12 
GEOLOGY 
pedilion, near camp N°3I (latitude 33°, 32', 21"; long-itude west from Greenwich 99°, 14', 40"), 
crossed strata of the Xeocomian epoch, and at Antelope Hills (latitude 35°, 53‘, 14"; longitude west 
from Greenwich 100°, 08', 00".) whitish-gray sandstone, which belongs to the Upper Division of 
the Trias. I connect with this Middle Group the gypsum found in the Xew Red Sandstone of New .ler- 
sey and at Prince Edward Island. As to its synchronism with European formations, 1 regard it 
as corresponding to the Muschelkalk of Germany. It contains, like the Muschelkalk of Wurtemberg 
and of Saltz-Kammergut, gypsum, rock salt and dolomite. The first fossils which I found in the 
Trias were in this division. It was near camp N° 33 (latitude 35°, 42', 32"; longitude west from 
Greenwich 99°, 36', 10".) — a full-grown tree with branches, very much resembling the Pinites Fleu- 
roiii of Dr. Mougeot, which is found in the Xew Red Sandstone of the Val d’Ajol in the Vosges; and this 
establishes a connexion between the Neu> Red of France and that of America. 
The Third division, or Upper Group of the Trias, is subdivided again into two parts. The 
legist now living in the United States, and whose opinion on Western Geology must always be looked 
for with great care and respect; I must say, that in his first Geological Survey of Lake Superior he was 
of the same opinion as Dr. Ch. T. Jackson. To quote his own words, he says « Various views have been 
advanced by different w'riters regarding the Age of the Red Sandstone Marls and Conglomerates of Lake 
Superior. Some authors have referred them to the date of the oldest sandstones of the New'-Vork sy- 
stem ; others believe them to be contemporaneous with the New Red Sandstone of Great Britain , and the 
Ranter Sandstein of Germany#. 
«In the absence of all conclusive evidence derived from organic remains — the safest and surest 
guide in the identification of rocks — it is impossible, at present, to decide between these conflicting 
opinions. Judging, however, from lithological and mineralogical character , there certainly is strong pre- 
sumptive evidence that they were deposited subsequently to the carboniferous era. Comparing their composition 
and appearance with that of the formations of the United States , hitherto described , below the Coal for- 
mation, hardly any points of analogy can be traced. On the other hand, there is a strong resemblance, be- 
tween them and the formations above the Coal Measures , not only of the States , but of some parts of Eu- 
rope#. 
oRanging through Connecticut, New-Jersey , Maryland and Virginia, there are Red Sandstone and 
Marlv beds that are almost a counterpart of some portion of the Lake Superior formations , as well in 
aspect as in composition: like them, too, they are traversed by ranges of intrusive trap, with accompany'- 
ing veins of copper#. 
«The descriptions which we haveby Elie de Beaumont of part of the Grades Vosges, coincides also 
in many of its features with those of Lake Superior#. (Extract from Report of a geological reconnaissance 
of the Chippewa land district of Wisconsin; etc., by D. D. Owen; pages 57 and 58; Washington, 1849.) 
Why Owen changed his views is quite a mystery, because in his great and valuable work entitled: 
Report of a Geological Survey of Wisconsin , /owa and Minnesota , he places this formation of Lake Supe- 
rior below the Paleozoic base of the Mississippi valley, without giving any jiroof, referring only to the 
Reports of Dr. J. G. Norwood and Col. C. Whittlesey accompanying his work , in which nothing positive 
and conclusive is given upon the age of that formation. 
Dr. D. Houghton whose numerous observations on Lake Superior entitle his opinions to be considered 
with great care; says: «The Conglomerates and Sandrocks lying westerly from Keewenaw-Point , and 
flanking the trap on the north, dip to the north, mostly at a high angle. These last-mentioned rocks 
are probably contemporaneous with the New Redi>. (See: Abstract of the Proceedings of the fourth Session of 
the Association of American Geologists and Naturalists; Albany, April 1843; in The American Journal of 
Science and Arts, vol. XLV. , page 160.) 
