428 GEOLOGY OF NORTHWESTERN TEXAS. 



strata is to the southeast at a very small angle until near the extreme eastern 

 end of this exposure, where it suddenly turns down at an angle of at least 

 thirty degrees. 



Another section was made at Soldier Mountain, about four miles southeast 

 of Espuela Headquarters, and the last of the beds of conglomerate in this di- 

 rection. Beginning at the bottom: 



1. Red clay 30 feet. 



2. Blue clay 8 feet. 



3. Conglomerate, with petrified wood 3 feet. 



4. Sandstone in thin layers , 10 feet. 



Total 51 feet. 



A few miles west of the mouth of the Blanco Canyon I found some pieces 

 of trees that had been changed into lignite imbedded in the sandstone of the 

 conglomerate. The impression among people who have seen these trees was 

 that they were probably the outliers to a bed of coal, but such is not the case. 

 There is no probability that anything more than a few isolated pieces of lig- 

 nite will be found there, and that, too, of very poor quality. 



It is more than probable that this formation has a very extensive outcrop 

 along the base of the Staked Plains, between the Plains proper and the Per- 

 mian. The conglomerate and sandstone are found in Potter County at the 

 falls of Palo D.uro Creek, a few miles east of Amarillo. 



The fossil wood from this formation lies scattered all over the Permian. I 

 have seen it along the Big Wichita, Pease, Red, and the Canadian rivers in 

 great abundance. It is doubtless the source of all the gravel found scattered 

 along these rivers from their sources to their mouths. 



From the time the Red Beds of the West were first discovered until now 

 there has been a great deal of confusion in regard to them. The absence of 

 fossils, or very nearly so, rendered it impossible to determine the true hori- 

 zon of the Red Beds by the paleontology. And when fossils were found the 

 localities were so very remote from each other that the beds could not be cor- 

 related with any degree of certainty. 



At one place and by one man they would be put in the marly clay of the 

 Cretaceous. Another person at another place would put the beds in the Tri- 

 assic, and in that would be included the Permian. Another at still a differ- 

 ent locality would put them in the Triassic, denying that there was any Per- 

 mian in the United States. Others would call the beds at still another local- 

 ity Jura-Trias; and so the confusion went on. Each party would bring for- 

 ward the few fossils found by him to support his theory and discredit the 

 reference of others, and where fossils were entirely wanting that fact has 

 been given as proof that the strata belonged to a particular series. 



Another reason for the confusion was in trying to refer all the Red Beds 



