GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF THE TERRITORIES. 329 



Coalville.^-The Mormons have worked several coal mines at this vil- 

 lage and in the neighborhood, sending the coal to Salt Lake City, about 

 fifty miles distant by the Old stage road, and more recently to Corinne, 

 on the Central Pacific railroad. Coalville is five miles south from the 

 Union Pacific Eailroad at Echo Station, and this is thirty-four miles 

 west from Evanston. At the village is Sprague's mine, which was not 

 in operation last October ; and two miles up a narrow valley to the 

 northeast is Eobinson's mine, and immediately above this Crissman's 

 mine. All these are apparently on the same bed of coal. Higher up in 

 the hills are two other small beds, not worked. Eobinson's and Criss- 

 man's mines are both opened in the bottom of a ravine, and the former 

 is supplied with a small steam -engine for hoisting the coal up the slope. 

 The latter mine is entered by an adit level; and again farther up by a 

 slope. The dip is to the northwest, and so gentle that a mule can haul 

 a ton weight up the iron-covered track. The bed is from eleven and a 

 half to thirteen feet thick, all solid coal. The roof is sandstone, and 

 not very secure; so that nearly the upper half of the coal bed is left for 

 safety, with the idea of some time taking it out. This makes a secure 

 covering. Though the coal is very sound in the mine, and presents a 

 handsome appearance after it is extracted, it soon crumbles on exposure 

 to the air, and the railroad men do not speak well of it for locomotive 

 use. It crumbles in the fire, and makes clinkers, that melt and stick 

 to the bars. Blacksmiths, however, use it satisfactorily. It is mined 

 for $1 25 per ton, and sells for $2 50 on the ground. The bed must 

 extend under large areas, which have not yet been explored for it. Its 

 dip, if continued, would carry it under the sandstone cliffs of Echo Canon. 



III.— THE ANCIENT LAKES OF WESTERN AMERICA: 



THE1E DEPOSITS AND DBAINAGE. 



By J. S. Newberry, LL. D. 



The wonderful collections of fossil plants and animal remains brought 

 by Dr. Hayden from the country bordering the Upper Missouri have 

 been shown, by his bbservations and the researches of Mr. Meek, to 

 have been derived from deposits made in extensive fresh-water lakes — 

 lakes which once occupied much of the region lying immediately east of 

 the Eocky Mountains, but which have now totally disappeared. The 

 sediments that accumulated in the bottoms of these old lakes show that 

 in the earliest periods of their history they contained salt water, at least 

 that the sea had access to them, and their waters were more or less im- 

 pregnated with salt, so as to be inhabited by oyster and other marine or 

 estuary mollusks. In due time the continental elevation which brought 

 all the country west of the Mississippi up out of the widespread cre- 

 taceous sea, raised these lake basins altogether above the sea level, and 

 surrounded them with a broad expanse of dry land. Then ensued one 

 of the most interesting chapters in the geological history of our conti- 

 nent, and one that, if fairly written out, could not fail to be read with 

 pleasure by all intelligent persons. The details of this history are, how- 

 ever, in a great measure yet to be supplied, inasmuch as the great area 

 of our western possessions is still but very partially explored, and it is 



