GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF THE TERRITORIES. 27 



in thickness, and ten to twelve feet long, a beautifuV cream color, soft 

 but tenacious in structure, and easily cut with a knife ; can be made 

 very smooth for caps and sills with a jack-plane. 



This rock is abundant here, and is in very high favor with masons 

 and builders, and would be superior to the Pawnee City limestone were 

 it not for some small geode cavities which mar its beauty. 



The following is the general section of the rocks around Beatrice : 



6. Daik-brown ferruginous sandstones, of variable color and texture, 

 used for buildings; contains many leaves of plants; 50 to 60 feet. 



5. Yellowish-gray sandstone, soft, easily crumbling and wearing 

 away, exposed on Blakely's Kun, two miles west of Beatrice ; 30 to 50 

 feet. 



4. Slope in most places, but composed of variegated clays of doubt- 

 ful age — potters' clay ; 40 to 50 feet. 



3. Loose layers of yellow limestone, full of geode cavities, porous, 

 spongy. 



2. Yellow, rather compact limestone, good for building purposes; 2 

 to 2^ feet. 



1. Dark gray argillaceous limestone, becoming light gray on expos- 

 ure, iilled with geodes, with cavities full of crystals of carbonate of 

 lime. This bed is at times massive, heavy-bedded limestone, of a beau- 

 tiful cream color ; 10 feet. 



Beds 1, 2, and 3 of the above section are undoubtedly of Permian or 

 Permo-Carboniferous age, though they contain fossils common to both 

 Permian and Carboniferous rocks. 



Bed 4 is of doubtful age. Beds 5 and 6 are exceedingly interesting 

 in a geological point of view, from the fact that they represent a new 

 geological formation not before seen east of this point. 



Bed 4 seems to form a sort of transition bed between the Permian 

 and Cretaceous formations. The Permian rocks pass beneath the water- 

 level at Beatrice westward, and over a belt ten to fifteen miles wide, in 

 a northeast and southwest direction ; the brown sandstones prevail to 

 the exclusion of all other rocks. 



The village of Beatrice is pleasantly located on a second terrace in a 

 bend of the Big Blue, and is a prosperous place, surrounded with a 

 thickly-settled farming region, and bids fair to become an important in- 

 land town. It contains thirty or forty houses, several stores, a saw and 

 grist mill, &c. 



The soil of Gage County does not equal that of Pawnee County, or the 

 counties along the Missouri, as a whole. The bottom-lands are excel- 

 lent, but the upland soil is thin. The grass is less luxuriant and the 

 timber along the streams less abundant. For wheat, however, this soil, 

 composed as it is largely of the eroded materials of the Cretaceous sand- 

 stones, contains a large amount of silica and seems to be most favora- 

 ble. A bushel weighs more than that of the river counties, but the 

 corn and other kinds of grain are not quite as good. Yet too much can- 

 not be said in favor of Gage County as an agricultural and grazing re- 

 gion. No coal will ever be found there, and the sooner the farmers 

 commence i)lanting trees the more prosperous and happy they will be. 



Comparatively little peat will be found in the county, so that the 

 question of fuel must be determined by the intelligence and industry of 

 the people. If they plant trees now they cannot suffer for fuel, for be- 

 fore that which they now have is gone the planted forests will be ready 

 for use. 



In regard to fruits, garden- vegetables, &c., the same may be said of 



