DEER CREEK — COAL BEDS — CROSSING OF NORTH FORK. 61 



stretched across the river, and secured at the ends to either bank. 

 Frail and insecure as was the appearance of this very primitive 

 ferry-boat, yet all the wagons were passed over in the course of 

 two hours, without the slightest accident, although many of them 

 were very heavily laden. The animals were driven into the stream 

 and obliged to ferry themselves over, which they did without loss, 

 although the river was now somewhat swollen by late rains and 

 the current extremely rapid and turbid. The ferrymen informed 

 me that an emigrant had been drowned here, the day before, in 

 essaying to swim his horse across, which he persisted in attempt- 

 ing, notwithstanding the earnest entreaties and warnings of his 

 friends. They told us that this man made the twenty-eighth vic- 

 tim drowned in crossing the Platte this year ; but I am inclined 

 to believe that this must be an exaggeration. The charge for 

 ferriage was two dollars for each wagon. The price, considering 

 that the ferrymen had been for months encamped here, in a little 

 tent, exposed to the assaults of hordes of wandering savages, for 

 the sole purpose of affording this accommodation to travellers, was 

 by no means extravagant. 



A short distance above where the road crosses Deer Creek, coal 

 was found cropping out of the bluff on the left bank of the stream. 

 Ascending the creek, the direction of which was about north by 

 west, the strata were inclined at an angle of about three degrees, 

 but not at right angles to the dip, which appeared to be north by 

 east. The coal was lying on a stratum of white sandstone of con- 

 siderable thickness ; above it were some dark shales ; and above 

 these, gray sandstones, in which latter were found fossils of Sigil- 

 laria, and, in those under the coal, stems of Calamites ; but as the 

 only examples that could be obtained were from rocks which had 

 been exposed to the action of the weather, they were imperfect. 

 The stratum of coal was three or four feet thick, and resembled 

 the cannel coal very much ; but as the only specimens obtained 

 were, very much weathered, this could not be ascertained with cer- 

 tainty. As the strata rose, the coal could be traced ascending 

 the hills on the side of the bank, and the deeper underlying rocks 

 became more fully exposed. They consisted of sandstones, vary- 

 ing in colour from red to gray, and containing many fossils, prin- 

 cipally vegetable. 



The road, after crossing the river, runs mostly on the side of 

 the bluffs, which here approach much nearer than on the south 

 side. They consist of reddish sandstone, containing some curious 



