60 
ON THE GEOLOGY AND NATURAL HISTORY 
been said; nothing, however, but a thorough geological survey, by authority of the Terri¬ 
torial or State government (for Kansas must soon be a State), can lay before the public 
such full, accurate, and reliable information on these subjects as will bring from the older 
States the capital, skill and enterprise necessary to develop the great natural resources of 
the country. 
Leaving the Territory of Kansas we find that the southeastern portion of Nebraska is 
underlaid by limestones of the upper Coal measures. Having already described these 
rocks in detail as they occur in Nebraska in a preceding chapter, I shall simply allude to 
them here in a general way. The town of De Soto is the highest point known on the 
Missouri river where these limestones are exposed. Ascending the valley of the Platte 
river we find them quite well developed as far as the mouth of the Elkhorn, where they 
pass beneath the water level of the river and are succeeded by the sandstone of Cretaceous 
formation No. 1. Both the fossiliferous contents and lithological characters of these lime¬ 
stones show that they form the northwestern continuation of the series of rocks which seem 
to be distributed to a greater or less extent over Iowa, Kansas, Illinois, Indiana, Missouri, 
Ohio, and portions of Pennsylvania. Leaving De Soto the Carboniferous limestones do 
not again appear along the Missouri river until we reach the vicinity of the mountains, 
where it is probable that they are revealed in the form of outcropping belts around the 
mountain elevations, though no evidence from actual observation has yet been published to 
the world sustaining the inference. Ascending the Platte river we find that the whole 
country from the Elkhorn to Fort Laramie is occupied by rocks of Cretaceous and Tertiary 
age, and not until we reach the Laramie mountains do we again meet with the Carboni- 
ferous limestones, which here form an outcropping zone, exposed by the upheaval of the 
older rocks. In the Black hills we again find them exposed around the nucleus of eleva¬ 
tion with the same fossils and lithological characters as at the Laramie mountains. From 
these facts, and the accounts of explorers in the North and South, there is good reason for 
the inference that the Carboniferous rocks are probably co-extensive with the great central 
range of the llocky mountains. This subject will be again alluded to in a subsequent 
portion of this report. The following catalogue embraces all the Carboniferous and Per¬ 
mian fossils obtained by the writer at Fort Laramie, Black hills, and Southeastern Ne¬ 
braska; also those collected by Air. Meek and the writer in the Kansas valley. The 
catalogue published in our paper to the Philadelphia Academy, January, 1859, has been 
used, with the additions of species found in the far West, with their geographical distribu¬ 
tion. The descriptions of the new species have been omitted. This catalogue does not 
assume to be complete, but only to embrace such fossils as are in our possession so far as 
they have been determined. 
