140 GEOLOGICAL SURREY OF THE TERRITORIES. 



were passed through first, then black clay, with carbonaceous matter 

 throughout. Just over the coal was fine, bluish, indurated clay, with 

 very distinct impressions of leaves, among which the most abundant 

 were Populus and Platanus. The railroad cuts and the valleys them- 

 selves show very distinctly the character of the intermediate softer beds. 

 The erosion has been so great in this country, and all hills and canons 

 are so covered with debris, that it is almost impossible to obtain a clear 

 idea of the color and composition of the intermediate softer beds. The 

 harder sandstones, &c, project from the surface, and are accessible to 

 the eye without much excavation. Marine and fresh-water tertiary 

 formations occupy the whole country along the line of the railroad to 

 Quaking Asp Summit, west of Fort Bridger, and also to Salt Lake to 

 a greater or less extent. 



From Creston to Bitter Creek Station, a distance of forty -five miles, 

 the beds are mostly fresh-water, and hold a nearly horizontal position. 

 West of Bitter Creek we come again upon marine tertiaries, dipping 3° 

 to 6° nearly east. We have, therefore, between Rawlings' Springs and 

 Green River, a sort of synclinal basin, the marine tertiary dipping west 

 about 10° on the east side, and the same marine beds inclining east 3° 

 to 6° on the west side ; while at Table Rock, Red Desert, and Washa- 

 kie, a considerable thickness of purely fresh-water beds are filled with 

 fresh-water shells Unio Washalceei, Goniobasis Simpsoni, and Viviparus. 



Table Rock is a square butte lifting itself about four hundred feet 

 above the level of the road, composed of the beds of a sandstone which 

 in many instances is little more than an aggregation of fresh-water 

 shells. 



After leaving Bitter Creek Station the hills approach nearer to the 

 road, and show the characteristic features of the marine tertiary again. 

 Seams of coal appear in many places, while yellow arenaceous marls, 

 light-gray sand with indurated clay beds, and more or less thick layers 

 of sandstone occur. The dip varies from 3° to 6° east or nearly east. 



At Black Butte Station, on Bitter Creek, about fifteen miles west of 

 Bitter Creek Station, there is a heavy bed of yellow ferruginous sand- 

 stone, irregular in its thickness and in part concretionary, and full of 

 rusty concretions of sandstones of every size, from an inch to several 

 feet in diameter, mostly spherical, and when broken revealing large 

 cavities filled with oxide of iron loam. This sandstone, one hundred 

 and fifty to two hundred feet in thickness, forms nearly vertical bluffs, 

 and is worn by atmospheric agencies into the most fantastic shapes. 

 Above it are sands, clays, sandstones of every texture, and coal beds, 

 one of which, near the summit of the hills, has been burned, baking 

 and melting the superincumbent beds. I found in several layers the 

 greatest abundance of deciduous leaves, and among them a fine palm 

 leaf, probably the same species which occurs in the coal beds on the 

 Upper Missouri, named by Dr. dewberry, Sabal Campbelli. There is 

 also a thin seam near one of the coal beds made up of a small species 

 of Ostrea. 



The railroad passes down the Bitter Creek Valley, which from its chan- 

 nel through the tertiary beds, and on each side high walls can be seen 

 inclining at moderate angles. As we pass down the valley toward Green 

 River, the inclination brings to view lower and lower beds. These are 

 all plainly marine tertiaries, while an abundance of impressions of plants 

 are found everywhere. No strictly fresh-water shells occur, but seams 

 of Ostrea of various species. 



In the final report, some detailed sections of these tertiary beds will 

 be given. Yet I am convinced that local sections are not very import- 



