Mkrriam.J 



/oh u Day Basin. 



28 7 



Repeated attempts have been made to obtain vertebrate or inverte- 

 brate fossils also, but, so far as the writer is aware, none have 

 ever been discovered. The plants are, perhaps, most common in 

 a bed of tuff and ash, IOO or more feet in thickness, belonging to 

 the middle or the lower part of the formation. The remains from 

 Cherry Creek belong to this horizon. 



In the section at Clarno's Ferry, plants are found at two hori- 

 zons. The lower one, exposed two or three miles above the Ferry, 

 appears to be the same bed as that cropping out at Cherry Creek. 

 The leaves of the upper horizon were found about one and one-half 

 miles east of the Ferry in a hard shale which weathers to the buff, 

 but is, according to Mr. Calkins, reddish-brown when not exposed. 

 The shales show considerable disturbance and are highly indurated. 

 The Lower John Day resting directly upon them is quite soft 

 and weathers into the mud-covered slopes so characteristic of its 

 outcrops. It seems probable to the writer that the Lower John 

 Da) r rests unconformably upon these leaf shales. 



At Allen's ranch,* on Bridge Creek, leaf beds have been discov- 

 ered by Condon at the base of the John Day section. The plants 

 occur there in a reddish shale which weathers whitish. Though 

 the writer was unable to find the original locality, he has been 

 assured by Professors Condon and Joseph Le Conte, who visited it 

 together, that the leaf shales belong to a formation which is cov- 

 ered unconformably by the John Day. Mr. F. C. Calkins and Mr. 

 V. C. Osmont, who have collected at this locality, also inclined to 

 the view that these beds are pre-John Day. 



The writer observed typical Lower John Day close to typical 

 Clarno near the original Bridge Creek locality. It would seem 

 that on purely stratigraphic and lithologic grounds the Upper 

 Clarno and the Bridge Creek leaf shales might be considered as 

 the same horizon. 



The collections of fossil plants, made by the University expe- 

 ditions, were all placed in the hands of Professor Knowlton, of the 

 U. S. National Museum, who has kindly furnished the following 

 tentative statement regarding the Clarno flora: — 



" It was at first intended to make the present contribution as 



*Commonly ! nown as the Bridge Creek locality. 



