Hayden.] ^^ [FebruaiTiD, 



ably also of that great thickness of sandstones and clays Avhich hold a 

 position between the transition No. 1, and the bi'ick red beds. 



Near Separation, about 10 miles west of Raw lings' Springs, a coal bed 

 11 feet thick has been opened, probably the same as the one opened at 

 Carbon, and near Rock and Cooper creek. The dip is nearly west about 

 10°. The opening being at the summit of the hill, all the coal will have 

 to be drawn up a slope, and the difficulties of drainage will be greatly 

 increased. The coal is of excellent quality. Above and below the coal 

 is the usual drab indiirated clay. Below" the clay is a bed of* gray ferru- 

 ginous sandstone. 



On the summits of the hills in the vicinity are layers of fine grained 

 siliceous rocks with arenaceous concretions, some of them containing 

 impressions of decidtious leaves. 



The tertia,ry beds lie in ridges running across the country. The beds 

 are uplifted in every direction. A more desolate region I have not seen 

 in the West. Nothing seems to grow but sage bushes, and in some of 

 the valleys they grow very large. All over the surface of the hills and 

 in the plains are great quantities of water-Avorn pebbles. Many of these 

 valleys were scooped out by an amount of waters far in excess of any 

 known at the present day in this region. Some of the widest and deepest 

 do not now contain any running stream. 



The layers of fine grained sandstone on the hills in this vicinity con- 

 tain more or less impressions of leaves, like Populus and Platanus, in a 

 good state of preservation. 



AVest of Separation the dip of the tertiary beds diminishes. Before 

 reaching Creston, about 13 miles west of Separation, they lie nearly hori- 

 zontal, and all the surrounding country presents more the appearance of 

 a plain. At that station the Union Pacific Railroad Company have a 

 well 100 feet or more deep, at a depth of 83 feet in which was struck an 

 8 foot coal bed, with 4 feet of excellent coal and 4 feet of coaly shale. 

 The coal was of about the same quality as that near Separation, probably 

 from the same bed. If so, coal at a depth of about 80 feet must underlie 

 an area of at least 100 square miles. In this well beds of bluish arena- 

 ceous clay were passed through first, then black clay with carbonaceoiis 

 matter throughout. Just over the coal was fine bluish indurated clay 

 with very distmct impressions of leaves, among which the most abundant 

 were Populus and Platamos. The railroad cuts and the valleys them- 

 selves show very distinctly the character of the intermediate softer beds. 

 The erosion has been so great in this country, and all hills and caiions 

 are so covered with debris that it is almost impossible to obtain a clear 

 idea of the color and composition of the intermediate softer beds. The 

 harder sandstones, &c., project from the surface and are accessible to the 

 eye without much excavation. Marine and fresh-Avater tertiary forma- 

 tions occupy the whole country along the line of the railroad to Quaking- 

 Asp Summit, west of Fort Bridger, and possibly over to Salt lake to a 

 greater or less extent. 



From Creston to Bitter Creek Station, a distance of 45 miles, the beds 



