364 GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF THE TERRITORIES. 



whatever, has not been looked for, and the numerous outcrops remarked 

 in the hills have not been tested. The lignite of this part of the country 

 appears, however, of remarkably good quality, even richer in carbon 

 than the Eaton coal, and compact enough to give good hard coke by 

 distillation, an important quality which has not as yet been recognized 

 in auy of the Tertiary lignite, except in the Placiere anthracite. The 

 analysis of the lignite of Chicosa is given hereafter in a comparative 

 table. 



In resuming the remarks on the lignite of the country, it is allowed 

 to conclude that from positive evidence there is along a nearly direct 

 line from Pueblo to Santa Fe, and for a distance of more than three 

 hundred miles, such a richness of combustible mineral in the Eocene 

 lignite-beds as may be sufiQcient for the future demands of a large 

 I)opulation. The supply of coal on that line can be considered from all 

 appearances as inexhaustible. 



§ 3. The Colorado Lignitic Basin, from Pueblo to Cheyenne. 



A separated number of this great basin, or rather an isolated area 

 spared by the work of denudation along the base of the Eocky Mount- 

 ains, is the small Lignitic basin in the Arkansas Valley, east of Caiion 

 City. Its exact productiveness is not as yet ascertained. The report 

 of Mr. JSTelson Clarke, already noticed, says that the coal-yielding rocks 

 contain at least nine seams of lignite, varyingin thickness from 6 inches 

 to 8 feet: "two scams at the south, close to the range, are respectively 

 6 and 7 feet thick and but 50 feet apart; at the north, on the river, they 

 are but 2 and 4 feet thick and at least 150 feet apart." The lowest of 

 these seams of coal is known as the CaSon City coal, now the land 

 property of the Colorado Improvement Company. The coal is 51 inches 

 thick, black, compact, uniform in color and compound, separating in 

 large cubic blocks by cleavage, and from appearance not liable to disin- 

 tegration by atmospheric influence. This coal was already known and 

 in demand for blacksmiths even at Denver, though before the build- 

 ing of the Denver and- Eio Grande Eailroad, the cost of transporta- 

 tion was very high. When I passed the place the branch of the rail- 

 road from Pueblo to Caiion City was not yet finished and the lignite 

 ■was hauled to Pueblo for the use of the railroad at tbe cost of $5 per 

 ton.. Now it is already shipped from the newly opened mines at the 

 rate of about one hundred and fifty tons per diem. Borings are in x^ro- 

 cess at different places to ascertain the thickness and continuity of the 

 veins. From what is known as yet, this small basin has a productive 

 capacity which will afi^ord combustible materials for a length of time. 



The bed of lignite formerly mentioned as the Gehrung's coal, at the 

 base of the Colorado pinery, does not promise well for future demand. 

 It is too thin, only 2 feet thick, too friable, and, as worked now, the 

 mine is subject to inundation in high water. It can, however, be found 

 improving in thickness and quality to the south, where shafts could be 

 sunk at a distance from the river. But abundance of comlSustible ma- 

 terial is now easily and cheaply procured by railroad, and the cost of 

 building a shaft and of working the coal would be above the value of 

 lignite of interior quality from a bed less than 4 feet thick. 



The Eocene formation so largely developed along the Eocky Mount- 

 ains, from the North Fork of Platte Eiver to Cheyenne, will be for a long 

 time to come the essenti;il inagnzine of combustible, wherefrom an 

 abundance of excellent materials will be supplied to the railroads, and 

 the already large population of the country. If some of the opened 



