J. H. Kloos—Cretaceous Basin in the Sauk Valley. 25 
Though all these localities are fully 250 miles east of the 
Missouri, there is nothing in the configuration of western 
Minnesota and eastern Dakota to forbid the thought of a con- 
nowhere met with any rock in place. These hills are from six 
to ten miles wide, and consist of parallel ranges, extending 
nearly northeast and southwest. The slopes are everywhere 
and subsequent groups being several hundred feet thick and of a 
decidedly marine origin, it is more likely that one large sea has 
t the present time, all signs of the presence of older deposits 
under the accumulation of drift have almost entirely been 
_ obliterated, and it is impossible to get a correct idea of the 
position of the strata. The State Geologist, Henry Eames, 
Visited this locality in 1866, when three little shafts were sunk 
by the discoverer of the lignite. He describes the strata to be 
inclined under an angle of 65°. There seems to have been en- 
