360 GEOLOGICAL SUEVEY OF THE TEREITOEIES. 



Yellowstone Elvers were remarked, but always in a general way, with- 

 out giving any precise information concerning their age, their distribu- 

 tion, thickness, and compounds. 



The same Lignitic formations were also described from the northwest 

 of British America, with some ruore details ', but these observations do 

 not concern the present researches. 



From the south, too, or from New Mexico, we have records of the 

 presence of thick coal-beds "found in great abundance and of good 

 quality between the placers in the Eaton Mountains, and many other 

 places."* And in the narrative of Lieutenant-Colonel Emory, coal is 

 mentioned as occurring between Fort Bent, on the Arkansas River, and 

 Sante F6 to the north and south of the Eaton Pass. One bed seen to the 

 northward, at Captain Sumner's camp, is described as an immense field, 

 the seam which cropped out being 30 feet thick. Another noticed by 

 Colonel Emory, was seen on the banks and near the head-waters of the 

 Canadian Eiver, about north latitude 36° 50', on the 7th August, 1847.t 



It is in the reports of Messrs. Meek and Hay den, and in the numer- 

 ous papers which these -gentlemen have published from 1857 to 1861, 

 that we obtain the first positive data, not only on the geology and 

 paleontology of the Lignitic formations of the north, but, also, on the 

 distribution and value of their beds of combustible minerals. The pro- 

 ceedings of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia, May, 1857, 

 have a very interesting account of the Tertiary and Cretaceous of Ne- 

 braska, by Messrs. Meek and Hayden. The section, page 8, marks the 

 relative position of eight beds of lignite underlaid by a compact sand- 

 stone 30 feet thick, which directly reposes upon No. 5 of the Cretaceous. 



In the same year Dr. F. Y. Hayden has a map with sections of the 

 country bordering the Missouri River, accompanied by explanations 

 and documents of the highest interest. This work embodies the results 

 of three years' explorations by the author in the Northwest. It 

 marks the outlines of the great Lignitic Tertiary at the south from 

 the Upper Smoky Hill Fork of the Kansas Eiver, to above White 

 River, or the South Fork of the Cheyenne; and at the north on both 

 sides of the Missouri River from below Fort Clarke to the Muscleshell 

 River, the north limit marked by British America, and the southern by 

 the head-waters of Cherry Creek and the Black Hills. The author esti- 

 mates the area of this north basin at four hundred miles in length and 

 one hundred and fifty miles in width, or at about sixty thousand square 

 miles — an estimate which he rightly considers as too low. From this 

 time to 1861 the papers of Messrs. Meek and Hayden, mostly relating to 

 paleontology and geology, do not furnish any materials for this part of 

 my researclies.| 



* In a letter of Don Manuel Alvarez, May, 1847, quoted by Taylor, loo. cit. 



t E. C. Taylor's Statistics of Coal, p. 220. 



t In order to show the amount of work performed at that time to prepare the knowl- 

 eclge •which wo have now obtained on the geology of the Western Territories, and to 

 direct the researches of those who are interested in the subject, 1 give here a mere 

 catalogue of the memoirs published by Messrs. Meek and Hayden, from 1857 to 1861 : 



May, 1857. — Proceedings Acad. Nat. Sci., Phil. : On the Tertiary and Cretaceous 

 formations of Nebraska, &c. (F. B. Meek and F. V. Hayden.) 



May, 1857. — Loc. cit. : Notes explanatory of a map and section illustrating the geo- 

 logical structure of the Upper Missouri, &c. (F. V. Hayden.) 



June, 1857. — Loc. cit. : Notes on the geology of the Mauvaises Terres of White Eiver, 

 Nebraska. (F. Y. Hayden.) 



March, 1858. — Trans. Albany Inst. : Description of new organic remains from North- 

 eastern Kansas Permian. (Meek and Hayden.) 



