14 GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF THE TEEEITOETES. 



witli at Aspiuwall : one crops out near tlie river, about fifteen feet above 

 the water, twenty-four inches in thickness— very good quality, A few 

 feet above this seam is a second seam— six inches of good coal. Some 

 English miners are sinking a shaft here, with full confidence that the 

 thickest bed can be made profitable, and I am inclined to think that, 

 with the present scarcity of fuel, they will succeed well. Coal com- 

 mands a ready sale at from forty cents to eighty cents per bushel ; and 

 even at eighty cents a bushel, coal is cheaper than wood. The miners 

 have already sunk the shaft about forty feet 5 have passed through the 

 6-inch seamj and are confident of soon reaching the 24-inch bed, when 

 the work of drifting in various directions will commence, and the coal 

 be taken out for market. The beds hold such a position here that, if the 

 miners are successful, this effort determines the existence of a work- 

 able bed of coal for Nemaha, Eichardson, Pawnee, and Johnson Coun- 

 ties, which will be a most important matter for the whole State. We 

 have very abundant notes in detail, and many specimens to illustrate 

 the geology of the river counties. 



Mr. Meek leaves me at Eulo and returns to Washington. The remain- 

 der of the year I must perform the field-work alone. My next examina- 

 tions will be in Eichardson and Pawnee Counties. 



I am informed that excellent hydraulic lime for cement exists in 

 Nemaha County, section 9, township 6, range 14; but I have not been 

 able yet to make a personal examination of the locality. 



POREST AND PRUIT TREES. 



I would again speak of the great importance of planting trees in this 

 country, and the great ease with which these cultivated forests may be 

 produced. I do not believe that the prairies proper will ever become 

 covered with timber except by artificial means. Since the surface of 

 the country received its present geological configuration no trees have 

 grown there, but, during the Tertiary period, when the lignite or " brown 

 coal " beds were deposited, all these treeless i^lains were covered with a 

 luxuriant growth of forest-trees like those of the Gulf States or South 

 America. Here were palm-trees, with leaves having a spread of twelve 

 feet; gigantic sycamores — several species; maples, poplars, cedars, 

 hickories, cinnamon, fig, and many varieties now found only in tropical 

 or sub-tropical climates. 



Large portions of the Upper Missouri country, especially along the 

 Yellowstone Eiver, are now covered with silicified trunks of trees, sixty 

 to seventy feet in length and two to four feet in diameter, exhibiting the 

 annual rings of growth as perfectly as in our recent elms or maples. 

 We are daily obtaining more and more evidence that these forests may 

 be restored again to a certain extent, at least, and thus a belt or zone of 

 country about five hundred miles in width east of the base of the mount- 

 ains be redeemed. It is believed, also, that the planting of ten or fifteen 

 acres of forest- trees on each quarter- section will have a most important 

 effect on the climate, equalizing and increasing the moisture and adding 

 greatly to the fertility of the soil. The settlement of the country and 

 the increase of the timber have already changed for the better the climate 

 of that portion of Nebraska lying along the Missouri, so that within 

 the last twelve or fourteen years the rain has gradually increased in 

 quantity and is more equally distributed through the year. I am confi- 

 dent this change will continue to extend across the dry belt to the foot 

 of the Eocky Mountains as the settlements extend and the forest-trees 

 are planted in proper quantities, in the final report I propose to show 



