresh-water terrapenes, 
 and is also represented in Europe and Asia. It has latterly been divided 
 into different genera, founded on characters of the jaws, head, and feet; 
 so that from the fossil shells alone we are unable more distinctly to 
 define the animals. The shell of emys is rather oval in outline, mod- 
 erately convex. The sternum is large, truncated in front, and notched 
 behind. Its broad pedicles are joined by firm suture to the upper 
 shell or carapace. The outer portions of the humeral and abdominal 
 scutes cover these pedicles, and join the marginal scutes between the 
 position of the axillary and inguinal scutes. 
 
 Emys Jeanesi. — This species is founded on a nearly complete shell, 
 obtained, during Professor Hay den's last expedition, from the tertiary 
 deposit of the Bridger Group, near Fort Bridger, Wyoming. The length 
 of the shell, following the fore-and-aft curve, is fifteen inches ; the 
 length of the sternum is about one foot. The species is named in 
 honor of Joseph Jeanes, to whose aid we have been much indebted 
 in developing the fossil treasures of the West. 
 
 Emys Raydeni. — A second species has been inferred to have existed 
 from an imi)erfect shell found in association with the former specimen, 
 together with many fragments of shells of the same and other species of 
 turtles. The species was about the size of the last, but is distinguished 
 from it by the difference of form of its scute impressions. 
 
 Emys ktevensoni. — An apparent third species is founded on fragments 
 of the carapace and sternum of a shell, obtained by Dr. J. Van A. 
 Carter, from the tertiary deposit in the vicinity of Fort Bridger, 
 Wyoming. It has been named in honor of James Stevenson, the active 
 and efficient aid of Professor IJayden in his explorations. 
 
 STTLEMYS. 
 
 By this name the writer has distinguished an extinct genus of tur- 
 tles, which is intermediate in form between the modern land turtles 
 {Tesiudo) and the aquatic ones {Emys.) As in the former the back 
 extremity of the carapace is invested with a broad, symmetrical plate, 
 instead of a pair, as in the latter. 
 
 Stylemys nebrascensis. — The species is established upon specimens 
 which have been collected by every explorer of the onau raises terres of 
 White Eiver, Dakota. So abundant have these fossil turtles been in 
 the locality mentioned that they have attracted the attention of the 
 most iudifferent observers. Among the specimens submitted to the 
 examination of the author, considerable variation has been noticed, and 
 this variation at first led to the distinction of fi\'e different species. 
 At present he views them all as belonging to but one species. Several 
 mature specimens measure one and three-quarter feet in length by one 
 foot and a quarter in breadth. 
 
 Stylemys niobrarensis. — A second species has been supposed to exist, 
 founded on a multitude of fragments, discovered by Professor Hayden 
 in association with mammalian remains in the pliocene sands of the 
 Niobrara River. It was as large as the preceding species. 
 
GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF THE TERRITORIES. 367 
 BAPTEMTS. 
 
 An extinct genus of terrapenes, tlins named, is established on an 
 almost perfect shell, obtained from the miocene tertiary deposits in the 
 vicinity of Fort Bridger, Wyoming. It was submitted to our examina- 
 tion by Mr. O. 0. Smith of Amherst, Massachusetts. The genus ap- 
 proaches in character the existing Dermatemys of Central America. 
 » The pedicles of the sternum are covered by a large scute intervening 
 between the comparatively large inguinal and axilUiry scutes, and sep- 
 arating the humeral and abdominar scutes from the marginal ones. 
 
 Baptcmys wyomingensis. — The shell of the species measured about one 
 foot and a half in length by a foot in breadth. 
 
 B^NA. 
 
 Another extinct genus of turtles is indicated by two nearly complete 
 shells, obtained from the tertiary formation near Fort Bridger, Wyoming. 
 One of the specimens was discovered during Professor Hayden's last ex- 
 pedition; the other was presented to the Avriter by Dr. J. Van A. Carter, 
 of Fort Bridger. The genus partakes of characters of tlie terrapenes 
 and the snappers. The shell is moderately convex as in the latter, and 
 like it is notched at the sides posteriorly. The sternum is more like 
 that of the emydes than of the snappers. The sternal pedicles are deep 
 and wide, and are impressed by%one or two large scales intervening be- 
 tween the humeral and abdominal and the marginal scutes, and sepa- 
 rating comparatively large axillary and inguinal scutes. 
 
 Bmia arenosa. — In its perfect condition the shell measured about four- 
 teen inches long and about ten and a half wide. Two large scutes inter- 
 vene to the axillary and inguinal scutes. 
 
 Bcvna affinis. — This may, perhaps, be the same as the former. It was 
 nearly of the same size and shape, but in the specimen which has sug- 
 gested the idea of a species distinct from the former, a single accessory 
 scute intervenes to the axillary and inguinal scutes.. 
 
 TRIONYX. 
 
 The genus of soft-shelled turtles is represented by a number of extinct 
 species belonging to both the secondary and tertiary formations of this 
 country. Numerous fragments, in the collections of fossils obtained by 
 Dr. J. Van A. Carter, and in those made during Professor Hayden's last 
 two expeditions, from the tertiary deposits of Wyoming, apparently indi- 
 cate two extinct species. Only one of these, however, can be charac- 
 terized from the more perfect of the specimens. 
 
 Trionyx guttatus. — This species is established on a large portion of a 
 carapace, discovered by Professor Hayden in 18GS, at Church Buttes, 
 near Fort Bridger, Wyoming. The shell of the animal was about a foot 
 and a quarter long by a foot in breadth. 
 
 CEOCODILTA. 
 
 Eemains of crocodilians have not been found so abundantly in the 
 West as might have been supposed. None have thus far been found 
 among the multitude of other reptilian remains in the cretaceous form- 
 ations of Kansas and Dakota. None have been discovered in the 
 miocene tertiary deposits of the mcmvaises terres of Dakota, nor the 
 pliocene sands of the Niobrara Eiver. One would have suspected that 
 crocodiles would have been abundant where there were such vast num- 
 bers of mammals feeding in the vicinity of streams and lakes of fresh 
 
368 GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF THE TERRITORIES. 
 
 water, sucli as existed in Dakota and Nebraska during tbe tertiary 
 j)eriod. 
 
 CEOCODILUS. 
 
 Remains of this genus occur abundantly in the Bridger Group of 
 tertiary formations in Wyoming. Among numerous fossils from this 
 region sent to tlie writer by Dr. J. Van A. Carter, and in tbe collection 
 made during Professor Hayden's last expedition, tbe writer has detected 
 tbe remains of tbree species of crocodile. 
 
 Crocodilus aptus. — A species named from a single vertebra found by 
 Colonel Jobn A. Knigbt, United States Army, near Soutb Bitter Creek, 
 ^Vyoming. Tbe anihial was about tbe size of tbe Mississippi alligator. 
 Eemaius apparently of tbe same species bave been collected by Dr. J. 
 Yan A. Carter in tbe vicinity of Fort Bridger. 
 
 Crocodilus EUiotti. — Tbe remains of a second species of crocodile were 
 found in abundance, during Professor Hayden's last expedition, on one 
 of tbe tributaries of Green Eiver, Wyoming. Tbe skull is about a 
 foot and a balf in length and bears a resemblance in shape to that of 
 tbe crocodile of the Nile. Tbe species is named in honor of Mr. Henry 
 W. Elliott, the artist attendant on Professor Hayden's expeditiofi. Tbe 
 remains of a third and smaller species of crocodile are contained in tbe 
 collections made by Professor Hayden's party in the tertiary deposits 
 of tbe Bridger Group. Dr. J. Van A. Carter has also sent to tbe author, 
 from the same locabty, a number of vertebrae of this third siDccies. 
 
 LACEETILIA. 
 
 The cretaceous formations of the West teem with tbe fossil evidences 
 of lacertilian life, forms well expressed in tbe line " there were giants in 
 those days." These were, however, in many respects so peculiar, or 
 different from the lacertilians of our day, holding as they did a position 
 between the latter and tbe serpents, that Professor Cope has viewed 
 them as characteristic of a distinct order, under the name of Pythono- 
 morpha. Tbe true lacertilians appear also to have been represented 
 during the tertiary period, as indicated by the following genus : 
 
 SANIVA. 
 
 An extinct genus of lacertian rei)tiles, with the above name, is founded 
 on remains discovered during Professor Hayden's last expedition, in a 
 tertiary rock at Granger, Wyoming. Tbe vertebrae, as in tbe living 
 iguanas, monitors, &c., bave the body excavated in a cup in front and 
 terminating in a ball behind. Tbe cup and ball are oblique and widest 
 transversely. Tbe animal possessed well-developed limbs with long 
 toes, but the remains are too imperfect to determine their number and 
 arrangement. Tbe teeth were compressed, conical, and doubly trench- 
 ant, indicating carnivorous habits. 
 
 Saniva ensidens. — The si)ecies was as large as /)ur largest living 
 iguanas. 
 
 FISHES. 
 
 Numerous remains of fishes bave been discovered in the secondary 
 and tertiary formations of tbe West. Those from tbe secondary forma- 
 tions of cretaceous age belong to marine forms. Those of tbe tertiary 
 formations of California, which have been described, also belong to ma- 
 rine forms, mainly sharks. Those of the tertiary formations east of the 
 Eocky Mountains, which bave been described, are from Green Elver, 
 Wyoming, and Castle Creek, Idaho, and belong to fresh-water forms. 
 
GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF THE TERRITORIES. 369 
 
 Cypriniclce. 
 
 This is an extensive fiimily of fresh-water fishes, aniono,- the least car- 
 nivorous of its chiss. It inchides the carp, the gold-fish, the sucker, 
 &c. It is well represented by the remains of a number of extinct spe- 
 cies and genera in the tertiary deposit of Castle Creek, Idaho. 
 
 MYLOCYPRINUS. 
 
 An extinct genus, founded on numerous specimens of pharyngeal 
 bones, supporting strong grinding teeth, submitted to the investigation 
 of the author by Professor John S. dewberry. 
 
 Mtjlociipriims robiistus. — The large size of the pharyngeal bones with 
 their robust grinders, looking like human premolar teeth, indicate a 
 species several feet in length. 
 
 CyprinodontidcD. 
 
 The living members of the cyprinodont family are small fishes, for 
 the most part inhabiting fresh water. 
 
 OYPEINODON. 
 
 This genus is represented by an abundance of remains, discovered, iu 
 association with those of herrings, by Professor Hay den, in the tertiary 
 shales of Green Eiver, Wyoming. 
 
 Cyprinodon Levatus. — A small species, described by Professor Cope, 
 from specimens obtained from the locality just named. 
 
 Clupeidw. 
 
 The clupeoid family includes shad, herring, &c. 
 
 CLUPEA. 
 
 Several species of/herrings have left an abundance of remains in the 
 tertiary shales of Green Eiver, Wyoming. The first of these fossils was 
 made known to us in 1856 by the late Dr. John Evans. 
 
 Clupea Jmmilis. — This species is about three and a half inches in 
 length. 
 
 Clupea pusilla. — A species about half the size of the preceding and 
 found with it described by Professor Cope. 
 
 Squammipennes. 
 
 A family of fishes characterized by the extension of scales on the 
 fins. To it belongs the curious Ch(Etodon rostratus of Java, which pos- 
 sesses the faculty of throwing a droj) of water from its mouth, at an 
 insect, with unerring accuracy. 
 
 ASINEOPS. 
 
 An extinct genus, established by Professor Cope on abundance of 
 remains obtained by Professor Hayden in the tertiary shales of Green 
 Eiver, Wyoming. 
 
 Asincops squamifrons. — The species is about eight inches in length. 
 
 PLAGOSTOMI. 
 This order includes the sharks and rays. 
 
 SELACHII. 
 
 The selachians, or sharks, have left a multitude of remains in some of 
 the marine tertiary formations of the West. From the miocene deposits 
 of Ocoya Creek, at the western base of the Sierra Nevada, California, a 
 24 G • • 
 
370 GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF THE TERRITORIES. 
 
 number of genera and species have been indicated by Professor Agas- 
 siz, as follows : Echinorliinus Blakei, Scymnus occidentalism Galeocerdo 
 productus, Prionodon antiquus, Hemipristis lieteropleuriis, Carcharodon 
 rectus, Oxyrhina plana, Oxyrhina tumula, Lamna clavata, Lamna ornata. 
 
 BATIDES. 
 
 The skates are indicated in the Ocoya Creek tertiary by the frag- 
 ment of a tooth referred by Professor Agassiz to the genus Zygobates. 
 
 ONCOBATIS. 
 
 An extinct genus of rays is indicated by an osseous scale of peculiar 
 character, from the tertiary deposit of Castle Creek, Idaho. 
 
 Oncobatis pentagonus. 
 
 The scale upon which the species is founded was discovered in asso- 
 ciation with abundance of remains of cyprinoid fishes, and is interesting 
 as indicating most i)robably a large form which inhabited fresh water. 
 
 v.— ON THE FOSSIL PLANTS OF THE CRETACE- 
 OUS AND TERTIARY FORMATIONS OF KANSAS 
 AND NEBRASKA. 
 
 By L. Lesquereux. 
 
 CHAPTEE I. 
 
 ON THE MODE OF PRESERVATION OF THE FOSSIL PLANTS, AND ON THE 
 CIRCUMSTANCES UNDER WHICH THEIR FOSSILIZATION HAS BEEN EF- 
 FECTED. 
 
 Researches for fossil plants are, in this country, so rarely undertaken 
 under a scientific direction, that their discovery is mostly a matter of 
 chance, giving rise to speculations and queries of a most extraordinary 
 kind. Not only our flexuous stems of Stigmaria have been often con- 
 sidered as snakes of a prodigious size, but many times in my exi^lora- 
 tious I have been amused by preposterous questions like this one, ad- 
 dressed to me by people, who, recognizing a branch of fern upon a speci- 
 men of shale of the coal, wished me to explain " bj' what means plants 
 of such slender size could pierce the stones and grow into them." It is 
 not, therefore, inopportune to say a few words on the questions heading 
 this chapter. 
 
 Every kind of woody tissue,- when shut out of atmospheric influence, 
 (or of oxidation,) either by water or by any other matter, escapes de- 
 comi)osition for an indefinite length of time. In such circumstances, the 
 wood is subjected to a slow kind of combustion, of which the first state 
 is a softening of the tissue or of the whole mass. Timber used as piling 
 in water or in c\aj is found, after centuries, blackened, and more or less 
 plastic, without any trace of decay. Whole forests of the pliocene age 
 have been imbedded in clay, or submerged, and the trees have now their 
 tissues as soft as the clay itself, though their structure is in a perfect 
 state of preservation. It is the same with some deposits of lignites of 
 the tertiary, which are a mere compound of heaped trunks of trees whose 
 wood has become black as coal, but is still soft as clay. This first 
 
GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF -THE TERRITORIES. 371 
 
 mode of decouiposit ion of the woody tissue explains tlie various appear- 
 ances reiunrked in different kinds of fossil wood after complete minerali- 
 zation ; for.it is easy to understand tluit, after this softening process, 
 the wood is easily penetrated by different mineralizing elements, of 
 which the water or the imbedding substances are impregnated. Some 
 substances, especially lime and silica, do not destroy the woody tissue 
 in penetrating it. The internal structure of fossil trees of this kind can 
 therefore be studied in obtaining their lamella?, and observing them with 
 the microscope. This has furnished the means of exactly determining, 
 if not the species, at least the genera to which are referable fossil trees 
 of various geological epochs. 
 
 Deposits of fossil wood of this kind are generally formed in connection 
 with our tertiary and cretaceous formations, and also, though moie 
 rarely, in our carboniferous measures. There is a deposit of silicilied 
 trunks in Southern Ohio, from which splendid specimens have been ob- 
 tained. Silicified trunks of the tertiary are now found strewn on the 
 sandy surface of the land in MissiSvsippi, Arkansas, and farther west. 
 This mode of petrification has happened to trees in a standing position 
 as well as to jirostrated trunks. In the first case the petrification of 
 the trees is generally homogeneous or unmixed. In prostrated trunks 
 the difference in the decomposition of the trees, at the time when they 
 were buried, has apparently varied the mode and the agents of minerali- 
 zation in such a way that, in the same specimens, part of a trunk is im- 
 pregnated with lime, while other i)arts are silicified, and still others 
 penetrated with oxide of iron or hardened into clay. Trees fossilized in 
 that way have been remarked at various places, especially in beds of 
 sandstone of the coal formations near Gallipolis, Ohio. At first it seems 
 difficult to explain how trees can have been preserved in a standing 
 position for a time long enough to produce mineralization. But in 
 examining the geological strata of our coal measures, for example, it 
 becomes evident that at repeated times, areas, sometimes of wide extent, 
 have been subjected to great depressions, and been covered more 
 or less rapidly Avith water and with the materials brought with it, espe- 
 cially sand. In that way entire forests have been buried, their trees 
 imbedded to a certain height and petrified in that position, sustained as 
 they were in their softened state by the imbedding materials. Such 
 fossil standing trees are of no rare occurrence in the sandstone of our 
 coal measures, and sometimes, as for example near Carbondale, Penn- 
 sylvania, the miners have pierced their tunnels through such forests of 
 stone and brought to light an immense amount of their debris. 
 
 It is questionable if, by the petrification of trees by silex, the silica 
 which has penetrated them was naturally in solution in the water cov- 
 ering the deposit, as Professor Gceppert will have it; or if, according to 
 Professor Schimper's opinion, the silicification has happened only under 
 the influence of hot springs, impregnated with a large proportion of 
 silica, like springs of volcanic agency. Tlie first or natural process can 
 have been but verj' slow, and so lohg, according to Professor Schimper, 
 that the wood could not have escaped total decomposition and destruc- 
 tion before its mineralization. In this assertion the celebrated in^ofessor 
 is certainly in error, for, from what we have said before, the woody 
 tissue, protected by immersion against the destroying influence of the oxy- 
 gen of air, is indeed indestructible for an indefinite length of time ; and be- 
 ing preserved for whole epochs in the soft state, can be thus slowly im- 
 pregnated by any kind of mineralizing elements which may be in solution 
 in the water. The opinion of Professor Schimper is still contradicted by 
 the fact that in this country silicified wood is found in our coal meas- 
 
372 GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF THE TERRITORIES. 
 
 iires and in onr tertiary and cretaceous formations in connection with 
 such strata, which do uotshow^ the slightest traces of disturbances and 
 of metamorphism or change of nature bj' heat ; and at such localities 
 where no traces of thermal springs, or other phenomena of the same 
 nature, indicate the influence of volcanic action. 
 
 When other substances, like clay, iron, sand, &c., have penetrated the 
 trees or plants subjected to fossilization, the internal structure of the 
 wood has been totally destroyed, and then nothing is left to indicate . 
 its primitive nature but a thin pellicle of charcoal surrounding the bark 
 and preserving therefore only the outline of the outer surface of the 
 trees. Trunks of this kind are often found either standing in their 
 original form, or prostrated and flattened by compression in the sand- 
 stone of our coal measures. The peculiar conformations of the trees of 
 this formation afford, from the scars of branches and leaves which have 
 been left on the trunks, the means of comparing them and of classify- 
 ing them, even according to their species. At some places, for exam- 
 ple, near the Raccoon Furnace, in Korthwest Kentucky, immense deposits 
 of iron ore have been formed by the accumulation of stems and leaves 
 of Stigmaria and Cordaites, which have been transformed into a rich car- 
 bonate of iron. The stems of Stigmaria have preserved their original 
 form, not being flattened in the least, with the scars of their leaves 
 j)erfectly distinct, as well as the medular canal and its star-like divisions. 
 
 When trunks are immersed for a great length of time in water which 
 does not contain any kind of mineralizing element, the softer tissue 
 becomes not only softened, but disaggregated in such a way that the 
 woody matter is separated like a paste, excepting the bark, which longer 
 resists this kind of disaggregation. In that way, and by compression, 
 layers of bark of species of trees of the coal epoch are found in the 
 shale, heaped upon one another in a more or less confused manner. The 
 same x)henomenon is observable, even at our time, in some peat forma- 
 tions of the North, for example in Denmark, near the border of the 
 sea, in a large swamp out of which the peat is worked for combustible. 
 This matter is a half fluid paste, a compound of debris of woody fibers. 
 It is taken out in buckets, thrown upon beds of straw to drain off the 
 water, and then compressed and dried, when it becomes a good combus- 
 tible. In the meanwhile the bark of the trees from which this decomposed 
 matter has been derived is taken out of the ditch, like rolled, hollow 
 cylinders, and then dried separately and used as a combustible of less 
 value. 
 
 It is especially from the iietrification of leaves and small branches 
 that our valuable and interesting specimens of fossil plants are obtained. 
 Their fossilization is somewhat different from that of the trunks. Leaves 
 falling in pools of quiet water, containing some muddy sediments, are 
 softened, then comi)ressed, and by the hardening of the imbedding mat- 
 ter the skeleton of their tissue is printed upon the stone, sometimes in 
 its minutest details. In the shale of the coal-measures the matter of 
 the leaves has been transformed into' a thin pellicle of coal, which shows 
 all the details of their structure. The exact outlines of whole fronds 
 of ferns, their leaves in their minutest divisions, the stems, the pedicels, 
 all the nerves and their branches, are there plearly printed in black upon 
 the stone, offering in their details of structure, characters which serve to 
 their determination. In some shale the leaves and branches are inclosed 
 in concretions or nodules of carbonate of iron, wherein thej^have left the 
 most beautiful and distinct impressions. Our tertiary and cretaceous 
 measures contain leaves of trees which are preserved in the same way, 
 in clay or soft sandstone, and which have left nothing on the shale but 
 
GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF THE TERRITORIES. 373 
 
 tbe print of the details of their structure, their outlines and their nerva- 
 tion, without any trace of their original substance. 
 
 The mode of preservation of the leaves varies like that of the trunks, 
 according to the elements composing" the matter in which they are im- 
 bedded, and especially according to the circumstances in which they 
 have been deposited. Immense beds of coal, for example, have been 
 formed from the remains of plants, while the coal itself scarcely shows 
 any distinct prints, except sometimes upon thin lamelhe of dry char- 
 coal which separate its layers. Per contra, the i^rints of fossil plants 
 are abundantly seen in the shale which covers the coal. The reason of 
 this diilerencc is, that when the combustible is heaped by sni)erposition 
 of debris of wood, and no foreign element like clay or sand is mixed 
 with it, the whole matter, by sloW' decomposition, is softened into paste, 
 then compressed and hardened, forming a homogeneous mass. In this 
 process all the tissues are destro^-ed or mixed, and therefore the origi- 
 nal form of vegetables is rarely preserved. But when the growth of 
 the peat or the heaping of the woody materials which have composed a 
 bed of coal have ceased, and when by immersion the surface becomes 
 covered by water, deep enough to stop the active vegetation which 
 originated the coal, some hillocks or islands are left here and there 
 above water, bearing the same kind of plants as those of the coal. Their 
 branches in decaying fall into the water and are imbedded in its muddy 
 deposits, which form the shale, and then preserved by fossilization. 
 
 It is in the same way that the leaves of trees, growing around the 
 swamps at the time of our cretaceous or tertiary formations, have been 
 deposited in clay, and preserved in a fossil state. Sometimes, however, 
 leaves and Avoody debris have been transported and heaped at some 
 places accordhig to circumstances. In this case they are more or less 
 damaged, rolled up, and mixed together in sandstone or clay, in a more 
 or less indistinguishable mass. We have at our time examples of all 
 these kinds of transportation, deposition, and preservation of leaves. We 
 find them imbedded in the muddy deposits which cover our peat-bogs. 
 The clay of our swamps is full of skeletons of leaves from the trees which 
 surround them, and along our rivers, as, for example, of the Ohio lliver 
 near Paducah, we find deposits of leaves floated down the river and 
 buried in the bottom clay, in heaps of six to ten feet thick, where they 
 still follow the same process of slow decomposition, whose ultimate term 
 is complete petrification. 
 
 ON THE FOSSIL PLANTS CONSIDERED IN THEIR RELATION TO THE 
 ACTUAL DOMAIN OF MAN. 
 
 As most of the strata composing the crust of the earth have been 
 formed under water, and mostly contain remains of animals, especially 
 of molusks, geology receives from animal paleontology far greater 
 assistance for the determination of the strata and of their relative age 
 than it can obtain from the study of botanical remains. Considered in 
 this point of view, therefore, fossil plants appear of little importance. 
 But when we come to demand from geology some instructions, some 
 light concerning the surftice of our earth at different epochs, science 
 can answer nothing if it does not inquire into the data furnished by 
 botanical paleontology. As vegetation is in absolute relation with 
 
374 GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF THE TERRITORIES. 
 
 I 
 
 atmospberic circiimstauces, the fossil plants are, indeed, tlie written 
 records of tlie atmospheric and phjsical conditions of our earth at the 
 e]iochs which they represent. In the Marcelkis shale of the Middle 
 Devonian, we see the first appearance of vegetation in the fossil remains 
 of large trunks of coniferous trees found here and there imbedded in 
 the shale, without any trace of branches or leaves. The shale also con- 
 tains a quantity of fish remains and large flakes of black, coaly matter, 
 apparently due to the decom])osition of marine plants. It is an exten- 
 sive formation, sometimes a few hundred feet in thickness, impreg- 
 nated with bitumen, presenting everywhere the same characters. Ko 
 other trace of land plants is left but these large fossil trunks. Where 
 was the land then just emerging for the first time from its marine cra- 
 dle '? What was the aspect of the landscape ? A black muddy surface 
 covered with an atmosphere darkened by vapors, where nothing is dis- 
 tinguishable, but perhaps at wide intervals, a group of some trees emerg- 
 ing from the muddy bottom and breaking the universal gloom. jSTo 
 trace of animal life appears above the waters. All is dismal and silent. 
 
 In the Upper Devonian, the Chemung, the Catskill group, and espe- 
 cially the red shale of the subcarboniferous measures, largely developed 
 in the anthracite basin of the Appalachian coal-fields, the remains of 
 land plants are more frequently found. These are not trunks of fossil 
 wood, but rather leaves and branches of a peculiar type of plants, ferns 
 with flabellate leaves, especially Noef/gerathia, which we do not find in 
 the coal measures; and a few stems of LycopodiaceK and Uquisetacew, 
 the first representatives of a class of plants which constitutes the largest 
 part of the vegetation of the coal. Leaves and branches of the Upper De- 
 vonian and subcarboniferous measures are compressed between layers of 
 shales, which bear ripple-marks, fissures caused by heat, and round prints, 
 evidently formed by drops of rain. If tJiis does not indicate a succession 
 of seasons of different temperature, it shows at least a distinct atmo- 
 sphere, already penetrated by light, where changes of temperature cause 
 condensation or difiusion — rain, followed, perhaps, by some rays of sun- 
 shine. Animal life also appears at the surface ; crustaceans and large 
 creeping saurians slowly plow their paths in the mud. Their traces have 
 been preserved upon the shales ; they indicate the first attempt at an 
 serial respiration. 
 
 In the coal formations the aspect of the landscape is totally changed. 
 Everywhere the vegetable life predominates and attains its widest pro- 
 portions ; ^11 still more or less under the influence of water. The emerged 
 land is marked by a succession of immense low swamps, whose surface 
 is concealed under a thick carpet of creeping plants, which fill them 
 with their debris. Where the land has already some fixity, immense 
 forests of large trees, mostly of the acrogenous kind, grow in a dense 
 mass, of a size and height which compare with the hjrgest trees of our 
 time. They cover the land with a world of vegetation, which is scarcely 
 now conceivable, even by the wildest imagination. All the vegetation 
 is by its nature, its form, its texture, especially adapted to the absorp- 
 tion of atmospheric humidity and of carbonic acid. It is there at work 
 cleaning the atmosphere, in transforming into woody fiber its surplus of 
 water and of carbonic acid, and preparing it for animal life. For already, 
 remains of saurians, scorpions, insects of 'large size, found in the shale 
 of the coal, indicate that animal life has taken a marked place on the 
 surface of the land. There is there also an evident distinction of sea- 
 sons ; the layers of coal show annual decay and periodical deposition 
 of woody remains. 
 
 The lower permian has still for its land vegetatioo. many species of 
 
GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF THE TERRITORIES. 375 
 
 plants of tlie coal-measures, but liere the conifer appears, represented 
 for the tirst time by their leaves and branches, and are of a peculiar 
 order. The carboniferous vegetation loses its foi'ce by the disappear- 
 ance of its arborescent acrogenous plants. The debris are no more 
 heaped in immense deposits, but scattered here and there in the shales, 
 or forming by their agglomeration mere flakes of coal. This indi- 
 Ciites an atuiosphere already discharged of greatest part of its carbonic 
 acid and of vapors. The triassic, which, with us at least, touches, by 
 the character of its flora, to the Jurassic, has plants which, like CtjcaclecCy 
 rather indicate a warm than a vaporous atmosphere. But for this and 
 the following formations, the Jurassic, the data furnished by fossil 
 plants on this continent are too scant to permit reliable conclusions. 
 We have to pass to the lower cretaceous to find abundant remains of 
 land plants, and here at once we have a vegetation absolutely difl'erent 
 in its characters from all that has been seen before. _ All the forms (the 
 needle form of leaves) which indicate atmospheric humidity, have dis- 
 appeared ; scarcely any conifers remain, very few ferns, no trace of 
 Lycopodiacea\ but leaves of dicotyledonous plants, re]>resenting already 
 most of the genera of trees found in our forests. The vegetation is 
 therefore of a kind known to us. The atmospheric circumstances are 
 then analogous to those of our time. We now follow through the 
 cretaceous and tertiary formations merely modifications of species, 
 disappearance of some forms, reappearance of others, about as we 
 should have to do now in studying our flora in passing through a few 
 degrees of latitude*. 
 
 THE FOSSIL PLANTS IN RELATION TO OUR PRESENT CIVILIZATION. 
 
 To say that fossil plants have a relation to our present civilization 
 appears at first sight a paradoxical affirmation. But what is coal ? A 
 mere agglomeration of petrified debris of plants. And who at our time 
 could refuse to admit the influence of coal upon our actual civilization ? 
 Coal is the great generator of heat, of steam, of force; a potent auxiliary 
 to every kind of enginery. It helps to the construction of our rail- 
 roads; it brings them to countries which, without it, would remain 
 deserts; and transports everywhere, with lightning speed, not only the 
 necessaries of life, but the products of industry essentially due to its 
 active cooperation. Coal is now used everywhere, and is the friend of 
 everybody. It has become an object, not of mere commodity, but of 
 absolute necessity. • 
 
 The formation of the coal is now pretty well understood among geol- 
 ogists. It results from active growth of woody plants, whose debris, 
 falling every year, are preserved against decomposition by stagnant 
 water, or great atmospheric humidity. It is the process which now 
 still forms our deposit of peat. It demands for its faV'Orable action a 
 ground or basin, rendered impermeable by a substratum of clay, a pecu- 
 liar kind of plants, constantly growing at the same place, and heaping 
 their debris for a length of time. At our epoch the formation of peat 
 
 * In the geological report of Dr. F. V. Haydeu on the explorations of the Yellow- 
 stone River, under the direction of Brigadier General W. F. Raynolds, i)ublished in 
 1869, Dr. Newberry has clearly exposed the character of the vegetation in i-elation to 
 e»ch geological epoch. 
 
376 GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF THE TERRITORIES. 
 
 is essentially of two kinds. Either the vegetables whicTi furnish the 
 materials are aquatic, or semi-aerial plants, having their roots in water, 
 and ex])anding their branches, leaves, &c., on the surface of the water, 
 or above it. Their debris falls in water, and are heaped and preserved 
 under it. In another way, and this is more generally the case, the 
 plants of the peat bogs are of a j)eculiar texture. Hygrometrical, like 
 sponges, they absorb humidity by their aerial tissues as much as by 
 their roots, and thus protected themselves against decomposition from 
 atmospheric action, they cover in their growth every kind of woody 
 d6bris, even large trees, and afford to them the same protective in- 
 fluence. In that way the surface of peat-bogs of this kind grow 
 constantly up. In that way also peat-bogs grow at our time upon 
 the slopes of steep mountains, whenever atmospheric humidity is con- 
 stant and abundant enough to furnish moisture for the life of those 
 hygrometrical plants, which now are mere mosses. The peat-bogs of the 
 coal did grow in the same way; the distinction in cannel coal, which 
 bas been formed under water, and bituminous coal, which by its laj^ers 
 Indicates an upper aquatic growth, is Avell marked. But during the 
 carboniferous epoch, the circumstances favorable to the growth of the 
 peat Avere in their highest development. Low, wide basins of stagnant 
 water, whose bottom was first coated by deposits of clay; an atmosphere 
 constantl}^ charged with vapors and a large proportion of carbonic 
 acid, the food of plants, forming by its transformation the woody 
 tissues ; floating vegetables of immense size, first growing horizon- 
 tally at the surface of the water, and filling the basin with their 
 debris, then forming a support for a more aerial vegetation ; fern- 
 trees, lycopodes, horse-tails, all of enormous size, heaped in a con- 
 tinuous growth the woody tissues of their vegetable remains in a 
 now inconceivable proi)ortion. Our thickest beds of peat now 
 measure scarcely twenty feet. By compression and mineralization the 
 thickness would be reduced to one-sixth, or three feet at the most. We 
 have beds of coal of twenty feet of thickness which would make a 4e- 
 posit of peat reach one liundred and twenty feet. And now the result 
 of this wonderful accumulation of fossilized debris of plants of the car- 
 boniferous epoch is known to everybody. We will not repeat what 
 Taylor, Eogers, Lesley, Sheatfer, and others have published on the extent 
 of our coal-measures and on their coal-bearing capacity. The area cov- 
 ered by the carboniferous formations in the United States comprises 
 about one hundred and forty thousand square miles. It is true, indeed, 
 that the peat bogs of old did not extend over the whole surface ; that 
 they were of various dimensions, separated by sandy hills or by deep 
 lagoons ; that after the deposit of their materials, erosions caused by 
 water or other agency have greatly diminished their size. But it is true 
 also that beds of coal, like the Pittsburg bed*, whose average thickness 
 is about eight feet, may be traced over surfaces more than one hundred 
 square miles in width. It is equally true that beds of coal are superposed 
 at intervals, in the coal measures, in such a way that at the same place a 
 boring of a few hundred feet may successively pass through five beds of 
 coal or even more of various thicknesses. A boring of seven hundred and 
 fifty fe( t, recently made in the anthracite coal basin of Pennsylvania, 
 passed through five beds of coal, respectively, four, eleven, five, twenty- 
 eight, and five feet thick, or more than fifty feet of anthracite, with 
 intervals of rocks, respectively two hundred and sixty, ninety-eight, 
 one hundred and seventy-four, and one hundred and thirty-six feet. 
 A section at Wilkesbarre, Pennsylvania, indicates sixty-two feet of coal 
 in a thickness of about six hundred feet of measures. A low bed of 
 
GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF THE TERRITORIES. 377 
 
 coal, the equivalent of the mammoth vein of Pennsylvania, which 
 averages eight to ten feet in thickness, is found over the whole extent 
 of the coal measures of Ohio, Kentucky, Indiana, and Illinois, measur- 
 ing from four to eight feet. So immense, indeed, are the riches of 
 the American coal-measures, that in their conception of the future devel- 
 opment of our human race, geographers, historians, philosophers, agree 
 in this idea : that in the United States we have, especially in our coal 
 deposits, the elements for the greatest and most perfect development 
 of the human race. 
 
 And what is petroleum or mineral oil, too, which is now entering in our 
 civilization, if not as one of its essential elements, at least as one of its 
 potent auxiliaries ! It is, like coal, the result of slow maceration of 
 plants ; with this difference, that in the formation of the coal, the plants 
 which entered into the composition of the matter were woody or librous, 
 and the woody tissue cannot be destroyed by the slow process of combus- 
 tion no more than it is in burnt charcoal. The plants which concurred 
 to the formation of ])etroleum were sea-weeds or marine plants. Tbese 
 have no fibers, no wood in their tissue, which is merely cellular ; and 
 in their decomposition all trace of this tissue has been destroyed, and 
 pure bitumen preserved, either by impregnation of shale or sandstone, 
 &c., or by accumulation in subterranean cavities. It is to fossil plants 
 also that we owe the explanation of this remarkable process of mineraliza- 
 tion. Deposits of oil are especiaUy found in strata of the Upper Silu- 
 rian and the Lower Devonian, and always in connection with shale or 
 limestone, which contain in great quantity petrified remains of fucoids 
 or marine plains. The conditions bringing up an exuberance of vege- 
 tation were alreadj^ at work before the carboniferous epoch ; their action 
 resulted in the production of an imaiense marine vegetation. As nature 
 does nothing in vain, as she takes care of all its materials and uses them, 
 to the minutest debris, she took the bitumen away and preserved it in 
 cavernous recesses for future use. By the discovery of our deposits of 
 petroleum we have learned what had been done with the superabundant 
 production of marine plants in our old geological epochs. Coal and 
 petroleum are found in all the geological formations. But since the coal 
 era the deposits of these matters have become of comparatively rare 
 occurrence, and of far less importance, their value being diminished as 
 much b}" the reduction of their areas as by the inferior quality of their 
 products. They now take a nominal and far more modest place iu the 
 harmony of our earth's surface. 
 
 ON THE DISCORDANCE IN THE CHARACTERS OF EUROPEAN AND AMER- 
 ICAN FLORA AT THE TERTIARY AND CRETACEOUS EPOCHS. 
 
 'Since the first appearance of land vegetation upon the surfiice of our 
 earth, what we know of it by fossil remains seems to indicate for our 
 country a i)recedence in time in the development of botanical types. 
 Large trunks of coniferous wood are already found in our Devonian 
 measures, while analogous species are recorded as yet only in the car- 
 boniferous measures of England. Though the analogy of vegetation 
 between the flora of the coal measures of America and EuroiJe is evi- 
 dently established by a number of identical genera and species, we have 
 nevertheless some types, like the Paleoxiris, which are considered as char- 
 
378 GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF THE TERRITORIES. 
 
 acteristic of strata of the European permian, and which are found in our 
 coal-measures as far down as the first coal above the millstone grit. 
 Even peculiar ferns of our upper coal strata have a tj'pical analogy with 
 species of the oolite of England. Our trias, by the presence of numerous 
 cycadere, touches the Jurassic of Europe. But it is especially from our 
 flora of the lower cretaceous that we have a vegetable exposition pecu- 
 liarly at variance with that of Europe at the same epoch, and whose 
 types so much resemble those of the European tertiary that the evi- 
 dence of the age of the formation, where the plants have been found, 
 could not be admitted by paleontologists until after irrefutable proofs 
 of it had been obtained. 
 
 Professor dewberry, in the report mentioned above, has already given 
 sufficient details of the history of these plants, the scientific value of 
 their discovery, the interest and the discussion which they have kindled. 
 He has also rendered full justice to the researches of Dr. F. V. Hay den, 
 to whom we owe what we may consider as the most important materials 
 furnished at our time to the consideration of vegetable paleontology. 
 Professor Newberry's enumeration of our cretaceous and tertiary plants 
 is limited to what was known after the exploration of Messrs. Marcou 
 and Cappellini in 1863. Since then the researches of Professor Hayden 
 and Dr. J. Leconte have procured new materials, which have been de- 
 scribed and figured for a final report of Professor Hayden's exploration. 
 Those materials are now briefly examined in order to render as complete 
 as possible our review of the American cretaceous and tertiary flora and 
 of its relation to the European flora of the same epochs. 
 
 •> 
 
 SECTION 1. — CRETACEOUS FLORA. 
 
 In 1867 Dr. John Leconte had the kindness to send me a small lot of 
 cretaceous fossil plants from Fort Ellsworth, Kansas ; the same locality 
 where had been obtained the cretaceous leaves collected by Messrs. 
 Marcou and Capellini, and described by Professor Heer. These plants 
 were figured and described as an appendix to a paper on species of fos- 
 sil plants from the tertiary of the State of Mississippi.* Though the 
 lot of these specimens was small, it furnished an interesting contribu- 
 tion to the fossil botany of the cretaceous, especially in confirmation of 
 what had been already renmrked on the miocenic facies of this flora. 
 Besides Proteoides acuta, P. grevilUwformis, Andromeda Parlatorii, and 
 Magnolia alternans, already described by Professor Heer in his memoir 
 on the leaves of Marcou and Capellini, the appendix mentions a new 
 species, Popnlitcs micropliyUus, represented only by two partly -broken 
 specimens; PhyUites Z;ef«/frfo?M?s, a leaf still smaller than the former 
 ones, with irregularly dentate borders and an irregular (somewhat ob- 
 scure) nervation; Sassafras Leconteanum, a fine large ovate lanceolate 
 leaf, resembling, by its outlines, a leaf of Magnolia, but with the pecu- 
 liar nervation of sassafras ; Persca Wehrascensis, related to Pcrsea land- 
 folia (Heer) and other species of the miocene and of the eocene of Europe ; 
 Cinnamomum Heerii, (Lesqx.,) a plant already described from s])ecimens 
 collected by Dr. J. Evans at ISTauaimo.f This species, in-both collections, 
 is represented by one specimen only ; and as the Ellsworth s]>ecimen has 
 its base scraped away, and that of Nebraska has the point broken, the 
 comparison of both leaves is not quite satisfactory, and "^herefore the 
 identity is not certain. The leaves have, indeed, the same general out- 
 
 * Trims. Amer. Phil. Soc, Vol. XIII, page :]40, Plate 23, Mny, 1667. 
 t Amer. Jour, of Nut. Science and Arts, Vol. XXVII, page 10 1 . 
 
GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF THE TERRITORIES. 379 
 
 line and the same kind of nervation, and if not of the same species 
 they belong- to two nearly related species of Cinrianiomum. ' 
 
 The following- list is an enumeration of these cretaceous plants and 
 of those sent me somewhat later by Dr. F. V. Hayden, Dr. Leconte, and 
 a small lot presented to the Smithsonian Institution by Professor B F 
 Jludg-e, of Kansas University. With the list of those published by 
 Protessor Heer and Dr. Newberry, which is given in Dr. Ilayden's for- 
 mer report, the table completes the exposition of what is known till 
 now of our cretaceous flora : 
 
 1. Fopnius micropJu/lius, Lesqx., Fort Ellsworth, J. L. C. 
 
 2. FhijUlteti nitafoIiKs, Lesqx., Fort Ellsworth, J. L. C. 
 
 3. Fersea Ncbrcuscensis, Lesqx,, Fort Ellsworth, J. L. C. 
 
 4. Sassafras Leconteanum, Lesqx., Fort Ellsworth, J. L. C. 
 
 5. Cinuamomuni Eeerii, Lesqx., Fort Ellsworth, J. L. C* 
 
 C. Lijijodium, (f) fragment of fern, Northwest Salina, Kansas, B F M 
 
 7. FterophijUum llaydenU, Lesqx., Decatur, Nebraska, F. V. H. * 
 
 8. Glyptostrohusfp-acilUmus, Lesqx., Dakota County, Nebraska, F. V. H 
 
 9. Sequoia (f) formosa, Lesqx., Decatur, Nebraska, F. V. II. 
 
 10. FlUjUocladus suUntegr if alius, Lesqx., Decatur, Nebraska, F. V. H. 
 
 11. Arunrlo cretaceus, Lesqx., Fort Ellsworth, L. C. 
 
 12. Liquidambar intefj) if alius, Lesqx., Northwest Salina, Kansas, B. 
 
 13. Fopulus Lancastriensis, Lesqx., Decatur, Nebraska, F. V H 
 
 14. Fopulites ciidophylla, (?) Heer, Decatur, Nebraska, F. V. H. 
 lo. Fopulites elegans, Lesqx., Decatur, Nebraska, F. V. H. 
 
 16. Fopulites ovata, Lesqx., Dakota County, Nebraska, F. V. H. 
 
 17. Fopulites quadrangularis, Lesqx., Decatur County, Nebraska, F. 
 v . H. 
 
 15. Fopulites fiabellata, Lesqx., Lancaster Couutj^, Nebraska, F. Y. H. 
 
 19. Fopulites salisburiafolia, Lesqx., Lancaster County, Nebraska* 
 
 20. Salix proteoifolia, Lesqx., Decatur, Nebraska, F. Y. H. 
 
 ^ ^l; ^ctula Beatriciana, Lesqx., Beatrice, Gage County, Nebraska, 
 
 22. Fagus polycladus, Lesqx., Decatur, Nebraska, P\ Y. H. 
 
 23. Quercus primordialis, Lesqx., Decatur, Nebraska, F. Y H 
 
 ^24. (^lercus hexagona, Lesqx., Cass County, Platte Eiver,' Nebraska, 
 
 25. Quercus UllstvortManns, Lesqx., Lancaster County, Nebraska, 
 
 26. (?"ercMi'ance79s, Lesqx., Dakota County, Nebraska, F Y H 
 
 2l Quercus semi-alatus, Lesqx., Beatrice, Gage County, Nebraska, 
 
 28. Ficus (?) rhoniboideus, Lesqx., Decatur, Nebraska, F. Y. H 
 
 29. Ficus (?) fimbriatus, Lesqx., Decatur, Nebraska, F. Y H 
 
 30. Flatanusaceroides, (?) Gopp., var. latior, Decatur and Lancaster, 
 Nebraska, F. Y. H. ' 
 
 31 Platanus obtusiloba, Lesqx., Beatrice, Gage County, Nebraska, 
 
 p 32. ^atayms dimimitivus, Lesqx., Beatrice, Gage County, Nebraska, 
 
 33. Credneria Leconteana, Lesqx., Fort Ellsworth, J. L. C. 
 
 34. Laurus macrocarpus, Lesqx., Decatur, Nebraska, F. Y. H. 
 
 AmP^^Tnn.^TfftF-''''^' from Trans Araer. Phil. Society, loc. cit. ; the following from 
 Amer. Jour, of Science and Arts, Vol. XLV, page 91. 
 
380 GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF THE TERRITORIES. 
 
 35. Sassafras Mudgii, Lesqx., Northwest Salinas, Kansas, B. F. M. 
 3o. Sassafi^as siibintegrifolius, Lesqx., Northwest Salinas, Kansas, 
 B. F. M. 
 
 37. Lyriodendron intermedium^ Lesqx., Decatur, Nebraska, F. V. H. 
 
 38. Lyriodendron giganteum, Lesqx., five miles north of Fort Ellsworth, 
 Kansas, B. F. M. 
 
 39. Magnolia tenuifolia, Lesqx., Decatur, Nebraska, F. Y. H. 
 
 40. Domheyojms ohtusiloba, Lesqx., five miles north of Fort Ellsworth, 
 Kansas, B. F. M. ' 
 
 41. Acer ohtusilohuni, (f) Ung-., Decatur, Nebraska, F. V. H. 
 
 42. Acerites menispermifoUus^ Lesqx., Decatur, Nebraska, F. V. H. 
 
 43. Nequndoides acutifoUa, Lesqx., Salt Creek, Dakota County, Ne- 
 braska, F. Y. H. 
 
 44. PaUurus memhranaceus, Lesqx., Decatur, Nebraska, F. Y. H. 
 
 45. Bhamniis tenax, Lesqx., Decatur, Nebraska, F. Y. H. 
 
 46. PhyUltes rhoifoUus, Lesqx., Lancaster County, Nebraska, F. Y. H. 
 
 47. Prunus cretaceus, Lesqx., Decatur, Nebraska, F. Y. H. 
 
 48. PhyUites umhonatus, Lesqx., Beatrice, Gage County, Nebraska, 
 F. Y. H. 
 
 49. PhyUites amorplms, Lesqx., Decatur, Nebraska, F. Y. H. 
 Besides these fifty species, or rather forms of fossil plants which are 
 
 new for the American cretaceous, the specimens sent for examination 
 have numerous representatives of the following species already de- 
 cribed: PlatanusNeivherrH Herr; Laiirus fPerseaJ Nehrascensis, Lesqx.; 
 Sassafras cretaceus, Newb'y; Proteoides Baplmogenoldes, Heer; Pr. 
 acuta, Heer ; Juglans (Poxmlus) Deheyana, Heer ; Prunus (Andromeda fj 
 Parlatorii, Heer ; and PhyUites Vannotuc, Heer. There is especially a 
 great quantity of specimens of that peculiar Juglans Bebeyana whose 
 leaves, some of them at least, resemble leaves of Poimlus. The great 
 difference in their size, and in the length of the pedicels ; the mode 
 of curving to one side, or dissymmetry of the small ones, while the largest 
 are exactly symmetrical, mark them as separate leaflets of a compound 
 leaf. For this and their nervation, tliey are referable to Juglans. Both 
 species of Proteoides are also represented by a large number of speci- 
 mens, all with the former obtained from the same locality. 
 
 Considered in its whole, this group of plants has a strong micceuic 
 facies; though we find in it already two species belonging to genera 
 characterizing the European cretaceous. One is Pterophyllnm Ilaydenii, 
 a plant whose generic name cannot be correct or does not indicate the 
 true botanical relation ; for neither its leaves nor its cone can be re- 
 ferred to Cycadece. But two fragments like ours, of branch with leaves 
 and of a cone, have been described and figured under this generic name 
 by Stiehler, from the cretaceous of Europe, and the affinity of this plant 
 being unknown, I preserved the name on account of geological analogy. 
 The other species is the beautiful Credneria Leconteana, a large leaf, 
 represented by a single specimen, unluckily broken. The essential 
 character of the genus is preserved in a small part of the basilar hori- 
 zontal nerve, as seen in the figure. A few of these new species of our 
 cretaceous do not have any analogy with any others known as yet from 
 the tertiary or the cretaceous or from the flora of our time ; the species, 
 for example, described under the generic name of Populites, which have 
 the secondary nervation straight and continuous to the borders, like 
 leaves of Platanus, the round outlines of leaves of Populus with their 
 base narrowing to a long, slender petiole as in the Beech ; the leaves also 
 described as Quercus seyni-alatus, which are broadly lobed on one more 
 enlarged side, and entire ovate on the other. Especially of unknown 
 
GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF THE TERRITORIES. 381 
 
 type is the peculiar Ficus (f) fimbriatiis, represented by a broad, reni- 
 form leaf, whose borders are fringed by small, nearly triangular, con- 
 cave protuberances, equally distant from each other, and turned up- 
 wards. 
 
 Out of those few exceptions, the primordial character of the flora, as 
 indicated by the plants enumerated above, is distinctly Northwest 
 American. The list contains species of Liquidambar, Fojndufi, Sallx, 
 Betiihi, Fagus, Quercns, Platanus, Sassafras, Liriodendron, 2[agnolia, 
 Acer, Khamnus, Prumis, &c. If some of these species may be regarded 
 as of uncertain value, there can be no doubt on their relation to the 
 genera to Avhich thej' are assigned, all represented in our actual flora. 
 Even the exceptions to this Northwest American character are very 
 few. Besides the now extinct races, like Credneria and Domheiopsis, we 
 can record only the species of Proteoides as referable to Australian forms, 
 with Flii/Iloeladus, indicating an Eastern Asiatic origin. This last is rep- 
 resented by a single specimen, which, though well preserved, is not suffi- 
 cient to prove generic affinity. As for the genus Cmnamomtim, it is so 
 closely related to Sassafras that its nativity could as well be assigned to 
 this country, if it did not have more numerous representatives in the 
 tertiary and cretaceous formations of our western continent, thus indi- 
 cating its origin from Asia, where a number of its species have been 
 preserved to our time. 
 
 From all that has been published on the subject, it is fully established 
 that besides its Asiatic types, the original characters of the mioceuic 
 flora of Europe are Northwest xVmerican. It is not therefore surprising 
 that the first fossil plants of our cretaceous measures should have been 
 considered as miocenic as long as their geological position had not been 
 positively ascertained. But even now, with full evidence afforded to us 
 on the subject, it may be still doubted if the relation of epochs between 
 the plant-beariug strata of Nebraska and those which lay over them 
 and contain cretaceous mollusks is rightly indicated by the fossil re- 
 mains. For as it is now ascertained that at a great depth the present 
 fauna of our seas is related, if not analogous, to the fossil fauna of some 
 cretaceous rocks, the depth at which have been deposited the calcare- 
 ous strata overlaying the sandstone containing our leaves, may have 
 caused what might be called an unconformable development of zoological 
 types. This question is merely hypothetically touched in order to pre- 
 sent it to the attention of geologists and i)aleontologists. 
 
 SECTION 2. — TERTIARY FOSSIL PLANTS. 
 
 We have first to complete the list of our tertiary fossil plants as it has 
 been done for those of the cretaceous formations. Besides the species 
 described from the specimens of Dr. F. Y. Hayden and Dr. Leconte, the 
 following list enumerates a number of others from the tertiary of Missis- 
 sippi. These have been established from specimens furnished by Pr^ 
 fessor E. W. Hilgard, mentioned in his geological report of the"^ State 
 of Mississippi,* and hereafter described and figured in Trans. Am. Phil. 
 Soc, as remarked above. Their geological position is not definitively 
 ascertained. They appear referable to the lower tertiary, (the eocene.) 
 
 Species from Mississippi : 
 Calamopsis Danal, Lesqx. 
 Sabal Grayana, Lesqx. 
 Salisburia binervata, Lesqx. 
 
 * Report on the Geoloo:y and Agriculture of the State of Mississippi- bv Eug. W. Hil- 
 gard, (I860,) pp. .108, 109, &c. .1 - . o 
 
382 GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF THE TERRITORIES. 
 
 Populits monodon, Lesqx. 
 
 Fopulus mutahilis var. repando-crenata, Heer. 
 
 JSalix WortJienii, Lesqx. 
 
 Salix tahcUaris, Lesqx. 
 
 Qiiercus Moorii, Lesqx. 
 
 Quercus LyelUij Heer. 
 
 Qiiercus retracta. Lesqx. 
 
