610 



REPORT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1904. 



with the greater part of the. Cordilleras." This, west of 117 20', 

 formed a land area and to the eastward a sea bottom, upon which last, 



throughout the entire 

 Paleozoic period, were 

 conformably deposited 

 the gradually accumu- 

 lating detritus from the 

 land, brought down by 

 eastward-flowing rivers. 

 These Paleozoic sedi- 

 ments he found in the 

 region of the Wasatch 

 to be 32,000 feet in 

 thickness, and in the 

 extreme western limit, 

 upward of 40,000 feet. 



He divided the series 

 into four great groups: 

 The first, which is pure- 

 ly detrital, being wholly 

 of Cambrian age; the 

 second, a limestone 

 series of 11,000 feet in 

 thickness, extending 

 from the Cambrian to 

 the top of the lower Coal 

 Measures, and indicat- 

 ing a deep-sea deposit. 

 Succeeding this came 

 the Weber quartzite — a 

 purely siliceous deposit 

 of from six to ten thou- 

 sand feet in thickness — 

 followed by the fourth 

 group of upper Coal 

 Measure limestone, 

 about two thousand feet 

 in thickness. The en- 

 tire Paleozoic series he 

 summed up as composed 

 of materials of two 

 periods of mechanically 



"King used the word Cordilleras to designate the entire series of mountain chains 

 bordering the Pacific front of North America, hunting the term Rocky Mountains to 

 the eastern front only. 



