51 



in our State, of that series to which the coal measures belong, and they furnish us 



reason to hope that we may yet be able to say that California can supply herself with 



coals from her own mines, and thus avoid in all time to come the enormous expense 



of the importation of this most valuable commodity from vast distances over seas. 



During a hastily conducted line of travel in 1850, through the district east of the 

 Pitt River mountains, I observed a fe^ scattered masses of a secondary conglom 

 erate. This gave me the first impression of th.3 probable existence of the coal 

 measures in those districts of country, and there was a brief notice of the subject 

 in the short report to the Session of 1853. On the 15th page of that report, on 

 the Geology of the Sierra Nevada, the following remarks were made : 



" These conglomerates have but little interest connected with them further than 

 geological position is concerned, except the modifying influence they may exert 

 through their debris on the formation of the valley sections ; but there is a belt of 

 these rocks in other parts of the country which will be entitled to much more par 

 ticular consideration. In addition to the buhr stone of this district, this section of 

 the State contains some few traces of the secondary rocks, a suite almost entirely 

 wanting with this exception in other parts of the State so far as explored. The 

 existence of any portion of this suite should command our attention, and any 

 measure which would be likely to develop this formation, or any part it within the 

 limits of this State should meet with public approbation. The importance attached 

 to this group is the fact that 10 this suite we must look for a home supply of the 

 mineral coals, if even found within the State." 



And on the 16th page of the same report we read as follows : 



" As these rocks have exhibited themselves in the northern districts, and in those 

 sections most immediately connected with the coast-line of mountains, it is to be 

 hoped that judicious explorations in that range may develop its existence (the exis 

 tence of coal,) either at the points alluded to, or in other and more distant parts of 

 that chain. 



From the structure of the country generally it is doubtful whether any other portion 

 of the State presents the slighest ground for hope that this necessary material of econo 

 my will be iound in other parts than those indicated, and every effort compatible 

 with prudence should be made that will tend to elicit information on this highly im 

 portant subject. The frequent discovery of small patches of mineral coal in those 

 mountains, would seem to lend aid to the suggestion that its development in this 

 chain may be looked for with more confidence than at any other point." 



The foregoing remarks upon this subject penned in a hasty manner more than 

 two years since, (and the observations which gave rise to them being conducted in 

 a district of country where at that earlier period of our history the explorer found 

 his attention well occupied rather in the preservation of his life against the dangers 

 of the wilderness and its denizens, than in searching for geological formations,) have 

 during the past year been strongly confirmed. We have reason now to believe 

 in the correctness of our suggestions then thrown out, from the discovery of 

 fossils belonging to that period, and required as a basis for such conclu 

 sions. These fossils have been found at distances of miles from those points where 

 the first indications of the secondary series were thus hurriedly observed. It should 

 be remembered that it is no easy task to define positively the true position of a for 

 mation or group like a conglomerate from its mere lithological characters alone ; 

 and it receives its additional value, when it is found to hold a direct relation with 

 groups of a homogeneous character, presenting fossils of a known age, and known 

 position. 



Such is the case with the fossils of the limestone rocks before us, their relative 

 position being well known, as well as the period to which they belong, that they 

 place the subject of the existence of a coal field in this part of the State, or 

 Southern Oregon, in a more tangible form than any which has been before pre 

 sented. We are able therefore to arrive at something like a satisfactory con- 