 Quercus chlorophyUaj Ung. ' 
 ^ Celtis hrevifoUa., Lesqx. 
 ' Ficus Schimperi, Lesqx. 
 
 Flcus cinnamomoides, Lesqx. 
 
 Laurus pedatus, Lesqx. 
 
 (Jinnamomnm Mississippiense, Lesqx. 
 
 Banks ia Helvetica, Heer. 
 
 Persea lancifolia, Lesqx. 
 
 Ceanothiis Meif/sil, Lesqx. 
 
 Sapindus midulatus, Al. Br. 
 
 Rhamnus marginatus, Lesqx. 
 
 Jugians appressa, Lesqx. 
 
 Juglans /Sajffbrdiana, Lesqx. 
 
 Magnolia Milgardiana, Lesqx. 
 
 21agnolia laurifolia, Lesqx. 
 
 Magnolia Lesleijana, Lesqx. 
 
 Magnolia oralis, Lesqx. 
 
 Magnolia cordifolia, Lesqx. 
 
 AsimincL leiocarpa, Lesqx. 
 
 Ph yllites truncatus, Lesqx. 
 
 Species collected by Dr. J. Leconte :* 
 Rhamnus obovatus. Lesqx., upper eud of Purgatory Cauoii, Colorado. 
 Arundo, fragments, Purgatory Cauoii, Colorado. 
 Berchemia parvifolia, Lesqx., Raton Pass, Colorado. 
 Cinnamomum affine, Lesqx., Eaton Pass, Colorado. 
 Abietites dubius, Lesqx., Raton Pass, Colorado. 
 Jugians Leconfeana, Lesqx., Raton Pass, Colorado. 
 Echitomum Sophicc, (?) Web., Raton Pass, Colorado. 
 Acer, (?) numerous small fragments undeterminable. 
 
 Species from Dr. Hayden's specimens : 
 Cornus incompletus^ Lesqx., Marshall Coal, Colorado. 
 Rhamnus saMcifolius, Lesqx., Marshall Coal, Colorado. 
 Cinnamomum affine, Lesqx., Marshall Coal, Colorado. 
 Lygodium, fragment, Marshall Coal, Colorado. 
 Phyllites sulcatus, Lesqx., Marshall Coal, Colorado. 
 Echitonium Sophico, (?) Web., Marshall Coal, Colorado. 
 Juglayis Leconteana, (?) Lesqx., Marshall Coal, Colorado. 
 Quercus Lyellii, (?) Heer, Marshall Coal, Colorado. 
 Quercus chlorophylla, (?) Heer, Marshall Coal, Colorado. 
 
 Dr. Leconte obtained from the same locality fragments of Acer allied 
 to A. stricfum, Gopp. ; of Jugians allied to J. acuminata, Heer; of Cor- 
 nus, Banlcsia, &c.; all too small and broken for satisfactory examination. 
 
 * These species aud the following ones of Dr. F. V. Hayden have been figured and 
 described for the final report of Dr. Hayden, but the descriptions have not been pub- 
 lished as yet. 
 
GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF THE TERRITORIES. 385 
 
 With these, in specimens of Dr. Hayden and Dr. Leconte: 
 Lastrcca (?) clentata, Lesqx., Golden City, Colorado. 
 Magnolia tenuinervis, Lesqx., Golden City, Colorado. 
 
 And from Dr. Hayden's specimens : 
 Platamts aceroides, Heer, Rock Creek, Wyoming. 
 Populus attenuata, Al. Br., Eocli: Creek, Wyoming. 
 Fopulus subrotundus^ Lesqx., Rock Creek, AVyoming. 
 Fopulus a'qualis, Lesqx., Rock Creek, Wyoming. 
 Querctis acrodouj Lesqx., Rock Creek, Wyoming. 
 Quercus Haydcnil., Lesqx., Rock Creek, Wyoming. 
 And fragments of Acer and Fopulus, species undeterminable. 
 
 The gronp of plants from Mississippi has a more recent facies than 
 the cretaceous leaves of Nebraska. Except the beautiful piunate palm, 
 {Calamojjsis,) distantly related to species now living in equatorial re- 
 gions, and a remarkable Sali!<huria, wbich does not in the least resemble 
 the only remaiuing species now living in China, most of its genera are 
 represented here at our time, and a number of its species are allied to 
 living ones. Some others, like Quercus Lyellii, Q. chlorophylla, Banlcsia 
 Helvetica, Sapindns undulatus, are considered as identical with species 
 of the miocene of Europe, and this all, therefore, indicates with the 
 miocenic age a nearer relation than that marked by the characters of 
 the cretaceous flora of Nebraska and Kausas. This, however, is not a 
 positive evidence of contemporaneity, and it is probably right that the 
 strata where these fossil plants were obtained should be considered as 
 pertaining to the eocene, or even to the upper cretaceous. Indeed, Dr. 
 Leconte's species from Raton Pass are not less miocenic in aspect, for, 
 excejit the numerous fragments of an Ahietites, analogous to remains of 
 the same kind from the European cretaceous, all the genera are repre- 
 sented at our time. From tlie animal remains, however, found in con- 
 nection with the coal-bearing strata of Raton Pass, Dr. Leconte consid- 
 ered them as cretaceous.* If it is right, from what we have seen of its 
 fossil flora, the Marshall's Coal should be admitted also as of cretaceous 
 age, as the specimens from both localities have plants apparently iden- 
 tical — Cinnamomum affine, Echitonium SopMw, Juglans LeconteaPM. 
 These specimens are indeed very incomplete — mere fragments repre- 
 senting vegetables whose identification is difficalt and not absolutely 
 reliable ; nevertheless, the flora bears, evidently, the same character 
 at both localities, as its fiicies also is related to that of the Mississippi 
 flora. The character is far differeiit from that of our true miocenic 
 flora, as it is indicated by the small group of plants obtained by Dr. 
 Hayden at Rock Creek, Nebraska ; for here on six species only there 
 are two identical with miocenic species of Europe, and five are closely 
 allied to species of our Eastern North American forests. One only, the 
 beautiful Quercus Haydenii, is related to species of our Western coast. 
 The specimens of Rock Creek are mostly perfect remains of plants easily 
 studied, and their characters undoubtedly ascertained. 
 
 No less miocenic in their characters, though of different family rela- 
 tions, are the remains of fossil plants obtained by Dr. F. V. Hayden in 
 his last exploration, and just now received for examination. These 
 specimens merely belong to two strata; those labelled Henry's Fork,, 
 Muddy Creek, and Black Fork being on a kind of hard, silicified lime- 
 stone, with remains of the same species of plants, and therefore iudi- 
 
 * Notes on the Geology, &c., from Smoky-Hill River, Kansas, to the Rio Grande, by 
 J. L. Leconte, 1868. Columbns, 7th Jannary, 1871. 
 
384 GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF THE TERRITORIES. 
 
 eating identity of horizontal station ; those from Barrel's Spring upon 
 yellow ferruginous shale, having upon all the specimens the same species 
 of fossil plant also, but of a different group from that of the former. 
 Henry's Fork si^ecimens have: 
 
 1. Pteris 2)Gimaformis, Heer, in numerous but indistinct specimens. 
 The species may differ somewhat from that of Europe, but, in the state 
 of the specimens, the difference is not appreciable. It is a large, lanceo- 
 late leaf, varying from one to three inches in length, and from one-half 
 to three-fourths of an inch broad, with a thick, half-round medial nerve, 
 and thick, mostly simple, secondary veins, obliquely curving to the 
 borders. This species is not rare in the miocene of Germany and Swit- 
 zerland. 
 
 2. Broken, obscure remains of a large leaf, with thick, oblique, straight, 
 closely-approached secondary veins ; neither the middle part nor the 
 medial nerve, nor the borders are seen. It may be compared only to 
 some PalmaciteSj or to the leaf described as Zingiherites, from the mio- 
 cene of Europe, by Professor Heer. 
 
 3. Fragments of a Calamopsis, or palm leaves, (rachis not seen,) one inch 
 broad and as far distant from each other, marked lengthwise with four 
 narrow tertiary veins between the more distinct secondary ones, five to 
 six in number. 
 
 4. Leaves of a Cyperites, with the same areolations as Cyperus Chavan- 
 ensis, Heer, but only half as broad. 
 
 From Muddy Creek : 
 
 5. As2)icUuni{Lastraea)pulc1iellum, Heer, ov A. Fisher i, Heer. Though 
 small, the specimens are distinct. The leaflets are slightly broader than 
 in this last species, and not quite as large as in the former. An inter- 
 mediate form, equally referable to both of the species of the miocene 
 of Europe. All the specimens of the former and of the following locality 
 have fragments of it. 
 
 From Black's Fork : The specimens have only fragments of the last 
 species, and of Fteris pennceformis, with undeterminable leaves of Cy- 
 perites, resembling Carex tertiaria, Heer. 
 
 Barrel Spring : All the shale have numerous remains of the three 
 following species. The fourth is represented in only one : 
 
 6. Lygodium neuropteroides, Spec. nova. A beautiful fern, of which 
 only separate leaflets are preserved. These, from one to two and a half 
 inches in length, proportionally broad, are linear lanceolat-e, slightly 
 obtuse, either entire or more generally divided from below the middle 
 in two or three linear lanceolate lobes, like the living Lygodium 8alici- 
 folium. But the nervation is far different, rather comparable to that of 
 a Pteris than to that of a Lygodium. The medial nerve is thin ; the 
 secondary nerves branch three or four times in curving to the borders. 
 It is a nervation like that of some species of Neuropteris of the coal 
 measures, especially of Neuropteris liirsuta, which the large, entire leaf- 
 lets also resemble in their form. The relation of this beautiful fern is 
 with species of Lygodium and of Osmunda of the European miocene, but 
 this relation is distant indeed. 
 
 7. A floating stem, like Myriophyllum, referable perhaps to one species 
 of this genus. As the divisions are pretty thick, it may be rather com- 
 pared to the roots and rootlets of Pragmites Oenigensis, Heer. It 
 is evidently related to species of our time. This Pragmites of Heer is 
 from the miocene of Europe. Leaves of a species of this genus have 
 been published by the same author from the tertiary of Alaska. 
 
 Cyperus Leiicalionis, Heer. The specimens have a number of leaves 
 of this species, which show all the varieties of the European i)lant with- 
 
GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF THE TEREITORIES. 385 
 
 out any appreciaWe difference, varying from one-eiglitli to one-fourth of 
 an inch broad. The brofidest of ours is jnst of the same size as the leaf 
 published in Sismontla's memoir, from tbe tertiary of Ital}-, as Ci/perites 
 DeucaJionis ? Heer. It is evidently the same species. 
 
 9. Fragments of leaves of a Sahal. The rachis is not seen, and there- 
 fore the species is not determinable. By the larg-e divisions of its leaves, 
 it resembles Sahal major of common occurrence in the miocene. 
 
 10. A sheath-bearing leaf of grass, undistinguishable from the one 
 figured by Heer in his tertiary flora, Tab. XXY, Fig. 10, aud described 
 as Poacites hvvis. 
 
 From the small number of the above-mentioned species, it is not pos- 
 sible to mark between both groups of plants a difference of stage in the 
 formations where they have been found. But it is evident that none of 
 these species indicates an older Ibrmation than that of the middle tertiary 
 or miocene. All the Glumacete, species of Carc.i\ Cyperus, Arundo (f-c, 
 have not been found as yet in formations older than the tertiary, and 
 our ferns of the group of Aspidium {Lastram) as well a's all the species 
 of Lygodinm, are also characteristic of the miocene formation. There- 
 fore the group of these i)lants, taken in its whole, is evidently of the 
 middle tertiary. 
 
 The peculiar facies of these plants indicates their origin as from prairie 
 swamps, covered merely with grasses, ferns, and low palms. The fossil 
 remains do not show any traces of leaves of dicotyledonous trees, or of any 
 arborescent plant whatever. It is for the first time that this facies, so 
 often remarked in tertiary specimens of Europe, has been observed in 
 those of our country. 
 
 Columbus, Ohio, January 12, 1871. 
 
 VI.— ON THE FOSSIL REPTILES AND FISHES OF 
 THE CRETACEOUS ROCKS OF KANSAS. 
 
 By Prof. E. D. Cope. 
 EEPTILIA. 
 
 The species of reptiles which have been found in the cretaceous strata 
 west of the Mississippi Eivec up to the present time number fourteen. 
 Five of these pertain to the Sauropterygia, one to the Dinosatiria, and 
 seven to the Pyfhonomorplia. In the present report attention is confined, 
 to the species discovered near the line of exploration of Dr. Hayden, or 
 that of the Kansas Pacific Eailroad, and that of Professor B. F. Mudge, 
 of the State Agrictiltural College. 
 
 During" the period when the cretaceous ocean extended from Eastern 
 Kansas over the present site of the Eocky Mountains, and from the 
 Gulf of Mexico to the Arctic Sea, it abounded in life. Among verte- 
 brata, fishes aud marine reptiles chiefly abounded, and in varied forms. 
 Many of the reptiles were characterized by a size and strength exceed- 
 ing* that seen in any other period of the world's history. The species of 
 Savropterygia and FyfJionomorpJia were all aquatic, but the two types 
 present very diflerent adaptations to their mode of life. While the 
 former possessed two pairs of limbs, the latter appear to have possessed 
 an anterior pair only, or with the jiosterior pair so reduced as to have 
 been insignificant. Tliey substituted for them an immensely long- and 
 25 a 
 
386 GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF THE TERRITORIES, 
 
 flattened tail, whicii tliey used, like the eels and sea-snates, as an oar. 
 Tlie Sauro])terygia were generally stout-bodied and with a very markedly 
 distinct neck. In the Pytlumomorpha, on the other hand, the body w^as 
 snake-like, with narrow chest and neck scarcely differing in diameter. ' 
 They were immensely elongate, and might be called sea-serpents with 
 considerable propriety. 
 
 Of Sauroptenigia, Polycotylus had a slender neck and very stout 
 limbs : but in Ehumosaurus the neck attained dimensions exceeding that 
 of any vertebrated animal. The species E. platyurus was probably the 
 longest of the order, measuring perhaps fifty feet, but of this tlie neck 
 amounted to twenty -two feet. This creature was carnivorous, and could, 
 no doubt, like the snake-bird, swim at a considerable distance below the 
 surface of the water and reach to the surface for air, or explore the 
 depths or plunge for fishes to the depth of forty feet. 
 
 Among the Pythonomorpha the Liodon dyspelor is the largest species 
 and the Clidastes intermedms the smallest. A specimen of Mosamurus 
 missuriensis obtained by William Webb near Topeka is stated by him 
 to measure seventy-five feet in length. Sliould this be substantiated, 
 the L. dyspelor was at least one-third larger. This is, however, as yet 
 uncertain. 
 
 The upper arm bones of the Clidastes are remarkably short and wide, 
 and furnished with strong processes for the insertion of muscles. They 
 are among reptiles much like those of moles among quadrupeds, and, as 
 in the latter, indicate probably great power of propulsion m the fore 
 limbs. The finger bones were long and slender and formed a long fin 
 or flipper, while the ujjper arm was probably concealed in the skin. 
 The whole limb came off but a short distance posterior to the head. 
 
 These reptiles, so far as known, were all carnivorous ; their food was 
 chiefly fishes. Some of the species on which they preyed .are enumer- 
 ated in the portion devoted to them, and their structural characters 
 pointed out. . * 
 
 As it is desirable to develop the science of geology, the writer would 
 be glad if his friends in the West would forward to him, in Philadelphia, 
 at his ex]>euse, specimens of bones or teeth which they may find. He 
 will return to them determinations of their nature, and credit them 
 with discoveries which may result from their care and interest in pre-, 
 serving them, in the publications of scientific bodies. 
 
 SAUROPTERYGIA. 
 
 POLYCOTYLUS, (COPE.) 
 
 Traus. Amer. Pliilos. Soc, 1869, p. 34. 
 
 This genus is established on a series of vertebrae with portions of 
 pelvic arch and posterior extremity, discovered in the upper cretaceous 
 of Kansas by W. E. Webb, superintendent of the land oflice in Topeka, 
 Kansas. The point at which the remains were found is about five miles 
 west of Fort Wallace on the plains near the Smoky Hill River, Kansas, 
 in a yellov/ cretaceous limestone. 
 
 The animal thus indicated is of interest in American vertebrate paleon- 
 tology, as the first true Plesiosauroid determined within our limits. 
 That its affinities are nearer to Plenosaurus than to Elasmosaurus will 
 be apparent from the following description. 
 
 There are wholes ipr portions of twenty-one vertebroe, of which but 
 two retain their neural arches, and six are represented by neural arches 
 only. Four centra may be referred to the caudal series, the remainder 
 
GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF THE TERRITORIES. 387 
 
 to the dorsal ; only two indicate the characters of the cervical verte- 
 br?e. All of these vertebra?, except the distal caudals,' are remarkable 
 for their short antcn-oposterior diameter and deepl3--concave, articidar 
 faces. This concavity is not, however, of an open conic form, as in 
 Ichthyosmirns, but is flattened at the fundus, thus exhibiting a small, 
 slightly disciform area. The usual i^air of venous foramina appears on 
 the under side of the centrum. Tbe neural arch is continuous with the 
 latter, and exhibits no trace of connecting suture. The diapophyses 
 arise from the neural arch in all the dorsals ; they are compressed aud 
 vertical in sectiou. The arch is of course narrow anteroposteriorly, aud 
 presents a iiair of moderately prominent zygajiophyses in each direction, 
 the posterior as usual articulating downwards, the anterior upwards. 
 On some of the vertebra? they become closely approximated. The neu- 
 ral spines are narrow anteroposteriorly, but n^uch stouter transversely 
 than in JEIasmosatirus ; they are strongly grooved at the base, both an- 
 teriorly and posteriorly, most so posteriorly. 
 
 Tbe caudal vertebra? are anteriorly quite as large as the dorsals. Two 
 anterior caudals present, on the latero-inferior part of the posterior mar- 
 gin, a pair of widely-separated, articular surfaces for chevron bones. 
 A portion of one of the latter remains ; it is narrow and subcylindric at 
 the base. The diapophyses are situated on the upper part of the cen- 
 trum, and are continuous with it, and without trace of suture. There 
 are two distal cervicals which are much smaller than the preceding. 
 They are solidly coossified and have been broken from one anterior to 
 them, with which they have been also ankylosed. Processes in the po- 
 sition of the diapophyses have disappeared, while a strong infero-lateral 
 process projects from the middle of each, similar in position to thei)ara- 
 pophyses (or Avhatever they may be) of the Elasmosaurus. These pro- 
 cesses are decurved and much thickened and rugose 5 they may be de-' 
 scribed as more or less elongate conic. Tbe neural canal of these ver- 
 tebra? is well marked, though small. The coossification of cervical ver- 
 tebrae is a remarkable character, and very unusual. It does not seem 
 probable that these specimens represent a diseased condition, since they 
 are symmetrical, and the inferior surface and foramina are unafiected. 
 The lugosity is much that of a ligamentous articulation. Their size in- 
 dicates a remarkably slender neck as in Plesiosaurus, but even more so, 
 and perhaps as elongate as in Elasmosaurus. 
 
 That the portions of an extremity alluded to belong to the posterior is 
 rendered probable by the presence of i^art of an ilium, and by the fact 
 that the portions of the vertebral column secured are chiefly median and 
 posterior. The fragments consist of the extremity of the femur, the tibia, 
 several tarsal bones, aud numerous i)halanges. The whole limb is of 
 great size, comi)ared with the vertebral column, and indicates power- 
 ful natatory capacity in its possessor. What the relative length of 
 the femur may be cannot be ascertained, as the proximal portion is want- 
 ing, but if it were like the tibia it was characterized by stoutness rather 
 tlian by length. The portion remaining is flattened, and presents distally 
 two distinct articular faces for ulna aud radius, instead of the uniformly 
 convex outline characteristic of most of the species of Plesiosaurus. The 
 tibia is pentagonal, broader than long, and not emarginate externally. 
 The fibula is wanting. One of the tarsal bones is a flat, unequally hex- 
 agonal disk, of less thickness than the tibia and tbe tarsals which appear 
 to connect with it. One of the latter is transverse parallelogrammic, 
 with three faces of broad plane articulations and the outer edge rounded 
 in section. Another tarsal or metatarsal is a parallelopipedou except 
 that one extremity presents two faces meeting at a right angle. Another 
 
388 GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF THE TERRITORIES. 
 
 is similar, but oblique, i. €., rhombic in section ; one of the longitudinal 
 ang'les is also prolonged. 
 
 Of the phalanges there are individuals from three series. Portions 
 of flat bones, perhaps belonging to the pelvic arch, indicate, as do all 
 the other pieces, that the bony structure in Polycotylns is more massive 
 than in Elasmosavrns, if the only known species has not attained such 
 huge dimensions as some of the latter. These fragments do not throw 
 much light on the structure of the pelvic arch. 
 
 The structure of the bones is, like that in the order generally, of the 
 coarsest description. There are no medullary cavities, but the medul- 
 lary cells are large, and extended everywhere in the direction of the 
 axis of eath bone. 
 
 The characters which separate this genus from Plesiosannis may be 
 derived from the preceding as follows : 
 
 First. The deeply biconcave, and very short vertebral centra. 
 
 Second. The tibia broader than long, resembling those of Ichthyosau- 
 rus. 
 
 Third. The coalescence and depression of the cervicals. 
 
 Fourth. The continuity of the neural arches. 
 
 Fifth. The continuity of the diapophyses of the caudals. 
 
 The only genus with which this genus compares nearly is the Thau- 
 ^matosaitrus of Meyer. This is known by but a few fragments, and of 
 these but few are present in the Kansas animal. The character on 
 which 1 rely at present to distinguish them is the much less concavity 
 of the dorsal vertebrjie in Thanmafosanriis. This is, however, not en- 
 tirely satisfactory. Thaumatosaurus oolithicus, INTeyer, is from the lower 
 oolite of South Germany. 
 
 The bones are thoroughly mineralized, and the adherent matrix is a 
 light-yellow, chalky limestone, similar to that which yielded the fine 
 fragments of the Lioclon proriger. This, Dr. Leconte informs me, is 
 probably Meek and Hayden's IJpiier Cretaceous No. 3, and is a higher 
 horizon than that near Fort Wallace, from which Dr. Turner procured 
 the EJasmosauriis plafyimis. The specimens were all taken out under 
 the direction of W. E. Webb, of Topeka, from the same spot. From- 
 every point of view there is reason to believe that they belong to the 
 same animal. 
 
 POLYCOTTLUS LATIPINNIS, (COPE.) 
 Loc. Cit., p. 36, Plate I, Figs. 1-13. 
 
 The anterior dorsal vertebrae have the centra slightly compressed or 
 vertically oval, while the posterior are more rounded. The anterior 
 caudals appear to have been round or nearly so ; they are somewhat 
 distorted by pressure. The sides of the centrum are slightly concave 
 in the longitudinal direction ; below there is no carina, but at least two 
 venous foramina. There is another large foramen on the side of the 
 centrum, usually not far from the neural arch ; there are usually other 
 smaller foramina below this. The bases of the diapophyses are longi- 
 tudinally grooved behind, and separate a concavity of the arch in front 
 of them from one behind. In the most median the most elevated dia- 
 X)ophysis stands about equally on the neurapophysis and the neural 
 spine above it. The diapophyses are vertically compressed, and the cos- 
 tal articulation of the only one preserved is in the same plane. The 
 margins of the external surfaces are not coarsely striate as in many 
 Smiropterygia. The venous foramina of the distal cossified cervicals are 
 
GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF THE TERRITORIES. 389 
 
 in pairs, and of larjj;e size. In the proximal caudals tlie diapo])by.ses 
 are above the uiijdle of the sides of the centra. In one the basis of a 
 chevron is preserved. It is cyliudric and striate. The zygapophysis 
 on the hinder aspect of a dorsal has a disciform articuhir snrface di- 
 rected outwards and downwards ; the ijrominence of its upper face is 
 continuous with the lateral ridge of the neural spine. The anterior up- 
 looking sui'face is equally small and little divergent. 
 
 Inclits. 
 
 Length two coossified cervicals 2. 5 
 
 Width anterior in front 1.7 
 
 Depth anterior in front 
 
 Vertical diameter centrum dorsal 3. 42 
 
 Transverse diameter centrum dorsal 2. 7 
 
 Antero-posterior diameter centrum dorsal, (below) 1. 85 
 
 Vertical diameter centrum dorsal, (poster) 2. 98 
 
 Transverse diameter centrum dorsal 2. 9 
 
 Transverse diameter neural canal 86 
 
 Longitudinal diameter base neural spine 1. 22 
 
 Longitudinal diameter base diapophysis 1.2 
 
 Length between extremities zygapophyses, (dorsal) 2. 26 
 
 Depth of cup of vertebra? 63 
 
 Length centrum anterior caudal 1. 73 
 
 Distance between bases chevron bone, (caudal) 2. 58 
 
 It may be observed the anterior caudals have a nearly round articu- 
 lar extremity ; one of them is a little wider than high, but they are too 
 much distorted to furnish reliable measurements. 
 
 The portion of ilium preserved is an extremity. It is flat on one side 
 and convex on the other. The shaft is solid. The articular extremity 
 is oblique, and presents a truncate extremity, which is at right angles 
 to a short, recurved margin, Tvhichhas been an insertion or articulation ; 
 the flat surface is rugose distallj'. Long diameter of extremity, 2.75 
 inches ; of shaft, 1.9 inches. The articular faces of the extremity of 
 the femur are at an open angle with each other, and are strongly con- 
 cave in transverse section. The femur is here very flat, with narrow mar- 
 gins; it becomes stouter with diminishing width. Distally the surface 
 is marked by grooves and small foramina. What may be tibia is the 
 basal frustum of a wedge ; the articular faces broad, the outer margin 
 narrowed ; the faces slightly concave. The inner margin is shorter 
 than the outer, and the distal part of it presents abroad, articular face. 
 Some of the tarsal bones have been already described. There are thir- 
 teen Metatarsals and phalanges. They are of stout j)roportionsand are 
 considerably constricted medially. Those of one series are square in 
 section ; those of another, transverse ; those of the third transverse 
 with one edge thinned or acuminate in section. Some of e'ach form are 
 more elongate than others. 
 
 Inches. 
 
 Width femur at extremity, (restored) 8. 
 
 Depth femur at extremity, (median) 1. 3 
 
 Width femur four inches from extremity 6. 
 
 Thickness femur four inches from extremity 1. 95 
 
 Width tibia 3. 88 
 
 Length externally 2. 6 
 
 Width tarsi tibiale 2. 48 
 
 Thickness tarsi tibiale 1. 52 
 
 Length parallelopiped phalange 1. 56 
 
390 GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF THE TERRITOEIES. 
 
 Indies. 
 
 Width parallelepiped phalange A 1.2 
 
 Thickness parallelopipod phalange - 1. 2 
 
 Thickness depressed phalange 1. 
 
 Width deijressed phalange 1. 4 
 
 Length depressed ])halange 1. 9 
 
 ■These powerful extremital pieces indicate a body to be propelled, of 
 not less than usual proportions. If this be the case the number of dor- 
 sal vertebrae is considerably greater than in the species of this order in 
 general, and approaching more the Ichthyosauri. I do not intend to 
 suggest any affinity between the latter and the present genus, as none 
 exists. What the extent of cervical vertebrae may have been is uncer- 
 tain. Tlie caudals have probably been numerous, though not probably 
 so extended as in Elasmosauriis. 
 
 The size of the species can be approximately estimated from the pro- 
 portions furnished by Owen (Reptiles of the Liassic Formations) for 
 Plesiosaurus rostratus. The skeleton of this species measures eleven 
 feet eight inches, and the dorsal vertebrae are of less vertical and equal 
 transverse diameter compared with those of the present saurian. We 
 may therefore suppose that the latter exceeded the former in dinien- 
 sions. 
 
 William E. Webb, of Topeka, discovered the specimens from which 
 this species was first described, and liberally forwarded them to me for 
 examination and description. Other specimens have been discovered 
 since that time by various other persons. I have received numerous 
 fragments of an individual of about the size of the one above described, 
 which were found by Professor B. F. Mudge, at a point near the mouth 
 of the north branch of the Smoky Hill Eiver. 
 
 These consist of a few vertebrae, portions of i^elvic and scapular 
 arches, and three proximal bones of the limbs. Which of these is 
 femur and which humerus I am unable to determine, owing to their 
 close resemblance. The vertebra? do not differ from those of the speci- 
 men just described. The limb bones are stout and expanded and 
 thinned distally ; this thinning is remarkable and indicates a much- 
 liattened metapodial region. The head is slightly expanded, the artic- 
 ular face being turned obliquely to the inner face of the shaft; the surface 
 is pitted for attachment of the articular cartilage ', two-fifths the length 
 from the proximal end is an extensive and exceedingly rugose surface, 
 a« wide as the shaft, for the insertion of the adductor muscles. 
 
 M. 
 
 Diameter of centrum of lumbar vertebrae 0. 08 
 
 Length (?) humerus 0. 45 
 
 Diameter head 0. 125 
 
 Diameter shaft 0. 098 
 
 Diameter distal end (transverse) restored in part 0. 18 
 
 Should the humerus have been related to the fore limb as in Flesio- 
 saurus doUchodirus, Conyb., tbe latter would have had a length of four 
 feet three inches ; as the proportions of the radius and phalanges are 
 shorter, the limb was probably relatively shorter. If related to the 
 total length, as in the same Plesiosaur, the humerus would indicate a 
 length of seventeen and a half feet. As the cervical vertebrae become 
 attenuated as compared with the dorsals to a greater degree in Foly- 
 coti/lus than in Plesiosaiirus, I have little doubt that the length of this 
 species exceeded that amount. 
 
GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF THE TERRITORIES.. 391 
 
 ELASMOSAURUS, (COPE.) 
 
 Leconte's Notes on Gcologiy of the Route of the Union Pacific Railroad, 1868, j). 68. 
 Cope, Proceed. Acad. Nat. Sciences, 18G8, p. 92. Tiansac. Amer. Philos. Soc, 186'J, p. 44. 
 
 This genus has been more completely preserved to ns than any other 
 American representative of the order, and hence may be accepted as 
 most clearly expressive of its characters. In the iuteri>retation of these, 
 however, considerable difficnlty has been expeiienced, as the structure 
 form appears, at first sight, to reverse, to a remarliable degree, the usual 
 proportions of known reptiles. 
 
 The determiuiitiou of the anterior extremity of the vertebral column 
 has been rendered certain by the fortunate completeness of the cervical 
 series, as the extraordinary length of the latter, equaling three times 
 that of the body, renders the most careful scrutiny necessary. 
 
 The neural arches are ever}' where continuous with the centra, with- 
 out sign of suture, and are externally plane. The neural canal is ex- 
 ceedingly small for the size of the vertebrie, especially on the lumbars 
 and caudals. 
 
 The dorsal vertebrne are remarkable from the fact that the diapophyses 
 disappear on the anterior part of the series, and gradually diminish in 
 length from behind forwards to the point of disappearance. On the 
 median and posterior parts of the series, they are very elongate, and 
 rise for a short distance from the basis of the neural arch. Anteriorly, 
 they descend and shorten, and finally remain only as the slightly ele- 
 vated borders of rib-pits. Throughout the whole of the anterior portion 
 of the column to the cervicals, the neural spines are of great elevation, 
 and of such antero-posterior extent as to be nearly continuous. 
 
 The cervical vertebrae are not only more numerous, but become ante- 
 riorly much smaller and more attenuated than in its allies of the same 
 familj^ They are remarkably compressed, the centra much longer than 
 deep, and deeper than wide, and with smooth concave sides. 
 
 The ribs of the anterior cervico-dorsal region are inserted directly in 
 the vertically oval pits of the centrum. Immediately at the point where 
 these cease thin transverse processes appear to arise from the lower 
 edges of the rib pits. They form a continuous series with the ribs, and 
 soon rise from the plane of the lower face of the centrum, and are 
 directed obliquely downward. At the end of the cervical series they 
 are directed nearly vertically downward. The number of these verte- 
 brae is very great,. the anterior diminishing to a very small size; the 
 whole measuring a little more than half the total length. 
 
 Most of the cervicals possess two venous foramina below; the dorsals 
 two, and most of the caudals one. 
 
 The resemblance of the caudals to the usual type of Flesiosaurus is 
 seen in the fact that each bears near its posterior articular aspect, on 
 the inferior face, a pair of articular surfaces for chevron bones. Simi- 
 lar vertebrtB had been described by Leidy as the caudals of a genus he 
 called Blscosaurus ; the study of the present genus shows that they are 
 really of the caudals of the allied genus Gimoliasaurus. 
 
 The ribs are simple-headed ; the abdominal ribs seen in Flesiosaurus 
 are possibly wanting, as none are found by the discoverer of the fossil, 
 after a careful search. 
 
 The end of the muzzle, with symphysis mandibuli, was preserved. 
 This is flat, the symphysis rather short, the premaxillary grooved at the 
 intervals between the dental alveoli. The teeth are deeply im])lanted, 
 with small pulp cavity ; are eylindric, and furnished with nearly straight 
 elongate conic crowns, which are minutely but sharply striate to the 
 
392 GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF THE TERRITORIES. 
 
 tip ; the ridges straight, continuous. There are no indications of nos- 
 trils, so that these were probably posterior, and near the orbits, as in 
 Piesiosaurus. 
 
 The pelvic arch is more extended tban the scapular, and strongly 
 resembles 4]he pelvic arch of other Plesiosauridcc. The scapular arch is 
 peculiar ; thechiviculi are broad, flat bones, resembling the pubes of cer- , 
 tain tortoises, while the coracoids are much like the coracoids of Ple- 
 siosaurus. 
 
 The scapular arch is remarkable fol' the resemblance of coracoids to 
 those of Flesiosauriis. The clavicles have a greater transverse extent 
 than the former, and have a very extensive line of union medially, and 
 a narrow posterior x^rolongation, which meets a similar anterior one of 
 the coracoids, separating the intervening foramina. They appear to 
 form about one-third of the walls of the glenoid cavity, and have a con- 
 stricted base, as in some Plesiosauria, applied to the extremity of the 
 coracoid. The form of the glenoid cavity cannot be readily ascertained 
 from the absence of the scapula. What we have of it would suggest 
 the existence of a fore limb, of comparatively little power, though no 
 remains of such have been found. The acetabulum is smaller than the 
 glenoid cavity ; this point, with the obvious source of propulsive power 
 in the tail, renders it probable that the posterior limbs were the weaker 
 of the two, if any existed. But there is no trace of sacrum, nor of any 
 modified diapopyses for support of an ilium. 
 
 The ischia are flat, snb-triangular bones, with a long median line of 
 junction, and communicating anteriorly with the posterior prolongation 
 of the pubic plate. Their postero-exterior mai-gins project well back- 
 ward. The pubes are broad plates, whose anterior margins diverge 
 from each other. They are broader than the ischia, ^nd form a broad 
 shallow basin for the support of the viscera. The suture defining these 
 elements is obliterated ; they are continuous, and form a weak, inferior 
 keel on the median line. A simple curved ilium has been preserved, for 
 which there appears to be a smooth, articular surface on the pubis to 
 which it was attached. 
 
 The acetabular portions of these elements are flattened and furnished 
 with convex articular surfaces. The supposed ilia are short, curved 
 bones, resembling that of Piesiosaurus latispimis, Ow., or of some of the 
 other species of that family. The shank is flattened cylindric; the 
 distal extremity, dilated, rounded, and flattened. The proximal ex- 
 tremity sub-truijcate, or truncate in two or three unequal planes, and 
 with a median pit. It fits well when applied to a concavity on the 
 articular surface of the pubis. The vertebra? above the pelvic arch were 
 furnished with elongate, sub-cylindric diapophyses. 
 
 The question as to the presence of posterior limbs remains unsolved. 
 Dr. Turner, having made a second careful search and renewed excava- 
 tions at the original locality, failed to find any bones which can be 
 assigned to humerus, ulna, radius, carpus or phalanges, or similar ele- 
 ments of the hind limbs. This is the more remarkable, as the pelvic 
 and scapular arches were further completed, and an additional number 
 of ribs obtained. The inferior and lateral regions of the trunk, being 
 then so abundantly discovered, what are we to think of the entire 
 absence of the usually numerous elements of extremities ? The glenoid 
 cavities are rather angular, and both were filled with solid, argillaceous 
 matrix. The acetabula are not cup-like, but merely exposures of the 
 r^arrow, plane extremities of the pubes and ischia ; they were covered 
 with thin layers of gypsum ; the pieces of the ilia were found imbedded 
 in the mass of matrix which occui)ied the pelvic arch. 
 
GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF THE TERRITORIES. 393 
 
 The allied geuus Cimoliasarus, Leicly, possesses a femur, as desci-ibed 
 ill the work quoted above; it is of shorter aud thicker form than iu 
 most Pies iosa u r i. 
 
 The skeleton so nearly complete would indicate no violent disturb- 
 ance of the carcass ; but if tliere were, it would be an unusual accident 
 that all of the four limbs should have been removed from their socli.ets 
 without leaving' even fragments. 
 
 This genus is well distinguished from Plcsiosaurus by the peculiarity 
 of the sca]>ular arch. The mesosternum ajjpears to be coijssitied with 
 the cUiviculi, and the three elements form n broad breast-plate. If the 
 claviculus was ever united with the scapula as in Flcslosaurus, no evi- 
 dence of it can be seen in the specimen. Both the clavicular and ine- 
 sosternal elements are bi'oader and more extended anteriorly. 
 
 The American genera of JElasmosauridw may be compared as follows : 
 
 Posterior cervical vertebnc without diapophyses: cervicals longer, 
 compressed, neck very elongate. 
 
 Elasmosaurus. 
 
 Posterior cervical vertebrae witli diapophyses: cervicals quadrate, 
 shorter, dei^ressed, rapidly diminishing in size, hence the neck shorter. 
 
 CiMOLIASAUEUS. 
 
 Professor Owen figures and describes (reptiles of the Cretaceous, Pal- 
 eontogr. Soc.) a vertebra which very closely resembles the, cervical of 
 Elasmosaurus. He considers it to be the cervical of a peculiar Plesio- 
 sanrus, which he calls P. constr ictus, remarking at the same time, its 
 remarkably inferior pleurapophyses. This I believe to be a species of 
 Elasmosaurus or an ally, and to be called for the present Elasmosaurus 
 constrictus. 
 
 ELASMOSAURUS PLATYURUS, (COPE.) 
 
 Leconte's Notes, loc. cit. Proceed. Acad. Nat. Sci., 1868, 1. c. 92. 
 Discosaurus carinatus, Cope. Lecoute's Notes, 1. c. 
 
 This, after Mosasaurus, the most elongate of the sea saurians yet dis- 
 covered, is represented by a more than usually complete skeleton in the 
 Museum of the Academy of Natural Sciences in this city. It was found 
 by Dr. Theophilus H. Turner, the physician of the garrison at Fort Wal- 
 lace, a point situated three hundred miles westward from Leavenworth 
 on the Missouri River, and some distance north from the Smoky Hill 
 Fork of the Platte River. Portions of two vertebrie, presented by him 
 to Dr. Leconte when on his geological tour in the interest of the United 
 States Pacific Railroad Company, were brought by the latter gentleman 
 to the academy, and indicated to the writer the existence of an unknown 
 Plesiosauroid reptile. Subsequent correspondence with Dr. Turner 
 resulted in his employing a number of men, who engaged in excava- 
 tions, and succeeded iu obtaining a large part of the monster. Its ver- 
 tebrie were found to be almost" continuous, except a vacancy of some 
 four feet in the anterior dorsal region. They formed a curved line, a 
 considerable part of whose convexity was visible on the side of a bluff" 
 of clay shale rock, with seams and crystals of gypsum. The bones were 
 all coated with a thin layer of gypsum, and in some places their dense 
 layer had been destroyed by conversion into sulphate of lime. 
 
 The scapular arch was found in large part adhering to the bodies and 
 neural spiues of a series of the anterior dorsal vertebrae, and was de- 
 tached from it at the academy. The pelvic arch had been slightly 
 crushed, and the lumbosacral vertebra? forced into contact with the ischia, 
 where they remain. A broken extremity of the supposed ilium was 
 
394 GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF THE TERRITORIES. , 
 
 forced into the matrix which supports the ischia. Many of the dorsal 
 and caudal vertehrse were sent, and remain in continuous masses, so that 
 the succession is readily traced, and the true relations of the extremi- 
 ties preserved. 
 
 In removing the matrix from beneath the vertebrae, scales and teeth 
 of some six species of Physoclyst and Physostomous fishes were found,' 
 including an Mnchodus and a Sphyraena, the latter indicating a new 
 species which I have called S. carinata. These animals had doubtless 
 been the food of the Elasmosaurus. 
 
 The end of the muzzle was broken from a part or the whole of the 
 cranium, which has not been rediscovered, though Dr. Turner has made 
 careful search. It was found in front of the vertebrae here regarded as 
 cervical, at some distance from them. 
 
 The whole skeleton has been under considerable pressure, so that 
 most of the ribs have been pressed flat on the vertebrae ; the long para- 
 pophyses of the cervicals have most of them been fractured at their 
 bases and compressed, those of opposite sides thus approaching more 
 nearly in the form of chevron bones than they otherwise would have 
 done. The proximal cervicals are obliquely flattened by the pressure ; 
 the other cervicals have the bodies naturallj^ flat, with the articular 
 surfaces much less so than the median portion. Some of the caudals 
 are obliquely distorted. 
 
 Description — Vertebrw. — The neck may be safely assumed as a point 
 of departure, as it consists of above sixty mostly continuous vertebrae, 
 which graduate to an atlas of very slender proportions. Most of them 
 preserve more or less developed parapophyses. At the posterior ex- 
 tremity of this series, sixteen are perfectly continuous, and in this por- 
 tion a great gradation in form is apparent. The anterior are narrow, 
 compressed, and similar to the more distal cervicals in the elevated po- 
 sition of the lateral angle ; the anterior are subquadrate, thick, and with 
 lower lateral rib, and stronger (?) pleurapophysis. In these respects the 
 latter resemble the dorsals which follow, toward what I believe to be 
 the tail. Four anterior dorsals are in one mass (figured in Plate 3 -,) in 
 this series the lateral angle first approaching is finally lost in the mar- 
 gin of the rib-pit, the posterior thus resembling other dorsals. There 
 can be, so far, little doubt that the anterior and posterior extremities of 
 the masses are correctly interpreted. 
 
 In a series of four anterior dorsals, which, like the preceding, are in 
 their original continuous mass, those of one extremity have centra 
 rounded in section, with inferior rib-pits ; those of the other have quad- 
 rate centra and elevated diapophyses ; the former have the character of 
 the first dorsals, the latter of the median dorsals. The posterior dorsals 
 and anterior caudals form in like manner a continuous series of eleven 
 vertebra, fractured in four places. In them the diapophyses steadily 
 descend, reaching the inferior plane in the last, thus with the reduction 
 of the venus foramina to one, at the seventh, indicating the point of tran- 
 sition from dorsal to caudal series. The zygapophy ses preserve the usual 
 arrangement, but are much compressed, so that the posterior or down- 
 looking are confluent, and scarcely separated by an emargination. 
 
 The neural spines at their bases have a slight posterior obliquity, and 
 the superior portion leans strongly in the anterior direction. The inferior 
 limbs of the cer vi cal pleurapophy ses appear to be entirely wantin g. The 
 articular faces for the chevron bones are seen at the extremity of the 
 inferior rib of the candal. 
 
 Of the cervicals there are both axis and atlas. Of the caudals, 
 probably the distal half at least is lost. A single vertebra near the 
 
GEOLOGICAL SIJKVEY OF THE TERRITORIES. 
 
 395 
 
 middle does uot relate to either of those anterior or posterior to it. 
 There are, therefore, at least four lost from that region also. 
 
 There is a considerable interruption immediately anterior to the last 
 dorsal vertebra. Three large vertebrae, with long diapophyses belong- 
 ing here, were imbedded in the hard matrix which protected the iielvic 
 arch. These are far from relating immediately to the vertebra,^ preserved 
 before and behind them. I estimate the number missing as follows: 
 Seven of the fourteen dorsals preserved have more or less elongate dia- 
 pophyses. In the Plcsiosauri, vertebrae of tli is character are much more 
 numerous; in P. Iiomalospondylus Owen gives seventeen. If we add 
 ten to the series in the present species it will give the abdominal space 
 between the adjacent margins of the o. o, pubis and coracoidea an ex- 
 tent equal to the length of the plevic arch. This is relatively shorter 
 than in the PIcsiosanri. Dr. Turner found that a space of '• three or 
 four" feet intervened between the two portions of the skeleton, which 
 was otherwise continuous. I think ten an average number to represent 
 safely the missing dorsals. 
 
 From the cervical proximal regions probably three vertebrae are miss- 
 ing from two interruptions. The remainder of the servical series ex- 
 hibits three interruptions. Most of the proximals have been broken 
 medially, leaving the articulations solid, an advantage in determining 
 their continuity. Three vertebrae and one-half are thus found to be 
 missing in this region. 
 
 The whole number of vertebrae preserved and lost, with the relative 
 lengths of each, may be stated as follows : 
 
 
 Present. 
 
 Lost. 
 
 Total 
 
 
 No. 
 
 Length in. 
 
 No. 
 
 Length in. 
 
 lengths. 
 
 Cranium . . . ..... .. . 
 
 
 
 
 24. 
 
 22.3 
 
 37.6 
 
 60. 
 
 24 
 
 Cervicals 
 
 68i 
 
 14 
 
 21 
 
 257.5 
 55.10 
 60.4 
 
 3i 
 10 
 30 
 
 279 8 
 
 Dorso-lunibars 
 
 93 4 
 
 Caudals 
 
 120. 4 
 
 
 
 Total 
 
 103| 
 
 43i 
 
 517 6 
 
 
 
 Of this, twenty-two 
 
 This gives the total length to the animal of forty-three feet two 
 inches, which, increased by the amount taken up by intervertebral 
 cartilages, will give roundly about forty-five feet 
 feet must be reckoned to the neck. 
 
 The cervical nertehne are assumed to commence w^here the rib pits 
 cease, and the continuous lateral processes commence. This point is 
 ascertained with difficulty on the specimen. It is, however, perhaps 
 the same point where the longitudinal lateral ridge leaves the upper 
 margin of the rib pit; and it was to the series of vertebrae which pass 
 this point, the scapular bones, the clavicle and coracoid, were found 
 attached. On the anterior dorsals the inferior margin of the rib pit is 
 most prominent, and is finally produced in a flat thin process which is 
 directed obliquely downwards. Both these and the posterior ribs are 
 crushed on the centra and project obliquely below them ; their mode 
 of attachment is thus rendered rather obscure. A similar structure ex- 
 ists in the posterior cervicals of Chnoliasaurtis, while on the anterior 
 dorsals, or where the rib- origins are on the lower plane, short, thick dia- 
 
396 GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF THE TERRITORIES. 
 
 pophyses support the ribs. The proximal cervicals are remarkable for 
 their compressed aud elongate form. They are for a considerable dis- 
 tance longer than any dorsals. The lateral longitudinal ridge rises suc- 
 cessively nearer to the neural arch and disappears. The articular sur- 
 faces are vertically oval, flattened above and below. The inferior faces 
 are slightly grooved in line with the venous foramina. These vertebrae 
 diminish in length, aud, after the posterior third of the series, materially 
 in depth. They diminish to terminal ones of very small size. In most 
 the decurved (?) pleurapophyses are broken near the base, but the basal 
 portion of various lengths generally adheres. They are as wide as a 
 rib and scarcely half as thick. On some of the most anterior vertebrte 
 they are quite short and broad antero-posteriorly. They have much 
 greater autero-posterior extent on the terminal than the proximal cervi- 
 cal centra, having a, base five-sixths the length of the latter. The zyga- 
 l)ophyses have relatively a larger size on these than any other vertebrae. 
 In such the centrum is less compressed, though with concave sides, and 
 with a section rather quadrate. 
 
 Measurements. — The cervical vertebroe from the sixty-sixth to the 
 thirty-ninth are all longer than the dorsals; they commence four inches 
 in length, increase to five, aud diminish to four again. 
 
 Inches. Lin. 
 
 Length of sixty-third cervical 4 9. 2 
 
 Depth articular face of the centrum 3 8. 
 
 Width articular face of the centrum 3 10. 2 
 
 Total elevation ninth do * . . .2 9. 
 
 Anterior-posterior diam. third cervical 2 2. 
 
 Transverse diam. third cervical 2 11. 
 
 Length head of rib 1 9. 7 
 
 Width head of rib 1 3. 
 
 Width shaft of rib 1 10. 5 
 
 Many of the ribs preserved have been pressed upon the vertebrae and 
 crushed. 
 
 The first dorsal is that vertebra which first presents a distinct articu- 
 lation for a rib. The diapophyses are never much elevated above the 
 centrum and are longest on the thirteenth, (inserting seven supposed to 
 be lost.) Their form is stout and much depressed, and distally expanded. 
 They diminish gradually, and on the third are represented hj a longi- 
 tudinal, slightly-concave, articular surface, somewhat similar to those of 
 the caudals. This surface is bounded above and below by a longi- 
 tudinal angulation ; the superior is first distinct on the first, and bounds 
 the articular surface last on the third. They give the transverse section 
 of the posterior cervicals a pentagonal form ; that of the anterior dorsals 
 is nearly circular. The latter are strongly constricted medially, aud the 
 articular faces are slightly concave. The external surface near the in- 
 cluded angle is coarsely ridged, in conformity with coarse cellular texture 
 of the spongy bone. The venous foramina gradually become more 
 widely separated, approaching each other again on the posterior cervi- 
 cals. On the dorsals they occupy the bottom of a more or less pro- 
 nounced concavity. These concavities, on the posterior dorsals, are 
 bounded externally by a strong obtuse longitudinal angulation, giving 
 a quadrate outline to the section of the centrum in this part of the series. 
 
 The posterior cervicals are not readily distinguished from the anterior 
 dorsals. In the latter the ribs appear to be present, of reduced length, 
 judging from the smaller size of the remaiuing heads. The articular pits 
 continue to descend till their lower marginal ridge is the inferior lateral 
 
GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF THE TERRITORIES. 397 
 
 angle of the vertebra. On sucli vertebrre the inferior surface is flat. 
 Tiie neural S]>ines on dorsals and posterior cervicals are of great lieiglit 
 as ^yell as antero-posterior width, and they allow a very narrow interval 
 between them. 
 
 Inches. Lin. 
 
 Antero-posterior diameter (?) twelfth dorsal 3 7.2 
 
 Transverse diameter articular surface 4 10. 
 
 Vertical diameter articular surface 4 2. 5 
 
 Neural canal and spine (latter broken) 5 3. 5 
 
 Length diapophysis twelfth dorsal 4 
 
 "Width diapoi)hysis at middle 1 10. 
 
 Anteroposterior diam. (?)eleventh dorsal 3 4. 5 
 
 Transverse posterior of articular face 5 3. 
 
 Vertical posterior of articular face 3 10. 
 
 Transverse posterior of neural canal 10. 2 
 
 Transverse posterior of articular face, third dorsal 5 2. 5 
 
 Elevation centrum, arch and spine, second dorsal 11 9. 
 
 Elevation upper edge zygapopbysis, second dorsal 6 
 
 Length zygapopbysis, upper edge, second dorsal 1 10. 2 
 
 Length centrum, last cervical 4 
 
 Width centrum articular face cervical 5 3. 
 
 Elevation neural arch and spine cer^^ical 7 9. 
 
 Antero-posterioi; width neural spine of cervical at zygapopb- 
 ysis 3 7. 
 
 The caudal vertebrm have slightly concave articular surfaces, which 
 are not bounded by groove or ridge. The neural arches have flat sides, 
 and there is no longitudinal ridge above the diapophyses. The neural 
 spines are elevated, the margins of tbose of the adjacent vertebrae close 
 together. The diapophysis is very short and wide, terminating in a 
 large oval concavity for the pleurapophyses. Each limb of the chevron 
 bone is attached to an articular surface on the lower posterior face of 
 the vertebra, at the extre^nity of a strong inferior ridge. These inferior 
 ridges are rather close together, and distinguish the vertebrie from those 
 of Cimoliasaurus onagnus, where they are wanting. . They are absent on 
 the anterior seven of the caudal series. The diapophysis is nearer tbe 
 anterior than the j^osterior face of the vertebra. The venous foramen is 
 single and median on all but the last six cervicals. 
 
 In. Lin. 
 
 Anteroposterior diameter of fourth caudal 2 4. 
 
 Transverse-posterior 3 10. 5 
 
 Total elevation 8 
 
 Vertical diameter centrum 3 1.5 
 
 Anterior-posterior diam. diapophysial pit. . 1 9. 2 
 
 Length ninth caudal 1 7.5 
 
 Transverse diameter articular face 1 6. 
 
 Vertical diameter articular face do 1 2. 7 
 
 Heads of fourteen ribs are preserved, and a great number of shafts. 
 The heads are simple, with elongate oval articular face. They are ob- 
 lique in the narrow direction, and frequently in their length also ; tbe 
 margins are somewhat everted. The extremities of the diapophj'ses of 
 the larger dorsal vertebrae are transverse, some flattened, the others 
 more oval; the more anterior are subtriaagular, and the rib pits on the 
 first dorsals are subround or vertically oval. Thus the heads of the ribs 
 also vary. The shafts are all flat, probably more so from pressure. 
 Tbey are frequently curved in the direction of the compression, which 
 
398 GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF THE TERRITORIES. 
 
 suggests a vertical head. They, however, are probably more or less dis- 
 torted, and tbe plane of compression changed. No well-defined distal 
 extremity of a rib can be made out, nor have anything like abdominal 
 ribs been i3reserved. 
 
