70 GUIDEBOOK OF THE WESTERN UNITED STATES, 
a part of the northern rim of the basin. The younger rocks near 
the middle of the coal field terminate to the south in the high ridge 
or escarpment of light-colored sandstone, which is a conspicuous 
feature of this field. 
After passing the point of sandstone described above the railway 
runs through a broad valley, which has been cut in the same shale 
as that seen at Florence. This shale (Pierre) and the soft under- 
lying formations extend to Canon City, and to them is due the 
breadth of the valley at and below that town. Here in the valley, 
where an ample supply of water can be had from Arkansas River and 
its ee streams and where the crops are protected from frost by 
mountains on the 
west, fruits — particularly 
apples—are grown in abun- 
dance. It is said that 50 
Figure 15.—Sandstone bed at base of coal-bearing per cent of the State’ S apple 
formation at crossing of Arkansas River near crop is raised in the vicin- 
mouth of Oil Creek. Sandstone dips southward. ity et Cation City. Near J Near = 
milepost 157 apple orchards can be seen from the train, and they c con- 
tinue in almost unbroken masses to Canon City. 
Oil Creek, so named because oil once seeped from the ground along 
its course in Garden Park north of the railroad, is crossed a short 
distance west of milepost 157. 
About 8 miles up Oil Creek, in an open space at the foot of the 
mountains known as Garden Park, the bones of some of the most 
wonderful animals that the world has ever known have been found. 
They were embedded in the Morrison formation, and a large quarry 
was opened for the sole purpose of obtaining them. The skeletons or 
the casts of the skeletons are exhibited in most of the museums of this 
country. The most abundant remains are those of giant reptiles called 
dinosaurs. Many of these animals were 20 feet long and resembled 
no animal now living except possibly the diminutive so-called horned 
toad of California. Plate XXXII, A, represents one of these lizards, 
called Stegosaurus, as he is supposed to have appeared when he was 
alive and roamed through the swamps that then covered much of this 
region. This particular species was a vegetable feeder, but he needed 
protection from other dinosaurs that were carnivorous, so he was com- 
pelled to grow a bony plate of armor. 
Dinosaurs inhabited the earth during Cretaceous time and con- 
tinued to thrive on into Tertiary time, but they finally and suddenly 
disappeared. The last survivor appears to have been 7riceratops, 
shown in Plate XXXII, B, a skeleton of which was found years ago 
in the vicinity of Denver. 
