106 TRANSACTIONS OF THE [JAN. 20, 
Laramie area known for many years as the Placer coal field. 
Its basin lies south from the Spanish ranges, the last continuous 
portion of the Rocky Mountains. The Placer Mountains, con- 
sisting largely of eruptive rocks, are about 25 or 30 miles south 
from Sante Fé, and the patch of Laramie bordering upon them 
is probably only a detached portion of the area extending south- 
ward for a long distance. Other “lost mountains ” apparently 
similar in character to the Placer are seen on the borders of 
that area further south. 
The Placer Mountains were so named because the auriferous 
gravels on their northern side have been worked in a small way 
by the Mexicans. The water supply is so insignificant that de- 
spite the extraordinary richness of the gravels the amount of 
gold obtained has been little more than sufficient during many 
years for the Sante Fé jewelers. Latterly, the Laramie coals 
have been mined very extensively and new names have been 
applied to the more prominent localities, so that the Placers 
are now the Ortiz Mountains, and the Placer coals are in the 
Cerrillos coal field, the latter appellation being taken from petty 
hills beyond the Galisteo, containing the celebrated turquoise 
mine, which was worked for centuries by the Pueblo Indians. 
The Galisteo area possesses much interest because of the sin- 
cular diversity of opinion existing among those who have stud- 
ied the region. Marcou, Newberry, Le Conte, Hayden, Cope 
and Stevenson published notices bearing especially upon the re- 
lations of beds underlying the Laramie. Newberry and Steven- 
son described the Laramie beds, though only after reconnais- 
sance fashion; both of these writers recognized the transition 
from bituminous to anthracite coal ina single bed and found 
the cause in a great dike following the face of the Placer or Or- 
tiz Mountains. 
During August of this year the writer had an opportunity to 
spend a few days in studying a small portion of the Laramie 
area—that controlled by the Cerrillos Coal Company. This, 
lying southward from Waldo and Cerrillos (stations on the 
Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fé Railroad), is barely a mile and 
a half wide from east to west and somewhat more than four 
miles long from north to south. Its eastern boundary is Ortiz 
or William’s Spring cafion. About half a mile west is Coal 
canon, which reaches further south and is somewhat deeper than 
the other. The space between the two canons, in the area 
especially under consideration, is irregular, being cut by shallow, 
longitudinal gorges opening at the north into a rapidly deepen- 
ing channel-way, which begins almost on the brow of Coal 
canon and leads to Ortiz. Further northward, a mesa continues 
