4 FLORA OF THE MONTANA FORMATION. 
This same coal and plant horizon is exposed on the west side of the railroad, 
extending westward several miles toward Rock Creek from a point about 1 mile 
west of Harpers. The light-colored sandstones associated with the coal are here 
exposed to a thickuess of about 75 feet, dipping 17° south and forming a prominent 
line of cliffs. In the upper part of the exposure, at a locality about 5 miles west of 
Harpers, a few fossil plants were collected, including Geinitzia formosa Heer and 
Cinnamomum affine Lx. 
The stratigraphic relation of the plant bed to the overlying marine strata was 
again confirmed by finding a fossiliferous horizon in brown and gray sandstone 
from 500 to 600 feet above the plant zone, and apparently conformable with it. The 
following Montana species were obtained here: 
Ostrea sp. 
Avicula nebrascana E. & S. 
Bacnlites ovatus Say. 
Baculites compressus Say. 
Scaphites sp. 1 
The beds below the coal and plant-bearing horizon are well exposed 
on both sides of the railroad near Harpers, where they oatcrop in nar- 
row ridges of hard limestone. There are several highly fossiliferous 
bands, and collections made at points 400 to 500 feet below the coal 
yield over 30 Montana (probably Fort Pierre) species. The horizon, 
probably 300 or 400 feet still lower, yields nearly 50 species, some of 
which are found also in the upper horizon. 
Another locality affording a number of fossil plants is at Dunn's 
ranch, on the Laramie Eiver, about 6 miles east of Harpers. The 
plants are preserved in a soft, fine-grained, yellowish sandstone. The 
following species were obtained : 
Celastrus sp. 
Salix sp. 
Spathites sp. 
Pinus Quenstedti Heer. 
Myrica Torreyi Lx. 
Quercus Lesquereuxiana Kn. 
Ficus planicostata Lx. 
It was not possible, in the limited time at our disposal, to attempt to 
trace the connection between this locality and the one just discussed, 
and it is doubtful if it can be done, for the exposures are extremely 
limited and the country much obscured by overlying material. There 
is every reason to suppose, however, that the two localities are nearly 
if not quite in the same horizon, a view which finds support in the fact 
that at least two of the species of plants are commou to both. 
A third locality on the Laramie Plains which has afforded fossil 
plants is near the old overland stage road, on the north fork of Dutton 
Creek between Eock and Cooper creeks. At this point is a small coal 
vein that has been mined to some extent for local uses. It is probably 
the coal spoken of by the fortieth parallel geologists 2 as the u Cooper 
Creek coal." The shales immediately overlying the coal, as well as a 
light-colored sandstone some 25 feet higher, contain plants as follows: 
Dryopteris duttoniana n. sp. Ficus sp. 
Woodwardia crenata n. sp. Castalia sp. 
Brachyphyllum macrocarpum Newb. Asimina eocenica Lx. 
Geinitzia formosa Heer. Diospyros ? ficoidea Lx. 
Trapa ? microphylla Lx. 
1 Stanton and Knowlton, op. cit., p. 138. 
2 TJ. S. Geol. Expl. 40th Parallel, Vol. I. 
