164 



GEOLOGY. 



the coal measures extend from above Omaha, near old Fort Cal- 

 houn, to the southeast corner of the State, the rocks are of Upper 

 Carboniferous Age. 



A Different Opinion. — In 1S66 Prof. Geinitz, of Dresden, made a 

 report on carboniferous fossils which were collected in Nebraska 

 mainly by Prof. Marcou, in which he expressed the conviction that 

 the rocks along the Missouri belong in part to the Lower Car- 

 boniferous and in part to the Permian. He evidently made this 

 mistake, as Meek has shown, by examining an imperfect series 

 of fossils, and by a lack of acquaintance with the range of species 

 in the Palaeozoic of this country.* In order to exhibit the facts on 

 which he bases these references the following section is given as 

 taken at Nebraska City. 



Section Exposed at Nebraska City Landing. 



Nature of Strata. 



{Thickness. 



Loess deposit, Grayish yellow | 90 feet. 



Yellowish-gray micaceous, soft sandstone, laminated, 

 sometimes ripple-marked, except about 14 inches of some- 

 times hard and compact stone at bottom, with fragments 

 of plants 10 feet. 



Drab, ash, and lead-colored, and brownish clays and 

 near the middle a ten inch, hard bluish-gray, clayey, 

 limey layer, becoming rusty on exposure. Fossils nu- 

 merous 39 feet. 



. L_ 



Several beds of hard litrht grayish, and yellowish lime 

 stone in layers of from live to twenty inches thick, with 

 soft, marly clay seams and partings. Fossils numerous 

 especially fusilina, etc 13 feet. 



A. 



(/y) Lead — grayish and greenish clay, four feet. 



(/>) Reddish brown ferruginous, slightly gritty, 

 rated clay, four feet exposed above high water... . 



indu- 



8 feet. 





Total below drift 



70 feet. 





t 





* See Meek's report in " Hayden's Final Report on Geological Survey of Nebraska," p. 83. 

 [•This section le slightly different from that of .Meek and Marcou, because taken a little 

 below theirs. 



