668 DESCRIPTIVE GEOLOGY. 



species of Coal-Measure fossils, the formations have been referred to the 

 "Weber Quartzite and Upper Coal-Measure series. 



The main canons of the Battle Mountains do not cut the formations at 

 right angles to the strike, but obliquely, as at the northern end, or else par- 

 allel with them, as is the case with Willow Canon and the canon next east- 

 ward, thus offering exposures far less complete and satisfactory than is 

 usually to be found in the Nevada Basin ranges. Willow Caiion and the 

 canon next to the eastward divide the southern end of the mountains into 

 three parallel ridges, with distinct lithological features. To the north, in the 

 centre of the mass, these ridges are united by low saddles, which connect 

 with Antler Peak, a heavy mass of the overlying limestone. Beyond Antler 

 Peak, to the north, the ridge-system is lost, and the hills are separated some- 

 what from the rest of the group by Elder Canon, which trends off to the 

 northwest between Antler and Sue Peaks, and heads in a broad open valley 

 to the east of the latter summit. 



Sue Peak and the high ridge to the eastward, with the steep slopes 

 toward the Humboldt River, so far as examined, consist of dark fine-grained 

 cherty quartzites, distinctly bedded, and dipping to the westward. They 

 differ somewhat from the quartzite beds east and southeast of Antler Peak, 

 and may possibly belong to an older unconformable formation ; but, as their 

 point of contact was nowhere observed, and as the structural relations be- 

 tween them have not been traced out, it is impossible to state definitely the 

 true relation of the two bodies. From the Battle Mountain mining settlement 

 southward, the eastern ridge dips uniformly to the west, and is made up of 

 brown and dirty -gray quartzites, speckled with bluish-black angular grains. 

 They have a decidedly arenaceous texture and an irregular fracture. Under 

 the microscope may be detected fragments of feldspar, which in some locali- 

 ties are of sufficient size to be recognized by the unaided eye. Associated 

 with the quartzites are dark quartzitic slates and schists. Near the top of the 

 ridge, the beds pass into sandstones of a dirty-brown color, more or less dis- 

 colored by iron, and carrying numerous flakes of white silvery mica. A 

 prominent stratum consists of -a coarse conglomerate of quartz and jasper 

 pebbles, held firmly together by a binding material of fine ferruginous sand. 



The middle ridge lying east of Willow Canon has a strike about north 



