42 TOPOGRAPHIC DEVELOPMENT OF KLAMATH MOUNTAINS, [bull. 196. 
W., dip 20° to 30° NE. In these beds are two layers of coal and carbo- 
naceous material, one 10 feet thick, the other 5. Toward the top is a 
bed of volcanic dust 1 foot thick, and 16 feet below it is a much smaller 
bed. The remainder of the series inclosing the coals and layers of 
volcanic ash consists of shales, some of which are so finely bedded as 
to be decidedly laminated. Their reddish color, due to weathering, 
gives them an aspect of age, and they contain a few fossil leaves. 
Coal has been found at several points in the valley, especially toward 
the north end, where Hay Fork enters from a canyon in rocks uncon- 
formably below the coal-bearing sediments of the valley. Near the 
mouth of the canyon the coal-bearing series, which for convenience 
we will call the Hyampom beds, have an exposed thickness of 250 feet, 
the upper 100 feet being conglomerate and the lower portion sandy, 
containing here and there concretions. Some of the sandstones are 
rather hard, strike N. 85° E., with a dip of 30° SE., and contain coaly 
beds. Near the base of the series is 25 feet of conglomerate, and the 
bottom portion, about 30 feet in thickness, is not exposed. The vol- 
canic beds were not found at this point, although the coaly beds are 
exposed. 
The limitations of the Hyampom beds to the valley of the same 
name, 3 or 4 miles in length and of less breadth, their unconformity 
with the underlying formation, and their composition and fossils indi- 
cate that they are of local origin in a lake, or rather in a ponded 
stream. Since then they have been compressed and tilted. They lie 
at the northeast base of South Fork Mountain, over 4,000 feet below 
its even-crested summit which marks the Klamath peneplain. It is 
possible that they have been faulted down from near the level of the 
Klamath peneplain, and, being soft, have led to the development of 
Hyampom Valley. It is possible also that they belong to a later river 
stage, but their exact relation to the coastal deposit is not yet known, 
although it is certain on account of their position that they have been 
displaced in much the same way as the marine beds of the coast. 
Among the fossil plants found at this locality in 1889, Professor 
Ward recognizes Taxodinm dislichum miocenum Heer, which he says 
is "abundant in the Arctic Tertiaries as well as those of Europe and 
elsewhere." It differs so slightly from the living Taxodium distichurm 
our well-known cypress, that it may be expected in any of the later 
formations, and is therefore of little geognostic value further than to 
make it probable that the Hyampom beds are not lower than the 
Tertiary or highest Cretaceous. 
This report of Professor Ward was made December 20, 1889. Dr. 
Knowlton has since given much attention to the Tertiary floras of the 
Pacific coast, and a letter addressed to him asking for later informa- 
tion brought the following reply, dated January 22, 1901: 
Regarding Taxodium distichum miocenum, I may say that in only one place in 
the world, namely, Oeningen, is it known in the Pliocene, and even this locality 