 The scapular arch is remarkable for its large clavicles (or procoracoids.) 
 As preserved, the latter are quite convex downwards, both autero-pos- 
 teriorly and transversely, while the coracoids are equally concave in 
 both directions. The clavicles have a remarkable external tlat projec- 
 tion, which is separated from the glenoid cavity by a deep sinus. The 
 glenoid cavity is bounded by an elevated ridge, which sends a branch 
 along the claviculo-coracoid suture to the precoracoid foramen. This 
 foramen is^^elatively of small size, and is a longitudinal oval ; the two 
 are separated by an isthmus composed equally of iJrocesses of clavicle 
 and coracoid. The coracoids are very thin except in a transverse por- 
 tion, which extends across behind the precoracoid foramina ; a strong 
 elevated rib extends across the posterior face at this point. The outer 
 margin of the coracoid is thickened, rounded, and slightly concave. 
 
 In. Lin. 
 
 Greatest antero-posterior length scapular arch 33 6 
 
 Greatest antero-posterior length clavicle 14 9 
 
 Greatest antero-posterior length glenoid cavity. 6 9 
 
 Greatest antero-posterior length precoracoid foramen 7 3 
 
 Transverse extent of claviculi 27 
 
 Transverse extent of coracoidea 16 
 
 From acetabulum to foramen 7 6 
 
 The form of the posterior margin of the coracoidea is unknown, and 
 they are much broken on the inner margin. They may have been con- 
 siderably longer than in the accompanying cut. 
 
 The greater part of the pelvic arch appears to be preserved. From 
 the obliquity of the median suture and from the form of the x>ubes, as 
 they are preserved on a large nodule of indurated clay, it is evident 
 that they have formed a boat-shaped support to the abdominal viscera, 
 with an obtuse keel on the median line below. The following diagram 
 will explain the relation of its parts : 
 
 In. Lin. 
 
 Greatest antero-posterior length 25 
 
 Greatest antero-posterior length pubis 13 6 
 
 Antero-posterior median length to notch of ischia 7 
 
 Length coracoids behind notch 4 6 
 
 Greatest width i)ubes 27 6 
 
 Greatest width ischia 21 
 
 The anterior and lateral portions of the pubes are very thin, as are 
 also the median posterior portions of the ischiadic plates. The ,pubic 
 bones are thickest on the posterior margin; they present a downward 
 projecting median convexity near the anterior end. Depth of the 
 articular face, 2 in. 8 lin. 
 
 The superior surface of this arch was brought to light by the exer- 
 tions of my friends, B. Waterhouse Hawkins and William M. Gabb, who 
 removed a large mass of matrix which fortunately accompanied and 
 protected it. This presents a transverse thickening extending across 
 it, and continuous with the posterior margin of the clavicles. A median 
 longitudinal thickenmg extends from this to the anterior emargiuation, 
 embracing in its angle with the transverse, a shallow concavity. The 
 posterior projection which is continuous with the median part of the 
 
GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF THE TEREITOEIES. 399 
 
 iscliia is strongly deflexed behiud the transverse rib, and is continuous 
 witli the basin-like concavity formed by the united i^ubes. The glenoid 
 surface of the pubes is a sigmoid, while that of the ischia is regularly 
 convex. The articulation of the ilium has been exclusively with the 
 former. 
 
 Of the pleurapophysial portion of the two arches nothing appears to 
 be preserved except two latefal, symmetrical, long bones. One was 
 found imbedded in the mass carrying the pelvic arch, and thej' articu- 
 late well with the pubes ; but the articular extremity is too short to 
 articulate with ischia at the same time. Though they resemble the 
 inferior view of the procoracoids, they represent the ilia of PIcsiosaurus. 
 The head is subdiscoid, rather flat, slightly projecting eccentrically 
 with a ligamentous pit. The articular surface is very oblique to the 
 axis of the shaft, and is separated from the surface by a marked angle 
 all around. Nothing like a trochanteric ridge is apparent in this bone. 
 
 lu. Lin. 
 
 Length in middle of curve 9 9 
 
 Diameter at head 3 3 
 
 Diameter distallj' on curve 6 
 
 Diameter distally straight 4 
 
 The shaft is flattened cylindric ; mucli flattened nearest the proximal 
 extremity. The latter is very oblique to the shaft and slightly convex 
 near the proximal margin. 
 
 The end of the muzzle preserved includes also the symphysis and parts 
 of the rami of the mandible. The parts have been crushed together, 
 and the ends of the teeth broken ofl". The alveoli of the two jaws 
 incline at a narrow angle to each other; hence the teeth, which alternate, 
 cross each other near the middles of the crowns. The parts preserved 
 apijear to belong to the inemaxillary bone, though no suture can be 
 found and the bony walls are so thin as to render their obliteration a 
 probability. There is a keeled ridge along the middle line above, which 
 is not continued to the margin of the bone. The form of the muzzle is 
 narrow, the sides subparailel near the tip, which is elongate rounded. 
 The mandibular symphysis, however, is not very elongate, as the rami 
 are given oft' at three inches from the tip. The latter appear to have 
 been quite slender from the various small sections or pieces sent with 
 the muzzle. The premaxillary border of 4 in. 7 liu. exhibits eight teeth, 
 or their alveoli, of which the median two are close together, and not 
 separated by any mandibulars. The sections of the teeth are round or 
 oval, and thefr sizes are irregular, probably on account of diflering age 
 and degree of protrusion. The diameters at alveolar margin vary from 
 6 lines to 3. Their form is slender conic, or with the root slender fusi- 
 form, and the pul}) cavity is small and median, sometimes cylindric, and 
 sometimes narrowed. The surfiice, from a short distance above the 
 alveolar margins to the tip, is marked with acute, thread-like ridges, 
 which are sometimes interrupted, and sometimes furnished with short 
 branchlets. They are more or less undulate, and do not unite, but sim- 
 ply cease as the tip of the tooth is approached. The latter is smooth 
 without lateral cutting edges. The width of the mandible at the com- 
 mencement of the rami is 3 in. .05 lin. ; of the muzzle of the seventh, 
 tooth 3 in. 7.5 liu. ; at the third tooth 2 in. 4.2 lin. 
 
 General Bemarlcs. — The tail is a powerful swimming organ, more or 
 less compressed in life ; hence the specific name, which means flat-tailed. 
 
 The danger of injury to which such an excessively elongate neck has 
 been exposed, would render the recovery of a x)erfect specimen like the 
 
400 GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF THE ^TERRITORIES. 
 
 present an uunsual accident. The neural spines of the dorsal region are 
 so elevated and closely placed as to allow of little or no vertical motion 
 of the column downwards, while those of the cervical and caudal region 
 being- narrower, the elevation of the head is quite possible, and an 
 upward flexure easy. 
 
 The habit of this species, like that of its nearest known allies, was 
 raptorial, as evinced by the numerous 'canine-like teeth, and the fish 
 remains taken from beneath its vertebrae. 
 
 The general form of this reptile, whether it was furnished with large 
 posterior limbs or not, was that of a serpent with a relatively shorter, 
 more robust, and more posteriorly placed body than is characteristic of 
 true serpents, and with two j)airs of limbs or paddles. It progressed 
 by the strokes of its paddles, assisted by its powerful and oar-like tail. 
 The body was steadied by the elevated keel of the median dorsal line, 
 formed by the broad, high neural spines. The snake-like neck was 
 raised high in the air, or depressed at the will of the animal, now arched 
 swan-like preparatory to a j)lunge after a fish, now stretched in repose 
 on the water or deflexed in exploring the depths below. 
 
 Differences from other Saurojyterygia. — The only genus with which it is 
 necessary to compare this present one is CimoUasaurus. The following 
 may be noted as generic distinctions : The series of cervicals rapidly 
 diminishes in CimoUasaurus in absolute size and in relative length of 
 the vertebrte, which are not compressed. In the present genus they 
 maintain a similar and increased length for a considerable distance, 
 diminish in length very gradually and are much compressed. The 
 diapophyses of the dorsal vertebrae, as the}^ descend, in CimoUasaurus, 
 continue well developed until they attain the inferior planes of the 
 centrum, and liave there a downward ilirection. In Elasmosaurus they 
 cease while yet on the middle of the centrum and are replaced by pits 
 throughout the remainder of the length. 
 
 The neural canal is everywhere markedly larger in CimoUasaurus. 
 
 As the characters of lesser significance may be added, that in Cimo- 
 Uasaurus magnus the dorsals with elevated diapoi)hyses are considerably 
 larger in the centra than those in which they are situated lower down. 
 In E. platyurus these vertebrae are of relativelj^ equal length. 
 
 The cervical pleurapophyses in C. magnus are anteriorly considerably 
 stouter and less flattened ; the same applies to more anterior vertebrae, 
 where they are flatter in both. 
 
 In comparing this species with the CimoUasaurus grandis, Leidy, from 
 Arkan>-as, we observe, first, the generic character of the strong inferior 
 diapophyses in the latter. That species marks itself als^ as a preemi- 
 nently short-necked form, as these anterior dorsals are even shorter than 
 in C. magyius, being nearly twice as wide as long. The depth of the 
 articular faces is also relatively greater than in the E. platyurus. 
 
 Localities. — This species has been found in various parts of Kansas 
 besides that whence the specimen above described was procured. Pro- 
 fessor B. F. Mudge obtained vertebrae from a point thirty miles east of 
 Fort Wallace, which probably belong to this animal. 
 
 PYTHONOMORPHA.^ 
 
 This order is more extensively represented in the cretaceous beds of 
 Kansas than any other, no less than six species having been determined 
 up to this time. A seventh, Liodon dyspelor, Cope, has been discovered 
 
 * Foi' the defiuition of this order see Trans. Amer. Philosoiih. Society, 1869, p. 175, and 
 Proc. Boston Soc. N. Hist., 1869, p. 253. 
 
GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF THE TEKEITORIES. 401 
 
 in tlie continuation of the same yellow clialk formation in the Territory 
 of Kew Mexico, and will probably be found in Colorado and Kansas. 
 
 The genera to which these species belong- are CUdastcs, Cope, Liodon, 
 Owen, and ]\Iosasanr7(fty Conybeare. The two latter occur also in the 
 cretaceous strata of Europe. While Mosasaurus is most abundantly 
 represented in the cretaceous of the eastern parts of the CTnited States, 
 Liodon abounds much more in the central regions. 
 
 MOSASAURUS, (CONYBEARE.) 
 
 MOSASAURUS MISSURTENSIS, (HARLAN.) 
 
 {Ichthyosaurus do., Harlan, Trans. Amer. Philos. Soc, IV, 405, Tab. XX, 1834. Batra- 
 chiosaurus, Harlan. Bairachiotherium, Harlan. ? Mosasaurus neovidii, Mcjcv. 1 M. 
 maxlmiUaiii, Golclfuss. 21. missourknsis, Leidy, Cretac. Eept., 1865. PI. VII, figs. 15, 16, 
 17,18.) 
 
 The centra of the vertebrae of this species are moderately depressed.. 
 The centra of the caudals, posterior to the disappearance of the dia- 
 pophyses, are as wide as deep, and of nearlj" similar length, and witli 
 anchylosed chevron bones. A fine cranium figured by Goldfuss shows 
 the croAvus of the teeth to be subcylindric, incurved, and facetted j. 
 but it is not certain that it belongs to this species. 
 
 An unusually perfect sj^ecimen of this species, or one allied to it, was 
 recently exhumed b.y W. E. Webb, near the town of Topeka in Kansas. 
 My friend Professor J. Parker, of Lincoln College, of that place, informs 
 me that it is seventy-five feet in length, and the gentleman who discov- 
 ered it, that it measures eighty feet. Its mandibular rami are stated by 
 the same person to measnre five feet. Measurements of the vertebrae 
 indicate them to be of a size quite similar to those of large individuals 
 which have been discovered in the green-sand of IS!"ew Jersey. They 
 measure as follows, as stated on photographs by my friend W. E. Webb: 
 
 Inches. 
 
 Diameter cervicals centra only 2.5 
 
 Diameter dorsals, with diapoi^hyses 7 
 
 Diameter lumbars 2 
 
 These proportions illustrate again the Ophidian or eel-like form of this . 
 genus, and the relatively large size of the head. 
 The teeth resemble in size those of large specimens of M. d^lcayi. 
 
 LIODON, (OWEN.) 
 
 (Proceed. British Assoc. Adv. Science, 1841, p. 144. Cojie, Trans. Amer. Philos. Soc, . 
 
 1869, p. 200.) 
 
 This genus is characteristically American ; four species are known from 
 the western cretaceous, four from the eastern, {L. mitcMlUi, L. validus, L. 
 sectorius^aiidL. laevis,) and two from the southern, {L.2)eTlaUisa.ndL.cong- 
 ro])s ; ) one species {L. anceps) is British. Some very large species {L. dysjje- 
 lor, L. proriger) belong to it, while L. congrops is one of the smallest of the 
 order. 
 
 LIODON PEORIGER, (COPE.) 
 
 (Transactions Amer. Philos. Soc, 1869, p. 202. Tab. XII, Figs. 22-24. Macrosaurus 
 proriger, Cope, Proceed. Ac. Nat. Sci., Phil., 1869," p. 123. Leidy, Cre|ac. Eept. II, 
 15, 16, [caudal vertebra.]) 
 
 The history of this large Mosasauroid was originally based on material 
 in the Museum Comparative Zoology, Cambridge, Massachusetts, brought 
 26 G " • 
 
402 GEOLOGICAL SUEVEY OF THE TERRITORIES. 
 
 # 
 
 by Professor Louis Agassiz from the cretaceous beds in the neighborhood 
 of Fort Hayes, Kansas, and near the line of the Southern Pacijac Rail- 
 road. It consists of the greater i)art of the muzzle from the orbits, with 
 the right dentary and left pterygoid bones nearly complete j one cervical 
 vertebra, (with hypapophysis,) one dorsal, one caudal with diapophysis, 
 and ten caudals without diapophysis. Smaller portions of the skeleton 
 have also been found by Dr. F. V. Hay den and Professor B. F. Mudge. 
 
 The characters presented by the vertebral column indicate an exces- 
 sively^ elongate reptile ; the transverse diameter of one of the distal caudal 
 vertebrae is less than one-fifth that of a proximal with short diapophysis, 
 while four consecutive ones of the former show but little variation in 
 dimensions. This diminution amounts to f of a transverse diameter of 
 the larger form. With this ratio as a basis, fifty-three § vertebras would 
 form a complete series from caudals one-half the diameter of the last of 
 the four, to the proximal caudal above mentioned. There have been, no 
 doubt, several caudals in advance of the latter, as the diapophyses are 
 small. From the slow rate of diminution of the columns of other species 
 examined, it may be supposed that sixty caudal vertebrce is below 
 rather than above the true number. 
 
 The cervical and dorsal vertebrte have been slightly crushed as they 
 lay on the side, and present a narrower diameter than is normal; the 
 cup of the cervical has not been distorted, and is deeper than wide, 
 Ijresenting the character of Macrosaurus. The rudimental zygospheu 
 consists of a continuation of the roof of the neural canal in front, to 
 adapt itself to the inner face of the down-looking zygapophysis of the 
 l)receding vertebra. The latter is thus received into a groove on the 
 inner side of the up-looking posterior zygapophysis. The dorsals and 
 caudals exhibit with the cervicals that minute, sharply-defined rugosity 
 which characterizes all the projecting margins, especially those of the 
 hypapophysis and diapophyses in this genus and Clidastes. The whole 
 surface of the cervical is marked with either inosculating strise or im- 
 pressed punctse. The same character marks the cranial bones, though 
 they do not present such rugosity as the vertebrse. 
 
 The proximal caudal presents a subhexagonal section, of which the 
 inferior and superolateral sides are longest; articular faces about as 
 broad as high. A broad, smooth sj^ace between the chevron bones. 
 Diapophyses with broad, ovate, transverse section. 
 
 A caudal without diapophyses, anterior to the middle of the series, 
 estimated by the size, is but slightly deeper than long, and with parallel 
 lateral outlines of the articular faces. The neural arch is very much 
 narrowed antero-posteriorly, but has a greater transverse extent at its 
 lower part ; above the spinels much compressed, but not widened. The 
 zygapophyses remain as rudiments just above the small neural canal, 
 but do not probably touch each other. There are two anterior and two 
 posterior narrow ribs on the upper portion of the neural spine. The 
 more distal caudals have wider neural spines, and the arch also has a 
 greater anteroposterior extent. The zygai^ophyses are scarcely traceable 
 and the neural spine is strongly striate. The reverse arrangement is 
 observed in Clidastes propytlion^ where the neural spine of the proximal 
 caudal has considerable extent, while those of the posterior and distal 
 vertebrae are almost cylindric, especially the neurapophyses. 
 
 • Dimensions. 
 
 Inches. 
 
 Dorsal, length j». 3.35 
 
 Dorsal, width cup 2. 5 
 
 Dorsal, depth cup 2. 77 
 
GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF THE TERRITORIES. 403 
 
 Inches. 
 
 Proximal caudal, length 2. 14 
 
 Proximal do., -width cnp 3. 43 
 
 Proximal do., depth cup 3. 23 
 
 Caudal without diap., No. 1, leugth 1.6 
 
 Caudal without diap., No. 1, depth cup 2.65 
 
 Caudal without diap.. No. 1, width cup 2.6 
 
 Caudal without diap.. No. 1, height neural canal 4 
 
 Caudal without diap., No. 1, antero-posterior width neural spine 8 
 
 Caudal without diap., No. 2, length 1.2 
 
 Caudal without diap.. No. 2, depth cup 2. 15 
 
 Caudal without diap., No. 2, width cuj) 1. 86 
 
 Caudal without diap.. No. 2, width neural sp. (antero-posterior) 1. 07 
 
 Caudal without diap., distal, length 5 
 
 Caudal without diap., depth cup '. .85 
 
 Caudal without diap., width cup 64 
 
 Caudal without diap., distal; diameter, autero-posterior, of neural spine 40 
 
 The points of attachment of the chevron bones on the distal vertebrae 
 are strongly-marked pits ; on the anterior, the anterior margins of the 
 I)its are raised and continnous with the chevrons. 
 
 The muzzle presents the usual characters of the large Mosasauroids^ 
 but adds a peculiarity in the prolongation of the premaxillary bone into 
 a cylindric mass forming an obtuse beak beyond the premaxillary teeth. 
 The bone is narrowed anteriorly, and does not descend regularly as in 
 Mosasaurus sp., but continues to its abrupt and narrow termination de- 
 scribed. The extremity is deeper than wide. Immediately in front of 
 and between the anterior premaxillary teeth, a short acuminate projec- 
 tion interi^pts the surface, and in front of this, a transverse depression. 
 Above, the surface becomes flattened, and i)resents two shallow longi- 
 tudinal depressions continuous with the nostrils. Where the premax- 
 illary rather suddenly contracts into its spine, it is materially wider than 
 the maxillary on each side of it ; in M. missuriensis it is narrow^er, accord- 
 ing to Goldfuss. The maxillary border of the nares is rather suddenly 
 concave at the anterior extremity of the nares, narrowing the maxillaries ; 
 the latter gradually widen by the expansion of their inner margins. 
 
 No part of the frontals is preserved, but a considerable part of the 
 Ijre-frontal remains. It unites by a very coarse o"/erlappiug suture with 
 the maxillary, whose outline forms an irregular chevron with the apex 
 pointing forwards in the middle of the maxillary bone. This, it will be 
 seen, is very different from the form given by Goldfuss in the M. missiu^i- 
 ensis, where the most anterior point of the suture is on the nareal mar- 
 gin. The external margin of the bone behind is contracted considerably 
 within the maxillary border, previous to its outward extension toward 
 the orbit. This is much less marked in the GUdastes projjython, but is 
 distinct in M. missuriensis. 
 
 The maxillo-premaxillary suture gradually descends to the alveolar 
 border to the extremity of the maxillary bone, where it descends abruptly, 
 forming an interlocking suture quite different from that squamosal type 
 already observed in other species of the order. The leugth of the pre- 
 maxillary anterior to this point is three-fourths the length of the same 
 to the beginning of the nares. 
 
 The number of teeth on the maxillary bone was probably thirteen ; 
 twelve alveolae and bases remain, and one is added in the position of the 
 posterior of M. missuriensis, if such existed; this may be questioned 
 in consideration of the small number of mandibular teeth. Premaxillary 
 teeth two on each side, the anterior with bases separated onl.>" by a 
 groove. Throughout the whole series the bases of the teeth are con- 
 siderably more exi^osed on the inner than the outer side. 
 
 The crowns are everywhere sub-cylindric at the base, the inner face 
 
404 GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF THE TERRITORIES. 
 
 more convex than tlie outer. Posteriorly there is a i)Osterior cuttiiig 
 ridge, as well as a marked anterior one, both minutely crenulate, but 
 the former disappears till in the anterior teeth there is only an anterior 
 edge, the posterior face being convex and continuous with the inner. 
 There is a trace of cutting edge on the outer portion of the extremity of 
 the crown in the most anterior teeth. The anterior ridge remains very 
 strongly marked. The surface is quite rough with longitudinal ribs, of 
 which eight may be counted on the outer aspect of the second maxillary. 
 These are not strongly marked, and are separated by concave facets. 
 The basal part of the crown is marked by numerous fine sharp strise, 
 which are most distinct on the inner face. 
 
 The external face of the maxillary bone presents three series of for- 
 amina. These rise superiorly on the premaxillary, and increase in num- 
 ber and become irregular on its extremity. 
 
 The ramus of the mandible is massive, and differs from that of 3£osa- 
 saurus giganteus in continuing its i)roportions to its extremity. • Its 
 depth at the latter point is as great as the sixth tooth from the front. 
 It is prolonged beyond the first tooth in correspondence with the pro- 
 longation of the i^remaxillary. This extremity is compressed and obtuse ; 
 its inner face is very rugose, as though there had been a closer union at 
 the symphysis than usual, thongh it would not appear to have been 
 other than ligamentous. The groove for Meckel's cartilage is very large 
 and has been exposed below the last two teeth, as the spleuial terminates 
 at the third. Two series of foramina on the external face of the ramus. 
 There are alveoli© and bases for thirteen teeth on the dentary bone. 
 This, it will be observed, is one more than in M. gracilis^ and one less 
 than in other species of Mosascmr^s. The i)osterior extremity of the 
 dentary shows its marks of reception into the notch of the coronoid ; it 
 is more compressed and less club-shaped than the corresponding part of 
 3L mitcMllii, and would indicate less lateral flexibility than in some 
 otber types. 
 
 The right pterygoid is of less elongate form than in some other species. 
 It presents the sutural face for union with the palatine on the outer an- 
 terior extremity, and'narrows to an apex a little in advance. The den- 
 tigerous face is widest at the anterior third the length, where the outer 
 margin is expanded. This then contracts and is compressed vertical at 
 the tenth tooth, where it is broken off. . The transverse process is given 
 off a little anterior to the ninth tooth. The interior face of the bone is 
 a vertical plane, without projection, except a slight obliquity at the an- 
 terior extremity, and it is clear there has been some interval between 
 this pterygoid and its fellow. The superior margin is obtusely rounded. 
 
 The bases of the i)terygoid teeth are exposed for two-thirds their 
 length, on the outer side of the bone, thus approaching the Plafecarpus. 
 The autero-median are large, and the anterior most closely placed. 
 Their crowns are strongly recurved, round in section, and with a fine 
 sculpture of straight strise, most marked near the base and on the inner 
 side. They are more spaced iDosteriorly than any other species except 
 31. mitcMUii, and are relatively larger than in any except the same 
 species. They have not the com^^ressed form with basal shoulder, 
 characteristic of the 31. dekayi. 
 
 Measurement of muzzle. 
 
 Incites. 
 
 Length of fragment 31. 
 
 Length from end muzzle to pre-frontal 21. 5 
 
 Length from end muzzle to nares 11, 75 
 
 Leng-th from end muzzle to maxillary 5. 75 
 
GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF THE TERRITORIES. 405 
 
 Iufhes. 
 
 Length from eud muzzle to first tooth 2. 5 
 
 Width of muzzle at end 1.5 
 
 Width of muzzle at anter. extremity nares 8. 
 
 Width of premaxillary at anter. extremity nares ^. 3. 3 
 
 Width of maxillary between tenth and eleventh teeth 3. 2 
 
 Depth mandible at extremity 2.5 
 
 Depth mandible at sixth tooth 3.5 
 
 Depth pterygoid at transverse jirocess 2. 5 
 
 Width pterygoid at transverse process 1.4 
 
 Width pterygoid in front 2.2 
 
 Length pterygoid anterior to transverse process 7.2 
 
 Length crown fifth pterygoid tooth 1. 
 
 Length crown second maxillary tooth 1.9 
 
 Diameter crown second maxillary tooth at base 1.1 
 
 The vomers are, as usual, separate and narrow. They are in close 
 contact from the second maxillary to the second premaxillary tooth. 
 Thoughout this part of their length they are embraced by posteriorly 
 produced vertical laminte of the premaxillary bone. These lamime unite 
 just behind the second premaxillary teeth and form a single prominent 
 keel, which disappears between the first premaxillary. 
 
 LIODON. MUDGEI, (COPE.) 
 (Proc. Amer. Philos. Soc., 1870, Dec.) 
 
 I am not quite sure whether this species belongs to this genus or to 
 3Iosasaunis. The characters of its quadrate bone, size, &c., induce me to 
 refer it in^ovisionally to the former. Its determination rests on a series 
 of specimens from the yellow chalk dt a point six miles south of Sheridan, 
 Kansas. They consist of three vertebrre and fragments of atlas, with 
 numerous portions of cranium and proximal extremity of scapula. The 
 I)arts of cranium preserved are the frontal bone without the anterior 
 extremity, and with the adjacent parietal almost complete, parts of the 
 basisphenoid', the suspensorium, the ossa quadrata, and the greater part 
 of the articular. The frontal is flat, with thin edge, longitudinally hol- 
 lowed on each side of the median line, which is marked by a low but 
 acute keel. There is an abundance of foramina and delicate grooves 
 on the surface, and posteriorly elevated stride, which converge to the 
 median keel. The median square projection of the border of the parie- 
 tal is in advance of the lateral portion of the same, and not behind it, 
 as in Clidastes irropython. The fontanelle is large. A marked feature 
 is that the parietal crests unite into a low median ridge a short distance 
 behind the fontanelle, and are not, as in Clidastes propytlion, separated 
 by a horizontal plane. The sutures of the bones forming the side of 
 the brain-case are very obscure. Nevertheless, it appears that the de- 
 scending margin of the parietal does not descend to the front of the 
 alisphenoid, but is margined inferioiiy by the latter to the post-orbital 
 expansion. Xo part of the inferior margin of the alisphenoid can reach 
 the sphenoid, as it terminates in a thin edge, except for a short distance 
 medially, where it is broken off. 
 
 The inferior aspect of the parietal and frontal bones presents a fur- 
 cate keel corresponding to the divergent parietal crests, and a very 
 large funnel for the epiphysis of the brain. The olfactory groove is 
 deep and regular. 
 
 The articular bone is characterized by the prominent longitudinal 
 crest which descends on the inner side from the front of the glenoid 
 cavity to below the posterior attachment of the coronoid bone, where it 
 terminates in a thin edge. Also by the short distance between the 
 
406 GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF THE TERRITORIES. 
 
 margin of the glenoid cavity (cotylus) to commencement (or end) of 
 coronoid suture, indicating a shortening of the posterior part at least 
 of the cranium. The bone is continued forward only immediately under 
 the corMioid, (c. /. r. L. icterictis.) 
 
 The proximal extremity of the quadrate is characteristic, and exhibits 
 features intermediate between those of Liodon ictericus, Cope, and the 
 typical species of 3£osasaurus, as M. fulciatus^ M. cleMyi, &c. Tlie proxi- 
 mal articular face is much like that of M. depressus, (Trans. Amer. 
 Philos. Soc, 1869, p. 187, Fig. 48, No. 3.) The external angle is much 
 smaller than in the Liodons and more anterior; nevertheless it is con- 
 tinued distally as a ridge-like angle separating the antero-lateral from 
 the postero-lateral faces, as in them, and not presenting the gradual 
 blending of the two surfaces, characteristic of the genus Mosasaurus. 
 The postero-lateral face is thus flat proximally, and the meatalpit, which 
 is well developed, cannot be seen from the antero-lateral face. .^ The 
 distal part of the quadrate is lost so that I cannot determine the char- 
 acter of the ridges there. 
 
 The basal element of the axis bears a strong hypapophysis without 
 articular faces, but very rugose surfaces. The same portion of the atlas 
 is a convex i)arallelopipedon with median rugose tuberosity, and very 
 rugose extremities. Its surface is not separated from its body anteriorly 
 by a deep groove as in Liodon. 
 
 The articular facets of the scapula are much broader than in the other 
 species here described, indicating a head or wider articulation of the 
 humerus. No limb bones were preserved. 
 
 The vertebrae are too much injured to be characteristic, with one ex- 
 ception. This one is a posterior dorsal, and had had compressed 
 centrum, or, at least, not depressed. The inferior face is convex trans- 
 versely, and there is a slight concavity below each diapophysis. 
 
 Measurements. 
 
 M. 
 
 Parietal length 0.074 
 
 Parietal width between anterior and crests 048 
 
 Parietal least width 022 
 
 Prontal interorbital width 092 
 
 Quadrate width above 002 
 
 Quadrate length from pit to proximal end .' 0.023 
 
 Articular length, lower edge 015 
 
 Articular depth, in front of cotylus 035 
 
 Articular depth at coronoid 055 
 
 Posterior dorsal length 0.495 
 
 Scapula, proximal width 051 
 
 This species differs from all those of Mosasaurus and Liodon, in which 
 the form of the quadrate is known in the character of that bone. From 
 L. Iwvis and L. congrops, in which that element is unknown, it differs in 
 the stouter or less slender vertebrae ; from L. proriger in its much smaller 
 size. 
 
 Its size is a little less than the L. ictericus or L. validus. It is dedi- 
 cated to Professor Mudge, in recognition of the valuable results of his 
 investigations as State geologist of Kansas. 
 
 LIODON ICTERICUS, (COPE.) 
 (Proceed. Amer. Philos. Soc, December, 1870.) 
 
 Characteristics : External angle of the osquadratum close by the mea- 
 
GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF THE TERRITORIES. 407 
 
 tns and continued as a rounded ridge, separating the anterior and exter- 
 nal faces of the bone. Median posterior ridge not prominent. Centra of 
 dorsal vertebrae depressed. Humerus broad, short. 
 
 Description : This species is represented by portions of cranium, as 
 post frontal, susparsorial, pterygoid articular, and quadrate bones; by 
 parts or wholes of seven, vertebrte, which are all dorsals, and by 
 scapula and coracoid, with many elements of the fore limb. The latter 
 includes humerus, radius, a carpal, and numerous metacarpals and pha- 
 langes. 
 
 The species is first well characterized by the form of the quadrate 
 bone. This element lacks a portion of the ala, and the postero-superior 
 decurved i^rocess, but is otherwise perfect. Its form is intermediate 
 between that in L. validtis, Cope, and Mosasaunis depressus, Cope. Its 
 external angle of the proximal extremity is posterior to its usual posi- 
 tion, as in the former species, but is less prominent than in it. It ex- 
 tends to near the distal end, disappearing between the extremities of the 
 median posterior and the distal longitudinal angles. The former of 
 these is short and it disappears by a gradual descent distally, in a very 
 rugose margin. The distal longitudinal is short and acute, not promi- 
 nent at the distal extremity. From the posterior position of the prox- 
 imal external angle, the alar articular surface is somewhat elongate. 
 The i)ostero-external face above the meatus is proportionately short. 
 The meatal pit is scarcely one-fifth the usual size, so far as determinable 
 from the present surface, but it is possible that the greater part is filled 
 by an impacted mass of bone derived from the adjacent ridge. The 
 margins of the articular extremities and of the ala are striate and papil- 
 lose rugose. No meatal knob. 
 
 The suspensorium is slender. It is peculiar in the great extent of the 
 exoccipital element, which covers the whole superior surface, and ex- 
 tends externally over the opisthotic to the squamosal, concealing the 
 former, except its anterior margin. The prootic sends a small proximal 
 portion only to the superior face. 
 
 The pterygoid has been free from its fellow medially. A distal and 
 median portions have been lost ; the remaining portions present bases 
 and alveoliB for eleven teeth. The fangs are rugulose and but little 
 swollen ; probably five to seven stood on the lost portions. The bases 
 of the crowns are circular. The external process of the bone is slender 
 and flat. 
 
 The portion of the mandible preserved includes much of the articu- 
 lar and adherent parts of the angular. The laiter forms a narrow band 
 on the lower edge of the external face, and one twice as wide on the 
 inner face. The only characteristic feature is the lowness of the ridge, 
 which descends and extends anteriorly from the anterior margin of the 
 cotylus for the quadratum. 
 
 Of the vertebrae several are so distorted by i)ressure as to be uncharac- 
 teristic. Two well-preserved anterior dorsals have transversely oval 
 articular surfaces excavated openly above for the neural canal. One is 
 from a i)osition anterior to the other, and these surfaces are less oval, 
 though still transverse. The centra of both are very concave in profile 
 below, aird expand both interiorly and laterally to the edge of the cup. 
 A deep groove surrounds the base of the posterior face. In the ante- 
 rior dorsal the neural arch is preserved. It exhibits an approach to 
 a zygosphen articulation more marked than in any other Liodon, and 
 is hence nearer CUdastes in this respect, as well as in the slender ptery- 
 goids. A zygosphen is not separated from the zygapophyses, owing to 
 their connection by a lamina of bone. The notches at the posterior end 
 
408 GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF THE TERRITORIES. 
 
 of the arch for this prominence are marked. The nenral spine had a 
 strong anterior ala, the base of which extends to the summit of the 
 neural arch. It ijresents a fine striation vertical to the centrum and 
 oblique to the edge of the bone, as is seen in C. irropifthon, Cope. The 
 diapophysis on this vertebra looks obliquely upward and carries a ver- 
 tical articular surface which is concave behind. The line of its lower, 
 extremity falls the depth of the neural arch below the latter, and of its 
 upper to the apex of the canal in front. The more posterior vertebra 
 has as usual a broader articular rib surface, the diapophysis being flat- 
 tened above and below. The marginal and angular surfaces arestriate- 
 rugose on these and the other vertebme. One of the free hypapophy- 
 ses of a cervical is preserved. It has a subtrigonal section, and is 
 longer than wide, and obtuse. Its posterior tiices are exceedingly rugose. 
 
 A cervical rib is compressed and short. Head narrow, long, simple, 
 the adjacent sides striate-rugose. Sides with a shallow groove. 
 
 The scapular arch is represented by an entire right scapula and prox- 
 imal part of right coracoid. The former is broader than in any of the 
 species in which I have seen it (four only) and is flat, and above, thin. 
 Its anterior extension is greatest below, its posterior atjove, at the supe- 
 rior angle. The lower posterior margin is strongly concave and thick- 
 ened. The antero-superior margin is a regularly convex arc of more 
 than 180°. The lower portion in front is on a diflerent plane and is the 
 rudimental acromion. The articular surface with the scapula is rugose, 
 and the glenoid cavity not less so. 
 
 The proximal portion of the coracoid is flat. It presents the usual 
 foramen near the anterior margin, and the shorter concavity of the an- 
 terior margin leads to the belief that the anterior extremity of the bone 
 is the more prolonged, as in Clidastes propytJwn. 
 
 The glenoid cavity is not concave, but merely two adjacent flattened 
 rugose surfaces. 
 
 Consequently, the humerus has no head, but merely an elongate artic- 
 ular surface, which exhibits a median keel and a short, angular expan- 
 sion near the middle. This bone is of remarkable form, more resembling 
 that I have described in CUdastes iwopytlion* than any other, and very 
 dilferent from that described by Leidy in Platecarpus tympaniticjis. It 
 is a broad, flat bone, expanded at the extremities in one plane, distally, 
 so as to be as wide as long. In the present individual it is crushed by 
 pressure, so that its thickness is not readily determinable. Its external 
 surface rises into a crest medially at the narrowest portion, which con- 
 tinues to the lateral angle of the proximal end, following parallel to one 
 of the borders. A moderate thickening exists on the opposite side, a 
 little beyond the extremity of the crest. Strongly rugose strine extend 
 to the edges of the articular faces. An oval rugose muscular insertion 
 exists on the least prominent of the distal angles, and not on a pro- 
 cess, as in G. proj)ytlion. 
 
 A bone which, from its analogy to the radius of the last-named species, 
 I suppose to be that bone, accompanies the others. It is flat, truncate 
 proximally, and with nearly parallel borders on the proximal half. 
 Distally it is obliquely expanded, the outline forming a segment of an 
 ellipse whose axis is oblique to that of the bone. Its extremities are 
 rugose striate. 
 
 One carpal remains ; it is a quinquelateral bone, one side being mar- 
 ginal and concave. Perhaps it is the intermedial. There are several 
 elements which are probably metacarpals. The general structure of the 
 
 * See Trans. Arner. Pliilos. Soc, 1869, 219, Tab. XII, Fig. 17. 
 
GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF THE TERRITORIES. 409 
 
 "whole limb may be determined from tliese and from the numerous j;^a- 
 langes. The former are flattened and with oblique extremities ; the latter 
 more cylindric with a transverse truncation. Both have a median con- 
 traction, which becomes less marked in the distal ones ; these are also 
 more cylindric, entirely so at the distal extremities, which are concave. 
 All of these elements are rod-like, much more slender than any of those 
 figured by Cuvier or Leidy. Those immediately following ithe meta- 
 carpals are flattened, but thicken distally. 
 
 The number of digits cannot be readily determined, but four may be 
 certainly distinguished. The general simiLarity in construction of' the 
 manus to that of a cetacean mammal is noteworthy. 
 
 Measiirements. 
 
 M. 
 
 Length suspensorium (anteriorly) 0. Ill 
 
 Width suspensorium medially 031 
 
 Quadrate, greatest length 099 
 
 Quadrate, width of ala 066 
 
 Quadrate, thickness behind 03 
 
 Quadrate, length of distal extremity 043 
 
 Pterygoid, length six alveoli 055 
 
 Anterior dorsal, length centrum 059 
 
 Anterior dorsal, width cup ". 0515 
 
 Anterior dorsal, depth 038 
 
 Anterior dorsal, expanse poster, zygapophyses 0395 
 
 Anterior dorsal, expanse diapophyses 001 
 
 Anterior dorsal with neural canal 0135 
 
 Anterior dorsal, depth neural canal Oil 
 
 Posterior dorsal, depth ball 019 
 
 Posterior dorsal, width ball . 0125 
 
 Posterior dorsal, length centrum 0555 
 
 Posterior dorsal, expanse diapophyses 088 
 
 Scapula, length 145 
 
 Scapula, width proximal 07 
 
 Scapula, width median 112 
 
 Coracoid, width i^roximal 066 
 
 Humerus, length 154 
 
 Humerus, width proximal • 119 
 
 Humerus median 075 
 
 Humerus, distal (restored from 0. propytlion) 158 
 
 Radius, length 115 
 
 Eadius, width proximal 061 
 
 Eadius, width distal (oblique) 105 
 
 Carpal, length 04 
 
 Carpal, width .037 
 
 Metacarpal, length 095 
 
 Metacarpal, width proximally 045 
 
 Metacarpal, width medially 018 
 
 Metacarpal, width distally 034 
 
 Phalange (medial) length 085 
 
 Phalange (medial) width proximally 027 
 
 Phalange (distal) length 059 
 
 Phalange (distal) width distally 0082 
 
 Eamus mandibuli, depth in front of cotylus 056 
 
 Cervical rib, length 074 
 
410 GEOLOGICAL SUEVEY OP THE TERRITORIES. 
 
 The total length of the anterior limb could not have been less than 
 0.90 m., which allows of five phalanges in the longest digit. There may 
 have been more. That the digits were of unequal lengths is indicated 
 by portions of two in the matrix accompanying the specimens, where 
 the articulation of two phalanges falls opposite the shaft of one of the 
 adjoining digits. The phalanges were separated by a short interval of 
 cartilage. The size ©f this reptile was near that of L. validus, perhaps 
 thirty-five to forty feet in length. 
 
 The affinities of this species, as incidentally pointed out, are to those 
 Liodons which approach Clidastes. This is indicated by the many ptery- 
 goid teetli, the rudimental zygosphen articuMion, the regular striiE of 
 the bones, and the forms of the limb bones. In Mosasaurus the humerus 
 is shorter and the phalanges are longer. 
 
 The specimens on which this species rests were discovered by Profes- 
 sor B. F. Mudge, State geologist of Kansas and professor of geology in 
 the State Agricultural College of Kansas, on the north bank of the 
 Smoky Hill Eiver, thirty miles east of Fort Wallace, Kansas. 
 
 Numerous fragments of another larger individual were found by Pro- 
 fessor Mudge near the same locality, which belong i)robably to the same 
 species. Among them are a portion of the maxillary bone with bases 
 of two teeth ; the bases of the crowns where broken off are not com- 
 pressed, slightly but oval. A radius is a flat bone, more dilated at one 
 extremity than that of Clidastes propython. 
 
 M. 
 
 Length radius 0. 108 
 
 Width radius, narrower extremity 064 
 
 Width radius, wider extremity 08 
 
 Width radius, medially 042 
 
 This species cannot be confounded with the L. proriger, Cope, and L. 
 congrop)s, Cope, owing to its depressed vertebral centra ; from L. mitcliil- 
 lii, De Kay, the equal and numerous pterygoid teeth separate it at once. 
 
 LIODON DYSPELOR, (COPE.) 
 (Proceed. Amer. Philos. Soc, Dec, 1870, p. 574.) 
 
 This species is represented by numerous vertebrae of the dorsal, lum- 
 bar, and caudal regions, and other remains, which will, at a future time, 
 be more fully described than is possible at present. The vertebrae in- 
 dicate the largest mosasauroid reptile known, and are remarkable for 
 their form as well as size. 
 
 The centra of the dorsals are much depressed, quite as in L. perlatus, 
 Cope, and Mosasaurus hrumhyi, Gibbes. Their articular faces are of 
 transverse lenticular form, the superior arch being a little more convex 
 than the inferior, and obtusely emarginate for the floor of the neural 
 canal. The superior outline is thus bilobed ; the lobes rounded. The 
 transverse curvature of the articular ball is quite regular, and not, as in 
 Mosasaurus maximus, more steeply inclined at the external or lateral an- 
 gles. A rather broad, smooth baud separates the edge of the ball from 
 the surfaces of the centrum adjacent. The latter are rather finely striate- 
 ridged from the edge of this band. The inferior outline of the centrum 
 is strongly concave, and with two venous foramina separated by a wide 
 interval. The basis of a diapophysis on a lumbar is very broad, meas- 
 uring more than half the length of the centrum. In general characters 
 this lumbar resembles the dorsal, including the emargination for the 
 neural canal, but is shorter in relation to its length. 
 
GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF THE TERRITORIES. 411 
 
 The depressed form of tlie lumbar centra gives place gradually on 
 the caudals to a more elevated pentagonal outline, which is still more 
 reduced in width in more posterior regions. The hoemal arches are 
 articulated and on the anterior caudals to slightly elevated bases ; on 
 the more posterior the bases are reduced in height, but more widely 
 and deeply excavated. I have not seen the most distal caudals, and 
 hence cannot determine whether their chevron bones articulate in pits, 
 as is the case with those of L. 'perlatus, L. proriger, dc. On a caudal, 
 where the depth of the centrum a little exceeds the transverse diameter, 
 the iliapophysis has become narrow and thick. The excavation for the 
 •neural canal is strongly marked on the more anterior caudal. The 
 smooth border of the articular ball is here narrow, and the superficial 
 nya3 are fine and confined to the anterior part of the centrum. 
 
 Measurements. 
 
 M. 
 
 Transverse diameter ball post-dorsal 0. 144 
 
 Vertical diameter 097 
 
 Vertical diameter anterior caudal 094 
 
 Transverse diameter anterior caudal .■ 107 
 
 Length centrum anterior caudal 071 
 
 Transverse diameter neural canal 0145 
 
 Transverse diameter basis diapophysis 032 
 
 Transverse diameter basis diapophysis of a more distal caudal. . . 0278 
 Longitudinal diameter chevron articulation of a more distal caudal . 023 
 
 Length centrum - - . 068 
 
 Depth ball centrum 093 
 
 Width ball centrum 091 
 
 Length centrum of a lumbar 106 
 
 Width of articular ball 125 
 
 In instituting a comparison between this and other known mosasau- 
 ridse it will be necessary to consider species referred to Mosasaurus, as 
 well as to liodon, from the fact that some of the former may really be 
 liodons. The liodons, with compressed or round dorsal or lumbar 
 vertebrae, may be dismissed from comparison. Of the depressed species 
 L. perlatus^ Cope, is known from specimens of one-third or less the size 
 of the present one, which are further peculiar in having the diapophyses 
 of the lumbars to stand on the anterior half only of the centrum. In 
 L. icterieus, Cope, the centra are less depressed and the size still smaller 
 than in the last. 
 
 Among Mosasauri, with depressed vertebral centra, it is to be noted 
 that none present so great a degree of depression and lateral extension, 
 except the M. hrumbyi of Gibbes. They are all also much smaller. The 
 M. brumhyi was founded by Dr. Gibbes on two lumbar vertebrae from 
 the cretaceous of Alabama, which resemble those of the M. dyspelor 
 in form and also in size. It is probably its nearest ally, and may be a 
 liodon. Dr. Gibbes established the genus Amphorosteus for it, but 
 without sufficient evidence to support it. The principal point of dis- 
 tinction between it and the L. dyspelor, which I observe, is the lack 
 in the former of the strong emargination of the superior margin of 
 the articular surface for the floor of the neural canal, which is so 
 marked in the latter. I have only the figures of Gibbes to rely on for 
 this particular, and it is scarcely probable that the artist would have 
 overlooked it had it existed. Should the bounding prominences have 
 been worn off, then the restored centrum would have had a notably 
 
412 GEOLOGICAL SUKVEY OF THE TERRITORIES. 
 
 greater vertical diameter than in the L. dyspelor, in the same portions 
 of the vertebral column. As a second character I note that (relying, 
 as before, on Gibbes's figures) the external angles of the depressed ball 
 are not so extended laterally in 31. hrumbyi. 
 
 In size the vertebrse of the present animal exceed those of the 
 31. hnimbyi. The latter has been hitherto the largest known species 
 of the order PytJioiio^norpJia, exceeding two-fold in its measurements 
 the 3f. giganteus of Belgium. So the present saurian is twice as great 
 in dimensions as the New Jersey species I have called 31. maximus. 
 If, as is not entirely certain, the 31. missuriensis, discovered by Webb, meas- 
 ures 75 feet in length, the 31. maximus measured 80, and the 3r. dyspelor . 
 would not have been less than 100 feet in length. This would be the long- 
 est reptile known, .antl approaches very nearly the extreme of the mam- 
 malian growth, seen in the whales, though of course without their bulk. 
 Such monsters may w^ell excite our surprise, as well as our curiosity, in 
 the inquiry as to their source of food supply, and what the character 
 of cotemporary animals preserved in strata of the same geologic horizon. 
 
 The locality whence this reptile was procured is near Fort McEae, in 
 New Mexico. It was discovered by Dr. W. B. Lyon, at that post, 
 and by him sent to the Army Medical Museum at Washington, whose 
 director placed it in the collection of the Smithsonian Institution. 
 The attention to the i)aleontology of his neighborhood by Dr. Lyon 
 will always be cause of satisfaction to students, and his name will be 
 remembered with that of Turner, (discoverer of the JElasmosaurus pla- 
 tytirus, Cope,) Sternberg, and others. 
 
 The stratum is the yellow chalk of the upper cretaceous, which has 
 yielded the L. ictericiis, L. proriger, PoTycotylus, &c., in Kansas, and 
 of whose western extension into New Mexico the present species is 
 evidence. 
 
 CLIDASTES, (COPE.) 
 
 (Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci., Phila., 1868, 233 ; Proc. Bost. Soc. Nat. Hist., 1869, 258 ; Transac. 
 American PMlos. Soc, 1869, 211.) 
 
 This genus is only known from the American cretaceous, though I 
 have little doubt that it will be discovered in other parts of the world. 
 It is distinguished from all other genera of the order by the presence of 
 the zygosphenal articulation of the vertebrae. The humerus is of the 
 most remarkable form, recalling slightly that of the mole among mam- 
 mals, and indicates a most powerful swimming paddle or flipper in the 
 position of the fore limb. The species do not average so large a size 
 as those of the two i)receding genera ; the largest, G. cineriarum, did not 
 exceed 35 feet in length. There are four species known, of which two 
 occur in the cretaceous beds of Kansas. They are C. cineriarum, Cope, 
 Kansas ; C. iguanavus, Cope, New Jersey ; G. intermedins.) Leidy, Kansas 
 and Alabama; and G.propytJion, Cope, Alabama. 
 
 CLIDASTES INTEIllMEDIUS, (LEIDY.) 
 
 (Proceed. Acad. Nat. Sci., January, 1870, p. 4.) 
 
 This species is established on several cervical and dorsal vertebrae, with 
 portions of mandibular rami and other bones, from Alabama, discovered 
 by Dr. Nott, of Mobile. 
 
 They indicate a species intermediate in size between the two others here 
 described. The dorsal vertebrae are rather slender, more so than in G. 
 iguanaviis^ and with articular faces with cup and ball remarkably 
 
GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF THE TERRITORIES. 413 
 
 oblique to the axis of tlie vertebra. The dense layer of the bone is 
 thrown into numerous rugosities and ridges, as in C. propython. 
 
 What is more characteristic is the robust and even swollen form of 
 the crowns of the teeth, and their slightly rugose enamel for the basal 
 three-fourths the height. There are no facets. In the Kansas speci- 
 men there are twelve teeth in the dentary bone. 
 
 Eotten limestone upper cretaceous, of Pickens County, Alabama, 
 and yellow chalk of Kansas. 
 
 CLIDASTES CrNEEIARUM, (COPE.) I 
 
 (Proc. Amer. Philos. Soc, Dec, 1870, p. 583.) ' 
 
 The largest species of this genus, as indicated by the zygosphen artic- 
 ulation of the vertebroe. 
 
 The locality where it was found furnished also the L. mtidr/er, but the 
 specimens were taken from the gray bed, perhaps the same that produced 
 the Masmosam'us platyurus^ Co)5e. They consist of vertebra; and a ptery- 
 goid tooth. There are tw^o anterior dorsals, three lumbars, and one 
 caudal. The articular faces of the dorsals are broad vertical ovals. 
 They increase in width on the lumbars till on the last of these they as- 
 sume the sub-pentagonal form characteristic of many species, and which 
 is still more marked on the caudal. The centrum of the anterior dor- 
 sal is much compressed; inferiorly slightly concave longitudinally reg- 
 ularly and prominently convex transversely. Conversely, the rims of the 
 cup and ball are strongly expanded, the latter with surrounding groove. 
 The diapophyses of the lumbars are of considerable length, exceed- 
 ing in this respect those of Mo'sasaurus we possess, where these parts are 
 l^reserved. On the median of the lumbars the inferior surface of the 
 centrum first becomes truncate or i^lane, and separated from that below 
 the diapophyses, which become slightly concave. The expansion for the 
 ball becomes more abrupt and striking on these vertebrae. The caudal 
 is a little more compressed than the lumbars, and presents the charac- 
 ter of coossifled chevron bones. These are slender and longitudinally 
 grooved. 
 
 A single pterygoid tooth was found in the matrix on one of the dorsals. 
 The basis is short and much swollen ; the crown curved, acute, a little 
 compressed, and with an obuse cutting edge posteriorly. 
 
 Measurements, 
 
 Vertebrse, &c., from gray bed : 
 
 M. 
 
 Anterior dorsal, length of centrum 0. 0608 
 
 Anterior dorsal, depth pf articular ball 038 
 
 Anterior dorsal, width of articular ball 038 
 
 Anterior dorsal, diameter behind diapoj)hyses 029 
 
 Anterior dorsal, depth of articular face for rib 022 
 
 Lumbar, length of centrum 06 
 
 Lumbar, depth of ball 037 
 
 Lumbar, width , 039 
 
 Lumbar, length of remnant of diapophysis 046 
 
 Lumbar Ko. 2, length of centrum 055 
 
 Lumbar 1:^0. 2, width of zygosphen 0182 
 
 Caudal, length of centrum 041 
 
 Caudal, depth of cup 04 
 
 Caudal, width 04 
 
414 GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF THE TERRITORIES. 
 
 M. 
 
 Caudal, width of basis diapopliysis 0245 
 
 Caudal, width between chevron rami 0115 
 
 Pterygoid tooth, height of crown , 0125 
 
 Pterygoid tooth, diameter of pedestal 013 
 
 This species was found by Professor Mudge, near the locality of the 
 Liodon inudgei^ six miles south of Sheridan, Kansas. 
 
 It is only necessary to compare this species with G. intermedius, Leidy,* 
 as the (J. iguanavus and C. propython have depressed vertebral centra. 
 Those of the first are round, of the present compressed. The C. mter- 
 medius also agrees with the two others in the obliquity of the articular 
 faces to the transverse i)lane of the centrum ; in 'the present species 
 these planes are parallel. This species is also larger than the C. iguan- 
 avus^ Cope; the C. intermedius is smaller. 
 
