GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF THE TERRITORIES. 361 



The geological report of Dr. F. V, Hayden on the exploration of the 

 Yellowstoue and Missouri Kivers, under the direction of Captain Ray- 

 nolds, (1859-'00,) published in 1869, ^ives besides the details on the 

 geology of the country, some interesting data on the distribution of the 

 lignite-beds. The more important are as follows : 



In the great Lignitic group of Fort Union, local deposits of lignite as markert in gen- 

 eral section of the rocks of Nebraska, p. 29. In section 2, from the Black Hills to the 

 Yellowstone River, eight beds of impure lignite varying in thigkness from :i inches to 

 3, 4, and 5 feet. Sections 3 and 4 have two beds of impure lignite with only one bed 

 of lignite more or less i>ure, divided by layers of clay. Section '>, p. 'y2, on Powder 

 River, indicates on a thickness of 356 feet of strata, thirteen beds of lignite mostly thin 

 and clayey; one of them, however, No. 11, is 7 feet thick and quite pure. Two other 

 sections in the same country mark beds of lignite more or less impure, generally 

 parted in thin layers by clay-beds, and therefore of little value. Up th(; Yellowstone 

 Valley Dr. Hayden mentions, near the mouth of the Rosebud Creek, a lignite-bed 5 feet 

 thick. '• Three hundred yards above, it sei)arates into two parts, 2 to 2.^^ feet each, with 

 6 to 8 feet of arenaceous clay between. Five hundred yards farther, the two beds 

 begin again to unite, there being about 6 inches chocolate-clay lietween them. The 

 lignite is quite pure." From the Big Horn to the union of the Yellowstone with the 

 Missouri, the lignite-beds occupy the whole country with the exception of the portion 

 already described and a distance immediately on the river of about seven miles called 

 Shell Point. The lignite-beds are well developed, and at least twenty to thirty seams 

 are shown, varying in purity and thickness from a few inches to 7 feet.* 



In the records of a journey to Pumpkin Buttes and the sources of the 

 Cheyenne Iviver, Dr. Hayden remarks that the whole region from the 

 Platte to Pumpkin Butte is covered with the true lignite formation, con- 

 taining numerous beds of lignite more or less pure. The section of the 

 buttes t is remarkably like that of the Gehrung coal in Colorado, with 

 conglomerate beds at its top, uuderlaid by alterimte layers of impure 

 lignite, clay, and thin beds of sandstone, the whole measuring 428 feet. 

 The section at Gehrung's is 426 feet. After this are seen, sloping down 

 to Powder River, similar rocks with some thick beds of lignite, from 6 

 to 8 feet in thickness. Near thejuuction of Snake River we tind in the 

 same report the Tertiary beds prevailing to a great extent, and in a 

 section of 80 feet six or eight seams of impure lignite which has ignited 

 in several places. 



March, 1858. — Proceedings Acad. Nat. Sci., Phil. : Description of new organic re- 

 mains from Nebraska. (Jleek and Hayden.) 



Jiiiic, 1858. — Loc. cit. : Explanations of a second edition of a geological map of Ne- 

 braska and Kansas, &c. (F. V. Hayden.) 



Kovemher, 1858. — Report ou collections obtained by the expedition under command 

 of Lieutenant G. K. Warren. (F. V. Hayden.) 



Decetnhcr, 1858. — Proceedings Acad. Nat. Sci., Phil. : Remarks ou Cretaceous beds of 

 Kansas and Nebraska, «fcc. (Meek and Hayden.) 



January, 1859. — Trans. Saint Louis Acad. : On the so-called Triassic rocks of Kansas 

 and Nebraska. (Meek and Hayden.) 



i'etcm/;*;-, 1858.— Proceedings Acad. Nat. Sci., Phil. : Remarks on the lower Creta- 

 ceous beds of Kansas and Nebraska. (Meek and Hayden.) 



January, 1859. — Loc. cit. : Geological cxijloratious in Kansas Territory. (Meek and 

 Hayden.) 



May, 1860. — Loc. cit. : Description of new organic remains from the Tertiary, Cre- 

 taceous, and Jura.ssic rocks of Nebraska. (Meek and Hayden.) 



October, 18()0. — Loc. cit. : Catalogue with synouyma, &z,c., of the fossils collected in 

 Nebraska by the exjiloring expedition under Lieutenant G. K. Warren. (Meek and 

 Hayden.) 



Jan HajT/,, 1860. — Am. Jour. Sci. and Arts.: On a new genus of Patelliform sheila 

 from the Cretaceous of Nebraska. (Meek and Hayden.) 



March, 1861. — Loc. cit. : Sketch of the geology of the country of the head-waters of 

 the Missouri and Yellowstone Rivers. (F. V. Hayden.) Followed in December, 1861, 

 in Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci., Phil., by descriptions of now species of fossils collected in 

 the same exploring expedition of Captain W. F. Raynolds. (Meek and Hayden.) 



* Loc. cit., p. 59. 



t Loc. cit., p. /"S. 



