GEOLOGY 125 



about two thousand feet higher than the surrounding coun- 

 try. The Divide is not one long symmetrical roll but is ser- 

 pentine in outline and domed near its central part, the dome 

 roughly marked by the Zuni Plateau. To the north the 

 folded strata which make up the Divide gradually become 

 less and less inclined until the crest looses its characteristics 

 of a fold in the plateau-like portion of the northern part of the 

 state. 



The Divide is composed entirely of sedimentary rock ex- 

 cept where lava outflows have spread over its eastern flanks. 

 Jura-Trias sandstone is the lowest exposed rock along the 

 northern side of the San Jose Valley from Bluewater Station 

 westward over the Divide. The Cretaceous strata above are 

 of wide spread exposure, the Laramie coal measures out- 

 cropping in Satan and San Anton Passes and at numerous 

 other places, especially, throughout the first score of miles 

 along the western side. 



"A high point on the Continental Divide." 



An easy pass over the Divide is afforded by the San Jose 

 River whose valley heads up into the Divide from the east, 

 west of Mt. Taylor. The San Jose valley, as has been noted 

 above, opens up a large valley in Jurassic and Cretaceous 

 strata, to the north of the Zuni Plateau. The Jurassic strata 

 disappears beneath the Cretaceous some twenty-five miles 



