BALD MOUNTAIN COAL. 97 



beds at Pancake bear some resemblance to the section found at the base 

 of Richmond Mountain, which, of course, indicates the base of the Carbon- 

 iferous limestone. Such evidence, however, is not conclusive, as the beds 

 also resemble and may be synchronous with the interstratified grits and lime- 

 stones of the Upper Coal-measures, with which by far the greater number of 

 the observed species are identical. 



In exploring these coal seams for marketable coal considerable work 

 has been done, although all operations had been abandoned three years 

 previous to our visit. In places the vein was reported as 5 feet in 

 width, although much broken up and displaced. A vertical shaft, said to 

 be 180 feet in depth, had been sunk before the project was abandoned and 

 several tunnels and inclines run along the line of the coal. Examinations 

 could be made only in one tunnel, owing to the caving-in of the clay beds. 

 Sixty feet from the entrance, where the seam measures 20 inches, samples 

 of coal were collected. It closely resembles the lignites of the Green River 

 basin. On exposure the coal crumbles readily. 



Bald Mountain lies to the north of Pancake and is situated in the 

 main ridge of the Humboldt Range. The coal or lignite outcrops are ex- 

 posed near the base of the range in clay shales inclined at low angles 

 toward the mountain. The mode of occurrence bears the closest resem- 

 blance to the strata at Pancake interstratified conglomerates and shales 

 followed by massive, distinctly bedded yellowish brown and buff lime- 

 stones. At the time of our visit, in the autumn of 1880, the Bald Mountain 

 Coal Company had run a tunnel from the outcrop for 160 feet into the 

 mountain following the coal seam. At the head of this tunnel the coal 

 strata measured only from 2 to 7 inches in width, passing into black car- 

 bonaceous clays. At this point there was more or less displacement of 

 the strata, and this thin seam of coal was apparently cut off by a line of 

 faulting, which put an end to further explorations, the poor quality and 

 limited quantity of the coal discouraging any further outlay of money. A 

 search of the black shale beneath the coal was rewarded by the rinding of 

 a number of fossils all belonging to the species Athiiri* xxbtilita. In 

 the buff limestones, immediately above the coal, a small number of fossils 



were found: 



MON xx 7 



