CHAPTER T . 



GEOLOGY OF THE . ROUTE BETWEEN [NDEPENDENCE AND 



SANTA FK. 



General geological sketch — Independence to Dragoon Creek — Carboniferous 

 strata — Character op coal and Coal-measures op Kansas — Due to what 

 causes— Coal-plants of Kansas — Morusoas fossils— Dragoon Creek to Cotton- 

 wood Creek— Permo Carboniferous and Permian strata — Difficulty* of sepa- 

 rating these formations— Cottonwood Creek to Walnut Creek— Gypsum forma, 

 tion— Its parallelism— Walnut Creek to Pawnee Pork— Lower Cretaceous 

 rocks— Sandstones with [mpressions of Caves— Pawnee Fork to Cimarron— Terti- 

 aky strata— Arkansas basin— Its relation to that of White River— Cimarron to 

 Enchanted Spring — Jurassic (.') rooks— Enchanted Spring to Cottonwood Spring — 

 Lower Cretaceous and Tertiary beds— Cottonwood Spring to Canadian— Trad 



BUTTES AND MESAS NEAB BATON MOUNTAINS— CRETACEOUS ROOKS OF THE CANADIAN— 



Table-Lands skirting the Rocky Mountains — Canadian to Las Vegas — Trap 

 Plateau to Burgeoin's Spring— Cretaceous strata at Fort Union and Las 



Vegas. 



The geology of the country bordering- the Santa Fe road is described somewhat 

 in detail in Chapter X of my report to Lieut. J. C. Ives, U. S. A., on the geology of 

 the Colorado country. It will not, therefore, be necessary to devote as much time 

 and space to this portion of our held of explorations as though it were before wholly 

 unknown. In our recent journey from Independence, Mo., to Santa Fe, however, we 

 passed over quite a large area not traversed on the route from Santa Fe to Fort 

 Leavenworth. In repassing also the route formerly traveled, our stopping-places 

 were, in many instances, different; many new exposures of the rocks were examined, 

 and observations were made by which it is now possible to define much more accu- 

 rately than was formerly done the geographical limits of the different formations met 

 with. I am happy to say that the conclusions arrived at in my former report on the 

 geology of this region, in regard to the relative position of the various strata noticed, 

 were fully confirmed by our later observations; and the value of the facts now 

 reported consists, for the most part, in the more accurate limitation of the surface- 

 boundaries of the formations, and in the paleontological evidence which they furnish 

 of the age Of strata before, in a great degree, conjectural. The number of fossils 

 discovered in our late transit of the plains was large in the Carboniferous, Permian, and 

 Cretaceous rocks, but I had constant occasion to regret that our means of transporta- 



