AND COAL-MEASURES OF IOWA. 131 
Favosites scabra. Here also are loose sheets of shale, which have been washed from 
the banks of the creek, and lie mixed with small boulders over the limestone. A 
bed of coal a foot in thickness has been discovered in this neighbourhood. 
On Grand River, in the vicinity of Pisgah, nothing but drift is to be seen. Some 
miles down the stream, however, near a mill-site, I was told by the Mormons that 
a kind of “soapstone” could be seen at a low stage of water, which I suppose to be 
an indurated argillaceous shale; these deposits being popularly known by that 
name in the West. This I was unable to examine in person: indisposition, from 
fatigue and exposure, having brought on a relapse of intermittent fever, contracted 
while exploring the Des Moines. 
The distances from Fort Des Moines to Pisgah are as follows: 
Miles, 
To the crossing of North River, . : ‘ : ‘ ; 10 
To Middle River, . ‘ i ; 12 
To the South or Clanton Fork of Middle Hose, 
To Clanton’s, 
To Big Hollow, . 
To Forks of road — to Bellev rue, 
To Pisgah, 
or _ 
Sl ok Bist 
Total distance, 
On the route from Pisgah to Council Bluffs, I crossed Grand River, the Platte 
Branch of Grand River, two branches of the Nodoway, A Hundred and Two 
River, and the east, middle, and west branches of the Nishnabotna River. It was 
only on this latter stream that any rocks were found in place. 
On the East Fork of the Nishnabotna, the following section was observed : 
1. Soft, brown sandstone, at an elevation of fifty feet. 
2. A light-buff limestone, containing Fusulina cylindrica, Bellerophon, allied to B. 
Urii, an undetermined species of Cypricardia and Gervillia, at an elevation of 
twenty-five feet. 
3. Limestone of irregular fracture, containing few or no fossils under the Fusu- 
lina limestone. 
4, Compact limestone, one stratum of which is mottled with brown, in the bed 
of the river.* 
A lighter-coloured gritstone is found in a grove, one mile east of the same stream. 
On the main branch of the Nishnabotna, a close-textured, gray limestone occurs, 
like that on the East Fork, containing casts of Bellerophon Urit. 
After crossing the Nishnabotna, no rocks appear in place until reaching the Mis- 
souri River. A change can be perceived, however, in the character of the soil, 
which becomes more argillaceous than it is between the forks of Grand River and 
the branches of the Nodoway River. In dry weather, the roads, except in the low 
places, become nearly as hard as if paved with rocks, and the wheel-tracks look as 
smooth as if polished. 
* The intervening spaces between these beds are hidden from view. 
