524 GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF THE TERRITORIES. 



its full thickness in the hills near Cherokee Spring. Above the lime- 

 stone is a light buff or yellowish sandstone weathering into thin laminee 

 in the exposures which outcrop in several places in the hills south of 

 the railroad near the station, but we did not measure its thickness nor 

 see its point of junction with the beds below. The vertical distance 

 between the highest outcrop of this rock visited by us and the base of 

 the liuiestoue we estimated at from 600 to 800 feet. 



The rocks above the granite dip to all i:)oints of the compass, from , 

 nearly north on the northeastern face of the mountain, around l^y east 

 and southeast, to southwest in the hills aear Cherokee Spring. In tbe 

 hills near the station it is about 10° southeast, and is continuous on 

 both sides of the curious gap through which the railroad passes. It 

 increases in angle in the higher sandstone beds, above the limestone, 

 which I have mentioned as outcropping in the hills south of the rail- 

 road, being there not less than 20° or 30°, still preserving, however, the 

 same direction. At Cherokee Spring the beds are also tilted at a high 

 angle, varying from 20° to 30°, apparently greatest in the lower sand- 

 stones. In the northeastern exposures on the long slope of the mount- 

 ain it was slight, not averaging over 10° or 12° ; in direction, ranging 

 from south of east to nearly north. 



Separation. — We did not attempt to make thorough examinations 

 at Eawlings, or to work out the connection between these lower forma- 

 tions and the Cretaceous, as more time would have been required for 

 this than we could^ave well given. We therefore passed on to Separa- 

 tion, the next stoppfjig-place to the westward, where we spent one day. 

 The station is situated in a level country with no very prominent expos- 

 ures of rock in place nearer than a mile and a half or more. At that 

 distance, however, in a direction a little south of east, we reached the 

 first of a series of low ridges extending across the country in a general 

 north and south direction, composed of thin-bedded sandstones dipping 

 at an angle of from 10° to 15° to the west, or a little north of west. 

 These ridges are caused by the harder sandstone-beds standing out 

 prominently from the softer shales and clays which form the great mass 

 of the beds here. Walking directly across the dip we passed over 

 eleven of these ridges in the estimated distance of somewhat less than 

 two miles, the valleys between, as a general rule, affording no expos- 

 urts. At that distance the series of low ridges ended in a high sloping 

 bluff" of heavy-bedded, grayish-buff sandstone, faced in part with a 

 largely eroded bluish-white bed. We noticed ten different seams of 

 Carbonaceous shale or coal in the ridges, some of which doubtless 

 represent workable beds. In the upper part of the first ridge, in the 

 highest beds of the series, we collected specimens of leaves of deciduous 

 trees, which were very abundant iu some of the thin layers of sand- 

 stone. The only other fossils we obtained were found in a six-inch bed 

 in the second ridge, from which we obtained specimens of fresh-water 

 sheWs, Lynincm, Vivqxmis, Goniohasis, and 77«io, nearly all fragmentary 

 or in a poor state of preservation. The more eastern ridges, the beds 

 of which are lower in geological position, afforded no remains whatever, 

 either animal or vegetable, to such search as we were able to give. 



At one point on the plain betw een the first ridge and the station, sand- 

 stone-beds appear at the surface, but with a very much reduced angle 

 of dip, apparently scarcely over 3° or 4°, the direction still toward the 

 west. The strata appear to assume a horizontal position very rapidly 

 in that direction. Taking the average of the angle of the dip at any, 

 point from 10° up to 15°, between which it probably ranges, iDcrhaps 

 even exceeding the latter figure, it will readily be seen that an immense 

 thickness is included iu these ridges, not less than 1,800 or 2,000 feet. 



