GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF THE TEREITORIES. 327 



tlie cabinet of Mr. Byers,* tbe redacteur of tbe Denver City News, and 

 since my return have read in the same journal the description of a fossil- 

 tree found at Cherry Creek, which, had I read it while at D&nver, 

 would have induced me to visit the place and ascertain the exactness 

 of assertions scarcely credible. This reported fossil prti?>i-tree, which is 

 hollow, measures at its base 22 feet in diameter, and 20 feet from base 

 the diameter is still 15 feet. This is nearly equal to the size of the 

 largest sequoia, or giant tree of California. Such a size cannot be 

 supposed, at least not for palm-trees. Whatever it may be of this dis- 

 covery, the abundance of fossil-wood indicates at Cherry Creek the 

 same level as that of the beds of clay marked in the section of Gehrung's 

 as No. 6. I believe that the lignite-beds underlie there these fossil- 

 trees at a distance of 100 to 150 feet. Not far from this j)lace, fourteen 

 miles east of Denver, on the Kansas Pacific Railroad, a bed of lignite 

 8 feet thick was reached at 81 feet from the surface by a shaft, which is 

 now closed, and whose section is worth future reference. I owe it to 

 Mr. E. B. Mally, who superintended the work. The section is from top 

 to bottom : 



Ft. In. 



1. Slaty clay IG 



2. Sand 18 



3. Yellow clay 5 



4. Light-blue soapstoue 6 



5. Brown soapstoue 2 



6. Soapstoue and clay 13 



7. Drab soapstone 14 



8. Dark-brown soai^stone 2 



9. Black slate, with veins of coal ^. 5 6 



10. Coal, wet and smutty 4 



11. Coal, better 3 



12. Black-clay parting 4 



13. Coal 1 



14. Soapstone, blue, brown, and black 24 7 



15. Hard sand-rock 1 4 



16. Spotted sand-rock , 12 



17. Very hard sand-rock , 5 



18. Soft, sandy clay 9 6 



142 3 



The work was abandoned on account of the poor quality of the coal ; 

 but the section indicates the place of the bed, at the top of the great Lig- 

 nitic or fucoidal sandstone under the series of beds of clay, soapstone, 

 &c., as at Gehrung's and at the Katon Mountains. 



§4. South Platte to Cheyenne. 



From the mouth of Bear Creek into the Platte, a few miles west of 

 Denver, the Lignitic formation, abutting against the Cretaceous and 

 diversely thrown up by the upheaval of the primitive mountains, follows 

 the base of these mountains in a nearly continuous belt to Cheyenne. 

 Though generally covered by detritus, the basin is deeply cut by all the 

 creeks descending to the plain — Clear, Ralston, Coal, Erie, Boulder, 

 Thompson Creeks, and others — and the strata thus exposed can be 

 studied in their relative position, their compounds, &c., at many places. 

 This study is most interesting, but the same ground has been already 

 surveyed by geologists of repute, Dr. F. V. Hayden, Dr. John Lecont*, 

 Mr. James T. Hodge, &c., who have given to their explorations more 



* I owe to this gentleman valuable information on the distribution of the lignite- 

 beds around Deuvers. 



