COAL   NEAR   CRAZY    MOUNTAINS,   MONTANA.  91 
Girty's  determinations  of  a  large  number  of  collections  of  fossils. 
Considering  the  manner  in  which  the  work  was  done  and  the  paleon- 
tologic  evidence  which  supports  it,  the  writer  feels  that  this  later 
work  is  more  nearly  correct.  This  point  will  be  fully  discussed  in  a 
bulletin  now  being  prepared  by  R.  W.  Stone  and  L.  H.  Woolsey  on  the 
geology  of  the  Musselshell  Valley. 
In  the  legend  on  the  maps  in  Folio  56  Weed  describes  the  Laramie 
formation  (meaning  the  Eagle  sandstone)  as  "  containing  several 
workable  coal  seams."  In  the  text  he  says  that  the  coals  have  rarely 
been  prospected  sufficiently  to  prove  either  their  character  or  their 
thickness.  On  the  basis  of  Weed's  statement  that  the  Laramie  is 
coal  bearing  in  this  region  and  on  his  acceptance  of  rumors  that  the 
beds  are  workable,  maps  of  the  coal  areas  of  Montana  for  many  years 
have  shown  a  belt  of  workable  coal  beds  around  the  west  and  north 
sides  of  the  Crazy  Mountains  and  extending  southeastward  to  Billings. 
The  results  of  the  investigation  of  this  area  by  the  writer  seem  to 
prove  that  although  coal  is  present  it  does  not  occur  in  beds  thick 
enough  to  mine  and  consequently  has  not  sufficient  economic  value  to 
warrant  classifying  the  land  as  coal  land. 
