TERTIARY BEDS. ]69 



the mouth of the Mississippi there are very extensive 

 recent tertiary and alluvial deposits, which, skirting the 

 Gulf of Mexico, run into Texas on the one side, and along 

 the Florida coast on the other. 



Tertiary coal, containing dicotyledonous leaves, exists 

 in the Eaton Pass, between the sources of the Red River 

 and the Arkansas, at an elevation of 4,600 feet. Coal of 

 the same description, associated with similar leaves, occurs 

 on the Mackenzie in latitude 65° N. ; and at various in- 

 termediate parts on the flanks of the Rocky Mountains 



but it is very different far up the Missouri ; this great river flows 

 uninterruptedly from the foot of the Rocky Mountains for 1,400 miles 

 through strata of chalk, at least as far as the Sioux river. This is 

 the result of the researches of the Trince of Neuwied, and of the 

 reports of the celebrated astronomer, Nicollet. In these western 

 parts of America the chalk rises to 50° of latitude. There, also, it 

 shows a continuous extension, greater than that of any other formation 

 on the globe. Captain Fremont saw chalk strata and fields covered 

 with Inoceramus crispii, on the River Platte; Lieutenant Abert found 

 them on the Arkansas, and Dr. Wizlizenus also beyond the Rio del 

 Norte, near Monterey and Laredo. The Rocky Mountains, and their 

 continuation beyond Santa Fe, have entirely cut off this cretaceous 

 sea. No trace of chalk was discovered either by Captain Fremont 

 on the Columbia River or on the Humboldt, in that wonderfully great 

 basin which dips to the Pacific ; or yet by the observant Captains 

 Cooke and Johnstone along the River Gila, in Sonora, or California." 

 " The whole of this vastly extended chalk formation consists only 

 of the upper beds. After very careful and accurate investigation, 

 Sir Charles Lyell decided, that in the whole of North America, chalk 

 strata, from the Maestricht beds down to the gault, alone occurred ; 

 and Mr. Ferdinand Romer, as the result of his highly valuable and 

 accurate researches in Texas, goes the length of considering all the 

 strata in that region, already so far removed from the Atlantic coast, 

 as entirely of the upper division, and not even touching on the gault. 

 This peculiarity is, however, singularly enough, limited to North 

 America alone. Even in Mexico deeper chalk beds occur ; and 

 Darwin saw cretaceous shells in abundance 2,000 feet above the sea, 

 near Port Famine, in 53° south latitude." — SittimarCs Journal, Sept. 

 1850. 



