18 GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF THE TEERITORIES. 



great scarcity of fuel that will warrant any labor being expended upon 

 it at all. 



We passed over the almost treeless prairie from Rulo to Falls City, 

 the county-seat, about nine miles distant. Some beds of limestone crop 

 out from the hills occasionally, but usually all the basis rocks are con- 

 cealed from view, and the surface is gently and beautifully undulating. 

 The fertility of the soil is everywhere shown by the luxuriance of the 

 crops. Falls City is located upon high ground overlooking the valley 

 of the Nemaha. There is not a native shrub or tree of any size growing 

 within a mile of the town. Although the same coal-bearing beds form 

 the underlying basis rocks about Falls City, yet not an outcropping of coal 

 could be found in the vicinity. Some good quarries, however, were ex- 

 amined. Having heard that a boring had been made at Hiawatha, the 

 county-seat of Brown County, Kansas, ten miles south of Falls City, I 

 visited that place to ascertain the result. I was informed that a com- 

 pany had bored near that place 240 feet without success, and that the 

 project had been abandoned ; and as the strata in all this region are 

 very nearly horizontal, the same result would follow any attempt at 

 boring at Falls City, to that depth at least. About nine miles south- 

 east of Hiawatha, a bed of coal is worked with considerable success, and 

 many hundred bushels of coal are taken out of the mines and sold annu- 

 ally. Mr. Lay cock, a lawyer at Hiawatha, informed me that during the 

 past winter he used about one hundred and thirty bushels of coal, for 

 which he paid 50 cents per bushel ; and he found it cheaper than wood, 

 even at that price. He spoke highly of its qualities as fuel. I am disposed 

 to believe that it is the same bed seen along the Missouri, in Nemaha 

 and Eichardson Counties, although I did not examine it in person. 

 Continuing.our course westward to Salem, we observed no marked change 

 in the country ; indeed, there is a remarkable uniformity in the charac- 

 ter of the country over a large area. The changes that take place are 

 usually the result of some change in the underlying geological forma- 

 tions, and are, therefore, quite gradual. No outcroppiugs of coal could 

 be found at Salem or vicinity, and it is quite possible that none will be 

 found exposed to the surface in that portion of the county, except 

 along the Missouri River. I am convinced, however, that boring at a 

 moderate depth, at almost any point, would penetrate the thin bed seen 

 at Eulo. The quarries of limestone, for building purposes, &c., are 

 much finer at Salem than at any other point observed in the county. . 

 The town is located upon an elevation on the point of the wedge of land 

 between the two forks of the Nemaha. Forming a part of the town-site 

 is a high hill with two beds of limestone, both of which form large quar- 

 ries, which yield an abundance of stone for all economical purposes. All 

 along the Nemaha and its numerous branches are quite well- wooded 

 tracts of land, which are held at a high price, though no portion of the 

 county would be called well timbered in any of the States east of the 

 Mississippi. 



BLUFF FORMATION. 



I have not unfrequently alluded to a superficial deposit of yellow 

 siliceous marl, occupying much of the country, and concealing the under- 

 lying basis rocks, thus rendering the study of the details of the geology 

 somewhat difficult. The geologist is dependent upon natural exposures 

 of the basis rocks by streams, or by uplifts of the beds by internal vol- 

 canic action, or by artificial excavations. Now, in a new country there 

 are very few artificial works, and all over the State of Nebraska the beds 