 There is another species from New Jersey to which it is more nearly 
 allied, a vertebra of which I have described under the head of Liodon 
 Icevis (Trans. Amer. Philos. Soc, 1869, p. 205,) and figured 1. c. Tab. 
 V, Fig. 5, under the erroneous name of Macrosaurus validus. This 
 probably does not belong to the Liodon Icvvis, ' which does not possess 
 the zygosphen articulation, but is most likely allied to the present 
 species, and a true Clidastes. When comj)ared with a vertebra from 
 the same position in the column, as determined by the i^ositiou of the 
 diapophyses, the articular faces are still more compressed, and the in- 
 ferior surface of the centrum, instead of being regularly convex, forms 
 a i)lane separated from lateral concavities by an obtuse angle. There 
 is less expansion of the margins of the cup and ball. The size is also 
 greater. I jiropose to distinguish this species as Clidastes antivalidus^ 
 Cope. It is from the darker stratum of the green sand, near Medford, 
 New Jersey. 
 
 TELEOSTEI. 
 
 Physostomi. 
 
 SAURODONTIDiE, (COPE.) 
 
 (Proceed. Amer. Philosopli. Soc., November, 1870, p. 529.) 
 
 The genus Sauroceplialus of Harlan and its allies have been referred 
 to the neighborhood of the Acanthopterygian family of the SpliyrcenidcB 
 by Professor Agassiz in his Poissons Fossiles, after having been re- 
 garded by Harlan and Hays as rei^tiliau. This was an imi;)ortant step 
 in the right expression of its affinities ; but I take the present oppor- 
 tunity of making another progress in the true interpretation of its rela- 
 tions, favored as I am by the opportunity of examining new material 
 not accessible to former authors. My conclusion, it will be observed, 
 differs widely from that heretofore maintained. 
 
 Some years after Harlan's description of Saurocephalus lanciformis 
 appeared. Dr. Hays described a second species under the name of Sau- 
 rodon leanus. This I believe to represent a genus distinct from the for- 
 mer. A third genus more remote is characterized in the present article. 
 
 The characters of first importance which may be assigned to these 
 genera are: Yertebrse short, numerous; their neural arches united with 
 centrum by persistent suture. Tail vertebrated or heterocercal. Supe- 
 rior arch of the mouth formed by the short premaxillaries and long 
 
 * Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci., PhiladelpMa, 1870, p. 4. 
 
GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF THE TERRITORIES. 415 
 
 maxillaries. Teetli one-rowed, with fangs received into alveoli more or 
 less confluent at their openings. Anal or caudal radii with complex 
 segmentation. 
 
 These characters are most of them entirely contradictory of any 
 affinity to the Siyhyrwnidcc, those presented by the vertebra? indicating 
 a nearer approach to Amia. The structure of the mouth is not that 
 of any acanthopterygian fish, and with the complex segmentation 
 of some of the radii approaches nearer such types as the Characinidce. 
 The form of the vertebral centi'a is utterly different from that of the 
 Splujnvnidcc ; in the SaurodontkJcc they are short, little contracted 
 medially, and deeply grooved on the sides ; in the Sphijncnidcc, excep- 
 tional among teleosts in being elongate, much contracted, smooth, and 
 grooveless ! 
 
 The characters presented by the teeth and vertebrae of Sanrocephaliis 
 remind one much of Scrrasalmo, though the genus is no doubt in other 
 respects widely removed from that group. On the characters above 
 enumerated, I propose the family Saurodoniida'. Its precise position I 
 am not prepared to determine at present, though I have little doubt 
 that it is related to the ISalmonidw, and chipeidcv. With the remains 
 of species of this group occur numerous scales, which maj' belong to the 
 former. They are cycloid and without ganoine. 
 
 The three genera are distinguished by the form of their jaws and 
 teeth : in Saurocephalus the crowns are shortened, much compressed, 
 and with sharp edges; in Saurodon the crowns are elongate, subcylin- 
 dric, and slightly curved near the apex. In IchtJiyodectes the teeth are 
 similar to those of Saurodon, but the margins of both jaws are without 
 the large foramina so j)rominent in both the other genera. There 
 appear to be some important differences also in the vertebrae, which 
 will be mentioned below. 
 
 In the Transactions of the American Philosophical Society for 1856, 
 Dr. Leidy treats Saitroccjihalus as a sphyrsienoid fish, and regards Smi- 
 rodon as a synonyme. He corrects the erroneous references of some 
 European authors, showing the Saurocephalus of Dixon to be a Xiphias, 
 and the Saurodon of Agassiz to be some other genus which he calls 
 CimoUchtJiys^ without characterizing it. This form is supposed to be 
 established on i)alatine teeth, and if so, is well distinguished, as it will 
 be seen below that Saurocephalus has no teeth on the palatine bones. 
 He also refers two other species of supposed Saurocephalus of Agassiz 
 to a new genus caUed Protospkyrcena, without characters. This I think 
 rests on mandibular teeth of true Saurocephali. 
 
 SAUKOCEPHALTJg, (HARLAN.) 
 
 (Joum. Acad. Nat. Sci.,Phila., 111,337. f XiphactimiSj'Leidj, Proc. Ac. Nat. Sci., Pliila., 
 
 1870, 12.) 
 
 SAUROCEPHALUS LANCIFORlNnS, (HARLAN,) 1. C. 
 
 (Med. and Phys. Researches, 362. Leidy, Trans. Amcr. Philos. Soc, 1856, Tab. Saiiro- 
 don lancifonnis, Hays, Trans. Amer. Philos. Soc, 1830, 476.) 
 
 Established on a right superior maxillary bone from a locality near 
 the Missouri River. It differs from that of the other species in having 
 a very elongate superior suture with the premaxillary bone, and in the ' 
 very short dental crowns, which are as wide as deep. The largest 
 species ; known from the jaw. ^ 
 
416 GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF THE TERRITORIES. 
 
 SAUEOCEPHALUS PHLEBOTOMXJS, (COPE.) 
 (Proceed. Amer. Philos. Soc., Nov., 1870, p. 530.) 
 
 Established on some vertebrae and portions of tbe cranium, the latter 
 iucludiug the dentary, maxillary, part of the premaxillary, the palatine, 
 and vomerine bones, compressed into a mass by pressure, the separate 
 pieces preserving nearly their normal relations. From the latter the 
 followiug characters may be derived : 
 
 Palatine bones toothless ; teeth of both maxillary and dentary, with 
 compressed crowns, which are longer than wide at base, and closely 
 placed, those of the deutary twice as large as those of the maxillary. 
 Maxillary bone proximally deep ; dentary shallower, the maxillary with 
 elongate suture with the premaxillary behind. 
 
 The teeth are equilateral, withont intermarginal groove or barb, and 
 with smooth enamel surface, or only minutely striate under the micro- 
 scope. A series of larger foramiua extends along the alveolar margin of 
 the maxillary and dentary bones, one foramen to each tooth. The alve- 
 oloe are continent as they approach this margin. 
 
 There are three vertebrae, which present two pairs of deep longitudinal 
 grooves, viz : two on each side, t\YO on the inferior, and two on the su- 
 perior face of the bone ; the last receives the basal articulation of the 
 haemapophyses. The centra are crushed ; their measurements with 
 those of the jaws are as follows : 
 
 M. 
 
 Length centrum 025 
 
 Long diameter (crushed) 035 
 
 Short diameter (crushed) 0175 
 
 Depth maxillary bone anteriorly 031 
 
 Depth dentary bone anteriorly , 015 
 
 Length crown inferior tooth . 006 
 
 Number crown inferior tooth in .01m „ 3 
 
 Number crown superior tooth in .01m 4. 5 
 
 Length crown superior tooth in .01m 0046 
 
 The vertebrae are about as large as those of a fully grown " drum fish," 
 Fogonias. 
 
 From the yellow chalk of the upper cretaceous of Kansas, found on 
 the Solomon or Nepaholla Eiver, Kansas, at a point 160 miles above its 
 mouth, by Professor B. F. Mudge, professor of natural science in the 
 State Agricultural College of Kansas. 
 
 I append a description of some caudal vertebrae of a species i)robably 
 different from the 8. iililebotomus. It is indicated by three consecutive 
 caudal vertebrae which resemble those of S. prognathus and S. iliaumas, 
 but which differ also considerably from both ; the several arches and 
 spines are of very great width ; in 8. tliaumas they are narrow, and in 
 8. prognathus as wide, but here their width exceeds the depth and 
 equals the length of the centrum. As in the other caudals, the lateral 
 grooves are Avanting and the inferior pair remain separated by a lamina. 
 The neural suture is very distinct, and not two-angled as in 8. prognathus, 
 but with a median decurvature and rise anteriorly. The neural spines 
 are twice as wide as deep and lie on each other. The third vertebra is 
 shorter than the others and contracted distally ; it is probably the pen- 
 ultimate of the series; neural canal minute. Surface striate-ridged. 
 
GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF THE TERRITORIES. 417 
 
 Measurements. 
 
 M. 
 
 Length of centrum anterior vertebra 0.021 
 
 Depth of centrum (at middle) anterior vertebra 015 
 
 Width of neural arch at base of spine 010 
 
 Depth of spine 0072 
 
 Length of third vertebra. 0135 
 
 Width of neural arch 014 
 
 Width of neural spine 0176 
 
 From a i^oint twenty miles east of Fort Wallace, Kansas. Professor 
 Mudge's collection. 
 
 In this species the vertebrse in question are longer in proportion to 
 their other dimensions than in those described, besides carrying wider 
 neural arches and spines. 
 
 SAUKOCEPHALUS PEOGNATHUS, (COPE.) 
 
 (Proc. Arner. Pliilos. Soc, Nov., 1870.) 
 
 This species is represented by premaxillary and attached proximal 
 portion of the maxillary bones of the right side, and by a large number 
 of vertebrre and other bones. These portions were associated ^iu the 
 collections placed in my hands by Professor Mudge, and relate to each 
 other in size, as do those of the preceding species and the Ichthyodectes 
 ctenodon. 
 
 The premaxillary is characterized by its great depth as compared with 
 its length, and by the shortness of its union with the maxillary. The 
 palatine condyle of the maxillary reaches a point above the middle of 
 the alveolar margin of the premaxillary. The latter contains alveoles 
 of seven teeth, the anterior of which only presents a perfect crown. 
 This is still more elongate than the crown of the teeth of *S'. plilebotomus. 
 It is compressed, equilateral, smooth, and acute. Its direction is even 
 liiore obliquely forward than the anterior outline of the bone, which 
 itself makes an angle of 50° with the alveolar border. 
 
 The vertebrte consist of cer^•icals, dorsals, aud caudals, to the num- 
 ber of about sixty, most of which are supposed to have been derived 
 from the same animal. The grooves are as in 8. plilehotomus, there being 
 two below, two on each side, and two above. The latter receives the 
 bases of the neurapophyses, which are in many cases preserved. The 
 inferior pair of grooves becomes more widely separated as we approach 
 the cervical series, leaving an inferior plane, which is longitudinally 
 striategrooved. This jjlane widens till the grooves bounding it disap- 
 pear. The inferior lateral groove becomes widened into a pit which 
 some of the specimens show to have been occupied by a plug-like para- 
 l)ophysis, as in ElojJS, &c., or a rib-head of similar form. The neura- 
 pophysial articular grooves become pits anteriorly, and these onl}' of 
 all the grooves, remain on the anterior two vertebra3 in the collection. 
 Some of the posterior caudals preserve large i)ortious of the neural 
 arches and spines. They form an oblique zigzag suture with the body, 
 consisting of two right angles, one projecting upward anteriorly, another 
 downward behind. The neural spines are very wide and massive and 
 in close contact antero-posteriorly ; these probably support the caudal 
 fin. They are deeply and elegantly grooved from the basis upward. 
 The centra exhibit no lateral grooves. 
 
 An unsymmetrical fin ray accompanied these remains, and from its 
 mineralization, color, size, and sculpture, probably belongs to them. 
 The anterior margin is thinned, and with obtuse denticulatious j the 
 27 G 
 
418 GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF THE TERRITORIES. 
 
 posterior truncate. The section is lenticular, -with a deep rabbet on one 
 side of the posterior edge ; section at the base circular, apex lost. The 
 sculpture consists of fine longitudinal raised striae, which bifurcate and 
 send numerous similar ridges to the teeth of the anterior margin. It is 
 probably a spine of a pectoral fin. It is identical in form and sculpture 
 with that described by Leidy as Xi^hactinus audax, but differs in spe- 
 cific details. 
 
 M. 
 
 Long diameter of spine 0.0245 
 
 Basal diameter of spine 019 
 
 Length, to cervicals, (not distorted) ()33 
 
 Diameter of the anterior 021 
 
 Length of a dorsal 016 
 
 Length of a caudal - 014 
 
 Width of neural spine of caudal, at base -012 
 
 Length of alveolar margin premaxillary 022 
 
 Length of anterior margin i)remaxillary 02 
 
 Depth from condyle of maxillary 02G 
 
 Length of crown premaxillary tooth 0042 
 
 Diameter of crown premaxillary tooth 002 
 
 A fragment of a large flat bone exhibits very delicate radiating 
 grooves, which are marked by spaced impressed dots. 
 
 From the upper cretaceous of Kausas, six miles south of the town of 
 Sheridan. Professor B. F. Mudge. This species was about two-thirds 
 the size of the species last described. 
 
 SAUKOCEPHALTJS AUDAX, (LEIDY,) Sp. 
 
 {Xipliactinus audax, Leidy. Proc. A. N. Sci., Phil., 1870, 12.) 
 
 Established on a pectoral spine, supposed by Leidy to be that of a 
 siluroid. According to the description, it does not differ from that of 
 8. prognathns in more than specific characters. Thus the anterior mar- 
 gin is weakly serrate in the latter, a feature not described by Leidy in 
 the former. In 8. audax the posterior i)ortions of both sides are said to 
 be grooved ; in that part of the spine of 8. prognathus preserved, one 
 surface only exhibits the groove in question, one of whose edges is ob- 
 liquely ridged, as in S. audax. From Kansas; museum Smithsonian. 
 
 SATJEOCEPHALUS THAUIVIAS, (COPE.) 
 (Proc. Amer. Philos. Soc, Nov., 1870.) 
 
 This is larger than any of the species here described. It is represented 
 by wholes or parts of from seventy to eighty vertebrae, with numerous 
 neural and haemal spines and fin radii, and perhaps some ribs. Tliere are 
 no teeth nor cranial fragments. The bulk of the vertebrae is double that 
 of those of 8. pJdehotomus, and appropriate to an animal of the size of the 
 8. lanciformis. It may be ultimately found to be identical with that 
 species ; but there is no evidence conclusive of such a view at i^resent 
 in my possession. 
 
 The vertebrae present the usual two inferior, two lateral, and two 
 superior grooves — the last for the neural arch. There are no cervical 
 vertebrae, for these characters show them all to be dorsals and caudals. 
 The suture for the neurapophyses forms a regular angulate convexity 
 projecting downward. The arch is not closed above anteriorly, and is 
 expanded laterally, while the spine is directed very obliquely backward. 
 The concavities of the articular extremities are equal in the dorsals ; but 
 
GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF THE TERRITORIES. 419 
 
 in tlie caudals one surface is much more deeplj^ concave than the other, 
 one beiug" funnel-shaped, And the other nearly plane in a fevr. 
 
 A number of consecutive vertebrie are preserved, uhich represent the 
 posterior portion of the caudal series. One of these is, fortunately, the 
 very extremity, aud they demonstrate the tail to have been vertebrated 
 or heterocercal, less extensivelj' than in Amla. On the anterior series of 
 three, the lateral <;rooves have disappeared from the centra ; the neural 
 canal is very small, aud the spines are very massive and curved back- 
 Avards, but much less than in the more posterior parts of the column ; 
 they are flattened, wider than deep, and in close contact with each other. 
 The anterior of the three, on the other hand, presents a narrowed edge 
 forward. The hiemapophyses are thin, and suturally united by a flat 
 gomphosis. The terminal series embraces six vertebrje, which have a 
 minute or obsolete neural canal, but haemal canal distinct, but ai)par- 
 ently interrupted. The htemal arches are united to the centra by a 
 rather smooth suture. 
 
 The general direction of these vertebrie forms a light upward curve. 
 The hasmal spines are flat and laminar, and their margins in contact; 
 they decrease in width and length to the end of the series. The neural 
 spine lies obliquely backward, and has a narrowed anterior ridge, but 
 stout shaft. 
 
 An anterior hnemal spine in place exhibits a subglobular base, like an 
 articulation, and its shaft is wider than those posterior to it. The first 
 hiEmal spine is a sub-triangular flat bone, with neck and subglobular ex- 
 tremity, applies very well to a concavity between the anterior pair of pleu- 
 rapophyses, but does not in that j^osition preserve contact with the ante- 
 rior margin of the second spine. One margin of the bone is thin and di- 
 vergent; the other expanded laterally and straight. The latter gives ofl 
 a transverse prominence like half a globular knob before reaching the ex- 
 tremity. Just within the latter are two large foramina, which are con- 
 nected with the extremity by a groove on each side, wluch meets in a 
 notch where the thin edge passes into the knob. 
 
 Botli sides of the neural and hsemal spines are concealed in this species 
 and in the 8. p^'ognafhus by numerous jjarallel osseous rods, which are 
 somewhat angulate in section. They lie along the centra of the anterior 
 serias of caudal vertebrae, but are not to be found on vertebrae of any 
 other part of the column. ISTumerous loose and fragmentary rods of the 
 same character accompany the loose and attached caudal vertebra^, and 
 all of them, according to Professor Mudge, belong to the " posterior swim- 
 ming organ" of this animal. There is also a collection of these rods from 
 the anterior region of the body, which Professor Mudge thought occu- 
 pied the position of an interior limb. They do not any of them present 
 a segmentation such as would be exhibited by the cartilaginous radii of 
 caudal and pectoral fins, and their nature might have remained doubtful 
 but for the explanation furnished by the anterior compound ray or spine 
 of the posterior, probably caudal fin. This ray, as in the case of the 
 pectoral spine and first anal rays of some existing siluroid or loricariid 
 fishes, is composed of a number of parallel rods closely united. These 
 are in their distal portions remarkably and beautifully segmented, of 
 which a very simple form has been figured by Kuer, as existing in the 
 pectoral spine of the siluroid genus, Paiujasius. This segmentation 
 becomes more obscure proximally, and finally disappears altogether, 
 leaving the spine and rods homogeneous. This portion of them is quite 
 identical with the rods found in the positions of fins already described, 
 and I therefore regard these as fin radii of the attenuated form presented 
 by cartilaginous rays of most fishes, but ossified sufficiently to destroy 
 
420 GEOLOGICAL SUEVEY OF THE TEKRITORIES. 
 
 the segmentation. They are thus in the condition of the anterior rays 
 of the dorsal fin of some of the large Catostomidw where they are prox- 
 imally homogeneous and bony, distally segmented and cartilaginous. 
 This is an important character when found in pectoral and caudal fins, 
 and such as I have not found described. It adds another feature to the 
 definition of this group. 
 
 The segmentation above alluded to presents the following characters: 
 The spine consists of four principal parallel rods, of which the external 
 on each side thins, the one to an obtuse, the other to a thin edge. The 
 more obtuse edge presents a groove on one side, which is occupied by a 
 very slender rod, and a shallow rabbet along the flat edge is occupied by 
 a slender flat rod. Of the four principal rods the two median are the 
 most slender, and the flat marginal the widest. Of the two median, that 
 next the last is the wider. The stout marginal, or probably anterior 
 rod, is segmented en chevron, the angle directed forwards and lying 
 near the free margin. The suture of the segments is entirely straight, 
 except when returning it approaches the margin, where it suddenly 
 turns to the margin at right angles to it. The next rod is segmented 
 without chevron obliquely backward and inward 5 where it leaves and 
 reaches the margins, it is at right angles to them, and the margin pro- 
 jects obtusely at those points. Between them the suture is very irreg- 
 ular and jagged, sending processes forward and backward. The seg- 
 mentation of the next rod is similar, but more regularly serrate; distally 
 it becomes as irregular as in the last. The transverse marginal termini 
 of the sutures are serrate in both. The inner and widest rod presents 
 a still more regularly serrate suture, with the truncate extremities; but, 
 owing to the width of the rod, the near approximation of the sutures 
 continues for a longer distance. When broken, the suture appears 
 step-like. 
 
 This remarkably beautiful segmentation is paralleled remotely, as has 
 been stated, by some siluroids, but much more nearly by the external 
 caudal rays of elops. Much more like the recent type are the seg- 
 mented rays of the carboniferous genus, JEdesfus of Leidy, regarded 
 variously by authors as a jaw or a ray, but now generally regarded as a 
 ray. 
 
 • 
 
 Measurements. 
 
 M. 
 
 Length of fragment of (?) caudal spine 0.25 
 
 Width of fragment at proximal fracture 06 
 
 Greatest thickness at proximal fracture 013 
 
 Width of posterior rod at proximal fracture 0245 
 
 Length of six distal caudal vertebrse 10 
 
 Width of haemal spine of second of series 024 
 
 Vertical diameter of centrum, first series - .025 
 
 Length of neural spineaud centrum of anterior caudal 108 
 
 Transverse diameter of neural spine of anterior caudal at base. . .0235 
 Antero-posterior diameter of four anterior caudal neural spines 
 
 in contact 069 
 
 Length of centrum of a dorsal 04 
 
 Vertical diameter of a dorsal 0615 
 
 Transverse diameter of a dorsal, (crushed) 041 
 
 These remains were found in place by Professor B. F. Mudge. He 
 states that their extent was eight feet. As they embrace no cervical 
 vertebrsB, nor portions of cranium, two feet are probably to be added, 
 
GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF THE TERRITORIES. 421 
 
 j:jiviiigf a total of near ten feet for the length of this fish. It was dis- 
 covered at a point on the bank of the Solomon's or Nepaholla River, in 
 Kansas, IGO miles from its point of junction with the Kansas Eiver. 
 
 SAURODON, (HAYS.) 
 (Transac. Amor. Pliilos. Soc, 1830, 476.) 
 SAUKODON LEANUS, (HAYS.) 
 (Loc. cit. Tab. xvi. Leicly, Trans. Am. Pliilos. Soc, 1856.) 
 
 From the cretaceous green sand of New Jersey. 
 
 ICHTHYODECTES, (COPE.) 
 
 (Proceed. Amer. Philos. Soc, November, 1870.) 
 
 In this genus t*be teeth are subcylindric and slender, without cutting 
 edges. The inner margins of the maxillary and dentary bone exhibit 
 no dental foramina, which are in Sauroce^phalus and tSaurodon of large 
 size. 
 
 lOHTHYODECTES CTENODON, (COPE.) 
 (Loc. cit.) 
 
 This species is established on one complete maxillary bone, and three- 
 fourths of the other, a large part of the dentary bone, with the entire 
 dental series; numerous portions of cranial bones, with thirteen verte- 
 brie. These, according to Professor Mudge, were found together, and 
 to all appearance belong to the same animal. 
 
 The dental characters difiter from those of Saurocephaliis, as above 
 pointed out, and in this species more than in S. leanus. The crowns of 
 the teeth are more exserted and slender. The inner face of the crown is 
 more convex than the outer; but there is no angle separating the two 
 aspects. The apex is moderately acute, and directed a little inward, 
 owing to a slight convexity of the external face. Enamel smooth. The 
 alveoli are very close together, and are probably only separated in their 
 deeper portions. There are forty-two teeth and alveoli in the maxillary 
 bone. The palatine condyle is low, and its anterior border falls opposite 
 to the last tooth, or the indented surface which was occupied by the pre- 
 maxillary bone. The more proximal part of the maxillary curves inward 
 and backward behind the position of the premaxillary more than in S. 
 prognathus. The maxillary is a rather thin and narrow bone, with a 
 broad, obtus'e and thi)med extremity. Its superior margin is marked with 
 one or more acute ridges, which look as though it had a contact with a 
 large preorbital bone. Two fractured bones with an elongate reniform 
 condyle on a wide peduncle, look like the articular extremity of an oper- 
 culum, which view is confirmed by their application to some flat, coarsely- 
 rugose bones which resemble parts of the latter. 
 
 The dentary bone is remarkable for its straightness and laminar char- 
 acter, and for the depth of the symphysis. The length of the latter is 
 preserved, while posteriorly to it the lower margin of the dentary is 
 broken away. The alveolar margin is slightly concave, and unites ^v^ith 
 the symiDhyseal at an angle of Gij^. There are twenty-seven teeth and 
 alveolae, which grow a little larger to the posterior extremity of the 
 series ; anteriorly the alveoli are confluent externally, but posteriorly the 
 septa are frequently complete, though thin. In neither this bone nor the 
 maxillary are to be found the formina along the bases of the teeth, char- 
 
422 GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF THE TERRITOEIEB. 
 
 acteristic of SaiirocepJmlus or Smirodon leanus, as pointed out by Harlan 
 and Hays. The vertebrte form a series of 13.4 inches in length, embrac- 
 ing thirteen caudals. This is indicated by the close approximation of 
 the inferior r)its and inserted pleurapopliyses, and absence of lateral 
 grooves. There are important differences from what has been described 
 as characteristic of Sauroceplialus. The neural arches, whose bases only 
 are preserved, are much lighter and narrower than in it, and its sutural 
 union with the centrum is less distinct. Their bases issue from pits ; 
 but their anterior portions appear in some case at least to be cotjssified. 
 They exhibit a longitudinal rib near one side. There are no heavy neural 
 spines preserved. The sides of the centra are longitudinally rugose- 
 striate ; inferiorly they are rugose with exostoses. 
 
 Measurements. • 
 
 M. 
 
 Length of maxillary bone 0. 158 
 
 Depth at condyle * 031 
 
 Depth at extremity 022 
 
 Length of crown of a tooth 0061 
 
 Diameter of crown at base 0038 
 
 Length of alveolar border of dentary lOG 
 
 Depth of symphysis border of dentary 047 
 
 Length of opecular condyle 018 
 
 Length of centrum anterior caudal 024 
 
 Width of centrum, (crushed) 0278 
 
 Depth of centrum, (crushed) . 047 
 
 Specimens from six miles south of Sheridan, Kansas, on the north 
 fork of Smoky Hill Eiver, near its mouth. 
 
 GENERAL CONSIDERATIONS. 
 
 There have been described above remains of three species, which 
 include jaws with teeth, and associated vertebrae. In two of these 
 cases the jaws and teeth were found together; in the third they came 
 in the same small box without special indication of locality; but the 
 vertebrae are of precisely the same size, sculpture, mineralization, and 
 color, as a large series whose locality is exactly known, to which they 
 probably belong. Moreover, the jaws and vertebrte bear the same rela- 
 tion of size to each other in all three series. These facts render it highly 
 probable that the remains are in each case rightly referred to the same 
 animal. That no mixture has occurred is also probable from the fact 
 that the large and small series {Ichthyodectes and ti. prognatlius) came from 
 the same locality, (Sheridan,) while the species of intermediate size was 
 discovered one hundred and sixty miles from the mouth of the Solomon 
 Eiver, a long distance off. The pectoral spine, accompanying and be- 
 longing to tbe S. proguathus, I have shown to be the same as the Xipliac- 
 tinus of Leidy, but probably' not of the species X. audax. 
 
 The fourth series described above as S. thaumas exhibits precisely the 
 vertebral characters of the two other species of Saurocephalus and I 
 cannot resist the evidence that it belongs to that genus or the same 
 family. Its remains pertain to one animal, as asserted by Professor 
 Mudge, and their color and condition, coated with a chalkj' deposit of 
 a ferruginous yellow color, lend great probability to the statement, to 
 say nothing of more important reasons. ]N^o remains of pectoral spine 
 are preserved ; but instead, the remarkable segmented ray described. 
 This comes from the posterior region of the vertebral column, and con- 
 
GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF THE TERRITORIES. 423 
 
 sists, I believe, of the adjacent rays or compouud ray forming tbe mar- 
 gin of the caudal fin. Tliis finds support in tlie analogous structures 
 already luentioued as occurring in Elops, and the ejrtinct genus Prym- 
 nefes* Siluroids, &c., and the resemblance of the pectoral spine to the 
 same weapon of the latter group adds to the probability of the correct- 
 ness of this conclusion. 
 
 These remarks are made because Professor Agassiz, in the Poissons 
 Fossiles, has referred several spines to the Cestraciont geuusPtychodus, 
 Avhich are very similar in character to that described above as the anal 
 or caudal support of Sanrocejyhalus thawnas. These were derived from 
 the upper cretaceous chalk of Kent, England, where Ftychodus teeth 
 also occur. The SaurocephaJus teeth, described by Professor Agassiz 
 in the same work, were, however, derived from the same chalk and the 
 same locality, and, from what has preceded, I believe the segmented 
 spines should be referred to the latter genus rather than to Ftychodus. 
 This is the more probable, in view of the fact that Professor Mudge did. 
 not procure a single Ftycliodus tooth during his exploration. 
 
 APSOPELIX, (Cope.) 
 
 Established on the remains of a fish preserved on a block of clay. It 
 l^reseuts its ventral aspect, and displays i>ectoral, ventral and anal fins, 
 with the series of interneural spines to which the dorsal radii were ar- 
 ticulated. 
 
 The scales are large and cycloid. They do not present a trace of ra- 
 dii, but are marked with fine and close concentric grooves. These as- 
 sume a vertical direction on the exposed surface, and are there more 
 irregular ; the more marginal ones terminating above and below. But 
 few and central grooves are truly circular. No abdominal carina. 
 
 The two pelvic bones are together truncate heart-shaped, the acumi- 
 nate apex presented forward. Their posterior portion is a strong trans- 
 verse rib; anteriorly each is a thin plate, with thickened outer edge, 
 uniting with its fellow on the median line. The median portion is so 
 thin as to be readily broken away. The ventral fins are short and 
 wide, with numerous rays. The coracoid bone is a broad lamina, and 
 the pectoral fin evidently had the support of rod-like humeral bones of 
 no great length, after the type of most Fhysostomous fishes, but their 
 form cannot be made out. Pectorals not elongate. The anal fin origi- 
 nates but a short distance behind the ventrals, and was not armed 
 with an anterior spine ; its length cannot be made out. Immediately 
 above it a dorsal fin, with slender rays, is represented by the bases of 
 these rays. From above the ventrals to above the distal portion of the 
 pectorals a line of projecting i^oints appears in the specimen, which I 
 am disposed to ascribe to the articular portions of the interneural spines 
 and attached fin rays of a first dorsal, but of this I cannot be entirely sure. 
 
 The vertebrie are longer than deep, and present the two deep lateral 
 grooves frequently seen. The number in the cervico-abdominal series 
 is twenty-six. The ribs are delicate, and supernumerary ribs are present. 
 
 In comparing this genus with forms already known, points of distinc- 
 tion from all of them may be detected. Thus, the lack of pectoral spine 
 will distinguish it from the known genera of Saurodontidcc at least. The 
 character of the dorsal fin distinguishes it from Characinidce, Sahno)iidce, 
 &c., which, with the scales, point toward Chipcidce and Mojndcc. From 
 these the form of the pelvic bones distinguishes it. 
 
 The ends of both muzzle and caudal region are destroved. The latter 
 
 Copd Proc. Am. PliU. Soc, March, 1871. 
 
424 GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF THE TERRITORIES. 
 
 evidently contracts from tlie anal fin, and was not probably very elon- 
 gate, but more as in Eloj)s or Sauriis. 
 
 APSOPELIX SAUEIFORMIS, (COPE.) 
 
 Scales large, ten longitudinal series to be counted across the obliquely 
 depressed body. No lateral line visible. About seventeen transverse 
 series between pectorals and ventrals. Ventral broad, when laid back- 
 ward nearly reaching anal, but far behind the pectoral ; anal i^robably 
 rather short, but this is not entirely certain. (Radii, D. % — 12, P. 16, 
 V. 12.) 
 
 M. 
 
 Length from basis P. I., to V. 12 0. 083 
 
 Length from basis P. I., to A. 1 0985 
 
 Length of ventral fin 0178 
 
 Width of ventral fin, distally 013 
 
 Length of basis D. 2 ' 0108 
 
 Width of body 047 
 
 Width of pelvic bones together 010 
 
 Length of pelvic bones together OIG 
 
 The size of this species is about that of a one-pound brook trout. 
 
 From the bed No. 2 of the cretaceous of Meek and Hayden. Found 
 in digging a well at Bunker Hill Station on the Pacific Railroad of 
 Kansas. 
 
 SPHYR^NID^. 
 
 SPHYR^NA CARINATA, (COPE.) 
 
 (Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci., Pliila., 1868, 92; Proc. Amer. Philos. Soc., 1869, 241.) 
 
 Founded on a shed examj^le of one of the long teeth, taken from the 
 matrix attached to the dorsal vertebrae of the Elasmosaiirus lilatyuriis. 
 The tooth is more elongate in outline than that of the S. speciosa, 
 Leidy, i. e., more than twice as long as wide at the base. The anterior 
 margin is the more oblique, and its smooth face is margined by a faint 
 line posteriorly, and is continued to the extremity. The convex inner 
 face of the tooth behind is sculptured with five deep grooves, which are 
 separated by acute ridges, which do not extend over more than half the 
 length of the tooth. Length three lines. 
 
 From the ux)per cretaceous of the neighborhood of Fort Wallace, 
 Kansas. 
 
 Enchodus, sp. 
 
 A premaxillary tooth of rather small size for the genus. The length 
 about one inch from the matrix attached to the under side of the dorsal 
 vertebrae of Elasmosaurus platyurm. It has two cariure separating 
 very unequal facets. Section of base subround. The specimen is im- 
 perfect. Near Fort Wallace. 
 
GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF THE TERRITORIES. 425 
 
 VII.— ON THE FISHES OF THE TERTIARY SHALES 
 OF GREEN RIVER, WYOMING TERRITORY. 
 
 By Professor Edward D. Cope. 
 Physoclysti. 
 . ASINEOPS, (Cope.) 
 
 (Proc. Amer. Phil. Soc, 1870, p. 380.) 
 
 • 
 
 Branchiostegal radii, seven ; ventral radii, 1. 6-7. Opercular and other 
 crnuial bones unarmed; scales cycloid. Spinous and cartilaginous dor- 
 sal tins continuous; caudal rounded; anal with two spines. Lateral 
 line distinct. Operculum with regularly convex posterior border. Teeth 
 coarsely villiform, without canines. Both spinous and soft portions of 
 dorsal and anal fins moderately scaly. 
 
 This well-marked genus is established on the remains of fifteen indi- 
 viduals, in various states of preservation, so that the characters undis- 
 tinguishable in one, can be discovered in another. Thus the lateral line 
 is preserved in one only, and the teeth in another. In none can I be 
 entirely sure that I see the vomer. 
 
 The scales are preserved in many specimens, and I cannot find a 
 ctenoid margin in any, nor any radiating sculpture, but delicate concen- 
 tric ridges continued around the central point proximally, distally form- 
 ing parabolic curves, the less median not completed but interrupted by 
 the margin of the scale. Near the margin all the ridges become gently 
 zigzagged. 
 
 There is no depression between the two portions of the dorsal fin, 
 tliough the cartilaginous portion is the more elevated. Laid backward, 
 the latter is in line with the extremity of the anal, and both it and the 
 anal extend beyond the basis of the caudal. 
 
 The affinities of this genus are rather obscure, but are in some degree 
 related to that aberrant family of Physoclysti, the AphredodirifJce. This 
 is indicated by the increased number of ventral radii, the slender sepa- 
 rated pubes, and the reduced number of interneural spines. The Aphre- 
 dodiridce betray a physostomous tendency in the same characters, with 
 still greater redaction of the spinous, dorsal, and anal fins, though its 
 ctenoid scales and spinous orbital and preopercular bones are of phy- 
 soclyst significance. In Asineops the scales are cycloid and the cranial 
 bones unarmed. The ventral fins occupy nearly tbe same position as in 
 the extinct genus Erismatopterus, Coi)e, which accompanies it, and which 
 is nearly allied to, if not one of the Cyprinodontidcc. There is at least 
 in these genera another illustration of the approximation of forms, now 
 very distinct, in T)ast periods. The pubes are, however, supported by 
 the clavicles in Asineops, by the -post-dnvicles in Erismatopter us, though 
 the latter bones are very long in Asineops also. Asineops and will thus 
 constitute a family, Asineopidm differing from the Aphredodiridai in the 
 simple pubes. I suspect that the genus Pygcmis of Agassiz will be 
 found also to belong to it, though no such increased number of ventral 
 radii is assigned to it in the Poissons Fossiles. Some of its species may 
 even be found to belong to Asineops. Nine are described by Professor 
 Agassiz, all from Monte Bolca, in Italy, from an upper eocene stratum. 
 The presence of so near an ally as Asineops in the Green Eiver beds 
 suggests an approximate identity of age. 
 
426 GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF THE TERRITORIES. 
 
 ASINEOPS SQUAMIFROIs'S, (COPE ;) 1. C, p. 381. 
 
 General form is snboblong, the greatest cleptb jast behind the head, 
 and contained two and a half times in the length, exclusive of caudal fin. 
 Eadii D. VIII, 14 -, A. II, 9 ; C. 14 ; V. I, 7 ; P. ? 11 ? 13. Scales 5—? 30—10, 
 A^ertical line counted a little behind the ventral fins. The line of the ex- 
 tremities of the second dorsal and anal lius marks the basal third of the 
 caudal tin. The dorsal spines are subcylindric, slightly curved, and of 
 nearly equal length; the length equals the depth of the body at the 
 middle of the second dorsal fin. 
 
 The external series of villiform teeth are stout of their kind, conic, 
 and a Ijttle incurved. I cannot see the pharyno;eal bones or teeth. 
 
 The number of vertebra3 which extend between the caudal tin and 
 the superior margin of the operculum, where one or more are concealed, 
 is twenty-five, of which fifteen are of the caudal portion; (in two I can 
 only count fourteen.) 
 
 The mouth is directed obliquely upwards and is rather large; the 
 mandible, when closed, does not project beyond the premaxillary border. 
 The maxillary, where preserved, is narrow distally, and does not project 
 beyond the posterior line of the orbit. The latter is rather small, and 
 though not well defined in any specimen, is not more than one-eighth the 
 length of the head, and 1.5 to 1.75 times inside of muzzle. The margins 
 of all the opercular bones are entire and smooth. The interoperculum 
 is narrow, and lies obliquely upward, narrowing the operculum. The 
 greatest width of the latter is more than two-thirds its depth. The 
 l)elvic supports of the ventral fins are simj)le, slender, and in contact 
 anteriorly, their length about half that of the fin. The pectorals are 
 not elongate. 
 
 The scales extend over the top of the head to, or beyond, the orbits. 
 They also extend along the ramus of the under jaw. Those of the fins 
 are quite small ; they extend to a considerable distance on the unpaired, 
 and on the caudal tin. 
 
 Total length of the largest specimen '. 0.19 
 
 Do. No. 2, smaller example (with caudal) 12 
 
 Length of head of do 044 
 
 Depth of do. posteriorly about 036 
 
 Length of base of spinous dorsal 0265 
 
 Length of posterior spinous ray 017 
 
 Length of operculum 0125 
 
 Length of maxillary bone about 0145 
 
 Depth No. 3, at base first dorsal 045 
 
 Depth No. 3 at base anal, first ray 0325 
 
 Length of basis anal=basis caudal 0162 
 
 Length of caudal fin .034 
 
 Tertiary strata of Green Eiver, Wyoming ; Dr. F. V. Hayden, Coll. 
 Mus. Smithsonian. 
 
 ASINEOPS VIRLDENSIS, (COPE;) Sp. nOV. 
 
 This species is represented by an incomplete specimen, which lacks the 
 pectoral region and the end of the muzzle. It indicates its distinctness 
 from A. squamifrons in the increased number of anal radii. The ray 
 formula is, D. IX, 14; A. II, 12. There is, therefore, one dorsal spine 
 more than in A. fi(piamifrons, though a single sijecimen, apparently of the 
 latter, has the same number. Vertebrae 25, of which 17 or 18 extend 
 
GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF THE TERRITORIES. 427 
 
 from tlie vertebra which supports the last dorsal spine. The scales are 
 of about the same size as those of the A. sqmmifrom. Dorsal region 
 scarcely convex, (in the specimen concave through slight distortion.) 
 
 M. 
 
 Length of vertebral column to operculum 0.07 
 
 Depth at last anal ray 019 
 
 Length of last dorsal spine 017 
 
 Another specimen lacks the head and caudal fin, but displays charac- 
 ters at variance vrith those of Asineops squamisfrons as above noted. The 
 interueural bones of the anal spines are fasciculate, the median longer 
 than those in front and behind. 
 
 The ventral outline is convex, and the general form shortened. Eadii 
 A. ? II, 14; D. "^ 12-13. There are only 13 vertebrae behind the last 
 anal spine. 
 
 Length of vertebral column from vertebra supporting last A. spine. 0.033 
 
 Depth at second soft A. ray 027 
 
 From the Green River shales; from the collection of Lucius E. liick- 
 secker. 
 
 ERISMATOPTERUS, (Cope;) genus nov. 
 
 Dorsal and anal fins with two strong supporting spines in front ; no 
 other interhaimal spines than those supporting them. Dorsal fin above 
 the anterior median or posterior abdominal region. Veutrals origin- 
 ating in front of or opposite to the origin of the dorsal. Pubes sending 
 a limb upward, which is in contact with the inferior post-clavicle. 
 Teeth minute or ? wanting. Caudal fin bifurcate. 
 
 I originally referred a species of this genus to the Cyprinodontidce 
 and provisionally to the genus Cijprinodon. The species may belong to 
 that family, as the characters are generally similar. The arc of the 
 mouth is formed by the premaxillary bone, and the ventral fins have a 
 rather anterior position, and the caudal is furcate ; the scales are cycloid. 
 The strength of the spinous fin radii and supporting interhogmal spines 
 attracted my attention, and on careful examination I observe other 
 approximations to the type of Asineops and the Aphredodiridcc. The 
 inferior post-clavicle is very long and styliform, as in the latter genus, 
 and the pubic bones are slender and directed upward so as to reach 
 the post-clavicles. In one specimen there appears to be an anteriorly 
 directed pubic limb, but this does not .exist in other specimens. The 
 pubes do not reach the clavicles as in true Phijsochjsti. As the genus is 
 thus difierent from Gyprinodon, Fimdulus, &c., I name it as above. 
 
 ERISMATOPTERUS RICKSECKERI, (COPE;) Sp. nOV. 
 
 Length, three to four inches ; head, large. Vertebrae, D. 13, C. 16= 
 29, ten between the interneui'al bone supporting the first dorsal ray, and 
 the first interhffimal supporting the first anal ray. There are only 
 seven in this position in JE. lecatus. Anterior dorsal ray anterior to the 
 point half way between end of muzzle and end of vertebral column. 
 Branchiostegal radii, five distinguishable. Head stout, mouth terminal,^ 
 orbit equal length of muzzle; maxillary bone reaching line of middle of 
 orbit. Scales small with numerous concentric and no radiating grooves. 
 Fin radii D. VII, 8, (last split;) C. 8—10—8; A. II, 9; V. 7; P. 15. 
 
428 GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF THE TERRITORIES. 
 
 ^ M. 
 
 Total length No. 1 0.0743 
 
 Crauium to supra-claTicle ! ! ! ]oi8 
 
 Length to base D. I ........[..... ]o29 
 
 Length to end vertebral column 06 
 
 Length of A. II 008 
 
 Length of cranium No. 2 .'...'..'....... .0175 
 
 Length to preoperculum 012 
 
 Length to D. 1 0275 
 
 Length to A. I ]o43 
 
 Five more or less complete specimens of this fish were obtained by 
 Lucius E. Ricksecker from the Green River shales, and I dedicate it to 
 him in recognition of his interesting discoveries in this department. 
 
 Its difterence from E. levatus is seen in the more anterior position of 
 the dorsal fin, more numerous vertebrae, &c. 
 
 ERISMATOPTERUS LEVATUS, (COPE.) 
 (Cyprinodon levatus, Cope; Proceed. Amer. Philos. Soc, 1870, p. 382.) 
 
 Anterior margin anal fin commencing a little behind opposite the 
 posterior margin of the dorsal. Vertebra? 11—14—5, seven between the 
 interneural and iuterhsemal bones of the dorsal and anal fins. Radii D. 
 8; A. II, 8; V. 8. Caudal fin deeply furcate; first anal ray strono-* 
 General form elongate, the greatest depth contained three times in the 
 length between the scapular arch and the basis of the caudal fin. Scales 
 preserved, small : seven longitudinal series above, and seven below the 
 vertebral column, probably two rows concealed by it. The caudal peduncle 
 IS but little contracted. Length from scapular arch to extremity of 
 caudal, M. .0335 ; depth at origin dorsal fin, M. .008. 
 
 Total length No. 2 q O55 
 
 Length of cranium \\ q^^ 
 
 Length to basis D. I o*^'"' 
 
 Length to basis A. I ......'. (f^ 
 
 Length to basis V. I W. . . . \ . .0205 
 
 Length to basis caudal oigg 
 
 Depth at D. I ..V...V.. !oi 
 
 Depth of caudal peduncle .0058 
 
 There are many individuals on the slabs of slate, some of them per- 
 fectly preserved. Many of these slabs represent that portion of the 
 stratum Avhich is highly carbonaceous, portions of it thrown into the 
 fire burning freely. Dr. Hayden, who has brought numerous specimens 
 trorn this locality, informs me that the lamina? exhibit great numbers 
 ot these little fishes. No doubt the carbonaceous character of the shales 
 IS due to the decomposition of their bodies. The nature of the deposit 
 and mode of preservation remind one stronglv of the Cyprinodon 
 meyeri ol Agassiz, from the neighborhood of Frankfort a. M. That 
 species differs specifically from this one in presenting 18 anal radii. 
 
 Some of the specimens above described were obtained, and i)reserved 
 for scientific study, by L. E. Ricksecker. 
 
GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF THE TERRITORIES. 429 
 
 Fhysostomi. 
 CLUPEA, (Linn.) 
 
 CLUPEA HUJIILIS, (LEIDY.) 
 (Proceedings of Academy of Natural Sciences, 1856,256.) 
 
 Vertebrae, 34. Depth, 2J to 2f lines iu length, exclusive of caudal fin, 
 (2^ times, Leidy.) Scales large ; 1. transverse 11-12. A very abun- 
 dant species iu the shales, distinguished by its corpulent ibrm. 
 
 CLUPEA PUSILLA, (COPE.) 
 (Proceed. Amer. Philos. Soc, 1870, p. 382.) 
 
 Greatest depth contained four times in the total length, or 3.5 times 
 to basis of caudal fiu. Length of head 3.2 to basis caudal. This 
 measurement may require revision, as the end of the muzzle is slightly 
 injured. Orbit large, contained twice iu length, and about over the 
 origins of the ventrals. D. II, 11 ; V. 7. Pectoral extending half way 
 to ventrals. Vertebrae, 29-30 ; dorsals, 19-20. Ventral keeled ribs, 18. 
 Anal fin lost. Caudal peduncle slender; caudal fiu deeply furcate. Length, 
 M. 041; greatest depth, M. .011. 
 
 A second specimen exhibits the character of the species more dis- 
 tinctly in some respects. There are 30 vertebrae, of which 13-14 are 
 caudal. The general shape is regularly fusiform, and the head rather 
 
 acuminate. 
 
 M. 
 
 Total length 0.054 
 
 Length to iireopercular edge 01 
 
 Length to opercular edge 013 
 
 Length to j^osterior margin dorsal - 0255 
 
 Length to anterior margin anal 034 
 
 Length to base caudal 044 
 
 Depth at occiput Oil 
 
 Depth at middle of dorsal 0115 
 
 Depth at caudal peduncle 0046 
 
 This species is therefore much niore lanceolate in outline than C. Jim- 
 milis; and has fewer vertebra3. It is half the size, and not nearly so 
 abundant. 
 
 OSTEOGLOSSUM, C. V. 
 
 The discovery of this genus, or a close ally, in the Green River shales, 
 by Lucius Ricksecker, is one of the most interesting in the history of 
 this department of paleontology which has been lately made. 
 
 Osteoglossum has hitherto been known only in a recent state, and 
 with a range of distribution quite unparalleled among teleostean fishes. 
 Thus one species — 0. hicirrhosum, Yaml,, occurred in Brazil; 0. formo- 
 sum, Schl. MiilL, in Borneo, &c., and 0. leichardtii, Gthr., in New Zea 
 land ; all in the southern hemisphere or near the equator. Two other 
 genera, Vasfres and Heterotis, have been associated with it, and these 
 belong to the same hemisphere, or to those faunae which characterize 
 it, in their extensions north of the equator. It is therefore interesting 
 to note that the first representative of the type found in any of the 
 northern faunal regions belongs to an age apparently eocene. 
 
 The specimen representing the type species is not sufficiently perfect 
 to justify a final reference, but the squamation is much more that of 
 
430 GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF THE TERRITORIES. 
 
 this genus than of either of the others above mentioned. It belongs in 
 any case to the same family group. The structure of the scales is suf- 
 ficient to determine this i^oint. The \rliole of tbe scale is composed be- 
 tween the inferior and superior surface layers, of sub-hexagonal or 
 diamond-shaped cells, which are arranged in spirals tending to the 
 center. Their contents are more thoroughly calcified on the exjjosed 
 than in the concealed portion of the scale. jS^o radial grooves. Tube 
 of the lateral line issuing by a round i)ore. 
 
 OSTEOGLOSSUM ENCAUSTUM, (COPE;) Sp. nov. 
 
 Represented by a portion of the side of a large individual, including 
 the series of scales bearing the lateral line, and three series above and 
 three below it, more or less perfectly preserved. The longitudinal 
 extent of the fragment includes seventeen transverse series. These 
 scales are of large size, the included portions are smooth to the naked 
 eye, but rugose under the microscope, and with but few and faint traces 
 of concentric lines. Exposed portions with entire margin, bearing a 
 large lenticular rugose surface. This rugosity consists of elevated 
 portions of an enamel-like material, between small pits and grooves. 
 The septa between the cells are distinctly visible on the smooth i)art of 
 the scale ; on the rugose surface they are represented by grooves. The 
 cells are in curved series, which extend to the center of gTowth, growing 
 smaller as they converge. The rugose part of the exposed surface 
 diminishes in relative extent towards the anterior i>art of the body. 
 The tabes of the lateral line are in this species concealed beneath the 
 external layer of the scale. Tbe opening is nearer the margin than the 
 center of the scale, is round, and is frequently accompanied by a smaller 
 cue above and in front of it. 
 
 luclies. 
 
 Length of fifteen consecutive scales 0.23 
 
 Depth of six longitudinal series scales 127 
 
 Vertical diameter of a scale 035 
 
 Transverse diameter of a scale 025 
 
 Diameter of a submarginal scale cell 003 
 
 Width of rugose area of scale ". Oil 
 
 As compared with the species of the genus whose scales have been 
 figured, the present ofi'ers clear distinction. In 0. bicirrhosimi, figured 
 in Agassiz and Spix Brazilian fishes. Tab. XXV, the scales have distinct 
 concentric grooves, and the rugosity consists of a few points or pro- 
 jections. In 0. formosnm, figured in Solomon Miiller's travels in Borneo, 
 «&c., the rugosity is uniform on the exposed surface and very minute, 
 and there are no concentric grooves ; the cells are smaller. In Vastres 
 the exposed surfaces are still more rugose — in large examples, quite 
 honeycombed. 
 
 The specimens represent an individual of three or four feet in length, 
 discovered at the fish-slate cut on the Green Eiver, on the line of the 
 Union Pacific Railroad, by Lucius E. Eicksecker, civil engineer. 
 
 GENERAL OBSERVATIONS. 
 
 The laminated rock from which the above species were obtained is 
 similar in general appearance to the clay beds of Mount Lebanon and 
 Mount Bolca. The first indication of the existence of this deposit was 
 brought by Dr. Juo. Evans, who obtained from it a clupeoid, which was 
 
GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF THE TERRITORIES. 4dl 
 
 described by Dr. Leidy as Cliipea Jmmilis, (Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci., Pbila., 
 1S5G, p. 250.) One of the blocks contains the remains of t^vo small 
 shoals of the fry, probably of C. JuimiltK, wliicli were canglit suddenly 
 by a slide or fall of calcareous mud, and entombed for the observation 
 of future students. They must have been taken unawares, since they 
 lie with their heads all in one direction as they swam in close bodies. 
 One or two may have had a moment's warning of the catastrophe, as 
 they have turned a little aside, but they are the exceptions. The fry 
 are from one-half to three-quarters of an inch long and upward. 
 
 True herring-, or those with teeth, are chiefly marine, but they run 
 into fresh waters and deposit their spawn in the spring of the year, and 
 then return to salt waters. The young run down to the sea in autumn 
 and remain there till old enough to spawn. The size of the fry of the 
 Eocky Mountain herring indicates that they had not long left the 
 spawning ground, while the abundance of adults suggests they were not 
 far from salt water, their native element. To believe, then, that the 
 locality from which these specimens were taken was neither far from 
 fresh, nor far from salt waters, is reasonable ; and this points to a tide, 
 or brackish inlet or river. The species of Cyprinodontidw inhabit also 
 tide and brackish waters. Most of the species of the family, as well as 
 of the genus, are inhabitants of fresh water ; but they generally, espe- 
 cially the cyprinodons proper, prefer still and muddy localities, and 
 ofte;i occur in water really salt. This habitat distinguishes them espe- 
 cially from Cyprinidcc (minnows and suckers) and pike. Lastly, the 
 known species of Osteoglossum inhabit fresh waters. 
 
 The material which composes the shales indicates quiet water, and 
 not such as is usually selected by herring for spawning in ; while the 
 abundance of adult clupeas indicate the proximity of salt water. 
 
 This is far from a satisfactory demonstration of the nature of the 
 water which deposited this mass of shales, but is the best that can be 
 obtained with such a meager representation of species. 
 
