Haj'den.] ^" [February 19, 



closed between beds of drab clay, and separated into two members by a 

 clay parting of from 8 to 10 feet thick. There is probably an aggregate 

 of from 12 to 15 feet of good coal. The dip is towards the northwest 

 60° to 80°. On|the upper side, above the drab clay, there is a bed of 

 rather soft gray sandstone 50 to 100 feet thick. Below, are beds of rusty 

 sandstone, clay, and indurated arenaceous clay, yellowish, drab, reddish 

 and gray. 



In a railroad cutting, about a mile east of the coal mine, are 25 to 50 

 feet of drab indurated clay, covered with 150 to 200 feet of ferruginous 

 and gray sandstone dipping north-west. The lowest beds shown here 

 look like cretaceous clays of No. 2 ; and in some of their slaty layers are 

 an abundance of fish scales, a species of small oyster and a shell like an 

 Inoeeramus. These black plastic clays, are undoubtedly cretaceous and 

 lie below the coal. The strata enclosing the coal are evidently marine, 

 for all the organic forms thus far discovered seem to belong to marine 

 types. There is also an oil spring in Bear Eiver valley in which parties 

 are sinking a shaft. The whole country exhibits abundant signs of drift 

 action, and the hills as well as the valleys are paved with worn rocks. 

 Between Bear and Sulphur creeks, there is a fine plateau 40 to 50 feet 

 high, covered with sage — Artemesia tufida, and as smooth as a table. 

 The soil in the bottoms of the streams is most fertile ; if irrigated, vege- 

 tables of all kinds grow well, and there is abundance of water for that 

 purpose. 



On the right side of Bear river, 10 miles below the station is. Medicine 

 Bute, which must be 800 to 1000 feet high above the bed of the creek. 

 It is undoubtedly composed for the most part of the strata of the coal 

 series, which I am inclined to regard as of older tertiary age, although 

 the evidence is as yet conflicting. 



Passing westward from Bear Creek Station, over beds nearly horizon- 

 tal or inclining at a small angle, we suddenly come to an upthrust of 

 rocks, called the Needles, dipping east or south-east 25° to 35° or 40°. 

 This is a more remarkable exhibition of massive conglomerate than any 

 I have ever seen further east. The rocks project their summits in the 

 shape of sharp pointed peaks to a height from 300 to 500 feet above the 

 road. Some of the worn masses which compose the conglomerate are an 

 aggregation of worn i^ebbles, proving that a portion of the materials 

 were derived from some still older conglomerate. Sometimes there is a 

 thin local seam of coarse sand containing only a few pebbles, but the 

 whole mass, from 500 to 1000 feet thick, is in the main a coarse conglom- 

 erate made up of water worn rocks varying in size from the smallest 

 pebble to boulders a foot in diameter. The pebbles are mostly flint, 

 mixed with a few of sandstone ; rocks of modern data being compara- 

 tive rare. This seems to be a local outburst of the conglomerate through 

 a vast thickness of variegated sands and clays which inclines westward 

 40° to 60o. The trend is a little west of north. These " needle rocks" 

 are near Yellow Creek Station, and the ridge of upheaval extends down 

 from the Minetah range. In the vicinity of the mou.ntain ranges such 



