Vol. 6] Merriam: Virgin Valley and Thousand Creek 



45 



Around the borders of Thousand Creek Flats there are 

 several distinct terraces which are much below the level of the 

 Railroad Ridge mesa, and are evidently of late Pleistocene age. 

 They are shown in the broad flats situated just south of Railroad 

 Ridge. This bench is about sixty feet above the present level of 

 the stream bed and is apparently underlaid in a large part by 

 undisturbed mammal beds. 



The Thousand Creek Beds are in general approximately 

 horizontal, or dip slightly toward the southwest; that is, toward 

 Thousand Creek Ridge. In the exposures at the northern end of 

 the section the strata are noticeably tilted, and the dip does 

 not appear to be conformable with the plane of the terrace or 

 mesa above. 



The nature of the beds exposed in Thousand Creek basin 

 is in a general way similar to that of the sedimentary formation 

 in Virgin Valley, though it does not repeat the characters of 

 any particular portion of the Virgin Valley section. Possibly 

 more sandy strata have been seen in the Thousand Creek section 

 than were actually noted in the beds in Virgin Valley. If the 

 Thousand Creek exposures represent the same epoch of deposition 

 as those of Virgin Valley, it is evident from the contained fauna 

 that they must correspond to the upper portion of the Virgin 

 Valley Beds rather than to the lower portion of that section. 



So far as known, the mammal collections from the beds 

 around Thousand Creek Flats all seem to represent one fauna, 

 with the possible exception of a few remains obtained from 

 deposits which occur on some of the lower terrace levels in the 

 valley. The few specimens obtained from the terraces seem to 

 represent a member of the horse group very near in its characters 

 to the Quaternary genus Equus, whereas the other horse remains 

 from the Thousand Creek exposures certainly represent an older 

 group. As the remains from the terraces are fragmentary, 

 it is possible that they do not actually represent forms very 

 different from the other specimens, which are better preserved. 

 It is also not at all certain that the deposits below the apparent 

 terrace levels are distinct from the other Thousand Creek 

 exposures. 



With the exception of the possible Quaternary remains from 