 As to geological age the indications are rather more satisfactory. 
 The genus Clupea ranges from the upper eocene upward, being 
 abundant in the slates of Lebanon and Monte Bolca, while Cyprinodon 
 has been found in neither, but first appears in the middle or lower 
 miocene in Europe. The Asineops resemble very closely, ftnd I believe 
 essentially, the Pygreus of Agassiz of eocene age, from Monte Bolca. 
 The peculiarities presented by the genus found by Dr. Hayden are of 
 such small significance as to lead me to doubt the beds in question being 
 of later than eocene age, though the evidence rests chiefly on this 
 single, new, and peculiar genus. 
 
 The position of these fishes, seven thousand feet above the level of 
 the sea, furnishes another illustration of the extent of elevations of 
 i-egions once connected with the ocean, and the comparatively late 
 period of geologic time at which, in this case, this elevation took place. 
 
432 GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF THE TERRITORIES. 
 
 VIIL— RECENT REPTILES AND FISHES. 
 
 KEPORT ON THE EEPTILES AND FISHES OBTAINED BY 
 THE NATURALISTS OF THE EXPEDITION. 
 
 By E. D. Cope, A. M. 
 
 Twenty-two species of fislies and eight of reptiles are embraced in 
 this collection. Among these the i)rincipal interest attaches to the fish- 
 fauna of the Colorado River of the West, and its system. Isolated as 
 are its w'aters from the systems of the Columbia on the north, of the 
 Platte on the east, of the Rio Grande on the southeast, and of the Pa- 
 cific Coast streams on the west, an inquiry into the character of its fauna 
 becomes desirable. This has been entered on with much success by our 
 distinguished ichthyologists, Messrs. Baird and Girard, who have deter- 
 mined the existence of at least one type as peculiar to it ; I allude to 
 the genus or group Gila. They have also shown that nearly, if not all, 
 of the species belonging to it differ from those of the other basins — 
 a conclusion which the collections of Dr. Hayden confirm. The num- 
 ber of species from the heads of the Colorado included in the i^resent 
 collection numbers 13, none of which have been found in other waters, 
 if we include in this basin those which empty into the lakes of Utah — 
 and of which five are new to science. 
 
 Beyond the possession of peculiar species and one peculiar genus this 
 river basin does not difi'er from others except in what it lacks. This 
 want of forms may be owing to the poverty of our collections, or 
 to their real absence. It is enough to mention Siluroids, Hyoclo7i, 
 JEsox, Leindosteiis, Amia, and Fhysoclysti, in general, to express the im- 
 perfection of our knowledge and the probability that, when examined, 
 an interesting faunal combination may be discovered. Not the least in- 
 teresting fact is the occurrence of a Coregonus in the Green River and 
 other upper waters of the basin. 
 
 The other fishes obtained by Dr. Hayden are from the upper tributa- 
 ries of the Platte. As pertaining to the same great Missouri drainage 
 area, a few species from the neighborhood of St. Joseph, Northwestern 
 Missouri, are added. These were submitted to me by Dr. William Stimp- 
 son, secretary of the Chicago Academy of Sciences. 
 
 REPTILIA. 
 
 Caudisona confluenta, Say, {Crotalus.) — Utah, Colorado, Wyo- 
 ming, &c. 
 
 Heterodon nasicus, Baird and Girard. — Head-waters of the Platte. 
 
 EuT^NiA PARETALis, Say, {Tropidonotus, Halb.) — Head- waters of the 
 Platte. 
 
 EuT^NiA VAGRANS, Baird and Girard. — Utah, Wyoming, and Col- 
 orado. 
 
 HoLBROOKiA MACULATA, Baird and Girard.— Head-waters of the 
 Platte. 
 
 Phrynosoma douglassii, Bell. — Head- waters of the Platte. 
 
 BATRACHIA. 
 
 Rana nALECiNA, Bosc. — Common along all the streams. 
 
GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF TOE TERRITORIES. 433 
 
 TELEOSTEI. 
 
 Cottidcc. 
 
 TJranidea Punctulata, Gill, {Potamocottus',) Proc. Boston Soc. N. H., 
 1861, 40. — Head- waters of Greeu Kiver. • 
 
 Salmonidcc. 
 
 Saxmo (Salar) viRGiNALis,Girard ; United States Pacific Railroad Sur- 
 vey, Vol. X, p. 320, PI. LXIII, figs. 1-4.— This species is well figured 
 by Girard as above. An error occurs in the enumeration of rays, where 
 the branchiostegals are said to number 9-9 ; they are, I find in three 
 specimens, 11-11. The species is distinguished from S. iridca, Girard, by 
 its more slender form and fewer aual and dorsal radii. When the spe- 
 cimens were first received they exhibited short, broad, longitudinal red 
 bars along the lateral line. 
 
 Seven specimens, two from Henry's Fork Green River, and two from 
 near Fort Bridger. 
 
 SALMO (salar) stomias, (COPE ;) sp. nov. 
 
 Salmo {Trutta) lewisii^ Cope. Proceed. Acad. Nat. Sci., Phila., 1865, 
 nee. Girardii. 
 
 General form short and stout, the head large and wide, with wide mandi- 
 ble and mouth. The length of the head enters four times to near the emar- 
 gination of the caudal fin, and the depth at the first dorsal ray four 
 times in the length to the end of the basal scales of the caudal. 
 The base of the first dorsal ray is nearly equidistant between the end of 
 the muzzle and base of caudal fin, or, more exactly, rather nearer to the 
 base of the marginal caudal ray than to the muzzle. Radii, B. 10, D. II. 
 12, A. II. 10, V. 9. The end of the maxillary extends half the eyes 
 diameter behind the margin of the eye. InterorlDital width 3.o times in 
 length of head ; eye, 4.6 times in the same, and equal to the length of 
 the muzzle. Symphysis of mandible equal to or shorter than muzzle; 
 gape wide. Forty-two longitudinal scales above the laternal line. Max- 
 illary bone of nearly uniform width. 
 
 There are indistinct brown blotches on the sides, and numerous black 
 spots on the posterior dorsal region, the entire caudal peduncle and the 
 two dorsal and caudal fins ; anal unspotted; spots few in front of dorsal. 
 
 M. 
 
 Total length of smaller specimen 0. 227 
 
 Length of head 0515 
 
 Length to ventrals 106 
 
 Length ta anal 15 
 
 Width lower jaw, at orbits 0168 
 
 This species is an ally of the H. Icioisii, S. virgi)iaUs, and S. iridea. 
 From the last of these the fewer anal radii distinguish it. From 8. vir- 
 ginalis the stouter form, wider head with shorter muzzle, and one less 
 branchiostegal ray, separate it. Thus in that species the head enters the 
 length to the end of the caudal scales four times, and the depth 4. 5 
 times. -The dorsal is considerably nearer the end of the muzzle than the 
 basis of the caudal. The eyes and interorbital widths are less. The /S'. lew- 
 isii, like 6'. stomias, from Mississippi waters, is more like S. virglnaUs in all 
 the respects mentioned, according to both the description and figures of . 
 Girard, but adds the peculiarity of only 10 branchiostegals instead of 11. 
 
 Two specimens from the Platte River, from near Fort Riley, Kansas. 
 Discovered by William A. Hammond, M. D. 
 
 CoREGONUS williamsonii, Girard; United States Pacific Railroad 
 Reports, X, p. 326, PI. LXVL— The Rocky Mountain white fish. 
 28 G 
 
434 GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF THE TERRITORIES. 
 
 With the Salmo virginalis, probably from near Fort Bridger, from the 
 head- waters of the Green Eiver or Western Colorado. 
 
 CatostomidcG. 
 
 I have proposed to adopt as valid (Proc. Amer. Philos. Soc, 1870, 
 480) seven genera of this family. I would now add an eighth, which 
 embraces species which • combine wdth the characters of Catostomiis 
 proper, a complete union of the i)arietal bones, which obliterates the 
 fontanelle so universal among the suckers. The only other exception is 
 seen in Cycleptus, Eaf., as I have already mentioned. In all the members 
 of the family where I have examined it, this fontanelle is quite open and 
 of no doubtful proportions, and nowhere reduced to the slit often seen in 
 the Sihiridcc. In searching for the characters of Girard's so-called 
 genera Minomus and Acomus, I find that the type of the former, M. 
 insiffnis, B. G., presents the character above mentioned. 1 therefore 
 adopt his name for the new genus, and add two new species, 31. delpln- 
 nus and M. tardus. Whether his two other species, 31. plebeius and 3L 
 clarhii, belong to it is uncertain as yet, but they have the same physi- 
 ognomy. 
 
 CATOSTOMUS, (LES.) 
 
 Several species of this genus were procured by Dr. Hayden. For 
 their fuller elucidation the following table, embracing also those of 
 Minomus, is appended. 
 
 I. Scales of the posterior part of the body materially 1 
 larger than those of the anterior. j 
 
 a Anterior dorsal ray nearly equidistant between end of 
 muzzle and base of caudal flu. I ^ ariseum 
 
 Head five and a half times in length to end of caudal ; ' ' '^ 
 muzzle projecting, upper lip r)endent, very short, with 
 two rows tubercles ; smooth margins narrow ; scales 
 1. tr. 28 ; eye i-i head ; V. 10. 
 
 As the last, but the lips much larger ; upper with three ^ 
 
 rows tubercles, and both with wide smooth margin ; > C. discobolus. 
 eye, 5.5 in head, V. 9 ; isthmus wider. ) 
 
 II. Scales of body subequal. 
 a Origin dorsal nearer origin of caudal fin than end of 
 
 Upper lip not pendent •, head one-fifth length to end of | " ^ ^ 
 caudal ; upper lip wide, D. 11, V. 10 ; scales tr. 1. 30 
 ventral fins small. 
 
 ;aa Origin of dorsal fin nearer end of muzzle than basis '} 
 of caudal. 
 
 Bead five and a half times in length with caudal; upper > 31. bardus. 
 lip wide, not pendent; isthmus wide; eye, one-fifth, 
 head ; 1. tr. 30 ; D. 11, V. 10 : a light band on side. 3 
 CAT0ST03IUS siTCKLii, Girard ; United States Pacific Eailroad Eeport, 
 
 X, p. 22(3, PL LI.— Waters of the Platte. 
 
 Catostomus latipinne, Baird and Girard ; Pr. A. N. Sci., Phil., 1853, 
 
 .388 ; United States JMexican Boundary Survey, III, 39, PI. XXIV, 1-6. 
 
 {Acomus, Girard.) — Two heads from the Green Eiver. 
 Catostomus geiseum, Girard ; Pr, A. X. Sci., Phil., 1856, 171 ; United 
 
 States Pacific Eailroad, X, 222, PI. XLIX, figs. 5-9.— Two specimens 
 
 from Horse Creek, (waters of the Platte, August 27th,) one from Bed 
 
 <Jloud Creek, and three from other waters of the Platte. 
 
GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF THE TERRITORIES. 4dO 
 
 CATOSTOMUaDISCOBOLrS, (COPE;) sp. UOV. 
 
 Remarkable for its very large lips, especially the upper. In general 
 it is allied to the C. grlsetim, being of tlie same cylindric form. The 
 upper lip is pendent, and somewhat expanded all round. Its margin 
 extends outside of that of the lower lip, where it joins it, tlius forming 
 an entering right angle witli it. Tlie commissural margins of both are 
 wide and abruptly sei)arated from the tuberculated portions. Tubercles 
 subequal; those of the lower Jaw projecting in a convex enlargement, 
 concentric with the lower conunisure; behind deeply incised. ^Muzzle 
 projecting a'little beyond upper li[); head wide, flat above; eye superior, 
 small, entering length of head d.~j times; three times in muzzle, 
 rhryngeal bones expanded below ; teeth delicate laminar, with acute 
 inner cusp. Length of head, entering total to end of caudal scales, 
 four and a half times ; ventral tins originating opposite posterior third 
 of dorsal, barely reaching vent ; pectorals well separated; isthmus very 
 wide. Radii, D. 11 ; A. 8; V. 9. Scales iu 3S— 10, longitudinal series 
 between dorsal and ventral tins ; (tolor, olive brown above, black on 
 head, passing into light yellow below, gradually on the body, abruptly 
 on the head. 
 
 M. 
 
 Total length 0.153 
 
 Length to orbit 016 
 
 Length to opercular border 029 
 
 Length to dorsal fin 065 
 
 Length to ventral fin 0095 
 
 Length to anal 097 
 
 Width of frontal bones - Oil 
 
 Length of ventral fins 022 
 
 Two specimens, one certainly, the other probably, from the Green River, 
 "Wyoming. This striking species was discovered by Cam. Carriugtou. 
 
 This species may be compared with the C pleheius, Girard, and G. 
 generosus, Girard. In the first the eye is larger and more median, the 
 scales are subequal, and there are only eight ventral rays. In the second 
 the eye is also larger. In neither is the great development of the lip 
 seen, 
 
 MINOMUS DELPHINUS, (COPE,) Sp. nOV. 
 
 The subequal size of the. scales of this species would refer it indif- 
 ferently to the true group Catostomus of Girard, or his group Minomus, 
 which he did not distinguish clearly. The preceding species would 
 enter his Acomus, which is, however, only an undefined group of species, 
 to which, by the way, the type of Catostonms, C. teres belongs. 
 
 This species is especially distinguished from those heretofore de- 
 scribed by the shortening of the caudal part of the vertebral column, 
 and the consequent posterior j)Osition of the dorsal fin. Add to this a 
 short, wide head, and thick body, and its physiognomy is expressed. 
 
 The dorsal outline is arched, the head flat above, but elevated behind, 
 and much depressed on the muzzle. The muzzle is wide and does not 
 l)roject beyond the upjier lip, which is appressed to its lower face and 
 l3ears four rows of warts ; its smooth commissural part is narrow. On 
 the lower lip the tubercles advance nearly to the commisure; this lip 
 is deeply emarginate posteriorly ; the eye enters the length of the head 
 five times, two and one-half times measuring the muzzle, and twice the 
 interorbital region. Head four and two-thirds times in length to end 
 of caudal basal scales. 
 
436 GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF THE TERRITORIES. 
 
 Scales iu thirty longitudinal series, between dorsal and ventral fins ; 
 ventrals remarkably short, extending little more than half way to vent, 
 originating under posterior third of dorsal. Pectorals well separated. 
 Radii, D. 11 ; A. 8, V. 10. Isthmus wide. 
 
 Color above blackish, with a strong inferior marginal shade on the 
 lower part of the sides, and lighter tint above ; a brown spot just above 
 axilla, is cut off from it by a band of the yellow color which covers the 
 belly and head below. 
 
 M. 
 
 Total length 0. 149 
 
 Length to orbit - - . . 013 
 
 Length to opercular border 0295 
 
 Length to dorsal fin 069 
 
 Length to ventral fin 07-1 
 
 Length of ventral fin 015 
 
 Length to anal fin 097 
 
 Interorbital width 0115 
 
 The only species concerning which any doubt can arise in the nomen- 
 clature of this one is the C. hernardini of Girard. Tliat writer states 
 that the latter possesses 15 D. radii ; this, with the ascription of a slen- 
 der form and other jDeculiarities, will always separate them. 
 
 Three specimens in Professor Hayden's collection without locality. 
 This should be probably a tributary of Green River. 
 
 MINOMUS BARDUS, (COPE )) sp. nov. 
 
 This species is distinguished by its very short head, and marked col- 
 oration, resembling in that respect the C. guzmaniensis of Girard; with 
 this species it has, however, nothing else in common. 
 
 Head wide, muzzle not projecting beyond upper lip ; latter not pend- 
 ent, with narrow, smooth commisure and three or four rows of tubercles. 
 Lower lip deeply incised, tubercular to near inner edge. Eye 5.25 times, 
 in length of head, twice in interorbital width. Head five times to end 
 of basal caudal scales. Form stout; body cylindric anteriorly. Dorsal 
 fin nearer end of muzzle than end of caudal scales. Scales of body 
 subequal, iu thirty longitudinal rows between dorsal and ventral fins ; 
 latter originating beneath hinder border of dorsal, not quite reaching 
 vent. Pectorals well separated ; isthmus wide, narrower than in M. 
 delphinus. Radii D. 11, A. 8, V. 10. 
 
 Color, blackish above, a broad olive band from upper part of oper- 
 cular border along upper half of caudal peduncle, and a broad black band 
 below, narrowing to a line along the middle of the peduncle. Below, 
 yellowish, a band of the same cutting off a blackish area above the 
 
 axilla, as iu the last species. 
 
 ' M. 
 
 Total length ^ 0.128 
 
 Length to orbit - 01 
 
 Length to opercular border '. 0235 
 
 Length to dorsal fin 059 
 
 Length to ventral fin 0695 
 
 Length of ventral fin 017 
 
 Length to anal fin 086 
 
 Interorbital width 0095 
 
 From the same locality as M. delj)liirms. 
 
GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF THE TERRITORIES. 437 
 
 PTYCHOSTOilUS BUCCO, (COPE }) Sp. UOV. 
 
 A stout species, with a head short and particularly wide through the 
 opercula. Lips thin, the inferior cousistiug- of lateral lobes iuclosiug a 
 V-shaped interval. Superior lip narrow, not pendent. Muzzle slightly 
 projecting, subtruncate in jirotile. Eye larg6, 3.5 times in length of 
 head, 1.2 in muzzle, and nearly .75 of interorbital width. Front and 
 vertex flat; width behind orbits 1.75 times in length of head. Head 
 one-fourth length without caudal, and equal to depth. Scales, 0-40- 
 5. Eadii, D. II. 13 ; A. II. 7 ; V. 9. Dorsal nearly median on superior 
 outline. Pharyngeal teeth typical, i. e., pectiniform, with slightly prom- 
 inent inner angle. 
 
 Color uniform ; dorsal fin dusky. Total length of young. M. .117 ; to 
 opercular margin .0255 ; to ventral fins .0545. From St. Josephs, Mis- 
 souri. 
 
 This species is allied most closely to the P. colla2)siis, Cope. This is a 
 still stouter species, the depth entering the length only 3.5 times ; the 
 eye is smaller, being .2 of the head's length. The Catostoimis suckleyi 
 resembles it, but is more slender, and belongs to another genus. The 
 P. hucco is named from the interopercular width of the head. 
 
 Cyprimdce. 
 
 (CAiiPOSTOMA ANOMAI.ITM, Eaf. Icth. Ohiensis.) (Rutilus.J Agas- 
 siz, Cope; Trans. Amer. Philos. Soc, 1866, 396. — Probably from "the 
 head- waters of the Platte Eiver. 
 
 coLiscus PAKiETALis, {COPE ;) gen. et. sp. nov. 
 
 Cliar. gcnericus : Group IV. of the tribe Epicysti, (Trans. Amer. Phil. 
 Soc, 1866,) and therefore with cultriform teeth arranged 4-4, and elon- 
 gate alimentary canal, coiled many times below the swim bladder. The 
 lateral line is almost entirely wanting, and the dorsal fin originates 
 above a point in front of the ventrals. The lips are exceedingly atten- 
 uated, and the mouth directed ui)wards. Allied to HybognatJms, Agass. 
 
 Char, specijicus : Head wide ; especially behind, contained 4.25 times 
 in the length without caudal fin. Muzzle obtuse ; lips equal ; mouth 
 descending obliquely, the end of the maxillary not quite reaching the 
 line of the anterior margin of the orbit. Eye 3.6 times in length of 
 head ; 7 times into mtizzle, and 1.5 times into interorbital width. Scales 
 small; 1. tr. 14; 1. long. 42; seven behind operculum, bearing tubes of 
 the lateral line. Eadii D. I. 7 ; A. 1. 8 ; V. 9. General form moderately 
 elongate; dorsal fin intermediate between end of muzzle and basis of 
 caudal. Depth at dorsal, 4.6 times in length without caudal. Subor- 
 bital bones slender. Color everywhere white, silver on the sides of the 
 head. Length, M. .0432. From the Missouri Eiver near to St. Josephs. 
 (Mus, Chicago Acad. Sciences, No. 575.) 
 
 HYBOPSIS MISSURIENSIS, (COPE ;) sp. UOV. 
 
 Belonging to group B, i. e., with teeth 4-4, and mouth inferior 
 Form stout, with large head and thick caudal peduncle. Head 3.75 
 times into length without caudal fin; scales, 5 — 31-2 — 3. 
 
 Dorsal outline a little arched; depth 4.5 times in length, without 
 caudal fin. Eye three times in length of head, equal muzzle, four-fifths. 
 
438 GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF THE TERRITORIES. 
 
 interorbital width. Profile, plane ; parietal region wide ; muzzle de- 
 scending; upper "lip projecting a little beyond lower; end of maxil- 
 lary bone reaching line of orbit. Twelve scales in front of dorsal fin. 
 Least depth of caudal peduncle two and a half to three times in length 
 from first anal ray. Eadii, D. I. 8 ; V. 8. Pectorals nearly reach ven- 
 trals ; ventrals reach vent. Dorsal nearer end of muzzle than basis of 
 caudal. Length, M. .05. 
 
 Light olivaceous, below paler ; a silver lateral band and small dark 
 dot at base of caudal fin. No dark dorsal band. 
 
 From near St. Joseph, Missouri. From the Miis. Acad. Sciences, 
 Chicago. 
 
 This Hybopsis is near the H. procne^ Cope, from the Easl«. It differs 
 in the generally stouter form, the larger head and thicker caudal 
 peduncle. 
 
 HYEOPSIS SCYLLA, (COPE J ) Sp. UOV. 
 
 Belonging to the group B. (Trans. Amer. Philos. Soc, 18G6, 380) of 
 this genus, and therefore Rallied to H. stramineus and M. lyrocne, Cope. 
 It differs from the former in its more slender form, and from both in the 
 increased number of longitudinal series of scales. 
 
 Head 4.5 times in length without caudal fin; eye 3.5 times in head; 
 scales 6-34-4. A. I. 7. 
 
 This species has a short head with obtuse muzzle. The lips are equal 
 and the mouth slopes a little downward, the end of the maxillary reach- 
 ing the line of the interior margin of the orbit. Length of muzzle .75 
 diameter of ej'e, which is little less than interorbital width ; teeth 4-4 ; 
 depth of body at first dorsal ray 4.G times in length to basis of caudal ; 
 at caudal peduncle equal from orbit to opercular border. Ventral fin 
 originating below D. I. Rays, D. I. 8, A. I. 7, Y. 8; lateral line slightly 
 decurved medially. Total length, M. .0545. • Color silvery with silver 
 lateral band, marked with black points, which are especially abundant 
 on the side of the muzzle. From Eed Cloud Creek, a tributary of the 
 Platte. 
 
 HYBOPSIS EGEEGIUS, (GIRAKD.) 
 
 (Tigoma.) United States Pacific Railroad Reports, X, 291. 
 What I suppose to be this species i)resents a well-marked grinding 
 surface on one tooth (the second) on each side. There is nothing to dis- 
 tinguish Girard's Tigomcv, with this surface develi)ped, from my section 
 D of Hyhoims. (Trans. Amer. Philos. Soc, 186G, 382.) These species 
 are his T. gibljossa, T. nigrescens, T. pulclira^ and T. crassa. The teeth 
 are 4.1(2)-1(2).4, and the mouth more or less oblique. They cannot be 
 separated, as a genus, from Hyhopsis. The Tigojuw, Avithout mastica- 
 tory surface, are closely allied to the Clinostomij from which they differ 
 in having the teeth 4.2-2.4 instead of 4.2-2.5. Some of Girard's Tigomce 
 appear to be true Clinostomi. Five specimens from Green Eiver. 
 
 . PHOTOGENIS PIPTOLEPIS, (COPE ;) sp. UOV. 
 
 This species has much the physiognomy of Ceratichfhys dissimiUs, Kirt., 
 and is allied to the same genus. Dorsal region alongside and in front 
 of the dorsal fin, scaleless ; scales at dorsal, 3-4 — 36 — 2-3. Eadii, D. 1.7, 
 A. 1.8, V. 7. Teeth, 4.1-1.4 ; head, one-fourth length without caudal ; 
 depth, 4.66 times in the same ; eye oval, diameter a little less than 
 length of muzzle, 3.5 times in length of head and a little less than in- 
 terorbital diameter; the mouth is nearly horizontal, and the muzzle 
 
GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF THE TERRITORIES. 439 
 
 descends gradually to it without projecting; maxillary extending beyond 
 tlie line of the orbit ; iuterorbital region convex. 
 
 In general proportions this species is rather elongate, with elongate 
 head and small mouth. Length M. .07. First ventral and dorsal radii 
 opposed and a little nearer the end of the muzzle than the base of the 
 caudal fin. Color above olive, below silver ; a broad silver lateral band 
 with black dots on each side of the lateral line, and a band of specks on 
 the side of the head. A strong black dorsal baud. From the North 
 Platte. 
 
 In two smaller specimens, apparently of this species, there are some 
 peculiar diiferences. In one the back is half scaled, the other entirely 
 scaled, and the count is G-3G-4. The caudal peduncle is a little shorter, 
 so that the dorsal fin has a median position ; and the head enters the 
 length (without caudal) 37 times. From theEed Cloud Creek. 
 
 Hypsllepis coenutus, Mitchell, Cope, Proceed. Acad. ^at. Sci., 
 Phila., 1867, 158.— Eed Cloud Creek. 
 
 CYPRINELLA BILLINGSIANA, (COPE;) Sp. UOV. 
 
 A rathe» stout fusiform species, having the depth .25 of the length 
 without caudal fin. Length of head the same ; eye contained in it 3.5 
 times, .75 of iuterorbital width. Parietal and frontal regions convex 
 transversely. , hips equal ; mouth slightly descending ; maxillary bone 
 reaching line of orbit. Muzzle nearly equal to orbit's diameter. Scales, 
 6-31-3. Eadii, D. I. 8 ; A. I. 8 (9 ;) V. 8 ; originating considerably in ad- 
 vance of line of dorsal fin ; not reaching vent. Pharyngeal teeth 4.1-1.4. 
 
 Color in alcohol reddish above, i. c, transparent in life; sides and 
 operculum silvery. A faint median dorsal shade ; no spots on fins or at 
 base of dorsal. Total length, M. 018 ; end of muzzle to dorsal fin, .021. 
 From St. Joseph, on the Missoujl Eiver; Dr. William Stimpson. 
 
 This fish differs from all those referred to Cyprinella by Girard, in 
 proportions, radial or scale formula, excepting the C. lugiibris, Girard. 
 This species differs in having the dorsal fin above the ventrals, and in 
 the upper regions of the body being dark brown. Dedicated to Joshua 
 Billings, author of original observations on "The Briny Codfish." 
 
 MONTANA JIJGALIS, (COPE ;) Sp. nOV. 
 
 Form stout, back much elevated, descending steeply to the end of 
 the muzzle. Head one-fifth of total with caudal fin ; depth one-third 
 without caudal fin. Eye 4.3 and four times in head's length, .6 of iuter- 
 orbital space. Upper lip a little more prominent than lower ; end of 
 maxillary bone falling behind the line of the margin of the orbit. 
 Pharyngeal teeth 4-4 in adults ; 4.1-1.4 in small specimens. Scales 
 with narrow exposed surfaces, 7-34(3)-4(3.) Eadii, D. I. 8 ; A, 1. 9 ; V. 8, 
 reaching anal, and originating well in front of line of first dorsal spine. 
 Pectorals nearly attaining ventrals. Total length, M. .0665 ; to dorsal 
 fin, .03 ; depth at last anal ray, .009. 
 
 Sides and ventral and anal fins, milky white ; a median dorsal shade, 
 a broad vertical bar behind the head, and an undefined shade on the 
 side between origins of ventral and aiml fin, of a sooty color. From 
 St. Joseph, in Northwestern Missouri ; Mus. Chicago Academy Sciences. 
 
 This species is well distinguished from those described by Girard in 
 the reports of the United States commissions on the Pacific Eailroad 
 and Mexican boundary survej's. Thus, in the allied AL leonina, Girard, 
 the depth is .25 the length ; in M. laetahilis and M. deliciosa, Girard, the 
 
440 GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF THE TEREITORIES. 
 
 eyes are .3 of the head only ; in M. tristis, the anal radii are I. .7 ; in M. 
 coucJdi, perhaps the closest ally, the depth enters the length 3.5 times; 
 the transverse scales are 7-3, anal rays I. .8. 
 
 The affinities of this species are plainly with such species as Hypsile- 
 pis analostanus, Girard, and Photogenis pyrrhomelas. It is interesting 
 to observe that in its young state it possesses the single tooth of the 
 inner row which characterizes the genus Cyprinella, which thus presents 
 an exact parallelism* to the immature stage of Montana, as no other char- 
 acters exist to distinguish the genera. I may add that Heckel and 
 Kner have shown that the young teeth of the carnivorous type in Euro- 
 I}ean Cyprinidce are pectinated. That the same is true of American 
 genera I have often had occasion to observe. Cyprinella, then, in this 
 respect presents an exact parallelism to Photogenis, or such species as 
 P. pyrrliomelas, which only differ geuerically in the lack of this pectina- 
 tion at maturity. 
 
 M. jiigalis in youth is thus a Cyprinella, and resembles no little 
 the C. biUingsiana, Cope, from the same locality. The latter has occa- 
 sionally nine anal radii, and rarely the ilf. jugalis losing a row of scales 
 above the lateral line, causes a still nearer approach. The smaller eye, 
 deeper body, and color will always distinguish the young of the latter 
 from that of the former. 
 
 ALBURNELLUS PERCOBROMUS, (COPE ;) sp. nov. 
 
 A small species of moderately elongate form, and acuminate muzzle. 
 Ventral fins reaching to line of last dorsal ray, not anal; pectorals 
 nearly reaching ventrals. Scales 7-37-3 ; radii D. I. 8, the first orig- 
 inating opposite the middle of the ventral fins; A. I. 11 (10.) Head 
 3.75 times in length without caudal fin ; depth of body 4.75 times 
 into the same. Eye 3.5 times into hea^l, equal length of muzzle. Mouth 
 oblique, lips equal when closed, end of maxillary extending beyond line 
 of orbit. Pharyngeal teeth 4.2-2.1. Seventeen rows of scales in front 
 of dorsal fin. Length, M. .05 ; to origin dorsal fin, .023 ; to origin of anal. 
 
 .0263. 
 
 Color pale, with lateral silver band. Dorsal scales minutely punctu- 
 late; basis of caudal the same, but without black spots. From St. 
 Joseph, Missouri. 
 
 In technical characters this species approaches the A. matutimis. Cope, 
 but that is much more slender in all respects and has smaller dorsal 
 scales. Twenty-five of these cross the back in front of the dorsal fin in 
 A. matutinus, seventeen in A. percobromus. For an analysis of the species 
 of this genus see Proceedings Amer. Phil. Society, 1870, 464. 
 
 In the same collection occurred the percoid fishes Xepomu anagallinus, 
 Cope, and Boleosoma hrevipinne. Cope. 
 
 SARCiDiUM scopiFERUM, (COPE ;) sp. et gen. nov. 
 
 Char, genericus. — Teeth 4-4, hooked, prehensile ; alimentary canal 
 short. No barbels, upper lip projectile ; lower jaw without lip except 
 below the canthi, where is a fleshy lobe on each side. Lateral line 
 present; dorsal fin anterior to the ventrals. 
 
 This genus is allied to Exoglossum and to Photogenis. Its appearance is 
 quite that of the former, especially in the mouth ; when examined the rami 
 of the mandible are not found to be united or in contact throughout, as is 
 the case with Exoglossum, but they form the usual arc, but with a more 
 
 * See origin of genera, p. 7. 
 
GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF THE TERRITORIES. 441 
 
 than usually stout symphysis. The form of the lower lip and anterior 
 position of the dorsal tin separate it from Photogenis. As the dorsal fin is 
 imniediatelv above the veutrals in Exofjlossinn maxiUingua, aiwl as Cri- 
 rard represents its position to be the same as in Sarcidmm ni his i-^- wi- 
 rabile from Texas, (United States Pacific Eailroad Report, X, plate L\ 1,) 
 I suspect that the latter will be found to be a species of Sarcuhim. 
 
 Char .weciiicu^: General proportions medium, the back nearly . 
 strai'^ht; the caudal region stout ; the head rather small, with long and 
 prominent but obtuse muzzle; mouth entirely inferior, the end ot the 
 maxillary about reaching the line of the anterior nares ; length ot 
 head into total, without caudal fin, four times ; depth at dorsal into 
 same 4 75 times ; origin of dorsal nearer end of muzzle than basis ot 
 caudal fin ; eve 4.2 times in length of head ; l.G times in muzzle, nearly 
 equal interorbital width; vertex nearly plane; profile slightly convex 
 to a point opposite front nares ; here it descends into a deep trans- 
 verse notch, which is caused by a failure of the spines of the pre- 
 maxillary to reach the nasal bones ; preorbital bone long and narrow ; 
 lateral line nearly straight ; scales 6-44-5 ; fin radii, D. 1. 8 ; A. I. i ; 
 y 8 ; pectorals not reaching veutrals ; veutrals reaching vent, wliicli is 
 a little in advance of the anal fin ; length, M. .0545 ; depth at last anal ray, 
 
 Color olivaceous, (reddish in alcohol,) with a straight silver lateral 
 band ; this terminates in a strong black spot at the middle of the base of 
 the caudal fin. No dark dorsal band. 
 
 This peculiar little fish was taken in the Missouri Eiver, near bt. 
 Joseph, Missouri. (Mus. Chicago Acad. Sciences.) 
 • Gila elegans, Baird and Girard, Sitgreaves's Expedition. Zuui and 
 Colorado, 1853, 140, Fishes, PI. II.— Fort Bridger, two specimens ; Forks 
 of Green River, two specimens. . . c. . \r ■ -o ^ 
 
 Gila grahamii, Baird and Girard ; United States Mexican Boundary 
 Survey Report, Fishes, p. CI, PI. XXIV, figs. 7-12.— Fort Bridger, one 
 specimen; Henry's Fork, one specimen. ^ -.oro -in -di 
 
 Gila gracilis, Baird and Girard; Sitgreaves's Report, 18o3,lol,Pl. 
 III.— Fort Bridger, one specimen ; Henry's Fork, two specimens ; Forks 
 of Green River, five specimens. 
 
 GILA NACREA, (COPE ;) sp. nOV. 
 
 Allied to G. graliamiL Baird and Girard. Radii, D. 2. 9 ; C. G. 10. 11. 6 ; 
 A 2 10 • Y. 9 • P. 14. Scales, 21—13. Length of head four times m 
 total to basis of median caudal radii ; depth at dorsal flu four and three- 
 fifths times in the same. Veutrals originating in advance of dorsal fin, 
 not reached by the pectorals. Least depth of caudal peduncle 2.5 times 
 into the depth at ventral fins. Profile and interorbital region gently 
 convex ; width of latter 3.1 times in length of head ; diameter of eye 
 five times in length of head, and 1.25 times in length of muzzle, end of 
 maxillarv not reaching line of orbit. Teeth 4.2-2.5. Total length, :\I. 
 130 ; depth of head at orbit, .015 ; width of head behind, .012o ; length 
 of head, .028; depth caudal peduncle, .007. Color, silver- white ; back 
 narrowlv dark shaded ; pectoral fin, pink. From the fork of the Cxi^een 
 River near Fort Bridger, Wyoming Territory; collected by Cam. 
 Carrington, of Dr. F. V. Haydeirs expedition. 
 
 This species is near the G. grahamii in nujubor of anal rays and gen- 
 eral proportions, but has a less depressed form of cranium and much 
 larger eye. The head is more like that of Ceratichihys and ordinary 
 Cyj^rinidaz. 
 
442 GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF THE TERRITORIES. 
 
 Semotilus corporalis, Mitchill. Cope, Trans. Amer. Philos. Soc, 
 1866, 363, Platte Eiver ; Eed Cloud Creek. . \ 
 
 CERATICHTHYS SQUAMILENTUS, (COPE ;) sp. HOV. 
 
 Most nearly related to section III, (Trans. Amer. Philos. Soc, 1860, p. 
 365,) and therefore to the C. prosthe^nius,* Cope, but differing from the 
 latter in its very much smaller scales. General form stout ; length of 
 head entering that of body, exclusive of caudal fin, 3.8 times ; depth 
 entering the same, five times ; eye 4.0 times in length of head, f length of 
 muzzle, and .6 interorbital width. Parietal region convex ; protile nearly 
 i:>laue; muzzle not prominent. Mouth horizontal; maxillary bone not 
 reaching orbit. Dorsal fin considerably nearer the base of the caudal fin 
 than the end of the muzzle, and originating a very little in advance of 
 the origin of the ventrals. Eadii, D. 1. 8; A. 1. 7 ; V. 7, extending to 
 anal, i^ectorals not reaching ventrals. Isthmus ratlier wide. Teeth 
 4.2-1.4. Scales small, 17-66-14, covering both dorsal and thoracic 
 regions completely. This description is taken from a small, probably 
 young, specimen ; length, M. .058. The barbels are short and slender 
 and easily overlooked. 
 
 Above olive, below silvery ; a lateral band of blackish dust from the 
 head to the base of the caudal fin, widening behind ; a black band round 
 muzzle ; sides and back black dusted. Fins unspotted. 
 
 Fro 11 Henry's Fork of the Green River, Wyoming. Cam. Carrington 
 discoverer. Several specimens. 
 
 Ehinichtiiys maxillosus. Cope ; Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci., Phil., 1864, 
 p. 278, Numerous specimens from Eed Cloud Creek and the Platte. In 
 life the upper lip, ventral and anal fins, and inferior asjiect of caudal 
 peduncle, are vermilliou. 
 
 Siluridce. 
 
 NoTURUS FLAVus, Eafinesque. — From the waters of the Platte ; iden- 
 tical with those from the Ohio. 
 
 IX.— MATERIAL RESOURCES. 
 
 EEPOET ON THE INDUSTEIAL EESOUECES OF WESTEEN 
 KANSAS AND EASTEEN COLOEADO. 
 
 By E. S. Elliott. 
 
 An article by Professor J. G. Cooper on " The Forests and Trees of 
 Northern America, as connected with Climate and Agriculture," ap- 
 peared in the Agricultural Eeport of the Commissioner of Patents for 
 1860. In Professor Cooper's division of the continent into "provinces" 
 the word " campestrian " is used to express the "most marked charac- 
 teristic of the prairie and great central plain regions of North America, 
 which consists in their comparative destitution of forests and nearly 
 uniform surface, gradually rising from the Gulf of Mexico to the base 
 of the Eocky Mountains, where they attain an elevation of 4,000 to 5,000 
 feet." The campestrian province, whose eastern boundary is the west 
 
 * Deceived by some Bpccimens in the Liverpool Museum, Dr. Guntlier has described 
 this species in the Catal. British Museum as the GoMo plumbeus of Agassiz. A consid- 
 eration of Professor Agassiz's description makes it apparent that a very different fish 
 was the sulyect of it, i^robably, as Girard has observed, a species of Semotilus. 
 
GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF THE TERRITORIES. 443 
 
 line of tlie Appalachian, or more densely- wooded, province, is subdivided 
 into several regions, two of which, the Dakota and the Comanche, 
 divided by the thirty-eighth parallel, stretch from the ninety-seventh 
 meridian to the Eocky Mountains. 
 
 The general course of the Kansas Pacific Eailway is on the thirty- 
 ninth parallel, and in the "Dakota region" of Professor Cooper; but 
 the country traversed partakes of the character of both regions at 
 least as far southward as the Arkansas. 
 
 That portion of the State of Kansas east of the ninety-seventh merid- 
 ian (which crosses the railway near Abilene) is so well known and estab- 
 lished as a domain of great natural resources, arable and pastoral, that 
 extended remarks on it are unnecessary. Near Abilene, ea^stward, we 
 find the permian rocks in the bluffs of the Smoky Hill Eiver and other 
 streams. These rocks are overlaid by a soil of great fertility, more or 
 less arenaceous, but similar to the loess or bluff deposits further east. 
 Near Topeka the upper carboniferous rocks are on and near the sur- 
 face — the line of separation between these and the permian not very 
 distinctly defined. The carboniferous series extend to and across the 
 Missouri Eiver. The formations are so generally covered with earths 
 of productive character that no rocky districts of meager fertility are 
 found near the line of the railway. No swamps or unproductive areas 
 impair the healthfulness of the country, or aifect its capacity to sustain 
 life. Water is abundant — generally of excellent quality ; timber is 
 plentiful in many localities ; and coal is known to be obtainable over 
 thousands of square miles. This notice of the country along 162 miles 
 of the railway, from Abilene east to State line, is given in order that 
 we may have in a single view the entire line of the railway from State 
 line to Denver. 
 
 WEST OF NINETY- SEVENTH MERIDIAN. 
 
 The track at Abilene is 1,057 feet above the level of the sea. In 53 
 miles westward, at Summit Siding, (2 J miles east of Fort Harker,) the 
 railway track rises to 1,556 feet, or 499 feet higher than at Abilene — an 
 average of nearly 10 feet to the mile. This elevation is on a part of the 
 road which cuts off a bend of the Smoky Hill Eiver. At Ellsworth, 60 
 miles from Abilene, the track is again in the vale of the Smoky, and is 
 1,440 feet above the sea — 116 less elevation than at Summit Siding, and 
 383 greater than at Abilene. From Abilene to Black Wolf, 10 miles 
 west of Ellsworth, we have a sandy soil on the uplands, nourishing a 
 rich growth of grass, and productive under the plow ; in the bottoms a 
 darker loam, containing more clay as a general rule, but having all the 
 elements of permanent fertility. Eocks appear in the bluffs and banks 
 of streams; also in limited areas on the surface of the uplands west of 
 Salina, and in picturesque buttes, ledges, and crests between Brookville 
 and Fort Harker. 
 
 The geological age of the country from Abilene to Black Wolf has 
 not been very positively defined by any geologist whom I have read. I 
 take it to be triassic, merging on its western border between Black 
 Wolf and Wilson Station into " Cretaceous No. 1 " of your classification, 
 which, in the highlands north of Wilson and in the bluffs of the Smoky, 
 south, appears to me to be very distinctly overlaid by your "Cretaceous 
 No. 2." The decomposition of the triassic rocks, clays, and shales west 
 of Abilene has left a kindly soil for the plow, except in the limited areas 
 where too rocky for arable uses ; and in these the native vegetation 
 affords excellent pasturage, and i^romises well for tree culture in the 
 
444 GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OP THE TERRITORIES. 
 
 future. The farmers near Brookville, Harker, and Ellsworth, as well 
 as those at some distance north and south, find even the raw soil of the 
 prairie productive the first season. Kear where I write winter wheat 
 gives unusual promise on sod broken for the first time last summer. 
 
 In general terms, the countrj' from Abilene to Wilson (77 miles) may 
 be classed as rich in soil and abounding in supplies of water, either in 
 streams or reached by shallow wells — a country both arable and pasto- 
 ral, and being rapidly taken up by immigrants. Abilene is promineni 
 as a point for cattle shiximent, increasing year after year. During the 
 past season large numbers have also been shipped from Brookville ; and 
 in a year or two the herds will be coming to the track at Ellsworth and 
 Wilson. As the consumption of beef seems to be gaining on the sup- 
 l)ly, there must be continuous activity in the cattle trade, and its mag- 
 nitude will only be limited by the rate of increase of the animals. 
 
 WEST OF NINETY-EIGHTH MERIDIAN. 
 
 This meridian crosses the railway east of Fort Harker. At Wilson 
 Station, 239 miles by rail west of the State line of Missouri, we are 
 about 98° 30' west longitude. We are »ow in the border of the im- 
 mense cretaceous area, which, with more or less of superimposed drift, 
 stretches westward to the eastern flank of the " great divide," so often 
 described as extending east from the mountains between the waters of 
 the Platte and the Arkansas. West of the one hundred and fourth 
 meridian the cretaceous seems to be overlaid by tertiary formation, 
 with lignite beds over large areas, extending at greater or less depths to 
 the base of the mountains. 
 
 In describing the general formation from 98° 30' west longitude to 
 104° as cretaceous, reference is had to what may be called the sub- 
 structure. On the surface, over large areas, there are deposits of sandy 
 clays and marls, with occasional solidification into porous strata of rocky 
 character ; in areas of limited extent looser sands and gravels, the latter 
 in j)laces intermingled with water-worn boulders of three to ten pounds 
 weight, all apparently derived ages ago (yet recently in a geological 
 sense) from the mountain ranges to the west and northwest. 
 
 In spots near Wilson, and at intervals westward to the one hundredth 
 meridian, the cretaceous rocks are on the surface, and they are shown 
 boldly in the bluffs of the Smoky Hill, Saline, and other streams. But 
 further westward these rocks appear only in the bluffs of the streams, 
 until about the one hundred and second meridian, where, in the neigh- 
 borhood of Fort Wallace, some ledges of chalky limestone, variously 
 tinted, rest in ledges on the uplands distant from the water-courses. 
 
 SOIL FOR SIX DEGREES OF LONGITUDE. 
 
 From the ninety-eighth to the one hundred and fourth meridian we 
 have the traditional "desert." But there is no true desert on the 
 line of the Kansas Pacific Kailway. Between the one hundred and 
 fourth meridian and the mountains the soil is in general of the same 
 composition as that which at the base of the mountains has in many 
 localities been proved to be remarkably productive. East of tbe one 
 hundred and fourth meridian the external characters of the surface-earth 
 suggest greater fertility than west of that line, and the native vegeta- 
 tion sustains this suggestion. In many parts of the plains there is a 
 considerable mixture of vegetable mold with the surface deposits, par- 
 ticularly in the lower lands, and even in the most sandy and gravelly 
 districts vegetation suited to the local conditions is always present. 
 
GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF THE TERRITORIES. 445 
 
 Made up of disintegi'ated rocks and clays of cretaceous age, inter- 
 mingled with, and in pla(!es overlaid by deposits of later drift, the gen- 
 eral surface of the Plains east of the one hundred and fourth meridian 
 may be described as composed of clay and Siindy loam, with occasional 
 but very limited spots of gravel — the whole impregnated with lime, gyp- 
 sum, soda, magnesia, phosphoric acid, potash, and nitre; all fertilizers 
 and true to their mission whenever the compacted surface is broken uj) 
 so as to let in the air and moisture. 
 
 1 repeat, that if w^e may judge by the native vegetation, the Plains 
 may be described as i)roductive over their whole extent, as traversed by 
 this railway. There are zones and belts of greater and less fertility ; but 
 the language of Fremont, " broad, grassy plains," is as true in description 
 as it is inconsistent with the idea of a " desert." " Broad, grassy plains," 
 sustaining by their native plants animal life as ponderous as the buffalo 
 herd, must have uses for mankind not belonging to a desert. 
 
 In some limited portions of this vast region there is only a scanty 
 growth of the short, curly buffalo-grass fSesleria dactyloidesj with more 
 or less of sage, cactus, and yucca. In large districts there is a general 
 prevalence of grama-grass, fChondrosmmfa'netim,) and eastward of the 
 one hundred and first meridian we find a considerable intrusion of the 
 Kansas " blue-joint," which notably increases as we approach the fron- 
 tier settlements in the neighborhood of Wilson and Ellsworth. In all 
 Ijarts of the Plains there are spots of greater or less extent where the 
 nutritious bunch-grass finds a congenial soil, and presents its ricli pastur- 
 age. In the most arid and apparently most sterile portions of the 
 country along this railway, cattle and mules and horses find subsistence 
 and keep in good condition, where the flippant writer for the press, in 
 a hurried journey by rail, has seen only "desolation," or has been 
 nauseated by imaginary " alkali." 
 
 The cactus appears sparsely about the ninety-eighth meridian, per- 
 haps some distance eastward, (Mammilaria and OpmitiaJ and is more 
 abundant as we go w^estward, nowhere occupying the ground to the ex- 
 clusion of grasses and other herbage. "A plant which is extremely 
 useful to the Mexicans as a substitute for soap, by them called palmillo, 
 by us Adam's needle or Spanish bayonet," (AbertJ the botanical name 
 Yucca augustifolettm, appears but sparingly until we pass the one hun- 
 dred and second meridian, but gains in number and vigor thence to the 
 mountains. Artemisia appears in the western regions, but not in the 
 abundance displayed in the Laramie Plains. 
 
 It is rare that any saline efflorescence is observed, until we get to the 
 vale of the Big Sandy, a tributary of the Arkansas, reached by the rail- 
 way at Kit Carson, near one hundred and third meridian. In the dry 
 seasons pools of brackish water stand in the bed of this vstream, and 
 along its banks the white crystallization may be seen at intervals. The 
 Smoky Hill Eiver probably owes its repute as an " alkali " stream to the 
 disintegrated chalk washed down from the layers of white or chalky 
 limestone along its banks. In the bars of Big Creek, a living stream 
 crossed by the railway near the one hundredth meridian, and which 
 empties into the Smoky east of Fort Hays, the white limestone pebbles 
 have no doubt passed with many observers as "alkali." 
 
 The proportion of the soil of the plains rendered unfit for production 
 by "alkali" is not equal to the proportion of Illinois, Indiana, or Ohio 
 rendered unfit by swamps and marshes. In fact, except in a very few 
 basins, or depressions, a few acres in extent, where the drainage of sur- 
 rounding areas is partly absorbed and partly evaporated, the soil is no- 
 where impregnated with alkaline matter to an extent to unfit it for gen- 
 
446 GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF THE TERRITORIES. 
 
 eral plant growth. Coutrary to the prevailing impression, the alkaline 
 soils are probably* the most fertile where the necessary moisture is at* 
 hand. The " alkalies " are mainly in the clays and shales, and the soils 
 resulting from the disintegration of these are apt to be the strongest. 
 Moisture is needed on these soils, not to leach out the alkalies, but to 
 furnish them in solution to the roots of plants, and to provide a humid 
 atmosphere to surround the foliage. 
 
 In the gradual progression of settlements, the Kansas frontier moving 
 west, and the Colorado coming east, to cover the entire Plains in the 
 course of time, this vast region will be found to have as small, a i^ropor- 
 tion of waste lands as some of the most favored States. 
 
 MINERALS — METALS AND COAL. 
 
 Westward from the ninety-seventh meridian, we are for about seven- 
 ty-five miles in the triassic region ; rocks of the same age of those 
 which, according to Whitney, are metalliferous in California. The Kan- 
 sas rocks are apparently in place as deposited. No metamorphism, no 
 grand upheavals, no outbursts of lava, have taken place. There may 
 have been a gentle uplift of a few feet in the region adjoining Fort 
 Harker on the east, the axis probably extending north and south ; but 
 even this gentle uplift is problematical, and is only suggested by springs 
 coming out of the hills east of Harker, with a volume and permanence 
 that c^in hardly be due to the local rain-fall. There seems to be a moder- 
 ate curvature upward of the eastern edges of the strata, due either to 
 their original deposition on the sloping beaches of the old triassic sea, 
 or to a subsequent gentle upheaval ; but even this curvature may be 
 only fanciful, and the waters of the numerous springs near Harker and 
 Brook%ille, some of which are at least 1,550 feet above the sea level, 
 may come round in the " divide " between the Smoky and the Saline, 
 from higher regions westward. 
 
 No metals are known with certainty to exist in this immediate re- 
 gion. Much of the sand-rock is impregnated strongly with oxide of 
 iron, and many concretions of sulphuret of iron are found in the clays 
 and shales. It is possible that other metals — gold, silver, tin, and anti- 
 mony — might be traced. No examination with a view to metallic wealth 
 has yet been made. There are traditions, said to come from the Indians, 
 of tin and silver having been found near Salina, in the Smoky Hill re- 
 gion, but they are too vague to afford any clue to the mines, if any ex- 
 ist. I have been shown specimens of sulphuret and carbonate of copper, 
 and of galena apparently argentiferous, said to have been taken from a 
 locality very near Brookville ; but the party in possession declined to 
 give any information as to the place where found, or the probable quan- 
 tity. Should the more valuable minerals, copper, lead, silver, «S:c., be 
 hereafter ascertained to exist in this region, thej' will probably be iu 
 veins of segregated character lying in the planes of the general strati- 
 fication, and not true veins, or lodes, traversing the strata. The copper- 
 bearing stratum at Mansfeld, Prussia, is described by ^^^Jitney as " a 
 bituminous marly slate," and in Silesia a similar slate is worked for 
 copper ; the beds being similar in character with some near Brookville, 
 but I do not know their geological age. 
 
 Coal, according to all geologists who have written of Kansas, dips 
 "westward in the carboniferous formation, and is overlaid by the per- 
 mian and later beds. Hence it may be found under the ninety-seventh 
 meridian, but at what depth is yet entirely a matter of conjecture. In 
 time it will no doubt be sought at some points west of all present mines j 
 
GEOLOGICAL SUKVEY OF THE TERRITORIES. 447 
 
 peiliaps at intervals of 50 miles along the railway west of Topeka. If 
 the clip of the carboniferous series is reallj- to the west or northwest, 
 as generally held, the depth of the coal as far west as Abilene or Brook- 
 ville may be too great for working until a greater demand shall grow 
 up. A drill at \Yamego, 100 miles west of Leavenworth City, could, at 
 a cost of a few thousand dollars, tell us whether the veins of the Leav- 
 enworth shaft are persistent westward at a depth not beyond useful- 
 ness. 
 
 The coal found in the bluffs of the Smoky Hill River, opposite Wil- 
 , son Station, though very recent, can hardly be classed as "lignite," if 
 to be lignite it is necessary that wood should have contributed to its 
 formation. The material is rather a carbonaceous or l)ituminous earth, 
 in layers of one to three feet in thickness, with earthy partings, and 
 breaking in cubical fragments, having the external characters of coal. 
 It is used with advantage as domestic fuel ; and, with changes in the 
 grates and fire-boxes, could be made available in locomotives ; while for 
 stationary engines it will no doubt be extensively used as the country 
 becomes more densely settled. 
 
