THE NONMETALLIC MINERALS. 409 



At ])oth localities there is a succession of Ixnls beginning at or near the 

 surface and aggregating many feet in depth. The beds are regarded 

 as of Carboniferous age. The following section shows the number and 

 thickness of the beds thus far discovered: 



Feet. 



Earth stripping 20 



Gypsum 8 



Soft shale, slate 1 



Gypsum ] 2 



Shale or clay slate 7 



Gypsum 6^ 



do 8 J 



Slate, shale ^ 



Gypsum 12 J 



Shale or clay slate 1 J 



Gypsum 9^ 



Shale, clay slate 8 



Total 98 



West of the front range of the Rocky Mountains are many important 

 beds of gypsum, but which have as yet been but little exploited owing 

 to cost of transportation, there being but little local demand. These 

 beds so far as yet worked are mostly of more recent origin than those 

 in the eastern United States, many being of Tertiary or even Quar- 

 ternary age. 



Near Fillmore, Utah, are deposits of gypseous sand formed by the 

 winds blowing up from the dry beds of playa lakes the minute crys- 

 tals deposited by evaporation (Specimen No. 35380, U.S.N.M.). The 

 material thus blown together forms veritable dunes from which the 

 material may be obtained by merely shoveling. Prof. I, C. Russell has 

 estimated these dunes to contain not less than 450,000 tons of gypsum. 



Important deposits of gypsum also occur in Kansas (Specimen No. 

 53348, U.S.N.M.), Colorado (Specimen No. 53265, U.S.N.M.), South 

 Dakota (Specimen No. 53462, U.S.N.M.), Wyoming (Specimen No. 

 63485, U.S.N.M.), California (Specimens Nos. 56419 and 67690, U.S. 

 N.M.), and New Mexico (Specimens Nos. 62254, 67948, and 28586, 

 U.S.N.M.). 



Gypsum is a very abundant mineral in Nevv- Brunswick, the deposits 

 being numerous, large, and in general of great purity. They occur in 

 all parts of the Lower Carboniferous district in Kings, Albert, West- 

 moreland, and Victoria, especially in the vicinity of Sussex, in Upham, 

 on the North River in Westmoreland, at Martin Head on the bay shore, 

 on the Tobique River in cliffs over 100 feet high, and about the Albert 

 Mines. At the last-named locality the mineral has been extensively 

 quarried from beds about 60 feet in thickness, and calcined in large 

 works at Hillsborough.^ 



^Dawson's Acadian Geology, p. 249. 



