17 
but are found constantly present over vast areas of “red 
beds” in Texas and New Mexico. No trace of copper is 
found in the Carboniferous rocks below, or the Cretaceous 
rocks above; and the great abundance of it in the undisturbed 
Trias is a most singular problem. 
All around the Llano Estacado is found this prevalence of 
copper; and in New Mexico are many abandoned mines. 
On visiting those on the Chama River, north-west of Santa 
Fé, the locality was found to be an amphitheatre of hills, 
400 to 500 feet high, situated om the northern side of the 
stream, and composed of sandstones and shales, of the most 
brilliant tints, crimson, orange, yellow, etc., (like the true 
Poikilitic of Europe,) and richly covered with verdure. 
Into the faces of these hills ran old adits, 200 to 300 feet long, 
the inner extremities of which were occupied by myriads of 
bats. These adits follow no veins or beds, but were simply 
worked in the undisturbed sandstones; the copper was every- 
where, chiefly as bornite, occurring in concretions, and as 
replacements of fragments of wood, etc. Tradition makes 
these mines very ancient, but they are Spanish. 
The same character appears in the Trias of the Atlantic 
coast, both in New England and in the Middle States — 
a wide but scanty distribution of copper. This circumstance 
has led to many mining ventures, which have been uniformly 
unsuccessful. All the copper thus occurring must have been 
indigenous, deposited from solution in the water that laid 
down the vast mass of fragmental sediments. The Triassic 
sea must have been charged with copper. What the causes 
or conditions were, which gave rise to such a state, it baffles 
our present knowledge to say. 
The subject was further discussed by several members. 
it,—2. 