 A coal said to be of better quality, but probably of similar origin and 
 characteristics, is found in the bluffs of the Smoky, near the mouth of 
 Big Creek, east of Fort Hays. - A similar dei>osit" is known near the 
 town of Ellsworth. In boring for water at Bunker Hill Station, 12 miles 
 west of Wilson, a stratum of two or three feet in thickness was drilled 
 through, at a depth giving it a geological position similar to that of the 
 coal opposite Wilson, which seems to be in the lower beds of your Cre- 
 taceous Ko. 2, or the upper of your jSTo. 1. Xorth of Wilson, in ravines 
 leading to Saline River, I have found similar coal in small quantity, in 
 position apparently identical with that in the bluffs south of Wilson. 
 
 When one particular stratum (or a limited series of beds) was in pro- 
 cess of growth, there seems to have been deposited over a large area, in 
 layers more or less continuous, combustible matter now mined as coal, 
 and of much ])rospective usefulness as fuel. How far westward beyond 
 the mouth of Big Creek, and how far northward or southward from the 
 bluft's at Wilson this mineral fuel may in the future be discovered, can- 
 not now be safely conjectured ; but enough is known to justify the belief 
 that it will play an important part in the development of aii extended 
 region, not only as domestic fuel, but also in the propulsion of machinery. 
 
 Borings at Ellis, near the one hundredth meridian, would, probably, in 
 less than 300 feet, penetrate strata of the same age with the coal strata 
 at Wilson, and in due time it is likely that examinations will be made. 
 West of that point the strata are gradually covered to depths that will 
 perhaps render this particular eoal unavailable for many years. But if 
 we have a store of fuel only so far west as Ellis, we are provided with 
 this essential article for about three-fourths the length of the State of 
 Kansas from east to west; and the western fourth of the State can, at 
 a moderate cost, be supplied from the beds spoken of, or, if need be, from 
 the mines near Cedar Point, about the one hundred and fourth meridian. 
 Should all other sources of supply fail, we can (in this most improbable 
 contingency) rely on the exhaustless stores of the mountains, already 
 reached by rail. In any event, abundant fuel is available at all points 
 on the line of this railway for the use of settlers in the woodless region. 
 As the demand increases, and mining and transporting arrangements 
 become more perfect, the cost will be so reduced as to meet the ability 
 of all to purchase. Nature and art have thus already provided fuel for 
 human uses on the Plains until forests can be grown, if desirable, to 
 supply it. 
 
448 GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF THE TERRITORIES. 
 
 BUILDING MATERIAL^. 
 
 • 
 
 One of tlie most surprising features of life in Kansas is the importation 
 of building materials in the shape of pine lumber from distant localities, 
 when the State is so bountifully supplied in all parts with materials for 
 the walls of houses at once cheaper and more desirable. The famous 
 limestones in the bluffs of the Kaw Valley, where the mural treasures 
 are fitted by nature for man's use, or readily shaped by the saw and plane, 
 are succeeded on the west by sandstones at Abilene, Salina, Brookville, 
 Harker, and Ellsworth, and by limestones at Wilson, Fossil, and other 
 points westward to Hays and Ellis. Still farther westward, in the neigh- 
 borhood of Fort Wallace, limestones appear of various pleasing colors, 
 so soft as to be wrought with more ease than blocks of wood, yet hard- 
 ening on exposure so as to sustain the weight of large buildings. 
 
 Lime may be cheaply made at numerous points on the railway. Imme- 
 diately at the coal mines, near Wilson, are cretaceous limestoneis of ex- 
 cellent quality, from which lime may be produced at very small cost. 
 The intelligent colonists, now looking for locations in the region about 
 Wilson, where they expect to settle in 1871, will no doubt appreciate this 
 valuable material. 
 
 Clays for brick and roofing tiles, as well as for all kinds of coarser 
 • pottery, if not for the finer, are abundant, as are also sands for mortars 
 and concretes. So far as I have been able to learn, but little use has 
 been made of concrete for buildings in Kansas, although the raw mate- 
 rials are abundant in almost every neighborhood. 
 
 In the climate of Kansas, even the adobes of New Mexico, well laid 
 up in coarse lime mortar, with external plastering of the same, always 
 provided the mortar is properly made and the unburned bricks thoroughly 
 dry, would be preferable to any wooden walls, and less costly. 
 
 The future will witness a great change in the mode of building The 
 imperishable materials so profusely scattered through the State will be 
 made use of by a population wisely attentive to both economj^ and com- 
 fort. Kansas will become as famous for the solidity and taste of her 
 buildings as for the rich and varied products of her soil. 
 
 Fences of stone have been constructed in many localities, and will 
 soon be found in many more. Constructed of blocks regular in size, 
 they combine a species of beauty with their obvious ijermanence, pleasing 
 both to the eye and the judgment. It is, perhaps, not an unmixed mis- 
 fortune that timber is so scarce, when the result of the scarcity is the 
 durable stone fence and the living hedge. 
 
 WATER SUPPLIES WESTWARD TO ELLIS. 
 
 On the railway line the settlements may be said to extend a few miles 
 beyond Ellsworth, about 225 to 230 miles west from State Line. On the 
 Solomon and on the Saline, as also on streams south of the Smoky, settlers 
 are some 25 miles farther westward. Up to the limit of present settle- 
 ments water is as abundant and accessible as it is in Iowa or Missouri. 
 It is established that in all of Kansas, near the thirty-ninth parallel, and 
 east of 98° 30' west longitude, there is no part where settlements are 
 impracticable or need be retarded on account of the scarcitj^ of water. 
 In addition to the Eepublican, Smoky Hill, Saline, Solomon, and other 
 constant streams, there are innumerable arroyos and courses in which 
 water for stock is found in constant pools, or near which abundance can 
 be had in shallow wells. It is also a pleasant fact that in the uplands 
 the general rule is that water is accessible in all directions in weUs oJ 
 
GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF THE TERRITORIES 449 
 
 moderate depth, iisuallj- sunk witbout resort to blasting and unfaiHug; 
 in their supplies. 
 
 At Wilson Station, about 98° 30' west longitude, water immediately 
 at the railway track is abundant within 48 feet of the surface. South 
 of the Station three miles is the living current of the Smoky Bill Eiver : 
 a few miles north is the Saline, and then the Solomon, all having tribu- 
 taries of greater or less volume and permanence. At Ellsworth the 
 railway makes its greatest southern bend opposite the northern bend of 
 the Arkansas, which is within 50 miles, and the streams flowing into, 
 the Arkansas in that region arc already flanked by the homes of pioneers 
 whose numbers are rapidly increasiug. The magnificent pasturage of 
 that part of Kansas makes it the paradise of the stock-raiser. 
 
 The numerous springs near "VVilson, some of considerable volume, and. 
 all yielding water of much excellence, would be worthy of note in any 
 X)art of the Union, but could not be more happily located for usefulness. 
 
 West from Wilson the railway courses parallel with and not distant 
 from the Smoky until approaching Hays, when it bears up the valley of 
 Big Creek, an affluent of the Smoky. North Fork and Fossil Creeks 
 are crossed between Wilson and Hays and again at Ellis. On the 
 '•divide" between the Smokj* and Saline, followed by the railway from 
 Wilson to Hays, water is found at depths corresponding to the undula- 
 tions of the track and its elevation above the Smoky, and a short distance 
 either north or south of the railway is available in springs, streams, and 
 pools. Along the more elevated iiortions of the line, where deeper 
 wells are reqitired, the dense clays of the cretaceous series are at hand 
 for cisterns and tanks to hold rain-water, and the thinner layers of the 
 fossiliferous limestones afford easily-wrought materials of construction. 
 
 Thus we reach Ellis, 302 miles, and have been all along in a country 
 sufficiently if not abundantly watered, and presenting where they may 
 bo required ample resources for the establishment of ponds, cisterns, 
 and tanks, to retain the supplies which the clouds do not tail to yield. 
 We are about half way from State Line to Denver, and 2,019 feet above 
 the level of the sea, yet neither in the paucity of vegetation, nor in 
 privation of water, nor in sterility of soil, have we found one feature of 
 the traditional desert, with the; single exception of the scarcity of trees, 
 which are only found along the water-courses or in nooks of the bluffs 
 where fires have not been able to reach them. 
 
 Ellis is a prominent station, with round-house, machine-shops, hotel, 
 and stores. Big Creek, crossed at Ellis, is a constant stream with its 
 source westward in the Plains. The Smoky Hill Eiver is about 25 miles 
 south, and the head streams of the Saline about the same distance 
 north. Farming operations on a large scale are projected in the vicinity 
 of Ellis, near the one hundredth meridian. 
 
 FROM ELLIS- WESTWARD. 
 
 Tbe railway pursues its general course directlj' westward, (the Smoky 
 Hill Eiver at an average distance of 30 miles south,) and rising on the 
 divide between the drainage to the Smoky and that to the Saline and 
 Solomon. There is no constant stream till we reach Sheridan, 103 miles 
 from Ellis, v.here another " North Fork " is crossed ; a stream of visible 
 "u ater sufdcieut for large herds of cattle and available for irrigation. 
 There is evidence of considerable underground flow in the main as well 
 as lateral valleys of the North Fork. It rises far to the north, in the 
 higher lands in which the south brandies of the Eepublican have their 
 sources, and enters the Smoky about J 5 miles south of Sheridan. 
 29 G 
 
450 GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF THE TERRITORIES. 
 
 Between Ellis and Sheridan the superficial " drift," porous iu character, 
 covers the cretaceous clays and vshales to a considerable depth, and water 
 in wells is reached by sinking- to the impervious clays. The railway 
 company has been successful in wells from 90 to 130 feet in depth, 
 securing supplies apparently inexhaustible. The railway track is 
 located on the divide so as to head the lateral swales and ravines, on 
 ground of greater average height than will be occupied by the future 
 stock ranches or " estauchias ; " and hence the water supplies of the 
 latter will be more readily and cheaply obtainable in v/elLs of less dei)th. 
 
 The North Fork, crossed at Sheridan, has in its main and lateral val- 
 leys many desirable locations for grazing establishments. Some of these 
 locations will no doubt be taken up at an early day. A large rush val- 
 ley, distant eight to ten miles north from Sheridan, would winter thou- 
 sands of cattle. Extensive savannas yield a large annual supply of 
 natural gTass suitable for hay. Springs of excellent water, some of them 
 sufficient for irrigating purposes, are known along the Xortli Fork. 
 
 Thus we reach Sheridan, 405 miles by rail west of State Line, and yet 
 have passed through no "desert" or uninhabitable country j nutritious 
 grasses have been on either hand, and water within reach. 
 
 FROM SHERIDAN WESTWARD. 
 
 We cross two creek beds between Sheridan and Pond Creek, 17 miles ; 
 the contour of the country indicating that wells, not yet tried, could not 
 fail of success. At Pond Creek water is plentiful in pools. Within a 
 short distance southward the Smoky Hill, here a small stream, and Eose 
 Creek, one of its tributaries, afford water for sill purposes, with facilities 
 for irrigation; the latter successfully applied, under the orders of General 
 Woods, in the cultivated grounds at Fort Wallace. A short distance 
 west of Pond Creek the Smoky is crossed, here a wide bed of coarse 
 sand, with no visible water, but with a constant supply under the sand; 
 not, however, of large volume, as we are now within a few miles of its 
 upper arroyos. 
 
 In 40 miles, from Pond Creek to Cheyenne Wells Station, the railway 
 rises 1,000 feet; reaching an elevation above the level of the sea of 4,179 
 feet, only 12 feet less than at Kit Carson, 25 miles farther west. At 
 First View Station, 10 miles west of Cheyenucj Wells, the elevation is 
 4,479 feet ; 288 feet greater than at Kit Carson, where it is 4,191 feet. 
 From First View there is a rapid descent to the vale of Eureka Creek, 
 about 10 miles, and thence on a nearl.y level grade to Kit Carson. 
 
 Pond Creek being 3,175 feet, the track is 1,010 feet higher at Kit Carson ; 
 but in making this rise in 05 miles we pass over in the first 50 miles an 
 immense swell of the plain, and at First View we are 1,304 feet higher 
 than at Pond Creek. From Pond Creek to First View the track, head- 
 ing lateral swales, follows "divides" where practicable; yet the destitu- 
 tion of water, which might be reasonably expected, is not experienced. 
 At Eagle Tail, 3,336 feet above the sea, water is abundant in pools; and- 
 at Monotony (about 3,520 feet) is supplied by an unfiiiling well, 15 miles 
 from Pond Creek. Along the track west of Monotony, until the descent 
 is made to the vale of Eureka, ifc may, perhaps, be necessary to sink wells 
 to a depth i^roportioned to the rise of the track ; but no doubt is felt 
 that even in the localities least favorable successful wells can be made. 
 About six miles east of north from the Cheyenne Wells Station, on the 
 railway, are the old shallow wells of the same name in the vale of the 
 Smoky ; used formerly to supply the overland stages, and now used by 
 emigrants with teams and live stock. And the fact that emigrants 
 
GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF THE TERRITORIES. 451 
 
 Traverse the Plains near the thirty-ninth parallel at their pleasure, with- 
 out serious inconYenience from lack of water, ought of itself to establish 
 the habitable character of the country. 
 
 Descending west from First View Station, we are in 10 miles at Eureka 
 Creek ; only an arroyo, but marking a depression in fhe plain, where, 
 over an area of several miles square, water can be had in wells at the 
 depth of a few feet ; the water in the railway well at Eureka tank being 
 within 10 feet of the surface. Five miles farther we are at Kit Carson, 
 where, in addition to constant pools in Big Sandy, and unf^iiling sup- 
 plies to a limited extent in the arroyo of Wild Horse, tlie large but 
 shallow wells sunk for railway uses are apparently inexhaustible. 
 
 The artesian well at Kit Carson penetrates the clays and shales 
 of cretaceous age, below the level of the percolations from the surfoce. 
 It was undertaken before the abundance of the stores near the surface — 
 resting on the clays, under the loam, sand and gravel — were known or 
 supposed to exist. Its main object was a flowing stream, and this not 
 being realized at 1,460 feet, and there being no necessity for more 
 liberal supplies than are now enjoyed, the work has been suspended. 
 The geological features developed by the well have been discussed in a 
 former letter^ and need not be treated here. 
 
 FROM KIT CARSON WESTWARD. 
 
 Along the railway for nearly 70 miles we have the Big Sandy and 
 its tributary arroyos. Then at Cedar Point we cross the northern 
 trend of the " great divide," and thence to Denver we are on the waters 
 of Beaver, Comanche, Kiowa, Bijou, and Bear Creeks, *and some minor 
 streams. It is true that there are seasons when the water is not visible 
 in the broad sandy troughs of these creeks, yet it is never absent, but 
 is always in large quantities under the surface, accessible by shallow 
 wells. ]S"ature has kindly given it the shield of sand, as a protection 
 against the warm air of summer ; and thus saved from evaporation, it 
 is with little labor brought into usefulness. In addition to the streams 
 there are numerous springs between Kit Carson and Denver, some near 
 and some distant from the track, and wells even on the high flanks 
 of the divides would in most cases be successful. In the Godfrey coal 
 mines, 5,505 feet above the level of the sea, water is encountered at 
 various depths, in a shaft 108 feet. 
 
 The immense coal-field, which appears to dip gently to the westward 
 from Cedar Point, in addition to supplying fuel in unlimited quantities, 
 may yet, in the slope of the tertiary strata, afford successful artesian 
 wells between Cedar Point and Denver. Having written of this 'coal- 
 field in a previous letter, I only allude to it briefly in these passages 
 as relating to coal supplies. While its coal treasures are beyond 
 computation, it is possible that this " tertiary basin " may in time bear 
 some resemblance to the Paris basin, so far as flowing wells are con- 
 cerned. With the timbered region of the great divide on the south, 
 water supplies in all its parts, I look for a rapid extension of settle- 
 ments in the country between Cedar Point and Denver. 
 
 The foregoing i^resents, so far as it goes, a fair view of the water 
 supplies along the Kansas Pacific Kailway. Though in particular 
 regions not abundant, water is yet greatly more copious in supply than 
 the popular belief, and even some grave works of science, have hereto- 
 
452 GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF THE TERRITOEIES. 
 
 fore lield it to be. It may be said with safety, because witli truth, that 
 the entire space of 20 miles on each side of this railway, covered by its 
 grant of lands, is available for human sustenance, so far as its utility 
 depends on supplies of water in springs and streams, or its provision at 
 reasonable cost in wells, cisterns, and tanks. 
 
 The nearest approach to destitution is between Pond Creek and Kit 
 Carson. By reference to a correct map you will see that the Smoky 
 Hill Eiver has its sources (or upper arroyos) east and northeast from 
 Kit Carson, the Eepublican is at a considerable distance northward and 
 northwestward, while the Big Sandy is westward and southwestward. 
 The eye at once appreciates the fact that here is a water-shed, curving 
 round from about Cedar Point, passing north of Eureka Valley and 
 turning southward past First View Station, giving us the swell in the 
 plain which I have noted as existing from Pond Creek westward to 
 First View. Now when the porous character of this region, with drift 
 from 100 to i)ossibly 500 feet in depth, is considered, we readily under- 
 stand that the streams may be small or intermittent; arroyos, with 
 occasional pools, not lasting, and running water only in times of heavy 
 storms, and we are prepared for the phenomena which actually i^re- 
 sent themselves : invisible streams finding their way slowly under the 
 earth, and a surface not cheered by brooks or rivers, though verdant 
 with nutritious vegetation. 
 
 But let us consider the beneficence manifested, even where the absence 
 of visible water may to the careless observer suggest desolation. Over 
 this region there is an annual rain-fall, averaging from 15 to 20 inches ; 
 but let us take it to be but 12 inches. This gives 43.560 cubic feet 
 of water on ar» acre in a year ; about 340,000 gallons in the dooryard 
 of the farmer; on -each square mile nearly 28,000,000 cubic feet, or 
 nearly 220,000,000 gallons. What becomes of this precipitation ? If 
 the surface were bare rock or impervious clays it would mainly pass 
 oif by floods, and the remnants left in depressions escape by evapora- 
 tion. But the superficial deposits are of such porous character, over 
 extended areas, that a large proportion of the rain-fall sinks into the 
 earth, and is there stored in depressions of the clay sub-strata, ready 
 for man's use as needed. 
 
 IRRIGATION. 
 
 A day will come, no doubt, when streams and wells along the line of 
 this railway will furnish water for irrigation, to nourish such vegeta- 
 tion as will not thrive without it. The Smoky Hill Eiver and many of its 
 tributaries can be used, either by leading out the water from dams or 
 forcing it to a higher level by machinery. It may be said that along 
 or near the railway irrigation to a considerable extent from streams is 
 practicable till we reach the one hundred and second meridian. Thence 
 to about the one hundred and third meridian the water must be sought 
 in wells, or the rain-fall stored in tanks for use as needed. 
 
 West of the one hundred and third meridian the Big Sandj^, with a 
 fall of about 17 feet per mile, can be utilized for irrigation up to and 
 beyond the point where the track leaves its valley. Passing the divide 
 at Cedar Point, we have Beaver, Comanche, Kiowa, Bijou, and Bear 
 Creeks, together with springs and lesser streams; all with supplies of 
 water to be rendered a\'ailable in tbe future if required. 
 
 The fall of the streams above named is stated to be about 30 feet to 
 the mile, and their waters can be led out at small cost. The canals at 
 their commencement will partake somewhat of the character of the 
 Afghanistan caureez, but will be less costly. In the sandy beds of the 
 
GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF THE TERRITORIES. 453 
 
 streams water rests on the impervious bottoms at the depth of 10 to 15 
 feet ; and conduits, with a fall of 2 to 4 feet to the mile, will bring it out 
 to tbe points where needed. 
 
 Power for raising water from streams or wells will bo furnished by 
 the winds, by cattle, or steam. If Ericsson succeeds with his solar en- 
 gine it may come into use in this country of much sunshine. But 
 the wind-mill, for irrigating purposes, particularly where water is to be 
 raised from wells, is Tikely to be the main reliance. 
 
 The project of carrying the South Platte eastward from the canon, in 
 a grand canal along the divide, will no doubt be realized in a compara- 
 tively short time. Eeaching past the heads of the streams crossed by 
 the railway between Cedar Point and Denver, the canal, in fertilizing 
 its million acres, will add to the quantity of water directly flowing from 
 it as by its modifying influence on the climate. 
 
 The suggestion of J. A. Hodder, esq., of Cincinnati, that streams 
 from the mountains might be led out to irrigate considerable districts, 
 and the surplus water bo accumulated in lakes for use as the vicissitudes 
 of the seasons may require, will probably be found worthy of grave con- 
 sideration as the population and the ability to accomplish large works 
 increase. 
 
 While it is held that, in addition to natural grasses, there may 
 be a large production of food for live stock, and of grains for bread, 
 icWiout irrigation, in many if not all parts of the Plains, it is yet equally 
 certain that irrigation is essential for some kinds of vegetation in many 
 localities. What would be a great benefit in Pennsylvania or Ohio, if 
 applied, is 'absolutely necessary for full success with some particular 
 crops in that part of the campestrian province west of the one hun- 
 dredth meridian. Hence, in looking forward to the reduction of a vast 
 region to productive uses, problems of irrigation are to be considered, 
 and in due time they will be solved in the daily life of the future 
 inhabitants. 
 
 CLIMATE. 
 
 The Plains have been so often described as a " rainless region," that 
 great misconception in regard to the climate has prevailed. The abso- 
 lute precipitation is much greater than has been in past years supposed, 
 and is due to other causes. Meteorologists who have described the rain- 
 fall of the Plains as derived only or principally from the remaining mois- 
 ture of winds from the Pacific, after the passage of the Nevada and 
 Eo6ky Mountain ranges, have been greatly in error, and the better con- 
 clusion now is, with all authorities who have given any special attention 
 to the subject, that the moisture which fertilizes the Mississippi Valley, 
 including the broad, grassy plains, is derived from the Gulf of Mexico. 
 
 Within a few years the rain gauge has been brought into service at 
 points distant from each other, but located at irregular intervals across 
 the continent, and its record shows not only greater precipitation than 
 was formerly believed to take place on the Plains, but that the distri- 
 bution is unequal in time, giving us the largest proportion in the groio- 
 ing seasons, spring and summer. 
 
 In his late work, " The Mississippi Valley," Professor J. W. Foster 
 says : " The rains which water the Atlantic slope are equally distributed, 
 the variations between the four seasons being very slight," while " those 
 which water the Mississippi Valley are unequally distributed, those of 
 spring and summer being greatly in excess;" " a fact," he says, " which 
 has been overlooked by most meteorologists in reference to the geologi- 
 cal distribution of plants." As we pass westward from the Atlantic the 
 
454 GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF THE TERRITORIES. 
 
 inequality increases until we pass the Eocky Mountains. "Contrasting 
 the two stations, New York and Fort Laramie," says Professor Foster, 
 " it will be seen that on the seaboard about 48 per cent, of the yearly- 
 precipitation occurs during the fall and winter, while on the Plains 
 only 25 per cent, occurs during that period, and that, while on the sea- 
 board the precipitation is nearly uniform during the four seasons, three- 
 fourfhs of the precipitation on the Plains occurs during spring and sum- 
 mer," The same excess in the rain-fall of spring and summer is, I think, 
 noted with comments in Blodgett. 
 
 At Fort Eiley about 69 per cent, of the annual precipitation is in 
 spring and summer ; at Fort Kearney 81, and at Fort Laramie 72 per 
 cent. From observations at Forts Harker, Hays, and Wallace, on the 
 line of this road, the same rule seems to hold good. Records have not 
 been long enough continued at these three posts to give a long average, 
 but the mean appears to be between 17 and 19 inches at Hays and Wal- 
 lace, and possibly rather more at Harker. The actual average for 1808 
 and 1869 at Hays is 18.76 inches, and for the first six months of 1870 the 
 record is 10.68 inches. At Wallace the record for 1869 was over 17 
 inches, and in 1870, up to October 1, about the same amount had fallen.-- 
 
 Without records there can be only conjecture ; and 1 can only remark 
 that there does not seem to be much dimiuution in the annual rain-fall 
 until we get as far west as the one hundred and third meridian. Thence 
 to the base of the mountains, (except perhaps in the timbered portions 
 of the great divide, south of the line of this railway,) the annual average 
 maybe possibly two or three inches less than in the midst of the Plains : 
 a peculiarity explained, hypothetically, by the fact that the region " lies 
 to the westward of the general course of the moister currents of air 
 flowing northward from the Gulf of Mexico, and is so near the mount- 
 ains as to lose much of the precipitation that localities in the Plains east 
 and northeast are favored with. The mountains seem to exercise an in- 
 fluence — electrical and mngnetical?— in attracting moisture, which is 
 condensed in the cooler regions of their summits, while the plains at their 
 feet may be parched and heated to excess." This explanation may be 
 fanciful^ but the fact remains that near the mountains the rains seem to 
 decrease north of the great divide ; fortunately, however, this occurs in 
 a region where irrigation may be applied extensively, and where there 
 is sufiicieut moisture to nourish bountiful crops of grass. 
 
 A striking difference exists between the rain-fall in Kew Mexico and 
 that on the'Plains. While the annual amount at Santa Fe and at Fort 
 Hays is nearly equal, the larger proportion of the rainfall at Hays comes 
 in S2)ring and summer, while at Santa Fe it is delayed till summer and 
 autumn. Hence the farmer at Hays may have his wheat crop matured 
 in early summer without irrigation, while the same crop in New Mexico 
 requires to be irrigated. The usual period for the nourishing rains to 
 begin, in New Mexico, is about the first of August, a time when they 
 are usually light on the Plains. 
 
 Theory suggested that the cereals ought to sustam themselves with- 
 out irrigatioii at least as far west as the head streams of the Smoky 
 Hill Eiver; and the president and directors of the railway caused exper- 
 iments to be made. Wheat sown in April last matured in July, about 
 the one hundred and first meridian, yielding merchantable grain. 
 Maize formed ears, and oats headed well, but neither filled in a satis- 
 factory manner, owing to the fact that the dry and hot season comes 
 on when their grains are forming. Both can be raised as fodder to any 
 extent desired. All along the railway, throughout the season, stalks of 
 maize and oats could be seen growing, where seeds had been dropped by 
 
GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF THE TERRITORIES. 455 
 
 accident. At Clieyeune Wells, 4,179 feet above sea level, beans matured 
 along the road bed ; and at First View, 4,479 feet, oats grew to the 
 average height and matured its seed. Winter wheat, rye, and barley, 
 now on trial as far west as Pond Creek, near one hundred and second 
 meridian, are expected to yield well, though late sown on raw sod. 
 
 The vegetation of the Plains, along Avagon-tracks and railroad em- 
 bankments, shows a capability of production scarcely suggested by the 
 surface where undisturbed. Wherever the earth is broken up, the wild 
 sunflower (Helianthus) and others of the taller-growing plants, though 
 previously unknown in the vicinity, at once spring up, almost as if 
 spontaneous generation had taken place. 
 
 CHANGE OF CLIMATE. 
 
 In September last I wrote to Professor Joseph Henry as follows : 
 
 I have been on the Plains all the time since early in May till this date, (22(1 Sep- 
 tember.) There has been mnch dry weather, bnt I have not seen one clondless day — 
 no day on which the sun would rise clear and roll along a canopy of brass to the west. 
 There' has always been humidity enough to form clouds at the proper height; and on 
 many days they would be seen defining, by their flat bottoms, the exact line where 
 condensation became sufficient to render the vapor visible, * » * i conclude from 
 all this that abundant moisture has floated over the Plains to have given us a great 
 deal more rain than would be desirable, if it had been precipitated. 
 
 Sometimes a storm would be seen to gather near the horizon, and we could see the 
 rain j)ending from the clouds like a fringe, hanging apparently in mid-air, unable to 
 reach the expectant earth. The rain stage of condensation had been reached above, 
 but the descending shower was revaporized, apparently, and thus arrested. * * * 
 
 These hot winds are not, so far as I have observed, apt to be constant in one place 
 for any considerable length of time ; they strike your face sfiddenly, and perhaps in a 
 minute are gone. They seem to run along in streaks or ovevfulh, with tl^ winds of 
 ordinary (but rather high) temperature. They do not begin, I believe, till m July, as 
 a general rule, and are over by September 1, or perhaps by August 15. Their origin I 
 take to be, of course, in heated regions south or southwest of us; but their peculiar 
 occurrence, so capricious and often so brief, I cannot explain to myself satisfactorily. 
 
 I have no rain-gauge record at hand for this and past seasons ; but I may remark that 
 this season, since about the 15th of July, in these distant Plains, has given us rain 
 enough to make beautifully verdant the spots in the prairie burnt olf during the 
 "heated" term in July. From Kit Carson eastward the rains have been, I think, ex- 
 ceptionally abundant. All through the summer we have had dew occasionally, and it 
 has been remarked that buffalo-meat has been more difficult of preservation than 
 heretofore ; facts indicative of humidity in the atmosphere, even where but little rain- 
 fall was witnessed. Turnips sown in August would have made a crop in this vicinity, 
 422 miles west of the State line of Missouri. **»**^*** 
 
 Facts such as these seem to sustain the popular persuasion in Kansas, that a clbnafio 
 change is taking place, promoted by the spread of settlements westwardly, breaking up 
 portions of the prairie soil, covering the earth with plants that shade the ground more 
 than the short grasses ; thus checking or modifying the reflection of heat from the 
 earth's surface, &c. The fact is also noted, that even where the prairie soil is not dis- 
 turbed, the short buffalo-grass disappears as the "frontier" extends westward, and its 
 place is taken by grasses and other herbage of taller growth. That this change of the 
 clothing of the Plain>, if sufficiently extensive, might have a modifying influence on 
 the climate, I do not doubt ; but whether the change has been already spread over a 
 large enough area, and whether our apparently or really wetter seasons may not be 
 part of a cycle, are unsettled questions. 
 
 The civil engineers of this railway believe that the rains and humidity of the Plains 
 have increased during the extension of railroads and telegraphs across them. If this 
 is the case, it may be that the mysterious electrical influence in which they seem to 
 have faith, but do not profess to explain, has exercised a beneficial influence. What 
 effect, if any, the digging and grading, the iron rails, the tension of steam in locomo- 
 tives, the friction of metallic surfaces, the poles and wires, the iiction of batteries, &c., 
 could possibly or probably have on the electrical conditions, as connected with the 
 phenomena of precipitation, I do not of course undertake to say. It may bo that wet 
 seasons have merely happened to coincide with railroads and telegraphs. It is to be 
 observed that the poles of the telegraph are quite Ixequeutly destroyed by lightning; 
 and it is probable that the lightning thus strikes in many places where before the erec- 
 tion of the telegraph it was not apt to strike, and jjerhaps would not reach the earth 
 at all. 
 
456 GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF THE TERRITORIES. , 
 
 These remarks were sent to the distinguished meteorologist, Professor 
 Henry, rather to draw the attention of his cultivated mind to the phe- 
 nomena than to assert a theory. Yet there are facts which sustain the 
 popular notion of a climatic change, manifested in a more humid at- 
 mosphere, in greater rain-fall and a change of vegetation. A gentleman 
 who has given much attention to meteorology writes me that he is not 
 satisfied that settlements have sufficiently changed the surface of the 
 country west of the Missouri to affect the climate. "The increased 
 rains," he says, " I apprehend, are due to extra mundane or cosmic in- 
 fluences not yet understood." 
 
 It is certain • that rains have increased ; this increase has coincided 
 with the extension of settlements, railroads, and telegraphs. If influ- 
 enced by these, the change of climate will go on 5 if by extra mundane 
 influences the change may be permanent, progressive, or retrograde. I 
 think there are good grounds to believe it will be progressive. Within 
 the last fifteen years, in Western Missouri and Iowa, and in Eastern 
 Kansas and Nebraska, a very large aggregate of surface has been broken 
 up and holds more of the rains than formerly. During the same period 
 modifying influences have been put in motion in Montana, Utah, and 
 Colorado. Very small areas of timbered land west of the Missouri 
 have been cleared ; not equal, perhaps, to the area of forest, orchard, 
 and vineyards planted. Hence it may be said that all the acts of man 
 in this vast region have tended to produce conditions on the earth's sur- 
 face ameliorative of the climate. With extended settlements on the 
 Arkansas, Canadian,^nd Eed Eiver of the South, as well as on the 
 Arkansas, on the river system of the Kaw Valley, and on the Platte, 
 the ameltorating conditions will be extended in like degree 5 and it par- 
 takes more of sober reason than wild fancy to suppose that a perma- 
 nent and beneficial change of climate may be experienced. The appal- 
 ling deterioration of large portions of the earth's surface, through the 
 acts of man in destroying the forests, justifies the trust that the culture 
 of taller herbage and trees in a region heretofore covered mainly by 
 short grasses may have a converse effect. Indeed, in Central Kansas, 
 nature seems to almost precede settlements by the taller grasses and 
 herbage. 
 
 TREE GEOWTH ON THE PLAINS. 
 
 The principal native trees on the Plains west of ninety-seventh merid- 
 ian are : 
 
 Cottonwood, fPopulus Canadensis and P. Monolifra.) 
 
 Walnut, (Juglans Nigra.) 
 
 Elm, ( Ulmus Americana.) 
 
 Ash, (Fraxinus Americana.) 
 
 Box Elder, (Acer Negundo.) 
 
 Hackberry, fCeltis occidentalis.) 
 
 Plum, fPrmius Chiekasa.) 
 
 Eed Cedar, fJuniperus Virginiana.) 
 
 To these maybe added Willow fSalix) and Grape Vines /'"Ft^es 
 (vestivalis;) and also the Locust (Rohinia i)seudo-acacia) and Wild 
 Cherry fCerasus Virginiana) mentioned by Abert as occurring on the 
 Purgatory. 
 
 The black walnut extends to the one hundredth meridian ; how much 
 farther I am unable to say. The elm and ash are of similar, perhaps 
 greater range. Hackberry has been observed west of one hundred and 
 
GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF THE TERRITORIES. 457 
 
 first meridian. Cottonwood, box-elder, red cedar, plum, and willow 
 arc persistent to the base of the mountain. 
 
 The extensive pine forest (^Pm?(s j;o«^7c>'o.§a,^ on the " great divide " 
 south of Denver, although stretching seventy to eighty miles east from 
 the mountains, is not taken into view as belonging to the Plains proper. 
 Its existence, however, suggests the use of its seeds in artiticial planta- 
 tions in that region. Settlers in the pinery or its borders would do well 
 to protect portions of the forest by inclosure, and if possible against fire, 
 as by suitable care the forest could bo made perpetually remunerative 
 and reproductive. 
 
 The fossil wood, imbedded in the cretaceous strata in many parts of 
 the Plains, is left out of consideration, as belonging to a i^revious, though 
 recent, geological age; but the single specimens of trees found growing 
 at wide intervals are silent witnesses to the iJossihiUty of extended forest 
 growth. These living trees suggest at once, by their location, the feasi- 
 bility of their increase, and the reason of their scarcity. They are usu- 
 ally found near water ; and hence we conclude that in order to grow 
 trees we must break the ground so deeply as to save all the rains for 
 their use. They are always where they are protected from fires ; and 
 hence we conclude that if we can protect oitr plantations from fires we 
 can grow forests. 
 
 Were it possible to break uj) the surface to a depth of two feet, from 
 the ninety-seventh meridian to the mountains, and from the thirty-fifth 
 to the forty-fifth parallel, we should have in a single season a growth of 
 taller herbage over the entire area, less reflection of the sun's heat, more 
 humidity in the atmosphere, more constancy in springs, pools, and 
 streams, more frequent showers, fewer violent storms, and less caprice 
 and fury in the winds. A single jeav would witness a changed vegeta- 
 tion and a new climate. In three years (fires kept out) there would be 
 young trees in numerous places, and in twenty years there would be fair 
 young forests. 
 
 Nor is this view inconsistent with the conclusion of meteorologists 
 that our i)rairies and open plains are due to scanty precipitation. This 
 is the causg ; not, however, because the absolute moisture is not enough 
 to sustain the growth, but because it is not enough to protect it against 
 destruction by fires. Throughout the i^rairies — the " Illinois region" of 
 Professor Cooper's campestrian province — whenever the fires are checked, 
 tree growth begins. Given immunity from fires on the Plains, and to a 
 great extent, they will clothe themselves with shrubs and trees, even 
 without a breaking up of the surface. 
 
 The limited area which it is in our power to turn up by the plow will 
 have the same results in kind to follow a breaking of the entire surface, 
 but less effective than if the operation were universal. Yet a beginning 
 can be made by the railway company and by individuals. In fact, it is 
 already in progress by settlers, a degree and a half west of ninety-sev- 
 enth meridian. A few acres at intervals across the Plains, or only a few 
 clumps of trees growing without irrigation, will be a demonstration 
 more efiective than theory. 
 
 In this great work the United States ought to lead, either by forests 
 planted at the cost of the Treasury, or by subsidies to individuals or 
 companies. It is a work worthy of the age, and of the nation. 
 
 The particular trees most suitable for first planting on the Plains, the 
 modes of culture, the proper succession of species, cannot be treated in 
 a i:)aper already so extended as this. The feasibility of forest growth 
 over this great area is, in my estimation, not to be doubted. The details 
 will be wrought out in due time. 
 
458 GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF THE TERRITORIES. 
 
 GRAZING RESOURCES. 
 
 The description of the " broad, grassy plains " given in the foregoing 
 X^ages attests their capacity to sustain animal life. For cattle, sheep, 
 horses, and mules they are a natural pasture in summer, with, in many 
 parts, hay cured standing for winter. The famed pampas, with their 
 great extremes of wet and drought, cannot bear com^jarison with our 
 Western Plains. For grazing i)urposes, the habitable character of our 
 vast traditional " desert " is generally conceded, and hence it need not 
 be enlarged on here, 
 
 IMMIGRATION. 
 
 The settlers come singly and in groups, in families and colonies. It 
 is not a crusade of fanatics, or a raid of fillibusters, but the measured 
 march of earnest men and women seeking homes. The extension of 
 settlements westward from the " frontier," and eastward from the moun- 
 tains, must go on. Population increases, and lands are needed. Hence 
 the occupancy of the lands along and near the line of this railway is an 
 assured fact of the early future. It is an eventuality not created by the 
 power of this corporation, but growing out of the circumstances of the 
 nation, and the distribution of our lauded resources. 
 
 It will seem to many a vast work to spread settlements over the " great 
 Western Plains." To force such settlements would be a large task ; but 
 no forcing is needed. The facilities i)rovided, the lands available, and 
 the settlers throng in of themselves. Those who bave doubts of the 
 event should remember, 1st, that permanent settlements have already 
 reached more than two-fifths the distance from Kansas City to Denver ; 
 2d. that the facilities as well as the necessity for the future extension of 
 settlements are day by day increasing ; 3d, that the difficulties and 
 hardships of frontier life diminish as means to overcome them are mul- 
 tiplied ; 4th, that with a railway in operation the spread of settlements 
 becomes a problem greatly less difficult than the construction of the 
 road itself. 
 
PA.ET V 
 
 CATALOGUES 
 
 I. OF MAMMALS AND BIRDS. By :MR. JAMES STEVENSON. 
 
 IL OF MOLLUSCA. By S. R. ROBERTS, 
 in. OF COLEOPTERA. By DR. G. H. HORN. 
 lY. OFHEMIPTERA. By PROF. P. H. UHLER. 
 
 v. OF PLANTS. By MR. THOS. C. PORTER. 
 VI. OF PLANTS. By DR. C. C. PARRY. 
 
MAMMALS . AND BIRDS. 
 
 A LIST OF MAMMALS AND BIRDS COLLECTED IN WYOMING 
 TEEEITOEY, BY ME. H. D. SMITH AND ME. JAMES STEVEN- 
 SON, DUEING THE EXPEDITION OF 1870. 
 
 By James Stevenson. 
 
 As already stated in the early part of this report, the expedition did 
 what was in its power, within the time at its command, to secure as 
 complete a representation as possible of the vertebrate fauna of the coun- 
 try, and the list of these herewith submitted will show the measure 
 of success. Although the collection of mammals and birds embraces 
 no new species, yet it promises to be of value in determining with greater 
 precision the geographical distribution, and the precise eastern limit of 
 the western forms, and the western range of the eastern species, the 
 region explored having been a kind of common or meeting ground of 
 the two series. We regi-et that the late date at which the exi)edition 
 was organized made it impossible to collect facts in regard to the nest- 
 ing and the eggs of any of the birds, as it is in this branch of their his- 
 tory that most of novelty was to be expected. The immature plumage 
 of the gray-crowned finch {Leucosticte teplirocotis^ Sw.,) was, however, 
 ascertained for the first time, and will be hereafter duly described. 
 
 As complete a collection of the mammals of the country was obtained 
 as practicable, and embraces a considerable number of specimens of all 
 the knowu Eocky Mountain forms. Among these may be specially 
 mentioned the least or NuttalFs hare, a species scarcely more than six 
 inches in length, and the smallest of all hitherto described ; the little 
 chief hare, allied to the true hares, but without any vestige of the tail, 
 and the white-tailed prairie dog. This last-mentioned animal made its 
 appearance after we crossed the divides of the mountains, and, as far as 
 we know, is entirely peculiar to the region drained by the waters of the 
 great interior basin ; while the common i^rairie dog is equally charac- 
 teristic of the western j)ortious of the valley of the Missouri. 
 
 Mr. C. P. Carrington rendered most efficient aid as a collector in all 
 departments of natural history, especially in the collection of mammals, 
 birds, reptiles, fishes, and plants. 
 
 JIAMMALS. 
 
 No. of 
 specimeus. 
 
 Canis lairans, Saj. Coyote ; prairie wolf. Fort Bridger g 
 
 Putoriiis ricMrdsonii, Bp. Little ermine. Willow Springs, Eock 
 
 Creek, and South Pass 3 
 
 Mephitis me])kitica. Skunk. Black's Fork of Green Eiver 3 
 
 TfavV/ea flwfr/«njfl, Waterh. Missouri badger. Pacific Springs. . 2 
 
 Sciunts lindsonius, Pallas. Eed squirrel; chickaree. Pacific Creek . . 1 
 Sciunis richardsonii, Bach, Eichardson's squirrel. Uinta IMoun- 
 
 . tains 7 
 
 Fferoniys alpinuSj Eichardsou. Eocky Mountain flying squirrel. 
 
 Uinta Mountains T 3 
 
462 GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF THE TERRITORIES. 
 
 No. of 
 
 specimens. 
 
 Tamias quadrivittatus, Ricli. Missouri striped squirrel. North 
 
 Platte, Pacific Springs, Little Sandy, Big Sandy, Green River, 
 
 Bitter Creek, Sulphur Springs 7 
 
 Cynomys ludovicianus. Prairie Dog. Camp Reynolds . 3 
 
 Cynomys gximiisonii^ Baird. Short-tailed j)rairie dog. Big Sandy, 
 
 Green River, and Fort Bridger 11 
 
 Thomomys r2f/esceMS, Maxim. Fort Union gopher. Rock Creek.. 1 
 
 Perognathus fiavus, Baird. Pouched mouse. Green River 1 
 
 Hesperomys sonoriensis, Leconte. Sonora mouse. Fort Bridger, 
 
 Uinta Mountains, Green River 7 
 
 Fiber zihetJiictis, Cuv. Muskrat. Rock Creek 5 
 
 EretMzon c^iixanfJius, Brandt. Yellow-haired porcupine. North 
 
 Platte, Fort Bridger, and Sulphur Springs 4 
 
 Lej)ns sylvaticns, Bach. Gray rabbit. Fort Bridger, Henry's Fork 
 
 of Green River, Bitter Creek, Pass Creek, and Rock Creek. 15 
 
 Lcpus artemisiaj Bach. Sage hare. North Platte, Green River, 
 
 and Pine Grove 4 
 
 Lcpus 7iutfaliiy Bach. Least hare. Green River 
 
 Lepus toicnsendii, Bach. Jackass rabbit. Independence Rock, on 
 
 Sweetwater , 
 
 Cervus macrotis, Say. Mule deer. Henry's Fork of Green River 
 
 and Red Buttes 3 
 
 Antilocapra americana, Ord. Prong-horn antelope. North Platte 
 
 and Sweetwater 6 
 
 Ovis onontcma, Cuvier. Big Horn mountain sheep. Box Elder 3 
 
 Biso7i amcricamis.Gmelm. American buffalo. Independence Rock.. 1 
 
 BIRDS. 
 
 No. 1. Mypotriorclm colitmharius, Gr. Pigeon hawk. La Bonte 
 and Green River 6 
 
 No. 2. Falco polyagrtis, Cassin. Prairie falcon. Laramie Peak and 
 Uinta Mountains , 4 
 
 No. 3. Tinnuncidus sparverius, Yieill. Sparrow hawk. Bitter Cot- 
 tonwood and Box Elder 4 
 
 No. 4. Accipifer mexieanus, Swains. Blue-backed hawk. Uinta 
 Mountains 1 
 
 No. 5, Accipiter fiiscus, Bonap. SharxD-shinned hawk. Uinta 
 Mountains 1 
 
 No. 6. Buteo sivainsoni, Bonap. Swanson's hawk. Sweetwater 
 River ! 2 
 
 No. 7. Buteo calurus, Cassin. Black red-tailed hawk. Uinta Moun- 
 tains , . 1 
 
 No. 8. Buteo onontcmus, Nutt. Western red-tailed hawk. Sweet- 
 water and Fort Bridger 2 
 
 ;^'o. 9. Circus hudsonius, Vieill. Marsh hawk. North Platte River 
 and Uinta Mountains 6 
 
 No. 10. BracJiyotus cassinii, Brewer. Short-eared owl. Sweetwater 
 River 2 
 
 No. 11. Anthene Jiypugcea, Bonaj). Prairie owl. Camj) Reynolds 
 and Big Sandy River 
 
 No. 12. Picus harrisii, Aud. Harris's woodpecker. La Bonte Creek 
 and Uinta Mountains 3 
 
 No. 13. Picus gairdneri. Gairdner's woodpecker. La Bonte Creek, 
 Henry's Fork, and Green River 3 
 
GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF THE TERRITORIES. 463 
 
 * No. of 
 
 specimens. 
 
 No. 14. Sphyropicus nucludis^ Baird. Eed-breasted woodpecker. 
 
 Strawberry Creek and Uiuta Mountains 6 
 
 No. 15. Mdanerpes erythrocephalus, Sw. Eed-lieaded woodpecker. 
 
 Bitter Cottonwood and La Bonte Creek 7 
 
 No. IG. Melancrpcs torqiiatiis, Bonap. Lewis's woodpecker. Bitter 
 
 Cottonwood Creek 1 
 
 No. 17. Gol(q}tes mexicanus, ^"ivixins. Bed-shafted flicker. La Bonte 
 
 Creek and Fort Bridger 4 
 
 No. 18. CoJaptes hyhrUhis, Baird. Hybrid woodpecker. North. 
 
 Platte and Green Elver 6 
 
 No. 19. Chorddles lienryi. Cassin. Western night-hawk. Laramie 
 
 Peak and Pacific Springs • 3 
 
 No. 20. Ceryle alcyon, Boie. Belted kingfisher. La Bonte and 
 
 and North Platte Eiver '. _ 3 
 
 No. 21. Tyranmis carolincnsis^Bn.ud. King-bird; bee-bird. La Bonte 
 
 and North Platte 2 
 
 No. 22. Tyrannus verticaUs, Say. iVrkansas flycatcher. Camp 
 
 Eeynolds and La Bonte 3 
 
 No. 23. Sayornis sayns, Baird. Say's flycatcher. Camp Eeynolds 
 
 and Sweetwater Eiver 2 
 
 No. 24. Contopus richardsonii, Baird. Short-legged pewee. Bitter 
 
 Cottonwood Creek 3 
 
 No. 25. Empidonax Immmondii, Baird. Hammond's flycatcher. 
 
 Pacific Springs 1 
 
 No. 20. Turdtis midul)oni,liaird. Silent thrush. Uinta Mountains. 1 
 No. 27. Turdiis fuscesceus, Stephens. Wilson's thrush. Green 
 
 Eiver 1 
 
 No. 28. Turdus migratorius, Linn. Eobin. Green Eiver and Fort 
 
 Bridger 4 
 
 No. 29. Salia arctica, Swains. Eocky Mountain bluebird. Sweet- 
 water, Fort Bridger, Henry's Fork of Green Elver, and Uinta 
 
 Mountains 15 
 
 No. 30. Begicliis calendula, Licht. Euby-crowned kinglet. Little 
 
 Sandy and Green Eiver ' 12 
 
 No. 31. Anthns Indoviciamis, Licht. Tit-lark. Henry's Fork of 
 
 Green Eiver and Uinta Mountains 2 
 
 No. 32. Geothlypis trichas. Cab. Marvland yellow-throat. La Bonte 
 
 Creek " ^ 1 
 
 No. 33. Geothlypis macgillivrayi, Baird. Macgillivray's warbler. 
 
 Box Elder Creek 1 
 
 No. 34. Selminthophaga celata, Baird. Orange-crowned warbler. 
 
 Fort Bridger. Little Sandy and €!rreen Eiver 3 
 
 No. 35. Dendroica auduhonii, Baird. Audubon's yellow-rumped 
 
 warbler. Green Eiver 2 
 
 No. 36. Bcndroica aestlva, Baird. Yellow warbler. Bitter Cotton- 
 wood, La Bonte, Fort Bridger, and Green Eiver 8 
 
 No. 37. 3Iyiodioctes pusillus, liouii]). Green black-capped flycatcher. 
 
 Fort Bridger and Henry's Fork of Green Eiver 7 
 
 No. 38. Setophaga ruticilla, Sw. Eedstart. La Bonte Creek 2 
 
 No. 39. Hirundo lunifrons, Say. Clifi' swallow. Camp Eej' nolds 
 
 and Bitter Creek 4 
 
 No. 40. Progue subis, Baird. Piu'ple martin. Bitter Cottonwood 
 
 Creek 2 
 
464 GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF THE TERRITORIES. 
 
 No. of 
 specimens. 
 
 No. 41. Myiadestes townsendii, Cab. Towiisend's flycatclier. Green 
 Eiver • - - 3 
 
 No. 42. Gollyrio horealis, Baird. Great northern slirike. Green 
 Kiver and Kock Creek 3 
 
 No. 43. Gollyrio excubitoroides, Baird. White-rumped shrike. La 
 Bonte Creek 2 
 
 No. 41. Vireosylvia swainsonii, Baird. Western warbling flycatcher. 
 Gn'en Eiver 1 
 
 No. 45. Galeoscoptes carolinensis, Cab. Cat-bird. La Bonte Creek. 2 
 
 No. 46. Oreoscoptes montanus, mountain mocking-bird. La Bonte 
 •Creek, North Platte, Pacific Creek, Green Eiver, Fort Bridger, 
 and Heiiry's Fork of Green Eiver 10 
 
 No. 47. Harporliynclms longicauda, Baird. Long-tailed thrush. Bitter 
 Cottonwood 1 
 
 No. 48. Salpinctus ohsoletus, Cab. Eock wren. Sweetwater Eiver. 1 
 
 No. 49. Troglodytes parTimannii^ Aud. Parkman's wren. Green 
 Eiver 2 
 
 No. 50. Sitta canadensis^ Linn. Eed-bellied nut-hatch. Green Eiver, 
 Fort Bridger, Henry's Fork, and Sulphur Springs 5 
 
 No. 51. Fartisseptentrionalis, Hurris. Long-tailed chicadee. Bitter 
 Cottonwood Creek, Fort Bridger, Green Eiver, and Bitter Creek. 11 
 
 No. 52. Parus montanus^ Gambel. Mountain titmouse. Uinta 
 Mountains 2 
 
 No. 53. PsaUriparus plumbeus, Baird. Lead-colored tit. Green 
 Eiver 3 
 
 No. 54. Eremopliila cornuta, Boie. Sky-lark. North Platte, Henry's 
 Fork of Green Eiver, Uinta Mountains, Green Eiver, Pine Grove, 
 and Little Laramie '. 42 
 
 'No. 55. Pinicola canadensis, Cab. Eine grosbeak. Uinta Mountains. 1 
 
 No. 50. Ghrysomitris tristiSjUona]). Yellow-bird. Green Eiver 5 
 
 No. 57. Gurvirostra mexicana, Strick. Mexican cross-bill. Bitter 
 Cottonwood, La Bonte, and Green Eiver 3 
 
 No. 58. Gurvirostra leucoptera, Wils. White- winged cross-bill. Box 
 Elder Creek -. .* 1 
 
 No. 59. Aegiot]m§ linaria, Cab. Lesser red poll. Camp Eeynolds, 
 Green Eiver, Eock Creek, Sulphur Springs, aud Laramie Eiver. 12 
 
 No. CO. Leucosticte tephrocotis, Sw. Gray-crowned finch. Uinta 
 Mountains 1 
 
 No. 01. Plectroplianes maccoivnii, Lawr. Maccown's long-spur. Camp 
 Eeynolds 1 
 
 No. 02. Passerculus alaudinus, Bonap. Lark sparrow. Bitter Cot- 
 tonwood Creek, Strawberry Creek, Green Eiver, and Big Sandy. 
 
