DENVER & RIO GRANDE WESTERN ROUTE. 



143 



the climate in this region was very different from that which pre- 

 vails there to-day, as is shown by the kind of plants which grew at 

 that time and furnished the material for the beds of coal. Palms 

 then grew here luxuriantly, and many fragments of impressions of 

 palm leaves have been found in the rocks that are associated with the 

 coal. Plate LXII, B^ shows an usually fine specimen found by the 

 miners at Newcastle. 



From Newcastle the trains of the Colorado Midland formerly ran 

 to Grand Junction over the tracks of the Dlenver & Rio Grande West- 

 ern. On account of this double use the roadbed between these points 

 is treated as a distinct unit, and the mileposts do not conform to the 

 general scheme of numbering consecutively from Denver but are 

 independent, beginning at Newcastle and ending at Grand Junction. 



About It miles below Newcastle the traveler passes out of the ]Mesa- 

 verde formation and into the overlying Wasatch. This formation is 

 of Tertiary age and is the first rock as young as Tertiary that the 

 traveler has seen since he left the vicinity of Denver and Palmer 

 Lake. It is characterized generally by coarse conglomerate and iu 

 l^laces is composed of boulders many inches or even several feet in, 

 diameter. It is reddish or pinkish in color, or it is made up of 

 bands of red alternating with bands of white or light green. It was 

 not formed immediately after the Mesaverde, on which it rests here, 

 but after the Mesaverde had been laid down, consolidated, raised 

 above drainage level, and remained a land surface for a long time. 

 At last the mountains were partly uplifted and great lakes were 

 formed, and into these lakes boulders worn from the older rocks, as 

 well as fine material, such as clay and sand, were washed, and the 

 whole mass was finally consolidated into rock. The time which has 

 elapsed since it was deposited and the pressure of the overlying rocks 

 have not been sufficient, however, to make it very hard ; it is much less 

 coherent than the Mesaverde and consequently gives a greater width 

 of valley than the older rock. The Wasatch beds near the out- 

 crop of the Mesaverde dip steeply to the southwest, or into the great 

 Uinta Basin, but at a greater distance from the hogback the beds 

 flatten and become nearly level as they approach the middle of the 

 basin. (See fig. 37, p. 148.) From Newcastle to Eifle the most promi- 

 nent surface features on the right are the sharp conical hills of the 

 Wasatch formation, in which the beds apparently stand on edge. 



are not accessible by railroad or be- 

 cause the coal is so low in rank that 

 it could not be sold in competition 

 with the coal already on the market. 



The quality of the coal differs greatly 

 in the different parts of the basin. 



The highest rank — anthracite — is 

 found near Crested Butte, and the 

 lowest rank — subbituminous coal — at 

 points on the uptunied rim. Coke is 

 manufactured south of Glenwocd 

 Springs, Colo., and at Sunnyside, Utah. 



