"CERATOPS beds" OF WYOMING AND MONTANA 289 



The Laramie group is a formation that is essentially confined to the 

 Rocky Mountain region; it forms a marginal belt on the east side of 

 the mountains, extending from Central Mexico far into the British 

 possessions. On the west side of the Rocky Mountains, it stretches 

 over to the Wasatch, but has not been recognized at any point west 

 of the summit of that range. Everywhere it contains coal, frequently 

 in large quantity and of excellent quality. These coals are opened 

 along the eastern side of the Rocky Mountains at Erie, Marshall's, 

 Florence, Walsenburg, Trinidad, etc.; and from these sources the 

 rapidly growing towns of the prairie region are receiving most of their 

 fuel. On the west side of the Rocky Mountains, in Colorado, the 

 Laramie coals are more important than elsewhere; the aggregate 

 thickness in some places of several beds is fifty feet or more; the coal 

 varies in composition from hard anthracite to open-burning bitumin- 

 ous, and much of it is of excellent purity, the amount of ash ranging 

 from 2 to 5 per cent, the sulphur often less than half of one per cent. 



It is from this formation that coal is taken at various points along 

 the Union Pacific Railroad at Coalville, Pleasant Valley, and Castle 

 Valley in Utah 



Most of the so-called Denver Tertiary beds really belong to the 

 Laramie group, at least those beds which contain the remains of 

 Ceratops and the stratified ash-beds of South Table Mountain. 

 These represent the upper part of the formation, and fully one-half of 

 the fossil plants contained in them are also found in the Lower Laramie 

 at Golden, Florence, Trinidad, etc. 



In Europe, the formations which indicate by their fossils the nearest 

 approach to the Laramie are the Paleocene plant-bearing beds of 

 Sezanne, Gehnden, and Alum Bay. It is not known that any species 

 found in these localities is represented in the Laramie flora; and in 

 the absence of all connecting links, we should be unwarranted in calling 

 the Laramie Paleocene from its fossil plants, while its moUusks and 

 vertebrates forbid this. 



The floras of Sezanne and.Gelinden are cited by Knowlton as re- 

 lated to the Fort Union flora and this relationship is one of the argu- 

 ments for referring the latter to the Eocene. Lesquereux*" compares 

 the flora of Point of Rocks, now known to be Cretaceous, with the 

 same European Eocene floras, as well as with that of Black Buttes. 

 He says: 



Of the thirty species enumerated in the table, two appear identical 

 with, and one is related to, Canadian species, recognized as Tertiary, 



"Tertiary Flora, U. S. Geol. Survey Terr., Vol. VII, 1878, pp. 342-344. 

 347-351- 



