PERMO-CARBONIFEROUS OF NORTHERN NEW MEXICO 11 
Capulin a stream flows into Capulin creek from the north along the 
line of a fault which divides the Mesa Prieta from the Capulin 
Mesa. The strata of the Mesa Prieta at this point dip slightly 
northwest, but those of the Capulin Mesa dip east and northeast. 
The west face of the Capulin Mesa rises a thousand feet or there- 
about above the valley of the Gallina River. Just north of the 
Cerro Blanco there is a high red wall similar to that north of the 
Poleo creek, the uppermost rocks bearing phytosaur remains. It 
is confidently believed that the lowermost exposures here are of 
Permian age, but no fossils were found. 
There is a sharp break between the Capulin Mesa and the Cerro 
Blanco. The rocks of the latter dip sharply to the west, and are 
overlain by the Jurassic shales and the Cretaceous sandstones and 
shales. At the foot of these Upper Triassic rocks, north of Cerro 
Blanco, and opposite the face of the Capulin Mesa bluff before 
referred to were found various small fresh-water invertebrates, and 
bone fragments referred provisionally to the genus Coelophysis 
Cope. The horizon of these remains can hardly be less than one 
hundred feet above the basal Upper Trias sandstones, and, in all 
probability, the original types came from the immediate locality 
whence the fragments were found by the junior author. The 
Cerro Blanco takes its name from the massive beds of white 
gypsum which cap it, descending steeply below the creek bed to 
the south and dipping to the west. From the top of the Cerro 
Blanco one can look miles to the north and west, and the view there- 
from is a revelation to the geologist. To the east lie the mesas of 
more or less horizontal rocks of predominantly Upper Triassic age; 
to the west the strata are deeply tilted and eroded into valleys; 
a few miles farther west the beds of the Wasatch badlands lie 
horizontally upon the uptilted edges of the Mesozoic strata. 
Upon the whole, the general features of the Red Beds in northern 
New Mexico, as in many places elsewhere, may be summarized as 
follows: 
The Upper Trias rocks, about six hundred feet in thickness, 
perhaps more, are predominantly softer and lighter colored, often 
orange colored, yellowish and whitish, and more aeolian in char- 
acter, with the upper or uppermost beds more or less gypsiferous. 
