80 GEOLOGY OF SW. IDAHO AND SE. OREGON. [bull. 217. 
of Pickles Butte. I was not able to visit the region referred to, but 
views of it obtained from a distance suggested that the rocks there 
rise into a small anticline, the longer axis of which trends about north- 
west and northeast. A careful study of the region referred to should 
show whether an anticline is present or not, and if discovered a drill 
hole put down to a depth of 1,000 or 1,200 feet would furnish a cru- 
cial test as to the presence of petroleum or gas. So far as can be 
judged, the Payette formation, which, together with sheets of basalt, 
underlies the Snake River Plains, is notably free of organic matter, 
and the chances seem to be that even if anticlines or other conditions 
favoring the storage of petroleum or gas are present, but little hope 
of obtaining commercial quantities of these substances can reasonably 
be entertained. 
