FROM ST. PAUL TO THE WESTERN TART OF THE STATE. 



the village of lied wood Falls (which had lately been sold as a coal property), gave the 



following section : 



1. Prairie formation of sand and gravel, etc. ; 00-70 ft. 



2. Clay, varying from 4 to or 8 ft. 



3. Sandstono ; 8 inches to 1 ft. 



4. Dark clay shale ; 2J ft. 



5. Sandstone ; 1 ft. 



6. Earthy coal ; 3 ft. 



7. Sandstone and chorty bed ; thickness unknown. 



8. Slopo (talus) to river bed, about 70 ft. 



The formation in this neighborhood evidently lies in depressions in the older strata of 

 the Gneiss and Granite rocks, which rise up to a higher elevation than the Cretaceous 

 deposits. 



a. Gneiss and Granitic rocks of Lauren- 



tian age. 



b. Prairie formation. 



c. Clay, sand, and earthy coal, Cretaceous. 



d. Talus to the river level. 



At another place three miles 

 south of Redwood Falls, I saw 

 outcrops of a similar formation 

 at two localities a mile apart. 

 The order in descending was 

 as follows : 



1. Prairie formation ; GO to 70 ft. 



2. Clay of variable thickness ; 3 to 5 ft. 



3. Earthy coal ; 3 ft. 



4. Cherty concretionary rock ; 4 ft. 



5. Talus; 70 ft. 



Both at Redwood Falls and along the river below, as well as in the valley of the Min- 

 nesota River above the mouth of the Redwood River, and upon the east side of the Min- 

 nesota at the mouth of Beaver Creek, the rocks arc of a gneissoid character, resembling 

 those of the Laurentian system. In many places these rocks are intercalated by stcatitic 

 or glauconitic beds, and the entire mass is in a state of decomposition to the depth of 

 eighty or one hundred feet. Notwithstanding the numerous exposures, I was unable from 

 the debris of the decomposing surface (with the very limited time at my disposal), to de- 

 termine satisfactorily the structure of this portion of the country. It would be of much 

 interest to ascertain the relation which the dip and direction of these older gneissoid rocks 

 bear to the succeeding quartzites, which evidently belong to the Huronian system. 



Returning again to the Minnesota River below New Ulm, I examined both the east 

 and west banks of that stream. On the east side a little way above the Ferry, there 