 No. 03. Pooecetes gramineus, Baird. Grass finch. Bitter Cotton- 
 wood, Pacific Springs, Big Sandy, Little Sandy, Fort Bridger, 
 and Uinta Mountains 25 
 
 No. 04. Ghondestes grammaca, Bonap. Lark finch. Bitter Cotton- 
 wood Creek 1 
 
 No. 05. Zonotricliia leucophrys, Sw. White-crowned sparrow. Pacific 
 Springs, Green Eiver, and Fort Bridger 4 
 
 No. 00. ZonoiriMagamhelii,Giimbe\. Gambel's finch. Fort Bridger, 
 Henry's Fork of Green Eiver, Uinta Mountains, and Eock Creek. 40 
 
 No. 07. Junco oregonusj^clat. Oregon snow-bird. Henry's Fork of 
 Green Eiver, Green Eiver, and Eock Creek 6 
 
GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF THE TERRITORIES. 465 
 
 • • No. of 
 
 specimens. 
 No. 68. Poospiza belli, Sclat. Bell's finch. Henry's Fork of Green 
 
 Elver, Green Eiver, and Eock Creek • 5 
 
 Xo. 69. Spizella monticola, Baird. Tree sparrow. Green Eiver, 
 
 Henry's Fork, and Eock Creek 4 
 
 No. 70. S2)izella sociaUs, Bonap. Chipping sparrow. Little Sandy 
 
 and Green Eiver 2 
 
 No. 71. ^2)(zella hrewerii, Cass. Brewer's sparrow. Little Sandy 
 
 and Green Eiver 10 
 
 No. 72. Mclospha fallax, Baird. Monntain song sparrow. Green 
 
 Eiver and Henry's Fork of Green Eiver 28 
 
 No. 73. Melospiza UnconU, Baird. Lincoln's finch. Head of Henry's 
 
 Fork and Green Eiver 6 
 
 No. 74. Calamospiza hicolor, Bonap. Lark bnnting. Camp Eey- 
 
 nolds and Bitter Cottonwood Creek !^ . 5 
 
 No. 75. Pipilo arcticiis, Sw. Arctic tower. Fort Sanders 4 
 
 No. 76. Pipilo chlorura, Baird. Green-tailed finch. Little Sandy 
 
 and Green Eiver 3 
 
 No. 77. Molothriis pecoris, Sw. Cow-bird. La Bonte Creek 1 
 
 No. 78. Agelains phceniceus, Vieill. Eed-wiuged blackbird. Camp 
 
 Stevenson, on Henry's Fork of Green Eiver 2 
 
 No. 79. Xantliocexihalus icteroceplialus. Yellow-headed blackbird. 
 
 _ Green Eiver 1 
 
 No. SO. StiimeUa neglecta. And. Western lark. Camp Eeynolds, 
 
 Fort Fettermau, Fort Bridger, and Green Eiver 24 
 
 No. 81 Scolecopliagtis ciianoceplialus. Brewer's blackbird. Camp Eey- 
 nolds, Fort Fetterman, and Sweetwater 27 
 
 No. 82. Corvus carnivorus, Bartram. American raven. Camp Eey- 
 nolds ^ _ 1 
 
 "No. 80. Corvus americanus,±\.ii(l. Common crow. La Bonte Creek . 1 
 No. 84. Picicorvus columbianus. Clark's crow. Pacific Springs and 
 
 Pacific Creek 3 
 
 No. 85. Pica Jmdsonica, Bonap. Magpie. Camp Eeynolds, North 
 
 Platte Eiver, Sweetwater Eiver, Green Eiver, and Fort Bridger. 13 
 No. 86. Cyanura macrolopJia, Bakd. Long-crested jay. Green 
 
 Eiver 1 
 
 No. 87. Cyanocitta Woodhousei, Baird. Woodhouse's jay. Green 
 
 Eiver 1 
 
 No. 88. Perisoreus canadensis, Bonap. Canada jay. Henry's Fork 
 
 and Green Eiver 3 
 
 No. 89. Zenaidura carolinensis, Bonap. Common dove. Fort 
 
 Bridger 4 
 
 No. 90. Tefmo-o&sc«n(s, Say. Hnsky grouse. Uinta Mountains . . 6 
 No. 91. Centrocercus uropJiasiamis, Sw. Sage cock. Sweetwater, 
 
 Green Eiver, and Plains 
 
 No. 92. Pcdioccctes columbianus, (Ord.) Elliot. Sharp-tailed grouse. 
 
 La Bonte Creek • 1 
 
 No. 93. Bonasa imbclloides, Baird. Gray mountain grouse. Camp 
 
 Jackson, Uinta Mountains 3 
 
 No. 94. Lagojms leucunis, Swains. White-tailed ptarmigan. Bur- 
 
 ^ tlioud's Pass, Eocky Mountains • i 
 
 No. 95. Botaurus lentiginosus, Stephens. Bittern ; stake driver.* 
 
 Camp Leidy, on Sweetwater Eiver 1 
 
 No. 96. Charadrius virginicus, Borck. Golden plover. Camp Dawes, 
 
 on Eock Creek . 3 
 
 30 G 
 
466 GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF THE TERRITORIES. 
 
 No. of 
 specimens. 
 
 No. 97. Aegialitis vociferus, Cassin. Kill-deer. Camp Eeynolds . . 7 
 No. 98. Becurvirostra americana, Gm. American avoset. Camp 
 
 Baird, on North Platte Eiver 1 
 
 No. 99. Flialaropus icilsonii, Sab. Wilson's phalarope. Camp 
 
 Eeynolds 1 
 
 No. 100. Fhalaropiis hyperhoreus, Temm. Northern j)halarope. Big 
 
 Sandy Eiver 1 
 
 'No. 101. GaUinago wilsonii, Bonn]). English snipe. Fort Sanders. 1 
 No. 102. Actodromus oninutUla, Cones. Least sandpiper. Camp 
 
 Baird, on North Platte, and Little Sandy 2 
 
 ■ No. 103. Actodromus hairdii, Cones. Baird's sandpiper. North 
 
 Platte and Little Sandy : 3 
 
 No.'lOl. I]reu7ietes2)usiUiis, Cones. Semi-palmated sandpii^er. North 
 
 Platte Eiver 1 
 
 No. 105. Microj^alama liimantojyus^ Baird. Stilt sandpiper. Fort 
 
 Bridger 1 
 
 No. 106. Oambetta onelanoleuca, Bonap. Tell-tale j stone snipe. 
 
 Camp Eeynolds and Fort Fetterman , 14 
 
 No. 107. Gamhetta flavipes, Bonap. Yellow legs. Camp Eeynolds 
 
 and Camp Logan, near Church Bnttes 8 
 
 No. 108. Bhyacophihis solitarius, Bonap. Solitary sandpiper. Camp 
 
 Eeynolds and Fort Fetterman 6 
 
 No. 109. Tringoides macularius^ Gray. Spotted sandpiper. Fort 
 
 Fetterman and Camp Gifford, on Sweetwater Eiver 3 
 
 No 110. Fulica americana, Gmelin. Coot. Camp Baird, on North 
 
 Platte Eiver 1 
 
 No. 111. Bernicla canadensis, Boie. Canada goose. Camp Gifford, 
 
 on Sweetwater Eiver 2 
 
 No. 112. Anas hoschas, Linn. Mallard. North Platte Eiver and 
 
 Sweetwater •. 7 
 
 No. 113. Dajila acuta, Jenjns. Sprig-tail x)in -tail. Eock Creek 1 
 
 No. 114. Nettion carolinensis, Baird. Green-winged teal. Green 
 
 Eiver and Fort Sanders 13 
 
 No. 115. Querquedula cyanoptera, Cassin. Eed-breasted teal. 
 
 Sweetwater and North Platte 4 
 
 No. IIG. Spatula clypeata, Boie. Shoveler. Sweetwater and Fort 
 
 Bridger -. 3 
 
 No. 117. Mareca americana, Stevens. Bald-pate. Pass Creek 1 
 
 No. 118. Fulix collaris, Baird. Eing- necked dnck. Green Eiver.. 2 
 
 No. lid. Bnc€2)hala alheola, Baiid. Bntter-ball. Fort Sanders 1 
 
 No. 120. Frismatura ruhida, Bonap. Euddy dnck. Pacific Creek . 1 
 No. 121. Mergiis americanus, Cass. Shelldrake. Sweetwater Eiver 
 
 .and Fort Bridger. ,. 3 
 
 No. 122. Loplwdytes ciicullatus, Eeich. Hooded merganser. Green 
 
 Eiver 1 
 
 No. 124. Fodlceps calif ornicus, Heerman. California grebe. North 
 
 Platte Eiver 1 
 
GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF THE TERRITORIES. 467 
 
 II.— REPORT ON MOLLUSCA. 
 
 By S. E. Egberts, 
 Rcconler Goncliological Section^ Academy Natural Sciences, Philadelphia. 
 
 The following- list comprises the mollnsca collected by Professor F. V. 
 Haydeii while engaged in the various geological surveys made under 
 direction of the bepartment of the Interior. An examination of this 
 list will show that most of the species named are common not only to 
 the districts watered by the Ohio and Mississippi Eivers, but also to 
 many other sections of the North and East, thus showing a widespread 
 distribution of nearly all the species which are abundant in the more 
 eastern portions of the United States. This is the more curious, par- 
 ticularly among the fluviatile moUusks of the Upper Missouri, for there 
 the rivers belong to a different system of drainage. 
 
 Of the land shells the species Hdix^ haydcni, Binney, Avhich was col- 
 lected in large numbers at Weber Canon, Utah, is interesting from the 
 fact that it belongs to an entirely different sub-genus from any previously 
 known to this country, it being very closely allied to the Madeira genus, 
 Tectula, Lowe. 
 
 Dr. Hayden collected more than fifty specimens of different ages, all 
 of which were somewhat bleached. 
 
 This species was found associated with Helix cooperi, Binney, many 
 specimens of the latter being also obtained. 
 
 At Tails City, Nebraska, a small shell was found near the size of Helix 
 hucculenta, Gould, but with a closed umbilicus. It is probably a smaU 
 variety of H. alholahris, Say, and has been so labeled in the collection 
 of the'Philadelphia Academy of Natural Sciences, where the specimens 
 are deposited. 
 
 Among the fresh-water shells only one sf)ecies of the family Vivipari- 
 da;, the Melantho integra, Say, has been noticed. This was collected in 
 the Big Sioux Eiver, Nebraska. 
 
 Pomatiopsis lap idaria, ^aj, helonging to the Amnicolida;, v^as found 
 at Fort Berthold, in Nebraska. This is the most western locality known 
 for the species. 
 
 In addition to the number of species belonging to the family Unionida;, 
 common to the Northern and Western States, there will be noticed three 
 southern species which were collected at Falls City, Nebraska. These 
 are Unio nigerrinuis, Lea, U. Rutersvillensis, Lea, both belonging to the 
 Texan fauna, and the Unio Mississippiensis) Conrad, which was described 
 from specimens obtaiijed in Mississippi. Unio Topelrensis, Lea, a Kansas 
 species, was also found here, while at Nebraska City a perfect valve 
 of Unio pressus, Lea, was obtained. This species belongs to the great 
 lakes, sometimes occurring as far east as the Erie Canal, New York. 
 
 The fact of there being no Melanians in the list confirms the state- 
 ment made by George W. Tryon, jr., in his monograph of the Strcpoma- 
 tidw (in the Amer. Jour. Conch., vol. 1, p. 125,) that these shells do not 
 occur west of the Mississippi Eiver, except in the rivers of the Pacific 
 States.* 
 
 The list of species is not as complete as might have been expected, 
 but future exi)lorations will no doubt bring to notice many additional, 
 forms which are to be found in more eastern localities. 
 
468 
 
 GEOLOGICAL SUEVEY OF THE TEREITOKIES. 
 
 HELICID^. 
 
 Helix alternata, Say. 
 albolabris, Say. 
 albolabris, var.? 
 concava, Say. 
 costata, Mlill. 
 cliersina, Say. 
 cooperi, W. G. B. 
 elevata, Say. 
 electrina, Gould, 
 fuliginosa, Binn. 
 fallax, Say. 
 haydeni, W. G. B. 
 liirsuta, Say. 
 inflecta, Say. 
 indentata, Say. 
 ligera, Say. 
 lineata, Say. 
 minuscula, Binn. 
 minuta, Say. 
 munodon, Eack. 
 multilineata, Say. 
 profunda, Say. 
 
 LAKD SHELLS. 
 
 Helicid^ — Continued. 
 
 Helix solitaria, Say. 
 striatella, Anth. 
 thyroides, Say. 
 tridentata, Say. 
 
 PUPAD^. 
 
 Pupa armifera, Say. 
 
 badia, Adams. 
 
 blandi, W. G. B. 
 
 modesta, Say. 
 
 pentodon, Say. 
 Zua subcylindracea, Chem. 
 
 SUCCINTD^. 
 
 Succinea avara, Say. 
 
 haydeni, W. G. B. 
 lineata, W. G. B. 
 nuttalliana, ? Lea. 
 obliqua, Say. 
 vermeta, Say. 
 
 VIVIPARID^. 
 Melantbo Integra, Say. 
 
 AJMNICOLID^. 
 
 Amnicola porata. Say. 
 
 cincinnatiensis, Anth. 
 l*omatiox)sis lapidaria, Say. 
 
 LYMN-<EADJE. 
 
 Lymnea desidiosa, Say. 
 elodes, Say. 
 haydeni, Lea. 
 humilis. Lea. 
 kirtlandiana, Lea. 
 palustris, Mlill. 
 
 FEESH- WATER SHELLS. 
 
 Univalves. 
 
 Ly^tnmadjb: — Continued. 
 
 Lymnea reflexa, Say. 
 umbrosa, Say. 
 
 PHYSAD^. 
 
 Physa heterostropha, Say. 
 Bulinus hypnorum, Linn. 
 
 PLANOEBID^. 
 
 Planorbis bicarinatus, Say. 
 trivolvis. Say, 
 companulatus, Say. 
 parvus, Say. 
 lentus, Say. 
 
GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF THE TERRITORIES. 
 
 469 
 
 Bivalves. 
 
 IJNIONID^. 
 
 TJnio anodontoides, Lea. 
 alatus, Say. 
 asiDerrimus, Say. 
 elegans, Lea. 
 gibbosus, Barnes, 
 latecostatus, Lea. 
 Itevissimus, Lea. 
 luteolus, Lam. 
 mississippieusis, Conrad, 
 uigerrimns, Lea. 
 parvus, Barnes. 
 Ijressus, Lea. 
 rectus, Lam. 
 rubigiuosus, Lea. 
 
 Unionid^ — Continued. 
 
 Uuio rutersvillensis. Lea. 
 topekseusis, Lea. 
 ventricosus, Barnes, 
 zig-zag, Lea. 
 Margaritaua complanata, Say. 
 Anodonta footiana, Lea. 
 
 ferussaciaua, Lea. 
 undulata, Say. 
 
 CORBICULAD^. 
 
 Sphaerium sulcatum. Lam. 
 
 striatinum, ? Lam. 
 Pisidium abditum, 1 Hald. 
 
 Ill— COLEOPTERA. 
 
 A LIST OF COLEOPTERA COLLECTED BY C. THOMAS, IN 
 EASTERN COLORADO AND NORTHEASTERN NEW MEXICO, 
 DURING THE SURVEY OF 1869. 
 
 By Dr. G. H. Horn. 
 
 Cicindela formosa, Say. 
 
 obsoleta, Say. 
 
 pulcbra, Say. 
 • vulgaris, Say. 
 
 repa^da, Dcj. 
 
 puuctulata, Fabr. 
 Nebria bivittata. 
 .Calosoma luxatum, Say. 
 Carabus serratus, Say. 
 Pasimachus elongatus, Lee. 
 
 validus, Lee. 
 Lebia viridis. Say. 
 Platyuus extensicoUis, Lee. 
 Pterostichus protractus, Lee. 
 Amara obesa. Say. 
 Cratoguatlius setosus, Lee. 
 t^hlceuius sericeus. Say. 
 Notbo]ms zabroides, Lee. 
 Cratacauthus dubius, Lee. 
 Harpalus caligiuosus. Say. 
 
 peunsylvauicus, Lee. 
 
 compar, Lee. 
 
 obesulus. 
 
 amx)utatus. Say. 
 Hydrophilus triangularis, Say. 
 Necrophorus hecate. 
 
 margiuatus, Fabr. 
 
 Eleodes fusiformis. 
 extricata. 
 Embapbion planum. 
 Corpbyra collaris. 
 Mordellistena semula. 
 Meloe sublcevis. 
 Epicauta corvina. 
 
 maculata. 
 
 ferruginea. 
 Lytta spbcericollis. 
 nuttallii. 
 viridana. 
 Nemognatba lutea. 
 Erotylus Boisduvalii. 
 Spbenopborus. °? 
 Baridius. ? 
 
 Lepyrus colon. 
 Rbynchites bicolor. 
 Prionus californicus. 
 Parandra ferruginea. 
 Crosidius discordeus. 
 Criocepbalus productus. 
 Aseuum atuem. 
 Tetropium ciunamopterum. 
 Moneilema annulatum. 
 Monobammus scutellaris. 
 Acmeops striglata. 
 
470 
 
 GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF THE TEREITOEIES. 
 
 Silplia ramosa, Say. 
 
 lappouica, Herbst. 
 Plialacrus iiencillatus, Say. 
 Carpophilus pallipes. 
 Dermestes marmoratus, Say. 
 Cantlion loevis, Drury. 
 
 praticola, Lee. 
 Phanseus carnifex, McLeay. 
 Serica vespertina, Lee. 
 Tostegoptera lanceolata. 
 Polypliylla 10-lineata, Say. 
 Eiiryomia kernii, Lee. 
 Melaiioi)liilaloEgipes, Gory. 
 
 driimmondii, Lac. 
 Mouocrepidiiis auritus, Germ. 
 Pliotiuus ingricans, Lac. 
 Chaiiliognathus basalis, Lee. 
 Collops 4-maculatus, Er. 
 
 tricolor, Say. 
 Trichodes oruatiis, Say. 
 Hydnoeera subimca, Spin. 
 Epitrayus caualiculatus, Say. 
 Peleeyphorus serratiis, See. 
 sordidus, Lee. 
 Asida opaca, Say. 
 
 convexa, Lee. 
 Eusattiis convexus, Lee. 
 Couiontis obesa. 
 Eleodes tricosta. 
 
 carbouaria. 
 
 hispilabris. 
 
 obseura. 
 
 suturalis. 
 
 longicollis. 
 
 obsoleta. 
 
 Galeruca americana. 
 
 externa. 
 Diabrotiea vittata. 
 
 trieineta. 
 Dorypliora 10-lineata. 
 Graptodera bimarginata. 
 Disouyeba alteruata. 
 
 collaris. 
 Blepharida rhois. 
 Obrysomela exclamatiouis. 
 verrucosa, 
 pnnctipnnctata. 
 fiavomarginata. 
 , adonidis. 
 Chrysochus anratus. 
 Coscinoptera axillaris. 
 
 franciscana. 
 Paehybraehis atbomus. 
 Cryptoeepbalus viduatus. 
 4-gnttatus. 
 vitticoUis. 
 confluens. 
 Hippodamia Lecoutii. 
 o-signata. 
 coDA^ergens. 
 Coecinella transversoguttata. 
 9-notata. 
 mouticola. 
 Bracbyacantba ursina. 
 Dendroctomus teuebrionoides. 
 Anisosticta vittigera. 
 Mouaxia debilis. 
 Eapbidopalx^ns atripennes: 
 Typocerus sumatrifs. 
 
GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF THE TERRITORIES. 
 
 471 
 
 IV.— HEMIPTERA. 
 
 A LIST OF HEMIPTEEA COLLECTED IN EASTERN COLO- 
 EADO AND NORTHEASTERN NEW MEXICO, BY C. 
 THOMAS, DURING THE EXPEDITION OF 18G9. 
 
 By p. R. Fhler, Esq. 
 
 HETEROPTERA. 
 
 COEIMELiENID^. 
 
 Corimeliena nitiduloides, Wolff. 
 
 PACHYCORID^. 
 
 Homaemus bijugis, Uhl. 
 
 HALYDID^. 
 
 Brochymena aunulata, Fab. 
 
 PENTATOMID^. 
 
 Perillus claudns, Say. 
 exaptus, Say. 
 Neottigiossa iindata, Say. 
 Euscliistus pimctipes, Say. 
 Murgautia histiionica, Habn. 
 Pentatoma ciistator, Fab. 
 
 graminicolor, Ubl. 
 Cimex platycbikis, Ubl. 
 
 COEEIDJE. 
 
 Piezogaster alternatus, Say. 
 Merocoris distinctus, Dallas. 
 Dasycoris pilicornis, H. Scbf. 
 Margus inconspicuus, Ubl. 
 Catorbintba guttula, Fab. 
 Neides decurvatiis, Ubl. 
 Alydus ater, Dallas. 
 Protenor Belfragei, Hagl. 
 Leptocoris trivittatiis, Say. 
 Harmostes reflexulus, Say. 
 Corizus borealis, Ubl. 
 
 viridicatus, Ubl. 
 
 lateralis, Say. 
 
 LTG^ID^. 
 
 Lygseus reclivatus, Say. 
 
 circiimlitus, Stal. 
 
 admirabilis, Ubl. 
 Nysiiis californicus, Stal. 
 angustatus, Ubl. 
 Opbtbalmicus piceus, Say. 
 Pamera ftillax, Say. 
 Cymbogaster diftusus, Ubl. 
 Aiapbe Carolina, H. Scbf. 
 
 LAHaiD^. 
 
 Largus succiuctus, Fab. 
 
 PHYTOCOEID^. 
 
 Miris debilis, Ubl. 
 
 ruficornis, H. Sclif. 
 
 rubicundus, Ubl. 
 Calocoris rapidas, Say. 
 Restbeuia eremicola, Ubl. 
 
 confraterua, Uhl. 
 Lopidea media, Say. 
 Lygus annexus, Ubl. 
 diffiisns, Ubl. 
 redimitus, Ubl. 
 Pbytocoris, nov. sp. 
 OncOtylus militaris, Ubl. 
 Cyllecoris, nov. sp. 
 Dacota besperia, Ubl. 
 Oapsus delicatnlus, Ubl. 
 
 nov. sp. 
 Stipbrosoma stygica, Say. 
 Labops besperius, Ubl. 
 Stictocepbalus inermis, Ubl. 
 Rbopalotomns i3acificus, Ubl. 
 Cbaragocbilus venaticus, Ubl. 
 Tinicepbalus simplex, Ubl. 
 Pbylus angustatus, Ubl. 
 
 ARADID^. 
 
 Aradus rectus, Say. 
 
 PHYMATID^. 
 
 Pbymata erosa. Fab. 
 
 KEDUVrD^. 
 
 Nabis inscriptus, Kirby. 
 
 subcoleoptratus, Kirby. 
 Siuea midtispinosa, Geer. 
 Herega spissipes. Say. 
 Diplodus luridus, Stal. 
 
 HYDROMETR^. 
 
 Hygrotrecbus remigis, Say. 
 
 NEP^. 
 
 Nepa 4-dentata, Stal. 
 
472 
 
 GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF THE TERRITORIES. 
 HOMOPTERA. 
 
 FULGORID^. 
 
 v" 
 
 ^ Scolops sulcipes, Say. 
 y c> hesperiiis, Uhl. 
 
 CIXIID^. 
 
 Cixiiis stigmatus, Say. 
 Bruchomorpha ocellata, Newin. 
 
 CICADA. 
 
 Cicada dorsata, Say. 
 
 '^ canicularis, Harris, 
 hesperia, Uhl. 
 synodica, Say. 
 
 MEIVIBRACED^. 
 
 Ceresa diceros, Say. 
 Smilia, nov. sp. 
 Entilia modesta, Uhl. 
 
 -"> CERCOPID^." 
 
 Aj)hrophora permutata, Uhl. 
 o quadrangularis, Say. 
 
 I^Ptyelus lineatuSj Fab. 
 
 TETTIGONID^. 
 
 Gypouareverta, Uhl. ^^■^<^*S..a^ 
 i^Proconia costalis, Fab. 
 Helochara communis, Fab. 
 
 v.— CATALOGUE OF PLANTS. 
 
 BY THOMAS C. PORTER, 
 
 Lafayette College, Easton, Pennsylvania. 
 
 This catalogue embraces the plants collected in "Wyoming Territory, 
 
 >y Dr. F. V. Hayden, during the geological survey of 1870— at Camp 
 
 Carlin, from July 25 to 30, on the route from Fort D. A. Eussell, via 
 
 F^'t Fetterman, Sweetwater, South Pass, Wind Elver Mountains,' and 
 
 -^'" i Elver, to Fort Bridger, from August 1 to September 13 : in the 
 
 in the latter 
 October. To 
 
 Ore 
 
 yij^^.a Mountains, south of "Henry's Fork of Green Eiver, 
 
 -Ji^it of September, and on Henry's Fork, in the month of < 
 
 c'hese are added his collection in the isTorth Park, Colorado Territory^ 
 
 August, 1868, and another, made by Mr. B. H. Smith, in the region 
 
 around the city of Denver, during the summer of 1869. 
 
 EAJfUNCULACE^. 
 
 Atragene alpina, L. [A. Ocliotensis, Pallas.)— Mountains near Denver 
 
 Clematis ligusticifolia, Nutt.— Mountains near Denver, Colorado Ter- 
 ritory ; August to September. 
 
 Anemone miiltijida, DC— Mountains near Denver 5 Uinta Mountains. 
 
 Anemone Pennsylvanica, L. — Fossil beds near Denver. 
 
 Anemone -patens, L., var. Nuttalliana, Gray.— Denver. 
 
 Thalictrum sparsiflorimi, Turcz. — Mountains near Denver: Uinta 
 Mountains. In fruit. 
 
 Ranunculus divaricatus, Schrank. — Denver. 
 
 Raminciihis Cymhalaria, Pursh.— Denver, Colorado Territory : August 
 to September. 
 
 Ranunculus affinis, E. Br. — Near Denver. 
 
 Ranunculus sceleratus, L. — Denver. 
 
 Ranunculus Pennsylvanicus, L. — Xear Denver. 
 
 Ranunculus»re2}ens, L. — Near Denver. 
 
 Aquilegia co&rulea, Torr.— Uinta Mountains. In firuit. 
 
GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF THE TERRITORIES. 473 
 
 TrolUus laxiis, Salisb — ^Wyoming Territory ; August to September. 
 lu fruit. 
 
 Delphinium azureum, Michx. — Denver ; Camp Carlin, Wyoming Ter- 
 ritory. 
 
 Delpliinium elatum, L. — Mountains near Denver. 
 
 PAPAVERACE^. 
 
 Argemone Mexicana, L. — Denver; Camp Carlin, Wyoming Territory. 
 
 FUMARIACE^. 
 
 Corydalis aurea, Willd. — Xear Denver. 
 
 CKUCIFER^. 
 
 Kasttirtium sinuatum, Nutt. — Near Denver. 
 KasturUum ohtufium, Xntt. — Henry's Fork of Green Eiver. 
 Arahis lyrata, L. — Near Denver. 
 AraJjis hirsuta, IScop. — Near Denver. 
 
 Strejyfanthus lincarifoUus, Gray. — Camp Carlin, Wyoming Territory. 
 Cardainine paucisecta, Bentb. — Henry's Fork of Green Eiver. 
 Erysimum asjjerum, DC. — Denver. 
 Draba aurea, Vabl. — Near Denver. 
 
 JDrala nivalis, V^\\l(\. — (D. rnpestris, H. Br., var. ^^ siUculis glahris,''^ 
 Hook. Fl. Bor. Am., 1, p. 53.) — Uinta Mountains. 
 Vesicaria Ludoviciana, DC. — Near Denver. 
 Physaria didymocarpa, Gray. — Near Denver. 
 Zepidium ruderale, L. — Gray, PI. Wright, 2, p. 15. — Denver. 
 Lepidium sativum, L. — Near Denver. Probablj' introduced. 
 Thlaspi Fendleri, Gray. — Uinta Mountains, Wyoming Territory. 
 
 C APP ARID ACE JE. 
 
 Cleome integrifolia, Torr. a:^d Gray. — Denver; Camp Carlin, Wyo- 
 ming Territory. 
 
 Polanisia trachysperma, Gray. — Wyoming Territory ; August to Sep- 
 tember. 
 
 CARYOPHYLLACE^. 
 
 ^Silene acaulis, L. — Mountains near Denver. 
 
 Lychnis apetala, L., var. pauciflora, DC. — Uinta Mountains. 
 
 Arenaria congesta, Torr. and Gray. — North Park, Colorado Territory; 
 Uinta Mountains, Wyoming Territory. 
 
 Arenaria Fendleri, Gray, (PI. Fendler., p. 13). — Denver. 
 
 Arenaria arctica, Stevenson. — Mountains near Denver ; Uinta Moun- 
 tains. 
 
 Arenaria Rossi i, E. Br. — Henry's Fork of Green Eiver. 
 
 Arenaria verna, L. '? — Uinta Mountains, Wyoming Territory. In fruit 
 only, with old capsules which have shed their seed. 
 
 Stellaria borealis, Bigelow. — Henry's Fork of Green Eiver. 
 
 Cerastium arvense, L. — Near Denver. 
 
 Paronychia sessiliflora, Nutt. — Camp Carlin, Wyoming Territory. 
 
 Paronychia Jamesii, Torr. and Gray. — Near Denver. 
 
 MALVACEAE. 
 
 Malvastrum coccineum. Gray. — Denver; Camp Carlin, Wyoming Ter- 
 ritory. 
 
 Sidalcea malvwjlora, Gray. — North Park, Colorado Territory; Uiuta 
 Mountains. 
 
474 GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF THE TERRITORIES. 
 
 Sphceralcea acerifolia, INutt. [Malva rivularis, Dougl.) — Wyoming Ter- 
 ritory; August to September. 
 
 LINAGES. 
 
 Linum lierenne^ L. — Nortli Park, Colorado Territory ; Uinta Moun- 
 tains. 
 
 Linum Kiiigii, Watson ined. (in Clarence King's Eeport,) var. sedoides. — 
 Uinta Mountains, September 25, 1870. Very glabrous, low, much 
 branched from the base ; the shoit, angled stems 4 to G inches high ; 
 leaves numerous, 3 to 4 lines in length, pale green, linear-oblong, obtuse, 
 thickish and crowded, especially on the younger stems, giving the plant 
 the aspect of a Sedum. Stipular glands conspicuous, persistent. Pani- 
 cles contracted, corymbose; sepals broadly ovate, glandular-ciliate, 
 shorter than the globose 10-valved capsule. Styles 5, distinct. Cap- 
 sules about 1 J lines in diameter, the secondary dissepiments incomplete 
 and fibrous-i^ilose on the margin. In fruit only, but a floweriug speci- 
 men of Watson's plant has golden-yellow obovate petals, half an inch 
 in length. 
 
 GERANIACE^. 
 
 Geranium FremontU, Torr. — Denver; Camp Carlin, Wyoming Ter- 
 ritory. 
 
 Geranium Eichardsonii, Fisch, and Meyer. — Wyoming Territory ; Au- 
 gust to September. In fruit. 
 
 OXALIDACE^. 
 
 Oxalis stricfa, L. — Near Denver. 
 
 VITACE^. 
 
 Yitis riparia, Michx. — Wyoming Territory ; August to September. 
 In fruit. 
 
 RHAMNACEJE. 
 
 CeanotJius ovalls, Bigelow. — Near Denver. 
 
 Ceanotlms velutinus, Dougl., var. Icevigatus, Torr. and Gr., Fl. N. Am., 
 1, p. 686. — Henry's Fork of Green Eiver. 
 
 CELASTRACEiE. 
 
 Fachystima Myrsinitis, Eaf. — Henry's Fork of Green Eiver. 
 
 ACERACE-^. 
 
 Acer glahrum, Torr. — Denver ; Henry's Fork of Green Eiver. 
 Negimdo aceroides, Manch. — Near Denver. 
 
 LEGUMINOS^. « 
 
 Zupinus ornatus, Dougl. — Near Denver. 
 Lupinus parviflorus, Nutt. — Uinta Mountains. 
 Lupinus pusillus, Pursh. — Near Denver. 
 
 Lupinus decumhens, Torr. — Wyoming Territory ; August to September. 
 Trifolium Farryi, Gray. — Uinta Mountains, Wyoming Territory. 
 Fsoralea floribunda, Nutt. — Denver. 
 Fsoralea koiceolata, Pursh. — Near Denver. 
 Fetalostemon violaceufi, Michx. — Near Denver. 
 
 Fetalostemon candidus, Michx. — Wyoming Territory ; August to Sej)- 
 tember. 
 
 HosacTcia FursJiiana, Benth. — North Park, Colorado Territory. 
 Astragalus Hypoglottis, L. — Cami) Carlin, Wyoming Territory. 
 
GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF THE TERKITOEIES. 475 
 
 Astragalus adsurgeiis, ^ntt. — Wyoming Territory ; August to Septem- 
 ber. 
 
 Astragalus flexuosiis, Dougl. — Near Denver. 
 
 Astragalus Kentrophyta, Gray. — Near Denver. 
 
 Oxytropis Lamherti, Pursh. — Near Denver. 
 
 Oxytropis dcffexa, DC. — Wyoming Territory; August to September. 
 
 Glycyrrliiza lepklofa, Nutt. — Henry's Fork of Green River. 
 
 Vicia Americana, Mubl. — Near Denver. 
 
 Lathyrus 2)alustris, L, — Henry -s Fork of Green Eiver. 
 
 Lathyrus Ihtearis, Nutt. — Near Denver. 
 
 Sophora sericea, Nutt. — Near Denver. 
 
 Thermopsis rhombifoUa, Nutt. — Near Denver. 
 
 Thermopsis fahacea, Hook., var. moniana, Gray. — Wyoming Territory; 
 August to September. 
 
 ROSACEA. 
 
 Prunus Virglniana, L. — Near Denver. 
 
 S2)ira'a opulifolia, L. — Near Denver. 
 
 Spira'a dumosa, Nutt. — Turkey Creek, Colorado Territory ; Wyoming 
 Territory ; August to September. 
 
 Spira'a ca'S2ntosa, Nutt. — Henry's Fork of Green River. 
 
 Cercocarpus parvifolius, Nutt. — Near Denvei'. 
 
 Geum Eossii, Seriuge, var. B. Torr. and Gr. — Uinta Mountains. 
 
 6eum triflorum, Pursb. — Denver; Nortb Park, Colorado Territory. 
 
 Sibhaldia procumhersj L. — Uinta Mountains. 
 
 Ivesia GOi'doni, Torr. and Gray ; Gray in Proc. Am. Acad., G, p. 530. — 
 Uinta Mountains, September 25, 1870. — Differs from tbe typical form 
 in baving a single carpel ! Tbe small spatulate petals appear wbite, 
 but are probably faded. 
 
 Potent ilia Norvegica, L. — Denver ; Camp Carlin, Wyoming Territory. 
 
 Potentilla fastigiata, Nutt.— Wyoming Territory ; August to Septem- 
 ber. 
 
 Potentilla nivea, L. — Denver ; Uinta Mountains. 
 
 Potentilla Pennsylvanica, L., var. Hippianaj Torr. and Gr. — Denver. 
 
 Potentilla arguta, Pursb.— Wyoming Territory ; August to September. 
 
 Potentilla Anserina, L. — Henry's Fork of Green River. 
 
 Potentilla fruticosa,h. — Denver; Nortb Park ; Uinta Mountains. 
 
 Buhus strigosus, Micbx.— Wyoming Territory ; August to September. 
 
 Eosa gymnocarpa, Nutt. — Henry's Fork of Green River. In fruit. 
 
 Eosa hlanda, Ait. — Denver ; Wyoming Territory ; August to Septem- 
 ber. 
 
 Pyrus samhucifolia, Cb. and Scbl. — Henry's Fork of Green River. In 
 fi?uit. 
 
 SAXIFRAGACE^. 
 
 Jamesia Americana, Torr. & Gray. — Denver ; Nortb Park, Colorado * 
 Territory. 
 
 Saxifraga hronchialis, L. — Mountains near Denver. 
 
 Heucliera bracteata, Seriuge. — Fall River, Colorado Territory ; B. H. 
 Smitb. 
 
 Heucliera parvifolia, Nutt. — Fall River, Colorado Territorv; B. H. 
 Smitb. 
 
 CRASSULACE^. 
 
 Sedum stenopctahim, Pursb.— Fall River, Colorado Territory ; Uinta 
 Mountains. 
 
 Sedum rhodanthum, Gray. — Uinta Mountains. 
 Sedum Ehodiola, DC. — 5lountains near Denver. 
 
476 GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF THE TERRITORIES. 
 
 ONAGKACEJE. 
 
 Gaura parviflora^ Dougl. — Near Denver. 
 
 Gaura coccinea^ Nutt. — ISTear Denver. 
 
 Epilobium augiistifoUum, L. Denver ; Uinta Mountains. 
 
 Epilohium paniculatum^ I^utt. — Near Denver. 
 
 IJj)ilohium coloratum, Mubl. — Denver ; Wyoming Territory ; August to 
 September. 
 
 (Enotliera Mennis^ L. — Denver j Wyoming Territory ; August to Sep- 
 tember. 
 
 (Enothera pinnatifida, l!futt. — Near Denver. 
 
 (Enothera coronopifoUa, Torr. and G^ay. — Near Denver. 
 
 (Enothera albicauUs, Nutt. — Denver 5 Cami) Carliu, Wyoming Terri- 
 tory. 
 
 (Enothera coespitosa, Nutt. — North Park, Colorado Territory. 
 
 (Enothera serruldtaj ^utt. — Denver; Wyoming Territory; August to 
 September. 
 
 LOASACE^. 
 
 Mentzella ornata, Torr. and Gray. — Wyoming Territory; August to 
 
 September. 
 
 Mentzelia nuda, Torr. and Gray. — Denver ; Camj) Carlin, Wyoming 
 Territory. 
 
 UMBELLIFERiE. 
 
 Archangelica Gmelini, DC. — Uinta Mountains. 
 
 Cicuta maculata, L. — Wyoming Territory ; August to September. 
 
 Garum Gairdneri, Graj'. Proc. Am. Acad., 7, p. 344. [Edosmia Gaird- 
 oieri, Torr. & Gr., PI. N. Am., 1, p. G12.) — Uinta Mountains; Wyoming- 
 Territory ; August to September. 
 
 CORNACE^. 
 
 Cornus stolonifera^ Michx. — Denver ; Henry's Pork of Green Eiver. 
 
 CAPRLFOLIACE^. 
 
 Symphoricarpus occidentalism E. Br. — Denver ; Henry's Fork of Green 
 Eiver. 
 Lonicera involucrata, Banks. — Henry's Pork of Green Eiver. 
 
 RTJBLiCEJE. 
 
 Galium horeale^ L. — Denver ; Uinta Mountains. 
 
 VALEEIANACE^. 
 
 Valeriana dioica, L., var. sylvatica,. B,\chnrds. — Denver. 
 Valeriana edulisj Nutt. — Uinta Mountains. 
 
 COMPOSITE. 
 
 Liatris punctata, Hook. — North Park, Colorado Territory ; Wyoming- 
 Territory. 
 
 Briclcellia grandiflora, Nutt. — Near Denver. 
 
 Machccranthcra tanaceiifolia, Nees. — Denver. 
 
 Aster falcatus, Lindh— North. Park, Colorado Territory; 1868. 
 
 Aster ericoides, L. — Near Denver. 
 
 Aster Icevis, L. — Wyoming Territory ; August to September. 
 
 Aster adscendens, Lindl., var. ciliatifolius, Torr. and Gray. — Camp Car- 
 lin, Wyoming Territory ; Henry's Fork of Green Eiver. 
 
 Aster multiflorus, Ait. — North Fork, Colorado Territory; Henry's Pork 
 of Green Eiver. 
 
GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF THE TERRITORIES. 477 
 
 Aster Fendleri, Gray. — Uinta Mouutains, Wyoming Territory. 
 Aster glaucus, Torr. and Gray. — Uinta Mountains, Wyoming Terri- 
 tory. 
 
 Aster salsKginosus, Kichards. — Uinta Mountains. 
 
 Aster glacialis, Nutt. — Uinta Mountains. 
 
 Aster angustus, Torr. and Gray. — rUinta Mouutains. 
 
 Erigeron compositum^ Pursli. — Near Denver. 
 
 Erigeron divergens, Torr. and Gray. — Denver. 
 
 Erigeron glaheUnm, Nutt. — Mountains near Denver. 
 
 Erigeron Canadcnse, L, — Den\'er. 
 
 SoJidago Yirga-aurea, L., var. muUiradiata, Torr. and Gray. 
 
 Solidago rigida, L. — Denver; Wyoming Territory. 
 
 Solidago memoraJis, Ait., var. — Denver. 
 
 Solidago Canadensis, L., var. Scabra, Torr. and Gray. — Camp Carlin ; 
 Henry's Fork of Green Eiver. 
 
 Solidago gigantea, Ait. — Near Denver. * 
 
 Gutierrezia EutJiamiw. Torr. and Gray. — Near Denver. 
 
 Linosyris graveolens, Torr. and Gray. — North Parlv, Colorado Terri- 
 tory ; Henry's Fork of Green Eiver, Wyoming Territory. 
 
 Linosyris viscidijiora. Hook. — Denver 5 North Park, Colorado Territory ; 
 Wyoming Territory ; August to September. 
 
 Linosyris lanccolata, Torr. and Gray. — North Park, Colorado Territory. 
 
 Aplopappus spinulosus,'DC. — Denver; North Park, Colorado Territory. 
 
 Aplopappus Parryi, Gray. — Mountains near Denver. 
 
 Grindeliasqnarrosa, Dnnal. — Denver; North Park, Colorado Territory ; 
 Camp Carlin, Wyoming Territory. 
 
 Chrysopsis villosa, Nutt. — Denver ; Camp Carlin, Wyoming Territory. 
 
 Chrysopfsis Mspida, Hook. — Near Denver. 
 
 Euplirosyne xanthiifolia, Gray. {Cyclacha^na xantJiii folia, Fres. ; Torr. 
 & Gray, Fl. N. Am., 2. p. 286.)— Camp Carlin, Wyoming Territory. 
 
 Ambrosia trifida, L. — Wyoming Territory, August to September. 
 
 Rndbeclia ladniata, L. — Near Denver. 
 
 EudbecJcia kirta, L. — Denver ; Camj) Carlin, Wyoming Territory. 
 
 Lepacliys columnaris, Torr. and Gray. — Wyoming Territory ; August to 
 September. 
 
 Helianthus petiolaris, Nutt. — Denver ; Camp Carlin, Wyoming Ter- 
 ritory. 
 
 Heliantlms rigidus, Desf. — Wyoming Territory ; August to September. 
 
 Seliantlms strmnosus, L. var. — Camp Carlin, Wyoming Territory. 
 
 Helianthus Icetifloriis, Pers. — Camp Carlin, Wyoming Territory. 
 
 Helianthella uniflora, Torr. and Gray. — Near Denver. 
 
 Thelesperma fiilifolium. Gray. — Near Denver. 
 
 Gaillardia aristata, Pursh. — Denver ; North Park, Colorado Territory ; 
 Wyoming Territory ; August to September. 
 
 Villanova chrysantliemoides. Gray. — Denver. 
 
 Chaenactis achilleafolia, Hook and Arn. — Denver. 
 
 Baliia oppositifoUa, Torr. and Gray. — Cami) Carlin, Wyoming Terri- 
 tory. 
 
 Helenium autumnale, L. — Wyoming Territory ; August to September. 
 
 Achillea Millefolium, L. — Wyoming Territory ; August to September. 
 
 Artemisia canadensis, Mich:s.. — Denver; Wyoming Territory ; August 
 to September. 
 
 Artemisia tridentata, Nutt. — Denver; Wyoming Territory; August to 
 September. 
 
 Artemisia cana, Pursh. — Henry's Fork of Green Eiver. 
 
 Artemisia trifida, Nutt. — Henry's Fork of Green Eiver. 
 
478 GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF THE TERRITORIES. 
 
 Artemisia Ludoviciana, Nutt, var. gna^lialocles^ Torr. and Gray. — Hen- 
 ry's Fork of Green Eiver ; Wyoming Territory ; August to September. 
 
 Artemisia Bicliardsoniana, Bess. — Uinta Mountains. 
 
 Artemisia frigida, Willd. — Denver ; North Park, Colorado Territory ; 
 Wyoming Territory ; August to September. 
 
 Gnaphalium Sprengelii, Hook and Arn. — Denver. 
 
 Antenndria dioica, Gaertn. — Denver ; Uinta Mountains. 
 
 Antennaria al^nna, Gaertn. — Denver ; Uinta Mountains. 
 
 Antennaria margaritacea, E. Br. — Henry's Fork of Green Eiver. 
 
 Senecio liigens, Eichards.— Wyoming Territory ; August to September. 
 
 Senecio cermms, Gray. — Mountains near Denver. 
 
 kSenecio longilohus, Benth. — Denver j Wyoming Territory ; August to 
 September. 
 
 Senecio rapifolius^ Nutt. — Wyoming Territory; August to September. 
 
 Senecio aureus, \. var. — Mountains near Denver. 
 
 Tetradymia inermis, Nutt. — Nortli Park, Colorado Territory. 
 
 Tetradymia spinosa, Hook and Arn. — Henry's Fork of Green Eiver. 
 
 Arnica mollis, Hook. — Mountains near Denver. 
 
 Cirsium undnlatum, Spreng. — Near Denver. 
 
 Cirsium Brummondii, Torr. and Gray. — Near Denver. 
 
 Cirsium edule, Nutt. — Near Denver. 
 
 Steplianomeria runcinata, Nutt. — Denver. 
 
 Lygodesmia juncea, Don. — Wyoming Territory ; August to September. 
 
 Troximon giaucum, Nutt. — North Park, Colorado Territory; Uinta 
 Mountains. 
 
 Macrorliynchus troximoides, Nutt. — Fall Eiver, Colorado Territory. 
 
 Mulgedium pulcliellum, Nutt. — Denver; Wyoming Territory ; August 
 to September. 
 
 C AMP ANUL ACE^ . 
 
 Campanula rotundifolia, L.^ — Denver ; North Park, Colorado Territory. 
 Campamda Langsdorffiana, Fischer. — North Park, Colorado Territory*. 
 Specularia perfoliata, A. DC. — Near Denver. 
 
 EEICACEiE. 
 
 Vaccinium Myrtillus, L. — Wj-oming Territory; August to September. 
 Arctostaphylos Uva-ursi, Spreng. — Denver ; Uinta Mountains. 
 Pterospora Andromedea, Nutt. — North Park, Colorado Territory. 
 
 PL ANT AGIN ACE^ . 
 
 Plantago Patagonica, Jacq., var. gnaphaUoides, Gray. — Near Denver. 
 Plantago eriojjoda, Torr. — Wyoming Territory ; August to September. 
 
 PEIMULACE^. 
 
 Dodecatheon Meadia, L. — Uinta Mountains. In fruit. 
 Androsace filiformis, Eetz. — Henry's Fork of Green Eiver. 
 Androsace septentrionalis, L. — Denver ; Uinta Mountains. 
 (jrlaux maritima, L. — Wyoming Territory ; August to September. 
 
 OEOBANCHACE^. 
 
 Apliyllon fasciculatum, Torr. and Gray. — Denver. 
 
 SCROPHUL AEI ACE^ . 
 
 Petitstcmonglaher, Pursh. — Wyoming Territory; August to September. 
 Pcntstcmon ccerulcus, Nutt. — Near Denver. 
 Pcntstemon acuminatus, Dougl. — Near Denver, 
 
GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF THE TERRITORIES. 479 
 
 Pentstemon Mmilis, Xutt. — Denver ; Wyoming Territory ; August to 
 September. 
 
 Pentstemon confertus, Dougl., var. ccerideo-irurpureus, Gray. — Mountains 
 near Denver ; North Park, Colorado Territory. 
 
 Mimulus JamesH, Torr. — Near Denver. 
 
 Mimulus luteus, L., Wyoming Territory ; August to September. 
 
 IlysantJies gratioloides, Benth. — North Park, Colorado Territory. 
 
 Veronica Americana, Schw. — Henry's Fork of Green Kiver. 
 
 Veronica serpyUifoUa, L. — Henry's Fork of Green Eiver. 
 
 CastiUeia integra, Gray. — Near Denver. 
 
 Castilleia pallida, Nutt. — Denver; Uinta Mountains. 
 
 Orthocarpus luteus, Nutt. — Denver; Uinta Mountains. 
 
 Pedicularis hraeteosa, Benth. — Mountains near Denver. 
 
 Fedicidaris Greenlandiea, Eetz. — Uinta Mountains. 
 
 VERBENACEJE. 
 
 Verbena hraeteosa, Michx. — Denver; Wyoming Territory. 
 Verbena stricta, Vent. — Camp Carlin, Wyoming Territory. 
 
 LABIAT2E. 
 
 Mentha Canadensis, L. — Henry's Fork of Green Eiver. 
 Hedeoma Brummondii, Benth. — Wyoming Territory ; August to Sep- 
 tember. 
 
 Monarda fistulosa, L. — ^Near Denver. 
 
 Monarda aristata, Nutt. — Near Denver. 
 
 Scutellaria resinosa, Torr. — Near Denver. 
 
 Scutellaria galericulata, L. — Near Denver. 
 
 Stachys 2)alnstris, L., var. aspera, Gray. — Denver. 
 
 Staehys palustris, L., var. cordata, Gray. — Wyoming Territory. 
 
 boreaginaceyIj;. 
 
 Onosmodium CarjoUnianum, DC. — Denver. 
 
 Mertensia alpina, Don. — Mountains near Denver. 
 
 Mertensia panieulata, Don. — Mountains ;jear Denver. 
 
 Mertensia Sihirica, Don. — Mountains near Denver, Uinta Mountains. 
 
 Litliospermum pilosum, Nutt. — Denver. 
 
 Lithospermum hirtum, Lehm. — Denver. 
 
 Echinospermum BedowsM, Lehm. — Denver, Wyoming Territory. 
 
 Echinospermum florihundum, Lehm. — Denver. 
 
 Eritrichium crassiscpalum, Torr. and Gray. — Denver. 
 
 Eritricliiuni Jamesii, Torr. — Near Denver. 
 
 Eritrichiwn glomeratum, DC, {Myosotis glomerata. Hook. Fl. Bor. 
 Am. 2. p. 82. t. 1G2,) var., Mspidissimum, Torr. in Emory's Eep. Bound. 
 Surv. 2. p. 140. (fide Gray.) — Camp Carlin, Wyoming Territory, July 30, 
 1870, F. V. Hayden. — Stem 8 to 10 inches high. Eacemes mostly bifid 
 or trifid, 3 to 4 inches long, much surpassing the leaves. Flowers small 
 and somewhat scattered, rather shorter than the acute, lance-ovate 
 bracts. Limb of the corolla 2 lines in diameter, its narrow tube about 
 as long. Nutlets 4, reticulate-rugose on the back. 
 
 Eritrichium virgatum, sp. nov. Sesquipedale, hispidissimum ; caule 
 simplici tereti erecto ; foliis radicalibus oblongo-spathulatis, caulinis 
 linearibus; cymis plurimis in axillis foliorum conglomeratis peduncula- 
 tis superne subsessilibus confertisque ; calycis 5-partiti segmentis lance- 
 olatis tubum corollse aequantibus ; nuculis 4-ovatis dorso infra partem 
 mediam convexo supra lateribus depresso laevibus nitidis. — Near Den- 
 ver, Colorado Territory, 1869, B. H. Smith. The stout virgate spike 
 
480 GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF THE TERRITORIES. 
 
 made up of numerous glomerate cymes, crowded in the axils of the 
 linear cauliDC leaves, which much exceed them in length. Limb of the 
 corolla 4 lines in diameter, its lobes rounded. Nutlets smooth and 
 shining, the lower half of the back convex, the upper depressed on the 
 sides, leaving a central vertical ridge. According to Dr. Gray this plant 
 is the same as Parry's 288, and Hall and Harbour's 438 (in part.) It 
 has passed for a form of E. glomeratum, DC, but seems more nearly 
 allied in its fruit and habit of growth to JE. leucoj^haeum, A. DC. {Myoso- 
 tis leucoj>hcea, Dougl., in Hook. Fl. Bor. Am. 2. p. 82. t. 163,) and I have 
 ventured to give it a name. 
 
 HYDROPHYLLACE^. 
 
 Hydrophylluin Virginicum, L. — Denver. 
 Fhacelia circinata, Jacq.— Denver. 
 Fhacelia sericea, Gray. — Denver. 
 Mlisia amhigiia, Nutt. — Denver. 
 
 POLEMONIACE^. 
 
 Folemonium confertum, Gray. — Gray's Peak, Colorado Territory. 
 Collomia linearis, Nutt. — Uinta Mountains. 
 . Gilia congesta, Hook. — Denver ; Wyoming Territory. 
 Gilia pinnatifida, Nutt. — Mountains near Denver. 
 Qilia aggregata, Spreng. — Denver. With white and red flowers. 
 Gilia 2nmgens, Benth. — Near Denver. 
 
 SOLANACE^. 
 
 Solanum rostratum, Pursh. — Denver. 
 
 Phy sails Fennsylvanica, L., var.?— Wyoming Territory; August to Sep- 
 tember. 
 
 GENTIANACE^. 
 
 (7ewfiam apws, Griseb.— Mountains near Denver; North Park, Col- 
 orado Territory ; Uinta Mountains, Wyoming Territory. 
 
 Gentiana Parr?/i, Eugelm. — Mountains near Denver; North Park, Col- 
 orado Territory. 
 
 Gentiana detonsa, Griseb. — Near Denver. 
 
 Gentiana frigida, Haenke, var. algida, Griseb.— Gray's Peak, Col- 
 orado Territory ; Uinta Mountains. 
 
 Gentiana acuta, Michx.— Near Denver ; Uinta Mountains. 
 
 Frasera speciosa, Dougl. — Uinta Mountains. 
 
 APOCYNACE^. 
 
 Apocynum androscemifolium, L. — Denver. 
 
 ASCLEPIADACE^. 
 
 Asclejpias speciosa, Torr. — Near Denver. 
 
 Asclepias verticillata, L.— Wyoming Territory. The dwarf variety. 
 
 NYCTAGINACE^. 
 
 Oxybaplms angnstifolius, Sweet. — Denver. 
 
