Ilaydcn.] ^gg [Oct. 2. 



of Chcj'enne City, there is a vast deposit of magnetic iron ore 

 of the best quality. Tlirongh the kindness of my friend Dr. 

 Latham and Mr, Whitehead, citizens of Cheyenne City, I had 

 an opportunity to visit these iron mines, and I found them 

 much riclier and more extensive than I had previously imagined. 

 Worn boulders of this ore have been found in the valley of the 

 Cherry-water for many j'ears. In the report ot Capt. Stans- 

 bury the following paragraph is found : " In the bed of the 

 Cherry-water and on the sides of the adjacent hills were found 

 immense numbers of rounded black nodules of magnetic iron 

 ore, which seemed of unusual richness." 



In the winter of 1859 I gathered a large number of erratic 

 specimens of this ore, which seemed to be scattered in the 

 greatest quantit^^ throughout the valley of the Cherry-water. 

 The snow was so deep that I could not trace the masses to their 

 source. This season I followed these erratic masses up the 

 valley of the Cherry -water and in the mountains, interstratified 

 with the metamorphic rocks, probably of Laurentian age, were 

 literally mountains of this magnetic ore. Mr. Whitehead traced 

 one of these beds a distance of one and a half miles. It occurs in 

 mountain-like masses similar to the ore beds on Lake Superior. 



In regard to the coal of this country the evidence seems to be 

 clear that it is probably of Tertiar}'- age. I have traced it over 

 a vast area on the Upper Missouri River, and it seems probable 

 that it extends far northward towards the Arctic Sea. I have 

 also traced the Lignite beds from the Yellowstone valley by 

 way of the Big Horn Mountains to the North Platte, until they 

 pass beneath the White lliver Tertiary beds, about eighty miles 

 north of Fort Laramie. These beds reappear again about ten 

 miles south of Cheyenne City and continue uninterruptedly to 

 the Arkansas. On the west side of the Laramie range these 

 beds appear again a few miles east of Rock Creek, and from 

 there continue westward to Salt Lake and perhaps farther. In 

 Colorado these coal beds have been wrought to a considerable 

 extent. At South Boulder Creek there are eleven beds of coal 

 varying in thickness from five to thirteen feet. The lowest bed 

 is thirteen feet in thickness and is of excellent quality, very 

 much resembling anthracite in appearance, though much lighter. 



An analysis of this coal by Dr. Torrey of New York, shows 

 it to contain 59.20 per cent, of carbon ^- water in a state of 

 combination or its elements 12.00 — volatile matter expelled at 

 a red heat forming inflammable gases and vapor 2G.00 — Ash of 

 reddish color, color sometimes gray, 2.80. 



