w 
204 F. V. Hayden on the Lignite deposits of the West. 
for the production of one ton of pig iron, 3 tons of the ore, 
200 pounds of limestone, and 130 to 150 bushels of charcoal 
are required. Over 500 tons of this ore have been taken from 
this locality and the area over which it seems to abound cannot 
be less than 50 square miles. Indications of large deposits of 
iron ore have been found in many other localities along the 
line of the Pacific Rail Roads, and if the mineral fuel which 
is found here in such great abundance can be made useful for 
smelting purposes, these lignite and iron ore beds will exert 
the same kind of influence over the’ progress of the great west 
that Pennsylvania exerts over all the contiguous states, When 
we reflect that we have from 10,000 to 20,000 square miles of 
mineral fuel in the center of a region where for a radius of 600 
, to 1,000 miles in every direction there is little or no fuel either 
on or beneath the surface, the future value of these deposits 
cannot be over-estimated. 
doubtedly Tertiary. Those on the Upper Missouri have been : 
m 
shown to be of that age both from vegetable and animal rema 
Pe 
found on the Upper Missouri. The simple fact that Cretaceous 
formations Nos. 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5, are well shown all along the 
foot of the mountains, and that No. 5 presents its usual litho- 
logical character with its peculiar fossils, within 15 miles of 
Marshall’s mines, also that at the mine, 2, 3 and 4, are seen 
inclining at nearly the same angle and holding a lower position 
has been traced uninterruptedly to the North Platte, about 80 
mie, 
miles above Fort Lara 
any indications of this formation over the eastern range in the 
iti Ssessio om . ; : 
Wind river chain, which forms the main divide of the Rocky 
