326 F. V. Hayden on Coal in Nebraska. 
has been traversed in every direction by multitudes of explorers 
for thirty years past, among whom have been geologists of high 
reputation, yet south of lat. 40° not a single animal fossil 
has ever been detected with Jurassic afiinities, and it is quite 
doubtful whether any have been found with Triassic or Permian 
relations,* even the few plants that have been found are doubt- 
ful in their affinities and are regarded as probably Cretaceous 
or Permian. I have made these remarks from the fact that all 
the observations that have been made by explorers in the west 
during the past will, ere many years, be put to the rigid test 
of a most careful scrutiny, and an error by whomsoever made, 
though sustained by the highest authority in the land, will fall 
to the ground before the light of true science as the dead bark 
from a tree. The ease with which the Rocky mountain region 
can soon be reached in a few years, when our great national 
highways are completed to the Pacific, will induce the best geol- 
ogists in this country and in Europe to visit them, and the many 
intricate problems of Rocky mountain geology must be solved. 
The great School of Mines which will no doubt be soon es- 
tablished in the heart of the mining districts of the Rocky 
mountains, must gather around it able men who will either 
sustain or reject the observations of other investigators who 
have examined the country under less favorable auspices. 
\ 
Art. XXX V.—Remarks on the possibility cs a Brges3i bed 
of Coal in Nebraska ;+ by F. V. H 
SUPPLEMENTARY to my article on the lignites of the West, 
in the March No. of this Journal, I wish to make a few re- 
marks in regard to the existence of workable beds of coal in 
Nebraska, During the geological wate, last season, the 
ae a og of moderate thickness, at a eabath 
depth, would be a: inestimable value, and ths solution of this 
* I do not wish to be understood as saying that the Jurassic rocks do not occur, 
south of the Arkansas, as rmian and Triassic, for there is anple 
room for their fullest eens 
its. ) existence, al peek ae cont i Ase ~~ — traversed by ct 
re. T a ga agai occurrence at all. 
: Care of pee US 8. "Geological 8 ees of 3 a con Meek has 
5 the Carboniferous rocks of N ebraska, 
