GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF THE, TERRITORIES. 165 



the east side of this wall about five miles below Vegas, we enter the 

 hills through a gorge in this sandstone, called the Puerto cito del Padre. 

 West of this we can see the complete series of the sedimentary beds in 

 the form of upheaved ridges, rising like steps to the main mountain 

 range. Our course to Santa Fe was nearly south, through a very rugged 

 country ; the formations thrown up into lofty ridges. In a few miles 

 we came out into open valleys quite broad, and nearly all the beds are 

 older than the cretaceous, and nearly horizontal in their position, and the 

 valleys have been carved out of the Jurassic and triassic beds; the 

 very singular castellated hills on the left looking much like mesas, cap- 

 ped with sandstone, probably cretaceous in part, showing the red beds 

 beneath. Sometimes the entire series of red beds are clearly shown, and 

 even the carboniferous limestones are w^ell exposed, but the Gallinas 

 section is so complete that I need not repeat it here. On the San Jose 

 Creek and the Rio Pecos are some fine exjiosures of the triassic rocks, 

 showing their peculiar features and their variable texture. The prevail- 

 ing color of the upper series of variegated beds is brick red, and that of 

 the lower, or supposed triassic, is dull purplish. Close to the village of 

 San Jose the beds are all nearly horizontal. The high hills around 

 retain their mesa-like form. JSlearly all the wr-j" to Apache Canon, on 

 the crossing of the mountain, the road runs along a valley with a lofty 

 ridge or "hog-back" on one (the east) side, which forms a sort of outer 

 wall and a conspicuous feature. The upper series of red beds are well 

 shown, and a portion of the second series, but the bed of sandstone 

 which caps the ridge, I am inclined to regard as a part of the Jurassic 

 group. At any rate I have not been accustomed to include these yel- 

 lowish-gray, fine-grained sandstones among the cretaceous beds. The 

 ridge of sandstone which forms the outer wall at Vegas must still con- 

 tinue outside of this ridge. 



In the lower red series are beds of gypsum. I saw gypsum at a num- 

 ber of localities on our route. At Vegas, it is used for building i)urposes. 



I was informed that a coal mine had been found near Tecalote, and 

 that the coal had been used for black smithing, but I saw no rocks that 

 could possibly contain coal, on my route, and think that it was a mis- 

 take. A copper mine has been wrought with some success near San 

 Miguel in the triassic beds. I did not examine it. isTear Pecos Creek, all 

 the rocks seem to be in contact, from the light-colored sandstones, that cap 

 the mesa, to the carboniferous. All the beds dip a little from the main 

 range, and this inclination increases as we approach the mountains. 

 The width of the belt of upheaved sedimentary rocks, from Vegas to the 

 southern point of the mountains north of Gallisteo Creek, must average 

 twenty to thirty miles, and the opportunities for studying them, in their 

 order of sequence, is excellent. 



At Payaritos Springs station, there is a splendid exhibition of the 

 different groups of strata, as we have seen them since leaving Vegas. 

 The light-gray sandstones and first and second series of variegated beds 

 are all shown in their order for six hundred to eight hundred feet. 



About six miles north of the old Pecos church, there is a bed of com- 

 pact reddish limestone, full of fossils, which I am inclined to regard as 

 jpermian, containing fossils Myalina, Mytihis, Pletirophorus, and crinoidal 

 Btems. This limestone belongs to the lowest portion of the second series 

 of red beds. I would just remark here, that I am inclined to the belief 

 that in the mesa, which looks so conspicuous on our left, on the road to 

 Santa Fe, we have the first series of variegated beds, or Jurassic, including 

 the fine-grained sandstones that cap them ; and the second series, triassic ; 



