OF ^’ORTH AMERICA. 
63 
losus, Pr. scabriculus; Pentremites florealis; Favosites parasitica-, Amplexus coraUoides; Zaphrenlis cylindrira, 
Z. Slansburyi, and Itetepora Archimedes. 
The Lower Carboniferous forms the contour of the Coal Measures in Cape Breton island and 
the provinces of Nova Scotia and New Brunswick, and if it is not indicated on the map, it is ow- 
ing to the smallness of the scale. The Lower Carboniferous forms the highest ranges of the Al- 
leghanies and extends round the immense coal basin of Pennsylvania, Virginia, Maryland, Ohio, 
Kentucky, Tennessee and Alabama; it extends into the north-eastern corner of the Slate of Mis- 
sissippi and covers the greater part of the Slates of Indiana, Illinois, and Michigan. It forms the 
bed and both the shores of the Mississippi river, from Burlington at the rapids of the Mississippi 
to the neighbourhood of Cairo at the mouth of the Ohio, it then descends the river des Moines, 
reaches the Prairies of Missouri, of which it forms apart, passes by Council-Blulfs, Fort Leaven- 
worth, Council-Grove, Delaware mount. Clear Fork of the Rio Brazos, and ends finally at the 
Rio San Saha, Texas. 1 found this formation in Washington county, Arkansas. Captain Stansbury 
was the first to find it in the Rocky mountains; he met with it at Fort Laramie, on the western 
shore of the Great Salt Lake, and on an island in the lake. 
During my exploration of the part of the Rocky mountains near the 35"‘ parallel of latitude in 
1853 and 1854 , I found that the Mountain Limestone formed the lesser chains , and even some of the 
principal peaks of these mountains and of the Sierra Madre. It appears in narrow bands from two 
to four miles wide (See: Geol. Map of IS'ew Mexico., plate VIll.) , beginning in the neighbourhood 
of El Paso on the Rio Grande del Norte, and crossing .Manzana, Tigeras, Antonito, San Pedro, 
Pecos, Spanish peak. Pikes peak, the environs of Fort Si Vrain and Laramie peak. It is also 
found in the Sierra of Jemez, opposite to Santa Fe, in Agua Fria, and near Fort Defiance in 
the Sierra Madre. Farther west I found the Mountain Limestone in the lines of dislocation of the 
Sierra de Mogoyon or Sierra Blanca; it disappears about fifty miles east of the Rio Colorado 
at the 35"’ parallel of latitude; taking a northern direction it crosses tlie Mormon settlements of 
Fillmore , on Lake Utah and the Great Salt Lake. .My friend Lieutenant Whipple discovered it 
near the new boundary line between Mexico and the United States at the junction of the San 
Pedro and Gila rivers , and according to the celebrated and unhappy Count de Raousset Boulbon it 
forms the lesser chain of the Sierra de Arizona in the state of Sonora. 
Finally, this formation is found in Shasta and Siskiyou counties, in the north of California, and 
m the islands of Puget Sound in Washington Territory, and Captain W. C. Grant has recognized it 
in the centre of Vancouver island. 
Upper Carboniferous or Coal Measures. -- Compared with the whole Earth, at least with the part 
geologically known , North America possesses more than a (juarter of the whole superficial extent 
of all coal fields. The rocks of the Upper Carboniferous are the same as in Europe, sandstone, 
black marly slate, and limestone with intercalation of coal beds. The number as well as the richness 
of the coal seams varies much in different localities. In .South-Joggins in the bay of Fundy, Nova 
Scotia, there are seventy sLx coal seams, while in most other places there are but from five to 
eight seams, and in the Albion mine near Pictou, Nova Scotia, there is one seam thirty feet thick, 
while elsewhere the coal seams are scarcely more than three or four feet thick. The coal is ge- 
nerally bituminous, except in the States of Massachusetts and Rhode Island, where granitic and 
