282 MESOZOIC FLORAS OF UNITED STATES. 



Zamites borealis Heer Great Falls. 



Zamites montana Dn _, Canada and Great Falls. 



Zamites montanensis Font Great Falls. 



Zamites sp. Dn Canada. 



Of these 77 forms only 4 are common to the Kootanie of Canada and 

 the Great Falls coal field, and the number found in Canada and in Montana 

 is nearly the same: Canada, 36; Great Falls, 37; common to both, 4. A 

 large number are common to these beds and to the Potomac formation, 

 while the flora that comes next in point of resemblance is that of the Kome 

 beds of Greenland. This is not the place to discuss these relations, which 

 can be better done after all the Lower Cretaceous floras have been treated, 

 but the above list is of interest as showing what had been accomplished in 

 making known the flora of the Kootanie formation down to the year 1892. 



In October, 1894, Mr. Walter H. Weed discovered fossil plants in coal 

 openings some 40 miles east-southeast of Great Falls, a little over the 

 divide between the Missouri and Judith rivers, among small coulees that 

 drain into the Dry Fork of Arrow Creek, about 6 miles south of Grafton. 

 He made a small collection, or rather several small collections, from 

 different points in the same coal field. One of his localities is said to be 

 on Trout Creek and another on Shonkin Creek, in the Highwood Mountains, 

 but the largest and best of the collections bears the label ' 'foothills of the 

 Little Belt Mountains about 5 miles south of Grafton, Mont." The 

 next best collection was labeled ' ' Gilt Edge Coal Mine, Montana. ' ' 



Mr. Weed turned these collections over to Dr. F. H. Knowlton, and by 

 him they were sent to Professor Fontaine for examination. His report 

 was submitted on April 23, 1895, and was ultimately published by Mr_ 

 Weed, to whom I sent it, in the Eighteenth Annual Report of the United 

 States Geological Survey, Part lU, page 481, which did not appear until 

 the end of 1898. 



All these circumstances increased the desire I had long felt to visit the 

 Great Falls coal field, and if possible to make a large collection that would 

 be adequate to settle the question as to the true position of the plant-bear- 

 ing beds, and particularly of those from which Mr. Weed had made these 

 collections. Accordingly, on my way to the Pacific coast that season I 

 stopped at Helena and proceeded to Great Falls, which place I reached on 

 August 24. On the following clay Mr. O. C. Mortson accompanied me to 



