530 A. C. VEATCH 
both King and Hayden intended that the term should apply to the 
beds which occur between the Fox Hills and the Wasatch. 
The consideration that the name was adopted as a substitute for 
Hayden’s Lignitic suggests that the proper way to approach this 
somewhat involved subject is through the writings of Hayden. A 
number of collateral facts tend to strengthen the view that in a critical 
discussion of the origin and definition of Laramie the writings of 
Hayden are of prime importance. In the first place, King did not 
personally desire to investigate the region from Fort Bridger eastward, 
and only undertook it when the chief of engineers so directed. On 
January 23, 1871, he wrote the chief of engineers as follows: 
The parties under the charge of Dr. F. V. Hayden, geologist of the Interior 
Department, and that led by Professor O. C. Marsh, of Yale College, have devoted 
the past summer to the geological explorations of those portions of Wyoming 
and Colorado which I had intended to cover next summer... . . Iam convinced 
that what I could do would add but little to results they have obtained. We 
should without doubt fill up minor gaps in the structural relations of the plains, 
but on the whole it seems to me that there is not sufficient inducement to warrant 
our devoting our time and funds to a field from which the cream has already been 
taken. 
In a letter to the chief of engineers, dated February 9, 1871, he 
gave the exact limit of his previous work as follows: 
In answer to the communication of Colonel J. B. Wheeler which I have just 
received, concerning the extent of the Green River included within my explora- 
tions, I have the honor to say that no part of that section is embraced in the work . 
already done. Our eastern limit is 30 miles west of the river. If my present 
plans are carried out, I had not intended to continue that way. 
On the direction of the chief of engineers the work was continued 
eastward, but King’s personal efforts were almost wholly devoted to 
the territory to the west of Green River. In 1871 S. F. Emmons 
passed rapidly up Bitter Creek Valley, examining the country as far 
east as Washakie. In 1872 he spent ten days, June 20 to 30, exam- 
ining the immense territory west of the North Platte River, south 
of the Seminoe Mountains, and north of the Elk Mountains.1 The 
outcrops in the Laramie Plains were examined by Arnold Hague in 
the fall of 1872. When King therefore agreed with Hayden on a 
« King’s manuscript letters to the chief of engineers, dated July 3, 1872, and Febru- 
ary 17, 1873. : 
