GALLATIN COUNTY. 201 



The rocks in this section basset to the north at an angle of 20°. The 

 Chester limestone exposed near the base is, for the most part, a coarse 

 crystalline, grayish rock titled with small entrochites, the organic struc- 

 ture of which is almost obliterated by crystallization, which gives a 

 glimmering lustre to the freshly broken fragments. It is remarkably 

 poor in other fossils; for after a long and diligent search, I was finally 

 able to obtain only a very badly preserved specimen of Archimedes 

 and a few fragments of a small Spirifer, too imperfect for determina- 

 tion. There is a thin stratum of fine grained bluish limestone, in which 

 no trace of organisms could be found, lying between strata of the gray 

 rock and near the lower part of the exposure. 



The large amount of talus strewed along the base on the north side 

 of Gold Hill, covers up the lower strata so completely that I was com - 

 pelled to make two separate trips, having a guide each time, and to 

 spend two days in searching before being able to find the limestone at 

 this locality. It is true lime had been burned here, but so long ago that 

 people generally knew nothing about it. Though, for the causes herein 

 stated, this limestone could be traced for only afew.hundred feet along 

 its outcrop, it is thought that it may extend half a mile or more along 

 the ridge until it disappears through an east and west depression 

 beneath the drainage of the county. To the west of sec. 33 the ridge 

 gradually sinks, and is crossed- by the Saline river in sec. 31, T. 9, R. 9, 

 and in sec. 36, T. 9, E. S, at what is known as Island Riffle, where rapids 

 are formed by the stream flowing over a coarse grained, yellowish sand- 

 stone which weathers roughly, and the position of which, in the series, 

 is above the Conglomerate ; but I was unable to determine its exact 

 place in the vertical section. After crossing to the west side of the 

 Saline river, and following up the stream to sec. 27, T. 9, R. 8, the Ches- 

 ter limestone makes its appearance again high up in the ridge, and 

 forms with its associate strata an abrupt escarpment. They basset to 

 the north at an angle of about 10°. 



The following section was taken at low-water of the Saline : 



Ft. 

 Soil, drift and covered 60 



Qaartzose saodstone, mostly covered np, probable eqnivalent of tlie Chester sandstone 50 



Chester limestone, gray, with thin seams of calc-spar, has a paucity of fossils ; yielded a frag- 

 ment of Productus elegans - — 23 



Covered to low-water of Saline 70 



203 



Besides dipping to the south, which is the regular pitch of the strata 

 in the ridge, there is here also an east and west wave of elevation and 

 depres'sion, which carries the limestone down from forty to fifty feet, a 

 few hundred yards to the east, where the old salt springs — formerly 

 known as the " Nigger Works" — break out in the bank of the Saline 



