LARAMIE AND FORT UNION BEDS 291 



The older reports of the United States Geological Survey locate Fort 

 Union variously in North Dakota and Montana. The place has long 

 since disappeared from the map, and the site is now represented by 

 Fort Buford, which is located on the Missouri River only three miles 

 from the mouth of the Yellowstone. The confusion in regard to 

 states arose from the fact that the old Fort Union, while located in 

 North Dakota, was only three miles from the Montana line. 



The following sections, taken at Glass Bluffs, on the south bank 

 of the Missouri and four miles below Fort Buford, illustrates the 

 beds commonly designated as Fort Union.: 



Feet Inches 



13 glacial drift - - - -- - - - 25 



12 gravel, well rounded, fresh ----- ^ 



Ti clay, sandy -------- go 



10 sandstone -------- 2 



9 clay, blue, sandy -------48 



8 clay --------- 2 



7 lignite, impure -------- 3 



^ -<j 6 clay --------- 4 



5 lignite, fair quality - - - - -- - 5 



4 clay, hard, yellow ------- 4 



3 clay, fat- - - - - - -'- - 6 



2 lignite, good quality, with 3 in. clay in middle - - 3 6 



1^ I yellow clay, growing sandy toward the top " " 35 



228 9 



Instead of being in any way remarkable, this section would serve 

 to illustrate the prevailing characteristics of the Laramie as well as it 

 does the Fort Union. In North Dakota, at least, there is nothing 

 peculiar in the beds, their composition or position, that will differ- 

 entiate the Fort Union from the Laramie. If a number of descrip- 

 tions of Laramie sections taken from the Little Missouri country 

 south of Medora, or north of Bismarck were written with sections 

 from about old Fort Union, it is practically certain that the regions 

 from which they came could not be distinguished. A large number 

 of sections hke the one just quoted, but taken from regions that have 

 always been regarded as Laramie, have been published elsewhere.' 

 In a single area, in the southern part of the state near the mouth of 

 the Cannon Ball River and extending back from the Missouri for 

 sixty miles, the Laramie differs from the so-called Fort Union beds 



I Second Biennial Report of the North Dakota Geological Survey, 1901-2. 



