•l'2'l The American Geologist. October, i89» 
is evident that the pit penetrated the strata to a greater depth 
than thirty feet, without going through their entire thickness 
at this point. Fragments and masses of comminuted lignitic 
material are found pervading the sediments, sometimes in such 
abundance as to impart a black color to the whole. Small 
scales of pearly mica are numerous, and there are occasional 
small cubes of pyrite. The conglomerate is heavy, being com- 
posed of iron ore and taconyte fragments cemented by ses- 
quioxide of iron. It is completely consolidated into a firm,, 
hard rock which resists fracturing and rings with blows from 
a hammer. 
Five miles east of the locality above mentioned the same 
Cretaceous shale is found in another pit and was penetrated 
about one hundred feet by a churn drill. This is in section 18, 
Twp. 58 N., K. 18 W. Here the dip is about horizontal. 
The same lignitic material is found, but very little of the 
conglomerate. A piece of wood resembling white cedar was 
found at a depth of 85 feet from the surface of the ground. 
Its length exceeded one foot, and it is said to have been 
found in a vertical position embedded in the blue shale. It may 
be the fragment w r as forced into the shale by glacial action, 
and is not of Cretaceous age, although it strongly resembles 
other semi-fossilized pieces found in the Cretaceous of this 
vicinity. No other fossils were obtained at this place. 
A third locality about seven miles northeast of the last is in 
the S. E. I N. E. £ section 6, Twp. 58-17. At the depth of 60 
feet lignitic Cretaceous shale and the same peculiar conglom- 
erate mentioned above were found. No fossils were observed. 
The thickness of undoubted Cretaceous did not exceed ten 
feet. Underneath it are flat strata of soft white, yellow or 
red kaolin, more or less mixed with sand and stained with 
iron oxide. At the depth of 150 feet this had changed to a 
harder, more siliceous phase of the taconyte. The diamond 
drill at this pit went to the depth of 248 feet and stopped in 
hard taconyte. The kaolin was at first supposed to be Creta- 
ceous, and even now it is difficult to draw the line between 
t lie two formations. 
The Cretaceous shale found in 1S87 is on the north side of 
the divide between waters flowing nort 1 and south, and at 
some distance from that divide; the sediments here described 
