370 B. BROWN CRETACEOUS-EOCENE CORRELATION IN NEW MEXICO 



light-gray sandy clay layer 4 feet thick overlying a seam of impure 

 lignite 1% feet thick. Twelve miles below Fieldholme, in the big bend 

 of the Red Deer, where it again turns east, a thick vein of lignite, prob- 

 ably the same one noted above, appears on the left bank. At this point 

 the full section of the cut-bank is composed of Belly Eiver beds capped 

 by glacial gravel and large boulders. The overlying Pierre entirely dis- 

 appears near Matjiwin Creek. Below this point the banks of the river 

 gradually increase in height, and at the mouth of Berry Creek, near 

 Steveville, are eroded back into the prairie in picturesque bad lands on 

 either side of the river. At water level, on the left bank 100 yards above 

 the ferry at Steveville, there is a compact ledge of sandstone in which 

 plant remains are well preserved. The following species were collected 

 from this ledge: Dammara sp., possibly D. aciculans Knowlton. CastaUa 

 stantoni Knowlton, CastaUa sp. no v., Aspidium sp. Dr. A. Hollick iden- 

 tified these fossils, and says that "the specimens from the Belly River 

 formation (Steveville, Alta., etcetera) are nearly all species which are 

 typical of the Judith River formation and indicate the stratigraphir 

 identify of these two formation." Extensive bad lands continue down 

 the river as far as the mouth of Sand Creek, 12 miles below Steveville, 

 where the banks are about 300 feet in height. 



Below Sand Creek for 15 miles, in what is known as "Dead Lodge 

 Canyon,'^ the banks gradually decrease in height and near the end of 

 this course become sloping and grass-covered. A few clean-scarped ex- 

 posures again appear near the ranch-house of Mr. M. J. Stapleton, in 

 section 15, range ix. township 22, where the lower strata of the BeUy 

 River beds are composed chiefly of compact yellowish indurated sand 

 and lamellar sandstones. In this yellow c-ompact sand, 1 mile below 

 Stapleton's, I collected a nearly complete skull of Monoclonius sp. The 

 lower sand strata exposed on the Red Deer River closely resembles tlK 

 lower part of the Belly River series exposed on the Belly River at Big 

 Island, 12 miles below Lethbridge, described by Dawson in Canadian Geo- 

 logical Survey, RepoH of Progrefis, 1882-'83-'84, pages :3-74C. 



The upper strata of the few clean-scarped exposures near the mouth of 

 Blood Indian Creek contain Bacniites sp. and Scaphiies sp., and un- 

 doubtedly belong to the Pierre. The lower 50 feet are composed chieflv 

 of yellowish sand and sandstone, the ba.«e of the Belly River series. 

 Below Blood Indian Creek the banks are mostly sloping and gniss- 

 covered, with few exposures, wliich are said by McConnell to be chieflv 

 yellowish sand and sandstones, representing the base of the Belly River 

 series, which are exposed at intervals down to a point 25 miles west of 

 the confluence of the Red Deer River with the South Saskatchewan. 



