APPENDIX D, 



GEOLOGY. 



NOTES UPON THE SPECIMENS OF KOCKS AND MINERALS COL- 

 LECTED : BY EDWARD HITCHCOCK, PRESIDENT OF AMHERST 

 COLLEGE. 



Dear Sir: I have done what I could with the specimens you put 

 into my hands from the Red river ; but I must confess, that while these 

 specimens, with the sections and notes by Dr. Shumard and yourself, 

 have disclosed some interesting and valuable substances, I have found it 

 impossible to solve several questions of importance for the want of more 

 specimens, especially fossils. Without these, you are aware, the tertiary 

 and secondary formations cannot be identified with any degree of cer- 

 tainty. Yet the whole number of species sent me does not exceed half 

 a dozen, and several of these are so mutilated that their specific charac- 

 ter cannot be determined. The two most important formations pointed 

 out in your notes, and in the sections, are the gypsum deposite and that 

 of coal ; yet from the former there is not in the collection more than 

 one species of fossil, and from the latter no specimen whatever; so that 

 the exact place in the geological scale of these two formations is in a 

 great measure conjectural.* 



But notwithstanding these deficiencies, we do get from the specimens, 

 and your notes, glimpses of several very valuable facts. The four most 

 important points in your discoveries are gypsum, copper, gold, and coal. 

 Perhaps I cannot bring out my views upon these and other points better 

 than by describing the specimens in the order of your march, except 

 where that was doubled upon itself. Where I can do it, and think it of 

 any service, I shall designate by colors, upon the map of your route 

 which you placed in my hands, the most important deposites. 



At your starting point, Fort Belknap, on the Brazos river, you men- 

 tion a fact of the deepest interest, viz : the occurrence of "large beds of 

 bituminous coal." Dr. Shumard has given the following section of the 

 strata at this place : 



* When I wrote the above I was not aware that Dr. Geo. G. Shumard was re- 

 quested to report upon the palaeontology of the exploration. When that report 

 appears, probably he, or others, can draw more accurate conclusions upon some 

 points than I have done 



