GEOLOGICAL SUEYEY OF THE TEERITOEIES. 52 D 



observed in several places a curious branched fucoidal impression, (Haly- 

 menites,) which was afterward noticed by us in sandstone-becls at vari- 

 ous localities farther west. As far as is indicated by the fossil remains 

 found by us, there are no grounds for rendering any positive opinion as 

 to the age of this series ; the lower clays, however, have been deter- 

 mined, from fossils from that horizon, to belong to the Cretaceous, and 

 it is not impossible that these overlying sandstones may either wholly 

 or in part be properly referred to that period. 



Eawliixgs. — Between Fort Steele and Eawlings, the next station 

 west, we made no notes or Qollectious, but stopped several days at the 

 latter place to examine the lower formations there exposed. The mount- 

 ain immediately north of the village is mainly composed of light-grayish 

 or flesh-colored syeuitic granite, above which the sedimentary beds lie 

 tilted at various angles and in different directions on the several sides 

 of the hill. Immediately above the granite is a distinctly stratified de- 

 posit of siliceous conglomerate, passing in places into a coarse pebbly 

 sandstone, but mainly made up of rounded pebbles of whitish quartz, 

 rarely over one inch in diameter, in a siliceous matrix. This passes 

 gradually into the beds above ; it may be put down, however, as about 

 75 or 80 feet at its greatest thickness. Above this we have between 

 300 and 400 feet of hard grayish sandstone, approaching quartzite, regu- 

 larly bedded, the layers seldom exceeding a foot in thickness. Its color 

 on weathered surfaces varies from a light gray to ii reddish brown, a 

 tinge of the latter color predominating throug^Mit the whole ; on 

 freshly fractured surfaces, however, it is generdl^ light gray, or is 

 nearly white. The lower and heavier beds are almost a true quartzite ; 

 this character is less apparent toward the top, and some layers appear 

 to be full of rough fucoidal casts, which, however, were too imperfect to 

 be of value as specimens. No other fossils whatever were found, in 

 spite of a very careful search ; but while there was nothing absolutely 

 characteristic, Mr. Meek was inclined from their general resemblance 

 to undoubted Silurian beds in the western country, as well as their posi- 

 tion and the character of the contained fucoidal traces, to refer these 

 beds to the Lower Silurian, and possibly to its lowest membe/. Above 

 the sandstone is from 10 to 15 feet of dark colored ferruginous sand- 

 stone, in places containing a few i)ebbles, and even approaching the 

 character of a conglomerate. The bed of iron-ore worked on the north- 

 eastern side of the mountain represents, I think, a portion of this 

 stratum. The sandstone with its ferruginous capping is well seen in 

 the two hills between which the railroad passes about a half mile west 

 of the station, and also in its upper portion at the base of the hill at 

 Cherokee Spring, three or four miles northwest of the village. On the 

 southwestern corner of the m,ouutain, the sandstone-beds which form 

 the summit of an isolated spur extending in that direction are beauti- 

 fully x-jolished and finely striated from the action of sand carried by the 

 wind, the angles of the rock still being preserved. 



Immediately above the ferruginous upper layer of the sandstone is a 

 heavy limestone formation, the total thickness of which can hardly be 

 less than .300 feet, and is probably much more. It is a hard, splintering 

 rock, in places cherty, generally of a whitish or light-grayish color, but 

 with some layers dark bluish-gray. In it we found a specimen or two 

 of an Ailiyris closely resembling, if not identical with, A. subtUita of the 

 coal measures ; indeed, there seems to be no doubt as to the carbonifer- 

 ous age of this rock. This limestone appears on the northeastern slope 

 of the mountain for about 100 feet of its lower portion, and can be seen 

 in ridges on the fjlain at its base. It also caps the hills, between which 

 the railroad-track passes just west of the station, and is also shown in 



