GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF THE TERRITOEIES. 527 



road, but in a direct line it is much less, probably not over seven miles, if, 

 indeed, it is that. A straight line between the two points would run almost 

 directly across the dip, which will average, in the whole distance, not 

 over 5° or 6°, thus giving a probable thickness of the tilted strata, be- 

 tween the stations, of over 2,000 feet. We were unable to make a 

 detailed examination for the whole distance ; the 275 feet of sandstones, 

 &c., examined by Mr. Meek, would be included in its upper portion, and 

 at Black Buttes a detailed section of some hundreds of feet of the beds 

 was made by Mr. Meek and myself. Above this section, looking away 

 to the eastward, we could see near at hand, from a little eminence, sev- 

 eral hundred feet of alternations of reddish, purple,, and bluish-ashy 

 shales and sandstones, with a few streaks of black carbonaceous shales, 

 and beyond them, in the distance, a great development of whitish beds, 

 extending as far as anything could be satisfactorily distinguished by the 

 eye. The whole landscape was about as desolate as could well beimagined, 

 a series of steep rocky ridges, formed by the upturned edges of the 

 harder sandstones, with irregular shallow valleys between. Some of the 

 reddish beds suggested, by their appearance, the supposition that their 

 color was due to the combustion of lignite beds below, a hypothesis 

 which was sufficently verified in numerous other instances in our exami- 

 nation. The succession of the strata will be seen on page 526, Fig. 54. 



Section at Black Buttes Station. 



Feet. 



1. Yellowish gray sandstone, with leaves of palm, (Sabal,) 



&c 2 



2. Bluish-ashy laminated clays 6- 



3. Thin-bedded grayish and brownish sandstone , 1 



4. Dark shale 1 



5. Bluish laminated clays 6 



6. Eed laminated sandstone and shale 20 



7. Thin laminated sandstone (6 or 8 inches) and yellowish 



shales = 10 



S.Coal IJ 



9. Light-colored laminated sandstone, becoming darker 



below 9 



10. Shale, dark colored below, and lighter and more 



sandy above 7 



11. Light gray laminated, shale, capped with a thin sand- 



stone V. . 8 ' , -j^ 



12. Coal 3 ^^• 



13. Arenaceous shales, with a darker seam near middle. 12 



14. Coal 4J feet, with dark shale above and below 6 



15. Shale, darker above, with thin laminated sandstone, 



Oysters _ 5J 



16. Coal and carbonaceous shale 3 



17. Dark grayish buff sandstone, containing numerous 



leaves and bones of saurian 2 



18. Shaly beds with thin sandstone laminse 8 



19. Coal 2 feet, with carbonaceous shale above and be- 



low 4 



20. Thin laminated dark gray and light shales, contain- 



ing numerous fossil shells (brackish water) in lower 



portion; some thin laminse of sandstone 6 



21. Coal li to2 



22. Shale 6 in. to 1 j 



