Haj'den.] ^° [Februaiy 19, 



Separation and Point of Rocks other villages will be built. All the 

 appai'atus for permanent and extended mining operations are being 

 gradually introduced. Nearly all the wood now along the line of the 

 road has to be transported from 10 to 40 miles, and in two years from 

 the present time most of it within a reasonable distance of the road will 

 have been consumed. The fviture success of this great thoroughfare is 

 therefore wholly dependent on the supply of mineral fuel, and its im- 

 portance cannot be too highly estimated. ■- 



From St. Mary's to Eawlings Springs, a distance of about 30 miles, 

 the I'ailroad passes over rocks of cretaceous 'age. No coal beds need be 

 sought for in the immediate vicinity of the road, although it is quite 

 possible that on the north side of the road isolated patches of tertiary con- 

 taining coal may be found. The railroad from a point about 8 miles east 

 of Benton to Eawlings Springs, i^asses through one of the most beautiful 

 anticlinal valleys I have seen in the West. On either side the rusty gray 

 sands and sandstones dip away from the road at an angle of 10° to 15°. 

 This anticlinal valley is most marked near Fort Steele at the crossing of 

 the North Platte. 



About 5 miles east of Fort Steele I made a careful examination of a 

 railroad cut through a ridge of upheaval which inclined about south or a 

 little east of south. We have, exposed here, commencing at the bottom : 



1. Gray fine grained sandstone, rather massive and good for building 

 purposes and easily worked, 80 feet thick — dip 25°. 



2. A seam, 2 feet thick, of irregular black indurated slaty clay, with 

 layers of gypsum all through it then 2 feet of aranaceous clay. 



3. Ten feet of rusty gray compact sandstone. 



4. Eight feet of clay and hard arenaceous layers, very dark in color, 

 passing up into harder layers which split into thin laminas, the surfaces 

 of which are covered with bits of vegetable matter. 



5. About 50 feet of rusty yellowish gray sandstone. All these sand- 

 stones contain bits of vegetable matter scattered through them. 



6. 100 to 150 feet of steel-brown indurated clay with some iron concre- 

 tions. The clay is mostly nodular in form. 



7. A dark brown arenaceous mud rock, quite hard, 30 feet. 



From bed 5 I obtained numerous species of marine shells, among them 

 a species of Ostrea and Inoeeramus in great numbers. The upper surfaces 

 of the hard clay layers appeared as though crowded with impressions of 

 sea-weeds or mud markings. In another railroad cutting about 4 miles 



* 3Ir. J. P. Carcou, an assistant on the survey, made an analysis of a fair specimen of the coal 

 from tlie Carbon mines with the following result : 



Moisture at 100° C. 11.60. 



Volatile Combustible Matter, 27.68. 



Fixed Carbon, 51.67. 



Ash, 6.17. 



SulphUT, 2.88. 



Color of Ash, light grey. 



Specific gravity, 1.37. 



Weight, per cubic yard, 2212 lbs. 