 Oxybaphus nyctagineus, Sweet. — Denver. 
 
 Abronia fragrans, Nutt. — Denver, Wyoming Territory. 
 
 CHENOPODIACE^. 
 
 Cycloloma platyphyllum, Moq. — Denver. 
 
 Teloxys cormita, Torr. in Whipple's, Eeport, Pacific Kailroad Survey, 
 4. p. 129. — Mountains near Denver. 
 
GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF THE TERRITORIES. 481 
 
 « 
 Blifum cajrifaUim, L. — Denver. 
 
 Blitum mayitimnm, aSTutt. — Wyoming Territory ; Angust to September. 
 Obio)ie argcntea, Moq. — Wyoming Territory; Angust to September. 
 Salicornia Virglnica, L. — Big Sandy, Wyoming Territory; Septembers. 
 Whole plant of a bright-red color. 
 
 AMAEAlNTACEiE. 
 
 Frceliclua Floridami, Moq. — Denver. 
 
 MontcUa tamariscina, Gray. — Wyoming Territory ; August to Spp- 
 tember. 
 
 POLYGONACE^. 
 
 FoJyfjonum Bistorfa, L. — Near Denver ; Uinta Mountains. 
 
 Fohjgonum aviculare, L., var. erectiim, Eoth. — Denver; North Park, 
 Colorado Territory. 
 
 FoJygonum tenue, Michx., var. — Denver. 
 
 Folyfjonum ramosissinnim, Michx. — Wyoming Territory. 
 
 Fohjyonum dumctornm, L. — Wyoming Territory. 
 
 Rumcx maritimum^ L. — Wyoming Territory ; August to September. 
 
 Oxyria digyna., E. Br. — Uinta Mountains, Wyoming Territory. 
 
 Friogonum umbellatum, Torr. — Denver; Wyoming Territory. 
 
 Eriogonum nmbeUatum, Torr., var. monocephaluin, Torr and G-ray, Rev. 
 Erigon., p. IGO. 
 
 Eriogonum alafum, Torr,, var. glahriusciilum, Torr., Eev. Erigon, p. 
 154. — Denver; North Park, Colorado Territory. 
 
 Eriogonum microthecum, Nutt., var. effus^tm., Torr. and Gray, 1. c., p. 
 172, — Denver; North Park, Colorado Territory ; Wyoming Territory, 
 
 Eriogonum hrevicaule, Nutt. — Wyoming Territory; August to Sep- 
 tember ; with yellow flowers. 
 
 Eriogonum cmnuum, Nutt. — Denver. 
 
 Erigonum cernimm, Nutt. — Wyoming Territory ; August to Septem- 
 ber. • 
 
 EL^AGNACE^. 
 
 Blieplicrdia Canadensis, Nutt. — Uinta Mountains, Wyoming Territory. 
 Sliej)hcrdia argcntea, Nutt. — Henry's Fork of Green Eiver, Wyoming- 
 Territory. 
 
 EUPHOEBIAGE^. 
 
 Euphorhia petaloidea, Engelm. — Denver. 
 
 Eupliorhia marginata, ,Pursh. — Denver. 
 
 Euphorbia montana, Engelm. — Mountains near Denver. 
 
 Croton muricatum^ Nutt. — Near Denver. 
 
 BETULACE2E. 
 
 Betula papyraccaj Ait., var. pumila, Eegel, in DC. Prod, — Henry's 
 Fork of Green Eiver. 
 
 Alnus serrulata, Ait., var. rugosa, Eegel. — Henry's Fork of Green 
 Eiver. 
 
 SALICAOE^. 
 
 iSalix cordata, Muhl. — Wyoming Territory ; August to September.' 
 
 Salix longifolia, Muhl. — Denver; Wyoming Territory. 
 
 Salix lucida, Muhl, var. angustifolia, Anders. — Henry's Fork of Green 
 Eiver. 
 
 Popiilus Canadensis, Desf., var. angustifolia, Westmael in DC. Prod^ 
 (P. angustifolia, Torr.) — Henry's Fork of Green Eiver. 
 31 G 
 
482 GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF THE TERRITORIES. 
 
 CONIFERS. 
 
 Upliedra antisyiMlitica, Berland. — Wyoming Territory; August to Sep. 
 tember, 
 
 Juniperus comm^inis, L. — Near Denver. 
 
 Juniperiis occidentalism Hook. — Wyoming Territory ; August to Sep- 
 tember. 
 
 Finns Jlexilis, James. — Wyoming Territory. 
 
 IRIDACE^. 
 
 Iris tenax, Dougl. — Denver ; Wyoming Territory. In fruit. 
 
 LILIACE^. 
 
 Veratrum viride, Ait. — Uinta Mountains, Wyoming Territory. 
 
 Zygadenus glaucus, Nutt. — Uinta Mountains, Wyoming Territory. 
 
 Smilacina sfellata, Desf. — Denver ; Uinta Mountains. 
 
 Allium stellatu7n, Nutt. — Denver. 
 
 Allium cernnum, Eotli. — Denver. 
 
 Allium acuminatum^ Hook ? — Uinta Mountains, Wyoming Territory. 
 Tiie sepaLs have a longer acumination than in Hooker's figure (Fl. BoV. 
 Am., t. 19G), and the inner ones are not serrulate. 
 
 Allium Schoenoprasum, li. — Wyoming Territory; August to Septem- 
 ber. 
 
 Yncca angustifolia, Pursli. — Near Denver. 
 
 Calocliortus venustus, Benth. — Near Denver. 
 
 JUNOACE^. 
 
 Tjuzula spicata^ Desv. — Uinta Mountains, Wyoming Territory. 
 
 LuzuIoj parvifiora^ Desv., var. melanocarpa. Grey. — Uinta Mountains. 
 
 Juiicus Balticus, Detliard. — Uinta Mountains, Wyoming Territory. 
 
 Juncus tenuis^ Willd. — Henry's Fork of Green 'River. 
 
 Juncus longistylis, Torr. {J. Mcnziesii, E.. Br.) — Denver. . 
 
 Juncus nodos^is, L., var. megacephalus, Torr. — Denver. 
 
 Juncus Mertensianus, Bong. ; Ei\^(^jn. Eev., p. 479. — Uinta Mountains. 
 
 COMMELYNAOE^li; . 
 
 Tradescantid Virginica^ L. — Denver. 
 
 CYPERACEJS. 
 
 Meocliaris palustris, B. Br. — Denver. 
 
 lScir2)US pungens^ Vahl. — Denver. 
 
 Scirpus maritimus^ L. — Wyoming Territory ; August to September. 
 
 Bcirpus atrovirens, Mulil. — Near Denver. 
 
 Car ex straminea, Sclik. — Denver. 
 
 Garex /estiva, Dew. — Uinta Mountains, Wyoming Territory. 
 
 Carex Uaydeniana, Olney, sp. uov. Spica ovata vel subrotundata 
 eapitata fusco-ferrugineae spiculis sub-6 basi raasculis densifloris; brac- 
 teis squamaeformis ouspidatis; perigyniis ovatis longe attenuato-rostra- 
 tis, ore oblique secto, membranaceis compressis alatis ; margine duplo- 
 serrjitis basi leviter nervatis, flavidis superne vel demum omnius fuscis 
 apertis squama ovata acuta margine hyalina longioribus ; aclienio 
 stramineo lenticulari-elliptico. Hah., California, Bolander, 5074 ; Uinta 
 Mountains, Wyoming Territory, F. V. Hayden, September, 1870. — The 
 Carex Uaydeni of Dewey being clearly C. aperta, Boott., this is named in 
 honor of the zealous explorer in the realms of natural history whose 
 name it bears. Low, 4 to inches high, caespitose; roots fibrous; leaves 
 fiat, imrrow, shorter than the culms. Allied to C. festiva, Dew. 
 
GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF THE TERRITORIES. 483 
 
 Carex BonpJandii^ Kuutli., var. minor ^ C»^i«iy5 Eiiiim. PI. Hall and Har- 
 bour, p. 77. — Uinta Mountains, Wyominc^ Territoiy. 
 
 Carex atrata, L. — Uinta Mountains, Wyoming Territory. 
 Carex riglcla, Good. — Uinta Mountains, Wyoming Territory. 
 Carex utriculata, Boott. — Denver. 
 
 GRAMINE^. 
 
 Alopecurus pratensis^ L., var. alpina, Walil. — Near Denver. 
 
 Fhlciim aliyinum, L. — Henry's Fork of Green Elver. 
 
 Agrostis 2)crcnna}is, Tuckerm. — Henry's Fork of Green Eiver. 
 
 Muhlenbergia glomerata, Trin. — ^Wyoming Territory, August to Sep- 
 tember. 
 
 CaJamagrostis Langsdorffii, Trin. — Wyoming Territory. 
 
 Calamagrostis longifoUa, Hook. — Wyoming Territory. 
 
 Calamagrostis sylvatica, D. C. — Mountains near Denver. 
 
 Spartina cyiiosuroidcs, Willd. — Wyoming Territory. 
 
 Boutclcea oUgosfachya, Torr. — Near Denver. 
 
 Koeleria crista fa, Pers. — Near Denver. 
 
 Eatonia ohtusata, Gray. — Near Denver. 
 
 Brizopyrum spicatum, Hook and Arn., var. Strictum, Thurber, Enum., 
 PI. Hall and Harbour, p. 78. — Wyoming Territory; August to September. 
 
 Poa serotina, Ebrb. — Uinta jMountams, Wyoming Territory. 
 
 Poa arctica, E. Br. — Uinta Mountains, Wyoming Territory. 
 
 Poa Andina, Trin. — Uinta Mountains, Wyoming Territory. 
 
 Festuca ovina, L., var. — Near Denver. 
 
 Bronius ciUatus, L. — Near Denver. 
 
 Bromus Tcalmii, Gray. — North Park, Colorado Territory. 
 
 Triticum rcpcns, L. — Mountains near Denver. 
 
 Elymus canadensis, L. — Denver, Wyoming Territory; August to Sep- 
 tember. 
 
 Mordeum juhatum, L. — Denver; Camp Carlin, Wyoming Territory. 
 
 Trisetum suhspicatum, Beauv., var. molle, Gr. — Uinta Mountains. 
 
 Aira caeSpitosa, L. — Uinta Mountains. 
 
 Andropogon argenteus, Ell. — Wyoming Territorj^, August to September. 
 
 EQUISETACE^. 
 
 Eqiiisetum arvense, L. — Denver, Wyoming Territory. 
 
 Eqimetwn hyemale, L. — Wyoming Territory ; August to September. 
 
 FILICES. 
 
 PeUaea atropurpurea. Link. — Nortb Park, Colorado Territory. 
 Aspidium Filix-mas, Swartz. — Wyoming Territory; AngTist to Sep- 
 tember. 
 
 Woodsia ohtusa, Torr. — ^Wyoming Territory j August to September. 
 
484 
 
 GEOLOGICAL SUKVEY OF THE TERRITOEIES. 
 
 YL_CATALOaUE OF PLANTS. 
 
 A LIST OF PLANTS COLLECTED BY C. THOMAS, IN EASTERN 
 COLORADO AND NORTHEASTERN NEW MEXICO, DURING 
 THE SURVEY OF 1809. 
 
 By Dr. C. C. Paery. 
 
 Atragene alpina, L. 
 Clematis Donglassii, Hook. 
 
 ligusticifolia, Nutt. 
 Pulsatilla Nnttalliaua, Gray. 
 Anemone multifida D. C. 
 
 Peunsylvauica, L. 
 Thalictrmn Fendleii, Engelm. 
 
 alpimim, L. 
 Eanunculus cynibalaiia, Pursh. 
 lepens. Hook, 
 affinis, R. B. 
 Escliseholtzii, Schlecht. 
 Calfha leptosepala, D. C. 
 Aquilcgia coerulea, Torr. 
 Delphinium elatum, L. 
 Acouitum nasntuiu, Fisch. • 
 Berberis aqnifolium, Pnr.sh. 
 B. Feudleii, Gray. 
 Corydalis aurea, Willd. 
 Argemone Mexicana, L. 
 Cardamiue cordifolia, Gray. 
 Erysimum asperum, D. C. 
 Draba aurea, Vabl. 
 
 D. strei)tocarpa, Gray. 
 Camelina sativa, L. 
 Smeionskia calycina, C. A. Meyer. 
 Thlaspi cocbleariforme, D. C. 
 Physaria didymocarpa, Gray. 
 Vesicaria montana, Gray. 
 
 ludoviciaua, D. C. 
 Stauleya integrifolia, James. 
 Lepidiam alyssoides, Gray. 
 Barbarea vulgaris, L. 
 Sisymbrium caneseens, Nutt. 
 Cleome integrifolia, Torr and Gray 
 Yiola canadensis, L. 
 Nuttalli, Pursh. 
 Muhlenbergii, Torr. 
 lonidum lineare, Torr, 
 Hypericum Scouleri, Hook. 
 Silene Menzerii, Hook. 
 
 acaulis, L. 
 Paronychia pulvinata. Gray. 
 
 Jamesii, Torr. 
 Arenarm arctica, Stev. 
 
 Fendleri, Gray, 
 tenella, Gray. 
 
 Dryas octopetala, L. 
 Fragraria Virgiuiana, L. 
 
 vesca, L. 
 Amelanchier canadensis, Torr. and 
 
 Gray. 
 Prunus virgiuiana, L. 
 Epilobium alpinum, L. 
 latifolium, L. 
 angustifolium, L. 
 l)alustre, L. 
 Gayophytuijiracemosum, Torr. and 
 
 Gray. 
 GEnothera serrulata, Nutt. 
 
 pinnatifolia, Nutt. 
 biennis, L. 
 marginata, Nutt. 
 GEnothera coronopifolia, Torr. and 
 
 Gray. 
 Gaura coccinea, Nutt. 
 
 parviflora, Dougl. 
 Mentzelia nuda, Torr. and Gray. 
 
 multiflora, Nutt. 
 Opunta arborescens, Engel. 
 Saxifraga punctata, L. • 
 
 serpillifolia, Pursh. 
 bronchialis, L. 
 flagellaris, Willd. 
 nivalis, L. 
 Heuchera hispida, Pursh. 
 parvitblia, Nutt. 
 Halli, Gray. 
 Jamesia americana, Torr. and Gray. 
 Eibes cereum, Dougl. 
 aureum, Pursh. 
 lacustre, Poir. 
 hirtellum, Michx. 
 Sedum rhodanthum, Gra5\ 
 rhodiola, L. 
 stenopetalum, Pursh. 
 Sanicula canadensis, L. 
 Conioselinum Fischeri, Wimm. 
 Musenium divaricatum, Nutt. 
 Thaspium moutanum, Gray. 
 
 trachypleurium. Gray. 
 Osmorhiza brevistylis, D. C. 
 Adoxa Moschatellina, L. 
 Linnnea borealis, Grouov. 
 
GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF THE TERRITORIES. 
 
 48-5 
 
 Linnsea Franldiuii, Hook. 
 Cerastinm vul.uatnm, L. 
 Claytoiiia uu'garrliiza, Parry. 
 Taliiuuu pyy,iiiircuui, Grny. 
 Malva.struin coccineuui, Gray. 
 Sidalea Candida, Gray. 
 
 malviTjtlora, Gray. 
 Liuiim perenue, L. 
 
 rigidum, Pursh. 
 Geranium Ivicbardsouii, F. and M. 
 
 Fremontii, Torr. 
 Ceanothus ovatus, Desf. 
 Fendleri, Gray, 
 velutiuus, Doug'l. 
 PacLystima Myrsiuites, Eaf. 
 Acer glabruu, Torr. 
 Ptlea trifoliata, L. 
 Ebiis toxicodendron, L. 
 
 aroiuatica, Ait. 
 Latliyrns ornatns, Xutt. 
 Ervum birsutnm, L. 
 Tliermopsis montana, Xutt. 
 Petalostemon violacens, IMich'x. 
 candidum, Mich's. 
 Sopliora sericea, Pursb. 
 Glycyrrbiza Lepidota, Nntt. 
 Trifolium b)ngipes, Nntt. 
 Parryi, Gray, 
 dasypbyllum, Torr. . 
 nanuni, Torr. 
 Lupinus ceespitosus, Nutt. 
 pusilhis, Parsb. ' 
 ornatus, Dougi. 
 Dcilea laxiflora, Pursb. 
 anrea, Nntt. 
 formosa, Torr. 
 Amorpba nana, Xutt. 
 Astragalus Drumniondii, Hook. 
 Parryi, Gray, 
 cffispitosus, Gray, 
 multiliorns, Gray, 
 strictus, Nutt. 
 bisulcatns, Gray, 
 bypoglottis, L. 
 Oxytropis specosa, Dougl. 
 niulticeps, uSTutt. 
 Laiuberti, Pursb. 
 Psoralea floribuuda, Nutt. 
 'bmceolata, Pursb. 
 esculenta, Pursb. 
 Spiraea opulifolia, L. 
 
 dumosa, Jsntt. 
 Sibbaklia procumbens, L. 
 Cbamierbodes erecta, Burr. 
 Cercocarpus parvifolius, Xutt. 
 Eubus deliciosus, James. 
 
 Symphoricarpus occidentalis, R.Bi". 
 Lonicera iiivohicrata. Banks. 
 Sambucus pubons, IMicbx. 
 Gitlium boreale, L. 
 Valeriana dioica, L. 
 Fedia Ion gillora, Torr. and Gray. 
 Liatris punctata, Hook. 
 Aster salsugiuosus, IJicbards. 
 Erigeron pbiladelpbicum, L. 
 granditlorum, Hook, 
 niacantbrum, Xutt. 
 compositum, Pursb. 
 Solidago yirga aurca, L. 
 Diplopappus ericoides. 
 Aplopappus armerioides, Torr. and. 
 
 Gray. 
 Aplopappus Fremonti, Torr. and 
 
 Gray. 
 Aplopai^pus Parryi, Gray. 
 
 Kuttalliana, Gray. 
 Cbrysopsis villosa, Nutt. 
 Lepaebis columnaris, Torr. and 
 
 Gray. 
 Gaillardia aristata, Pursb. 
 Heliantbella uniflora, Torr. and 
 
 Gray. 
 Heliautbus pumilus, Nutt. 
 
 petiolaris, Nutt. 
 Actinella grauditiora, Torr. and 
 
 Gray. " 
 Actinella scaposa, Nutt. 
 
 acaulis, Nutt. 
 Hymenopappus tenuifolius, Pursb. 
 Macberantbera canescens. Gray. 
 Griudelia squarosa, Duval. 
 Townsendia grauditiora, Nutt. 
 serricea. Hook. 
 Feudleri, Gray. 
 Liuosjris graveoleus, Torr. and 
 
 Gray. 
 Linosyris yiscidiflora, Torr. and 
 
 Gray. 
 Pectis angustifolia, Torr. 
 Artemesia scopulorum. Gray, 
 tridentata, Nutt. 
 borealis. Pall, 
 frigida, Willd. 
 filiiblia, Torr. 
 Antennaria dioica, E. Br. 
 
 Carpatbica, D. C. 
 Eudbeckia laciniata, L. 
 Zinnia grauditiora, L. 
 Ximenesia encelioides,, Cav. 
 Melampodium cinereum, D. 0. 
 Acbillea milleliiblium, L. 
 Babia absintbitblia, Bentb. 
 
486 
 
 GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF THE TERRITORIES. 
 
 Eiibus strig'osus, L. 
 
 Nutkaniis, Mociuo. 
 Eosa blanda, Ait. 
 Gcum rivale, L. 
 
 triflorum, Pursh. 
 Eossii, Seringe. 
 Crateg'us rivularis, Hook. 
 Poteutilla diversifolia, Lelim. 
 Xorvegica, L. 
 tissa, Kutt. 
 fruticosa, L. 
 
 "Vaccinium 111,311111118, L. 
 Arctostapliylos uva-ursi, Spreng*. 
 Kalmia glauea, L. 
 Pyrola minor, L. 
 seciinda, L. 
 chlorantlia, Svv"artz. 
 mi i flora, L. 
 Plantago Patagoiiica, Lam. 
 Primula aiigustifolia, Torr. 
 
 Parryi, Gray. 
 Andi-osace. iiliformis, Retz. 
 
 septentrioiialis, L. 
 cLaaiajjasme, L. 
 Dodecatbeoii meadia, L. 
 Lysmacliia ciliata, L. 
 Apliyllon fascicuiatum, Torr. and 
 
 Gray. 
 PentstemoD glaber, Pursb. 
 
 aciimiuatus, Dougl. 
 glaiicus, Grabara. 
 piibesceiis, wSoland. 
 bumilis, Nutt. 
 Seropbularia nodosa, L. 
 Mimukis Jamesii, Torr. 
 Syntbris plaatagiuea, Beutb. 
 Veronica alpina, L. 
 Castilleja pallida, Kuntb. 
 
 ses.silillora, Pursb. 
 iDiegra, Gray. 
 Ortbocarpus luteus, Nutt. 
 PedicLdaris racemosa, Bentb. 
 
 Groeulandica, Eetz. 
 Parryi, Gray. 
 Scutellaria resiuosa, Torr. 
 galericulata, L. 
 Monarda aristata, IsTutt. 
 Dracocepbalum parvillorum, jSTutt. 
 Teucrium cubense, L. 
 Verbena anbletia, L. 
 Ecliinospermum floribundum, Lebm. 
 Eritricbium glomeratimi, D. C. 
 crassisepalum, Torr. 
 arctioides, D. C 
 Litbospermum pilosum, Nutt. 
 
 Arnica aiigustifolia, Vabl. 
 Senecio iutegerrimus, Niitt. 
 aureus, L., (variety.) 
 triangularis, Hook, 
 eremopbyllus, Eicbard. 
 Cirsium acaule, All. 
 Mulgedium pulcbrum, [J^utt. 
 Troxiinon glaucum, Nutt. 
 Lygodesmia juncea, Don. 
 Campanula Langsdorfiana,Fiscber. 
 
 C. unitlora, L. 
 Campylocera leptocarpa, Nutt. 
 Eriogonum alatum, Torr. 
 
 umbellatum, Torr. 
 ilavum, Nutt. 
 brevicaule, isutt. 
 Coiuaudra pallida, D. C. 
 Arceutbobium campylopodum, 
 
 Engel. 
 Eupbgrbia maroinata, Pursb. 
 
 montana, Engel. 
 Croton muricatum, iSTutt. 
 Tragia ramosa, Torr. 
 Quercus Douglasii. D. C. 
 Corylus rostrata. Ait. 
 Betula giandulosa, Micbx. 
 Salix glauea, L. 
 Populus angustifolia. 
 Pinus pouderosa, Dougl. 
 contorta, Dougl. 
 flexilis, James, 
 aristata, Engel. 
 ediilis, Engel. 
 Abies Menziesii, Liudl. 
 
 Engelraauii, Parry, 
 grandis, Lindl. 
 Platautbera byperborea, Lindl. 
 Calypso borealis, Salisb. 
 Spirantbus cornua, Ricbartl. 
 Goodyera Menziesii, Lindl. 
 Iris tenax, Dougl. 
 Sisyrincbium Bermudiana. 
 Streptopus amplexilblius, D. C. 
 Smilacina stellata, Desi. 
 
 racemosa, Desf. 
 Lilium Pbilidelpbiciim, L. 
 Erytbronium graudiflorum, 
 
 Pursb. 
 Allium cernuum, Eotb. • 
 Leucocrinium montanuai, Nutt. 
 Calocbortus venustus, Bentb. 
 Lloydia serotina, Eeicb. 
 Yucca baccata, Torr. 
 
 angustifolia, Piirsb. 
 Zygadeiius glaucus, Nutt. 
 Juncus tenuis, L. 
 
GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF THE TERRITORIES. 
 
 487 
 
 Litliospcrmnm loujiiflorum, Spraag, 
 Mertensia alpina, Don. 
 
 Sibirica, Don. 
 Polemouium Cirrulonin, L. 
 
 pulclielluin, Bunge. 
 contertiiin, Gray, 
 riilox Douglassii, Hook. 
 
 Hoodii, llicluirdson. 
 Coloniia linearis, Nutt. 
 Gilia i>innatifoIin, jSTutt, 
 aggregatii, Sprang, 
 spicata, Nutt. 
 ctMigesta, Hook, 
 longiiiora, Beutli. 
 Evolvuhis argeutens, Pursh. 
 Ipomoa leptopliylla, Torr. 
 Solanum tritlorum, iSTutt. 
 rostratum, Don. 
 Physalis lobata, Torr. 
 Pliacelia Popei, Torr and Gray, 
 circinata, Jacq. 
 sericea, Gray. 
 Hydropliyllum virginiciim, L. 
 Xama dichotoma, Chois. 
 Ellisia nyctelea, L. 
 Gentiaua acuta, Michx:. 
 Parryi, Gray, 
 affluis, Griesb. 
 Frasera speciosa, Dougl. 
 Asclepias tuberosa, L. 
 
 verticiilata, L. 
 speciosa, Torr. 
 Apocynum cauabinum, L. 
 Abrouia fragraus, Nutt. 
 Oxybaphus nyctagineus, S street. 
 Alliouia inearnata, L. 
 Polygonum bistorta, L. 
 
 viviparum, L. 
 teuue, Michx. 
 Oxyria digyua, R. Br. 
 Pumex venosus, Pursh. 
 
 Juncus ]\Iertensianus, C.A.Mcyer. 
 
 Parryi, Engel. 
 Luzula spicata, D. 0. 
 
 parvillora, D, C. 
 Cyperus Schweiutzii, Torr. 
 Scivpus pungcns, Vahl. 
 Garex scoparia, iSelk. 
 
 atrata, L. 
 Mublenbergia gracilis, H. B. K. 
 graciliura, Torr. 
 aspericaulis, Nees. 
 Sporobolus raiuuloides, H. B, K. 
 Sporobolus asperitbiiiis, Xees and 
 
 Meyer. 
 Panicuni capillare, L. 
 Spartina cynosuroides, Willd. 
 Phleura alpinum, L. 
 Aristida purpurea, Nutt. 
 Koeleria aristata, Pers. 
 Trisetum subspicatum, Beauv. 
 Brizopyruni spicatuin. Hook. 
 Vilfa tricholepis, Torr. 
 Muiiroa squarrosa, Torr. 
 Buchloe dactyloides, Engel. 
 JBouteloua oligastacliya, Nutt. 
 
 B. curtipendnla, Gray. 
 Festuca tenella, Willd. 
 
 F. ovina, L. 
 Poa alpina, L. 
 Sitanion elymoides, Ref. 
 Hordeum jubatum, li. 
 Triticum caninum, L. 
 T. Phleoides, H. B. K. * 
 Sclerochloa Californica, Munro. 
 Setaria, caudata. 
 Eragrostis poieoides, Beaur. 
 Olielanthes Feudleri, Hook. 
 NothocliUienji Fendleri, Kunze. 
 Woodsia obtusa, Torr. 
 Asplenium septeutionale, L. 
 Cystopteris fragilis, Beruli. 
 
 Note. — The foregoing list of i)lants is inserted for the purpose of 
 furnishing some data to botanists in ascertaining the general distribu- 
 tion of the species therein named. My duties in other departments did 
 not allow me time to make notes in regard to special localities, eleva- 
 tions, &c. 
 
 C. THOMAS. 
 
^PI^EI^DIX:. 
 
 METEOROLOGY, & c. 
 
 By 3Ir. J. W. BEA31AN. 
 
 Quarter3iaster"s Depot, Fort D. A. Eusseljl, 
 
 Xoveiuhcr 1, 1870. 
 
 Sir: I liave the honor herewith to preseut the meteorological uotes 
 taken during- the month of July, August, September, and October, 
 while connected with the geological survey of Wyoming Territory under 
 your charge. These notes have been taken in connection with other 
 duties, not in a professional, but rather in an amateur way. This will, I 
 trust, account for many apparent imperfections and omissions. The instru- 
 ments placed at my disposal were an aneroid barometer with accompany- 
 ing Fahrenheit thermometer; a Fahrenheit thermometer manufactured 
 by C. A. Siefert, Boston, Massachusetts ; two Fahrenheit thermometers 
 manufactured by J. Kendall «& Co., New Lebanon, New York ; also, one 
 odometer for the measurement of the road. There has been a barometric 
 observation taken at every camp and many points of importance on the 
 survey. As will be seen by an inspection of the tables, the observed 
 readings at the same place often vary several tenths of an inch. This 
 is owing to a change in density of the atmosphere each hour, and with 
 every wiut>and rain ; hence the heights are but approximately indicated. 
 There has ])een no allowance made for a change in temperature, as it is 
 but slight. There has been no allowance made for the wind, as I have 
 had no means of determining its force. I have made no allowance for 
 moisture, as I have had no hygrometer. The rule which has been fol- 
 lowed in making the estimates of elevation is one given by J. H. Bell- 
 ville, of the lioyal Observatory. Greenwich. Eitle. — " As the sum of the 
 readings of the barometer is to their ditjLereuce, so is 55,000 (or twice the 
 assumed height of the atmosphere in feet) to the elevation required." 
 
 This rule is founded on the supposition that the height of the atmos- 
 phere is 27,500 feet, with the barometer at 30 inches and the thermome- 
 ter at 55° Fahrenheit. The temperature has been noted at the time of 
 taking each reading ; so that if there could be a more accurate estimate 
 made by allowing for a change, it might be made. The aneroid is one 
 purchased in Philadelphia of McAllister & Bro., 728 Chestnut street. 
 The divided circle is only two inches in diameter. Its small size recom- 
 mends it to those desiring- a very convenient portable instrument; but 
 on the other hand it is too small for the most accurate work. The tem- 
 perature during the time occupied in the held has ranged from lOo^, 
 Quartermaster's Department, Fort D. A. Eussell, July 28, 2.30 o'clock 
 ]). m., down to 8°, Big Pond Stage Station, Bitter Creek, 3.30 o'clock a. 
 ui., October 17. We have experienced few storms of rain or snow. The 
 general direction of the wind has been from northwest or southwest. 
 On the evening of September 21, at Camp Elliott, there was a most gor- 
 
GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF THE TERRITORIES. 480 
 
 jiGoiis display of the nurora borealis. It was first noticed about half 
 ])ast eight o'clock in the evening, when the northeast quarter of the 
 iicaveus was one glow of deep crimson llaine. There Avas very little 
 shooting- upward of narrow bands of light, but rather a gradual change 
 of color. Later in the night the northwest quarter became suifuscd in 
 The same manner. 
 
 The odometer has worked admirably, showing as the distance traveled 
 by the train 888.100 miles. This does not include the trips made by 
 yourself to tlie head-waters of the Chugwater Creek, Laramie Peak, 
 Box Elder Canon, Uinta Mountains, the sources of Bear Biver, the 
 source of Henry's Fork of Green Eiver, and Brovvn's Hole, which brings 
 uj) the estimate to 1,400 miles, making a daily average of about 18 
 miles. 
 
 In conclusion, let me here add that my work in this department has 
 been attended with an increasing interest as the months have gone by, 
 and my only regret is that it is not more thoroughly done. 
 I have the honor to be your verv obedient servant, 
 
 J. W. BEAMAK 
 
 Dr. F. Y. Hayden. 
 
490 
 
 GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF THE TERRITORIES. 
 
 
 
 
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GENERAL INDEX 
 
 PAET I. 
 
 Page. 
 
 Index to Geological Keport of Pkofessok F. V. Hayden 10-188 
 
 Alkali 187 
 
 American Desert, Great 103 
 
 Autclope Station 110 
 
 Analyses 14,171,181,187 
 
 of coal 181 
 
 Aspen Station 149 
 
 Barrel Springs 73 
 
 Bud Lauds 104, 137 
 
 Bear River, trii) to liead of 44 
 
 westward to, Chap. IX 133 
 
 to Salt Lake Vallcj^, Chap. XII 147 
 
 City, list of strata near 150 
 
 Beavers 135 
 
 Benton Station 135 
 
 Big Pond Station 71 
 
 Bitter Creek Station ' 140 
 
 Valley 160 
 
 Black Bntto 71,141 
 
 Hills, (Laramie Mountains) 1'2, 21 
 
 Black's Fork 41 
 
 Blue River, Little 100 
 
 Bluffs of Niobrara Grouj) 90 
 
 Box Elder Canon 24, 162 
 
 Bridger Group 58, 73, 166 
 
 Pass 73,75 
 
 Butte 55 
 
 Brown's Hole 64 
 
 BuUofthe Woods, (lode) 68 
 
 Carboniferous rocks, Missouri River, divisions of 86 
 
 Cariso Lode 36, 171 
 
 Carter's Lake 43, 48 
 
 Station 147 
 
 Carbon Station 133 
 
 Chej-enne Ill 
 
 to Fort Fetterman, Chap. I 11 
 
 Pass 80 
 
 Cherokee Trail 126 
 
 Church Buttes 41, 144 
 
 Chalk Bluffs, Blackbird Hill, Nebraska, (cut) 88 
 
 Chugwater 13, 16 
 
 Chain de Roche Creek 91 
 
 Cloven Peak 32 
 
 Coal 74,101,133,136,139,141,149,154,166 
 
 analyses of 181 
 
 considerations affecting economic value of 185 
 
 measures, upper 85 
 
 Coals of the Rocky Mountains 179 
 
 Coalville 157, 167 
 
 Coi^per 138 
 
 Coojjer's Creek 79, 123 
 
 Columbus, Nebraska 103 
 
 Como Station 131 
 
 Cote^iu des Prairies, (cut) 175 
 
 Cottonwood Creek 18 
 
504 INDEX. 
 
 Page. 
 Cox's Peak 53 
 
 Cretaceous rocks of Northwest, general section of 87 
 
 No. 1, of Little Blue Kiver, Nebraska, (cut) 101 
 
 Creston Station 139 
 
 Dakota Group 88,90,100 
 
 Dale Creek 117 
 
 Dawes's Peak 53 
 
 Deer Creek 25 
 
 Devil's Gate 31 
 
 Dial Rock 119 
 
 Douglas County, Nebraska 100 
 
 Drift deposits 174 
 
 Duck Lake 73 
 
 Dynamics of geology, examples of 125 
 
 East End mines 178 
 
 Echo City 157 
 
 Canon 155 
 
 Creek 51 
 
 Elevation near South Pass 36 
 
 Elk Mountain 77, 135, 164 
 
 Elkhorn River 102 
 
 Evanston, coal mines at 154 
 
 Fort Bridger '. 55 
 
 and Uinta Mountains ' 41 
 
 from, to Uinta Mountains, &c.. Chap. V 54 
 
 D. A. RusseU 11 
 
 Fettermau from, to South Pass, Chaj). II 24 
 
 Halleck 78 
 
 Mitchell 110 
 
 Pierre Group 91 
 
 Sunders 129 
 
 StambaTigh 36 
 
 Steele, list of exposed strata near 136 
 
 Forests of pine near Laramie Plains 128 
 
 Fossil plants 89, 94, 143 
 
 Fox Hills Group 165 
 
 Fremont, Nebraska 102 
 
 Fremont's Peak 37 
 
 Geological Report of Prof. F. V. Hayden 11-188 
 
 Gilbert's Peak 53, 57 
 
 Glacial action 99 
 
 Granite Canon 113, 115 
 
 Gregory Lode, Colorado 177 
 
 Green River Group 58, 70, 142 
 
 Station to Cheyenne, Chap. VI 70 
 
 Beds ; 40, 60 
 
 Oil Lode 68 
 
 Hayden's Cathedral 43 
 
 Hay-Stack Butte 70 
 
 Henry's Fork 56 
 
 Horse Creek 13 
 
 Horse-Shoe Creek 19 
 
 Independence Rock 30 
 
 Insects, (fossil) 144 
 
 Iron ore 14, 22 
 
 Jackson's Canon 28 
 
 La Bonte Creek , 20 
 
 La Clede Station 75 
 
 Lake Bellamy... 58 
 
 La Prele Creek 22 
 
 Laramie Plains, (Chap. X, 121) 79. 121 
 
 River 78,121,124,163 
 
INDEX. 505 
 
 Page. 
 
 Laramie Rauge (Black Hills) 112 
 
 Peak 17,113 
 
 Letter to the Secretary of the Interior by Prof. F. V. Hayden 3 
 
 Liguite beds 16,22,59,74 
 
 Group, Great 93 
 
 Lincoln, Nebraska 101 
 
 Leidv's, Doctor, description of fossil mammals 105 
 
 Lodge Pole Creek 11,111 
 
 Logan's Peak 53 
 
 Lone Star Lode '. 68 
 
 Long's Peak 118 
 
 Loup Fork 103 
 
 Mammals, fossil 104, 145 
 
 Marsh's, Prof., description of Siredona 131 
 
 Mauvaises Terres 104 
 
 Medicine Bow Butte 153 
 
 River 121 
 
 Mineral Springs 152 
 
 Miner's Delight (lode) 36,178 
 
 Glory (lode) 68 
 
 Mines, observations on, Chap. XIV 177 
 
 Missouri Valley, geology of 85 
 
 general view of the geology of, Chap. VII 85 
 
 Monument Creek Group 161 
 
 Morgan City 158 
 
 Muddy Creek 26,48 
 
 Needles, the 153 
 
 Newberrj-, Dr. — extract from report on fossil plants 89, 94, 143 
 
 Niobrara River 104 
 
 North Park 123 
 
 Oil Springs of Bear River 152 
 
 Omaha City 98 
 
 to Cheyenne, Chapter VIII 98 
 
 Oyster Ridge 149 
 
 Pacific Springs 39 
 
 Pass Creek 76, 137 
 
 Petrified fish bed 143 
 
 Petroleum coal 144 
 
 Piny Butte 28 
 
 Photograph Ridge 58 
 
 Plants, fossil 89,94,143,164 
 
 Platte River, area drained by 122 
 
 Valley 102 
 
 Point of Rocks 141,166 
 
 Rawlings's Springs 135 
 
 Red Creek 65 
 
 Canon 66 
 
 Buttes : 27 
 
 Review, general, of geology from Omaha to Salt Lake, Chap. XIII 161 
 
 Ridges of upheaval, Big Thompson Creek (cut) 162 
 
 Jefl'erson Fork (cut) 163 
 
 Rock Creek , 79,122 
 
 Rocky Mountains, over the first range of. Chap. IX 112 
 
 Round Table, The v 15 
 
 Sage Creek 76 
 
 Salt Lake, Great, and bordering Plains 172 
 
 Group 169 
 
 Valley 160 
 
 Springs 101 
 
 Wells Station 71, 141 
 
 Sand Hills 103,109 
 
 Sandy, Big and Little 40 
 
 Scott's Bluff 110 
 
506 INDEX. 
 
 Page. 
 
 Seminole Mountains 29, 40 
 
 Slieeps-liciicl Mountain 122 
 
 Shells, fresli-water and land, accumulations of 72 
 
 Sherman Station, granite rocks near, (cut) 117 
 
 Shoshoues (Indians) 37 
 
 Sienite Station 115 
 
 Silver Creek Valley IGl 
 
 Smith's Fork 41 
 
 Soda, analyses of 187 
 
 Soath Pass ----- 39 
 
 from, to Fort Bridger, Chap. Ill 35 
 
 Spruce Eid-Jfe 42,46 
 
 St. Mary's Station 34, 135 
 
 Sulphur- Creek 149 
 
 Springs 138 
 
 Sweetwater Group 29 
 
 Hills 32 
 
 Eiver - 121 
 
 Table Eock 39,71,140 
 
 Terraces, (cut) 17(5 
 
 Tertiary series from Bridger to Green River 73 
 
 of Nebraska, general section of - 93 
 
 Three Crossings 33 
 
 Triassic Sandstones, (cut; 119 
 
 Turtles, fossil 145 
 
 Union Pacific Eailroad, elevations along 112 
 
 Uinta Mountains, trip to 44 
 
 Vermillion Creek G3 
 
 Virginia Dale 11(5 
 
 Warm Spring, analj'sis of 171 
 
 Wasatch Canon 159 
 
 Group 148,109 
 
 Washakie Group 73 
 
 Weber Eiver £)l,133,168 
 
 WiUow Springs - 29 
 
 Wind Eiver Mountains 35 
 
 Wyoming Territory, description of east part 114 
 
 Yellow Creek Station 154 
 
 Young America Mines - 178 
 
 Canatlian Miues 179 
 
 PAET II. 
 
 AccoMP^vKYiNG Eeports, «&c 190-501 
 
 Agriculture, Eeport on, by Professor C. Thomas 192 
 
 Analyses 321 
 
 Ancient lakes, by Dr. J. S. Newberry 329 
 
 Arkansas district 213 
 
 Eiver 214 
 
 valley of Upper 194,214 
 
 Artesian Avells 264 
 
 Beaver Eiver Valley 246 
 
 Birds, (fossil) 265 
 
 (jrrus Haydeni 265 
 
 Cache Valley 233 
 
 Caloptenus spretus, remarks on 281 
 
 Canadian section 211 
 
 Carnero Creek 199 
 
 Catalogue of mammals and birds, by Mr. J. Stevenson 461 
 
 niollusca, by Mr. S. E. Eoberts 467 
 
 coleoptera, by Dr. G. H. Horn 469 
 
INDEX. 507 
 
 • 
 
 Page. 
 
 Catalogue of liemiptera, bv P. R. LTiler, esq 471 
 
 plants, by Mr. T. C. Porter..' 472 
 
 by Dr. C. C. Parry 484 
 
 Cedar Valley 243 
 
 Cimarron River, Little 213 
 
 Climate of Kansas -^ 453 
 
 New Mexico ."■ 208 
 
 Utah 247 
 
 Coals, Ix^rtiary, by Mr. J. T. Hodge 318 
 
 Coal, analysis of 321 
 
 localities 322 
 
 Baker's mine 325 
 
 Briggs's mine 325 
 
 Carbon 326 
 
 Evanston 328 
 
 Golden City 322 
 
 Hallville 326 
 
 Lieden's mine 323 
 
 Marshall's mine 324 
 
 Ralston Peak 323 
 
 Rock Springs 327 
 
 Utah 323 
 
 Van Dyke 327 
 
 Wilson's mine 325 
 
 Wyoming Territory 326 
 
 Coleoptera, catalogue of, by Dr. G. H. Horn 469 
 
 Costillo River 200 
 
 Culebra River 200 
 
 District, Rio Grande 197 
 
 Arkansas 213 
 
 South Platte 217 
 
 North Platte 217 
 
 Wind River 232 
 
 Green River : - 233 
 
 Salt Lake 237 
 
 Divisions, boundaries of 195 
 
 eastern 196 
 
 western 233 
 
 Eastern section, (east of Black Hills) 226 
 
 Elevations, list of 205,490 
 
 Fishes, (fossil,) by Dr. J. Leidy 368 
 
 Asineoj)s 369 
 
 Clupea 369 
 
 C j-prinodon 369 
 
 Mylocyprinus 369 
 
 Oncobatis 370 
 
 Selachii 369 
 
 Zygobates 370 
 
 Fishes and reptiles, (see Reptiles.) 
 
 Fossil (see Reptiles.) 
 
 Fossils, general remarks on 287 
 
 list of, by Professor F. B. Meek 295 
 
 Fountaine Qui Bouille River 216 
 
 Gallinas River , 207 
 
 Garita Creek 199 
 
 Garland, Fort 200 
 
 Grasshopper, Hateful 281 
 
 Green River District 233 
 
 Hansee Spring Valley 238 
 
 Hardscrabble Creek 216 
 
 Hemiptera, catalogue of, by P. R. Uhler, esq 471 
 
 lleteroiitera, list of 471 
 
 Homan's Park 193 
 
508 INDEX. 
 
 Page. 
 
 Homoptera, list of 472 
 
 Hot Springs 199 
 
 Indians 263 
 
 Introduction to Agricultural Report 192 
 
 Jordon Valley * 240 
 
 Juab Valley 243 
 
 Kansas Valley 244 
 
 Kansas, resources of, by E. S. Elliott, esq 442 
 
 Land grants 261 
 
 Laramie Plains 220 
 
 Letter of Professor C. Thomas 191 
 
 Malade Valley 238 
 
 Mammalia, (fossil,) by Dr. J. Leidy 340 
 
 Aelurodon 344 
 
 Agriocboerus 349 
 
 Ampliicyou 341 
 
 Ancbippus 362 
 
 Ancbitherium 362 
 
 Bison 344 
 
 Camelops 349 
 
 Canis 341 
 
 Castor 363 
 
 Cervus 352 
 
 Cosoryx 351 
 
 Delpbinus 365 
 
 Dicotyles 352 
 
 Dinictis 343 
 
 Drepanodon 343 
 
 Elepbas 359 
 
 Elotberium 353 
 
 Equus 359 
 
 Eumys 364 
 
 Hipparion 360 
 
 Homocamelus 350 
 
 Hysenodou 342 
 
 Hyopsodus 354 
 
 Hyopotamus 355 
 
 Hypobippus 362 
 
 Hyracodon 356 
 
 Hyracbyus 367 
 
 Hystrix 364 
 
 Ictops 364 
 
 Iscbyromys 363 
 
 Leptarctus 344 
 
 Leptaucbenia 348 
 
 Leptomeryx 351 
 
 Leptocboerus 354 
 
 Leptictis 364 
 
 Lopbiodon 357 
 
 Lopbiotberium 358 
 
 Mastodon 358 
 
 Megacerops 352 
 
 Megalomeryx 351 
 
 Merycodus 350 
 
 Merycbyus 347 
 
 Merycocbcerus 347 
 
 Merycbippus 361 
 
 Microsus 354 
 
 Mylodon 365 
 
 Nonobyus 354 
 
 Notbarctus 344 
 
 Omomys 364 
 
 Orcodon 345 
 
 Palffiocastor 363 
 
INDEX. 509 
 
 Pago. 
 
 Mammalia, Palseolagus 363 
 
 Palfeosyops 355 
 
 Parahippus 362 
 
 Patriofelis 344 
 
 Perchcorus 353 
 
 Platygonua 353 
 
 Pcebrotherium ; 350 
 
 Procamelus 350 
 
 Protomeryx 350 
 
 Protohippus 360 
 
 Pseudrelurua 343 
 
 Rbiuoceroa 356 
 
 Titanotlierium 354 
 
 Mammals and Birds, catalogue of, by Mr. Stevenson 461 
 
 Mollusca, catalogue of, by Mr. S. R. Roberts 467 
 
 Meteorology, by Mr. J. W. Beaman 488 
 
 MoroVaUey 194,213 
 
 NorthPark 219 
 
 North Platte District 217 
 
 Ocate Creek .. .......... ............... . 213 
 
 Orthoptera, list of, by Prof. C. Thomas '..'..'.'.! 1. !]'..'. !!. 265 
 
 New species 266 
 
 Acrolophitus hirtipes 278 
 
 Anabrus Stevensonii 266 
 
 Anabrus minutus 267 
 
 Boopedon nubilum 272 
 
 Boopedou flavo-faciatum 272 
 
 Brachypeplus maguus 271 
 
 Ephippity tha gracilipes 268 
 
 Oedipoda corallipes 274 
 
 Oedipoda carlingiana 275 
 
 Oedipoda cincta 275 
 
 Oedipoda neglecta 276 
 
 Oedipoda trifasciata 274 
 
 Opomola neo-mexicaua 269 
 
 Pezotettix picta 271 
 
 Stauronotus Elliotti 277 
 
 Stenobothrus brumens 280 
 
 Stenobothrus Obionus. .*. 279 
 
 Stenobothrus quadri-maculatus 280 
 
 Thamnotrizon trilineatus 268 
 
 Thamnotrizon purpnrascens 268 
 
 Tomonotus pseudo-nietanus 279 
 
 Paleontological report, preliminary, by Prof. F. B. Meek • 287 
 
 Pastoral Lands and Stock-raising 248 
 
 Pecos Valley 207 
 
 Peiiasco Valley 204 
 
 Plains, The 2.57 
 
 Plants, (Fossil,) Cretaceous 378 
 
 Report on, by L. Lesquereux 370 
 
 Tertiary 381 
 
 New species, Lygodium neuropteroides 384 
 
 Catalogue of, by Dr. C. C. Parry 484 
 
 by T. C.Porter 472 
 
 New species, Carex Haydeniana 482 
 
 Eritrichium virgatum 479 
 
 Productions of Utah 247 
 
 New Mexico 209 
 
 Pueblo 215 
 
 Puerco of the West 208 
 
 Purgatory River 216 
 
 Eayada Creek 213 
 
 Reports, special 285 
 
 Report, Agricultural, by Prof. C. Thomas 190 
 
 Paleontological, by Prof. F. B. Meek 287 
 
510 INDEX. 
 
 Page. 
 
 Report ou Tertiary Coal, by J. T. Hodge, esq 318 
 
 ou Ancient Lakes, by J. S. Newberry, LL.D 329 
 
 on Vertebrate Fossils, by Prof. J. Leidy 340 
 
 on Fossil Plants, by Mr. L. Lesquereux 370 
 
 ou Fossil Reptiles and Fishes, by Prof. E. D. Cope 385 
 
 on Fishes of the Tertiary Shales, by Prof. E. D. Cope 425 
 
 on Reptiles and Fishes, by Prof. E. D. Cope 432 
 
 on Material Eesources of Kansas, by Mr. E. S. Elliott ... 442 
 
 Reptiles and lishes, by Prof. E. D. Cope 432 
 
 List 432 
 
 New species: 
 
 Albnernellns percobromus 440 
 
 Catostomus discobolus ■ 435 
 
 Ceratichthys squamilentus 442 
 
 Coliscus parietalis 437 
 
 Cyprinella billiugsiaua '. . 439 
 
 Gila nacrea 441 
 
 Hybopsis egregius 429 
 
 Hybopsis missurieusis 437 
 
 Hybopsis scylla 438 
 
 Pty chostomus bucco 437 
 
 Minomus bardus . 436 
 
 Minomus delphinus 435 
 
 Moniona jugalis 439 
 
 Photogeuis piptolei^is 433 
 
 Salmo stomias 433 
 
 Sarcidium scopiferum 440 
 
 Reptiles and fishes, (fossil,) by Professor E. D. Cope Ill 
 
 Apsopelix sauriforniis 424 
 
 Asineops squamifrons 426 
 
 Asiueops virideusis 426 
 
 Clidastes intermedius 412 
 
 Clidastes ciueriaruiu 413 
 
 Clupea humilis 429 
 
 Clupea pusilla 429 
 
 Elasmosaurus platyurus 393, 424 
 
 Erisuiatopterus rickseckeri 428 
 
 Erismatopterus levatus 428 
 
 Ichthyodectes ctenodon 421 
 
 Liodon dyspelor 410 
 
 Liodon ictericus f 406 
 
 Liodou mudgei 405 
 
 Liodon proriger 401 
 
 Mosasaurus missurieusis 401 
 
 Osteoglossum encanstum 430 
 
 Polycotylus latepinnis 388 
 
 Saurodou leauus 421 
 
 Saurocephalus audax , 418 
 
 Saurocephalus lauciformis 415 
 
 Saurocephalus phlebotomus 416 
 
 Saurocephalus proguathus 417 
 
 Saurocephalus thaumas 418 
 
 Reptiles, (fossil,) by Dr. J. Leidy 365 
 
 Baena -. 367 
 
 Baptemys 367 
 
 Crocodilus 368 
 
 Emys 366 
 
 Saniva 368 
 
 Stylemys 366 
 
 Trionyx 367 
 
 Resources of Kansas, by R. S. Elliott 442 
 
 Rincon, the 198 
 
 Rio do Santa F6 206 
 
 RioGallisteo 206 
 
 Rio Gila 208 
 
 Rio Grande District 197 
 
 River 200,206 
 
 Valley 204,206 
 
INDEX. 511 
 
 Page. 
 
 Rio Mimbres '. 208 
 
 Itio Sau Juau 208 
 
 Rio Virgiu 246 
 
 Rash Valley 244 
 
 Sahwatch Basin 198 
 
 Creek 199 
 
 Salt Lake Basiu 237 
 
 District 237 
 
 Valley 239 
 
 Sau Luis Valley 197 
 
 productions of 202 
 
 San Peto Valley. 244 
 
 Sevier River Basin 244 
 
 Shells, land, list of 468 
 
 fresh- water, list of 463 
 
 (fossil,) new species, by Professor F. B. Meek — 
 
 Anisomyon centrale 312 
 
 Area (?) parallela 303 
 
 ArcopagoUa mactroides 309 
 
 By thiuolla gregaria 317 
 
 Cardium kansasense 307 
 
 pauperculum 306 
 
 saliuens 306 
 
 Corbicnla crassatelliformis 315 
 
 (?) fracta 314 
 
 (?) nucalis 304 
 
 snbtrigoualis 305 
 
 Crassatelliua oblonga 301 
 
 Edmondia aspenwallensis 299 
 
 Goniobasis chrysallis 316 
 
 nodulifera 316 
 
 luoceranius altus 302 
 
 \ Leptosolen conradi 311 
 
 Mactra (?) cauonensis ..^ 308 
 
 Pachymya (?) trnncata 301 
 
 Tapes ■wyomingensis 310 
 
 Tellina subscitula 310 
 
 Yoldia microdouta 304 
 
 Turbo niudgeanus 313 
 
 Turritella kansasensis 312 
 
 Unio leanus 313 
 
 Unio uebrasceusis 303 
 
 Unio washakiensis 314 
 
 Texas cattle 255 
 
 Tiutic Valley 242 
 
 Trenchera Creek 200 
 
 Tuerto Creek 206 
 
 Utah Lake Valley 241 
 
 Vertebrate Fossils, report on, by Professor Leidy , 340 
 
 Vermijo Creek 213 
 
 Weber Valley 239 
 
 Western Division 233 
 
 New Mexico 208 
 
 Wind River District 232 
 
 Valley 194 
 
 Wheat 201 
 
 Whipple's, Lieutenant, estimate of arable land 204