GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF THE TERRITORIES. 363 



5 feet thick, separated only by 10 inches of slate. Coal-beds of the 

 same kind are seen in the same vicinity: in Blackniore Caiion, 

 where the lig^nite, not fully exposed, is reported 10 feet thick, and in 

 the Bremer Caiion, immediately south of the Vermejo Yalley, where a 

 number of outcrops, mostly obscured by land-slides, were seen, indicating 

 at least 1 feet of good coal. Fourth. Lignite-beds in the valley of the 

 Eio Puerco, twenty-eight miles southwest of Albuquerque, with an 

 exposure of 5 feet. Fifth. The lignite-beds from -which the fuel for 

 Fort Craig is obtained, nine miles east of Don Pedro, whose section 

 indicates a thickness of 5.J feet of coal with two clay-partings of 3 inches. 

 Besides this. Dr. Leconte was informed that a good bed of coal exists 

 near the town of Limitar. 



Geueral W. M. S. Palmer's report of surveys across the continent in 

 18G7 and ISGS completes the records on the distribution of the lignite- 

 beds south and west of the Raton Mountains by the following informa- 

 tions: The coal of Tijeras Caiion, at a short distance northeast of the 

 town, has been found, li feet thick and traced by Mr. Holbrook, division 

 engineer, for a distance of 2,000 feet by sinking small shafts along the 

 vein. A valuable seam has been discovered near San Felipe, (thickness 

 not indicated,) within twelve miles of the Eio Grande. Coal also is 

 reported in the Pecos Yalley, five miles above Anton-Chico. On the 

 Cimarron route of the railroad a large vein of coal, apparently 14 feet 

 thick, has been reported by Dr. Steck, and at a number of places, similar 

 coal or lignite beds are mentioned in the same report, without indication 

 cf thickness. On both sides of the Eio Grande, numerous beds of 

 lignite (named bituminous coal) are found near Doiia Afia and 

 Mesilla, and others still are reported west of the Eio Grande, one three 

 hundred miles from Albuquerque, by Dr. Newberry, who saw near 

 the Moqui villages a bed 12 feet thick ; another by Dr. Parry, who 

 saw a bed 4 feet thick on the ZuQi Pass, near Pescado Springs; and 

 still, by the same geologist, many beds of Ignite about thirty miles 

 west of the Eio Grande, in the Sarociuo Caiiou, varying in thickness 

 from 3 to 4 feet. A number of localities where lignite-coal has been 

 reported on the different lines proposed for the railroad are still men- 

 tioned in General Palmer's report. But this already gives us sufiicient 

 proof of the ]iroductiveness of the great Liguitic south of the Eaton 

 Monntains, and in countries still unex^jlored where the mineral deposits 

 are as yet mostly unknown. 



The lignite-beds in the vicinity of Trinidad have as yet been scarcely 

 opened. Some coal is hauled to the town from the base of the Eaton 

 Mountains, on the road of the Eaton Pass, where, as already reported in 

 section, the lowest beds have a thickness of 4 feet or more. According 

 to the information received from persons well acquainted with the 

 country, there is a great deal of coal all around the town ; so much, 

 indeed, that everybody can take it and haul it for their own use when- 

 ever they like and without paying for it. As there is still an abundance 

 of wood, pine and juniper, in the country, and a limited population 

 without railroads, the demand for coal is very limited indeed. But 

 there is for the future a reserve which already demands careful investi- 

 gations and a sagacious investment of monej', especially by the com- 

 panies of railroads in process of construction to the south. This is 

 especially the case in regard to the Lignitic deposit overlaying the 

 Eocene sandstone from Trinidad to the foot of the Spanish Peak. A 

 number of beds of lignite have been already reported from this basin ; 

 near Gray's ranch, a stage-station ; near Chicosa, twenty miles north 

 of Trinidad, &c., &c. The coal there, being considered as of no value 



