6 ON THE GEOLOGY AND NATURAL HISTORY 
Missouri to the Papillion creek. Saw at this locality, on Mr. Watson’s claim, a fine 
quarry of gray and yellowish gray limestone, same as bed 4 of the section. On the Platte 
river, six miles above its mouth, observed numerous large granite boulders scattered over 
the surface of the high hills. A bed of sandstone (No. 1, Lower Cretaceous) makes its 
appearance at this point, capping the bluffs. Its general character is a dark, ferruginous, 
coarse-grained, micaceous sandstone, but sometimes becoming a very tough compact sili- 
cious rock. Near the old Otoe village, eight miles above the mouth of the Platte, is a 
very good exposure exhibiting the sandstone resting conformably upon the Carboniferous 
Limestone. We have here the following beds in descending order: 
Fig. 1. 
1. Gray, compact, silicious rock, passing down into a coarse conglomerate, 
an ageregation of waterworn pebbles, cemented with angular grains of 
quartz; then a coarse-grained micaceous sandstone. 25 feet. 
2. Yellow and light-gray limestone of the coal measures containing numer- 
ous fossils, Spirifer cameratus, Spirigera subtileta, Fusulina cylin- 
drica, Productus, Chonetes, and abundant corals and crinoidal remains. 
a, quartz rock; 4, conglomerate ; c, coarse friable sandstone; d, carbonifer- 
ous limestone. 
A seam of carbonaceous shale, twelve to eighteen inches in thickness, crops out occasion- 
ally near the water’s edge, and is regarded by the inhabitants as a sure indication of coal. 
The great scarcity of timber throughout this region would render such a discovery of the 
highest importance ; but I am inclined to the opinion that it is a geological impossibility 
for a workable seam of coal to be found within the limits of the Territory of Nebraska. 
The limestones of Southeastern Nebraska belong to the Upper Coal Measures, and form 
the extreme northwestern rim of the great coal basin, and, inasmuch as the strata dip 
toward the northwest in ascending the river at least one foot to the mile, there must be 
from 600 to 1000 feet of clays, shales, and limestones, over the first seam of coal two feet 
in thickness, in any part of the country near the mouth of the Platte. A bed of coal to 
be really valuable for economical purposes, should be at least three feet in thickness, and 
even then it would not prove profitable if a large amount of labor were required in open- 
ing the mine. 
Near the mouth of the Elkhorn, the sandstone presents much the same character as 
before described. At this point it reaches nearly to the water’s edge, showing that the 
dip of the formations in this region is toward the northwest. Here formation No. 1 
is at least eighty feet in thickness, about fifteen feet of Carboniferous limestone being ex- 
posed beneath. The latter soon passes beneath the water-level of the river, and the sand- 
stone occupies the country. 
