146 
GUIDEBOOK OF THE WESTERN UNITED STATES. 
toward the west, and across the river the Newland limestone is present 
in the tops of the hills. This formation appears to be flat, but that 
is because the traveler is looking at the edge of beds that dip directly 
away fromhim. This relation of limestone and quartzite to the river 
and railway holds in a general way from Thompson Falls to Noxon. 
t Kildee, near milepost 37, the railway crosses the river, and from 
this point to Trout Creek there are two lines; the ‘‘high line” keeps 
up on the bench away from the river and the “low line” 
runs near 
the stream. The latter affords many interesting views of the river, 
which flows in a gorge cut a hundred feet or so in the floor of the old 
broad valley. : 
a study of the fossils mentioned that the 
were deposited by rivers or in shallow 
lakes. The appearance of the rocks con- 
firms this view, for all of them, even in- 
cluding many of the thick beds of lime- 
stone, are ripple marked, showing that 
cracks and prints of raindrops, which 
could have been made only when the soft 
material was above water level and ex- 
posed to the drying effect of the atmos- 
phere or the beating of the storm. By 
piecing — measurements made in 
ed that the 
n 
ted and identified in 
the areas in which they have been stud- 
ied; but other parts have no character- 
istics by which they can readily be dis- 
tinguished, and consequently different 
workers have classified them in different 
ways. 
The two units most easily identified 
are the Newland limestone, which Wal- 
cott in the Belt Moun- 
tains, and se Peagens limestone, which 
ts occurrence at the cap- 
tal of the State, The general section 
orthern Pacific Railway, ac- 
cording to F, C, Calkinsand J. T. Pardee, 
is as follows: 
Formations composing the Belt series along 
Northern Pacific Railway. 
Thickness 
in feet. 
Helena: Limestone, dark blue or 
gray, weathering b 
ca ene greenish gray, or 
uartzi 
Spokane: Shale or argillite, with 
, all deep red... 1,500 
Greyson (Striped Peak): Shale, 
dark gray or 8 See with some 
hi 
white quart 3, 000 
Newland: SEwumtane: blue, thin 
bedded, but with some heavy- 
bedded buff layers , 200 
Ravalli: Quartzite, with some 
dark bluish or shale.. 2,000 
Prichard: Shale, dark bluish, in- 
terbedded with sandstone; base 
not exposed 8, 000 
19, 700 
The rocks of the belt series occur along 
the Northern Pacific Railway from the 
“aed Mountains on the east to Sand- 
n the west. In the eastern 1 part ¢ - 
mountain ranges, bat west of Bonita they 
are the only hard rocks to be seen, with 
the exception of a few intrusive masses, 
to Pend Oreille Lake. They form the 
tains of Glacier National Park and 
extend along the Rocky Mountains from 
the southern boundary of Montana, south 
of Butte, far into Canada, — a terri- 
tory about 500 miles long by 200 miles 
wide at the oe place 
