[ 237 ] 32 



noes, that I shall hereafter describe ; the region of which is laid down upon 

 my map. 



On the elevated prairies above the bluffs, the " erratic deposite"' again ap- 

 pears ; amongst v/hich I found, for the first time, fragments of quarzite in 

 every respect similar to that of the Red Pipestone Quarry. I find also noted 

 in my diary, that, on the occasion of paying a second visit to another part 

 of the blutf, the bed of limestone No. 1 rests upon that of No. 2. This 

 error arises from the fact, that on the preceding day I had only the chance 

 of examining the limestone amidst the confused heap of fragments at the" 

 foot of the bluff. 



Mr. Murchison, in his lately published Memoir, refers to a paper by 

 Mr. Lonsdale on the Devonian system, in which that celebrated palaeon- 

 tologist indicates the principal fossils belonging to it ; referring, also, to 

 the species found in Belgium and in France, as well as in Devonshire. 

 In this list of six species enumerated as belonging characteristically to 

 the Devonian system, I find sf.ronibodes vermicularis, or cyathophyllum 

 vermicular e ; and euompltalus radiatus, (Gold.) The cyathophyllum ver- 

 miculare, it appears, is the only species that is found both in the Devon- 

 shire rocks and those of the Boulonnais. Well, now, if we take into 

 account the enormous distance that separates the small group that I have 

 just described, with its equivalent in France and in binglaud, will it be 

 thought hazarding too much to detach it from the place 1 had first assigned 

 to it in the lower mountain limestone, and bring it down to the Devonian 

 system ? 



The group to which I am now referring, and which is at the base of the 

 rocky banks previously described, is very fossiliferous, and has a great ex- 

 tent; though I had no occasion to give it but a rapid examination. 1 may 

 be permitted to hope that naturalists more fortunately circumstanced will 

 discover among it other characteristics by which to complete an identifica- 

 tion with its European equivalents ; thereby stamping upon the new classi- 

 fication of the older fossiliferous rocks an additional proof of contemporaneity 

 as regards the " Far West" of America, which will most probably be veri- 

 fied in time over our whole globe. 



This series of rocks, then, (which I feel necessitated to refer to the De- 

 vonian system, for reasons stated above.) underlying those of the carbon- 

 iferous system, have, consequently, their appropriate place above the 

 Silurian rocks, members of whick are found beyond Wolf river, and again, 

 now and then, in proceeding from bluff to bluff along the Missouri. 



The carboniferous rocks, which form a large and important feature in the 

 geology of this region, are full of fossils, and may be said to offer a new 

 field of exploration to the fossil conchologist in the great number of new 

 species belonging to the genera -producta — delthyris, ort/iis, strophomenay 

 atrypa^ favorites, 6)'q. To indicate the numerous localities where these 

 fossils are variously associated with each other, would only be multi- 

 plying a list of them — which I cannot afford to do in a report, the scale of 

 which hardly leaves room to lay down the great geological divisions of 

 the country. I would only add, that the producta lobata, and producta punc- 

 tata, and the tnrbinoliafungites of Phillips, appear to me to be the charac- 

 teristic fossils of the carboniferous rocks in this region. They occur at 

 localities very distant from each other — between Five Barrels island and 

 Council Bluffs, on the Des Moines ; from Racoon fork to the lower 

 rapids of the Mississippi ; in the vicinity of St. Louis, iSt. Genevieve, &c. 



