304         CONTRIBUTIONS   TO   ECONOMIC   GEOLOGY,   1907,   PART   II. 
ive  sandstone  beds  of  cliff  and  ledge  forming  character,  all  of  which 
appear  to  be  almost  identical  with  the  unbaked  sandstones  of  the 
coal-bearing  rocks.  Just  between  the  sandstone  ledges  of  the  upper 
Mesaverde  or  lower  Wasatch  and  the  foot  of  the  main  escarpment 
of  the  Green  River  shale  there  is  on  Cathedral  Creek  and  elsewhere  a 
deep,  open  valley,  showing  that  there  exists  a  zone  of  weaker  or  less 
resistant  beds  in  the  upper  Wasatch  or  lower  Green  River  formation. 
Some  clays  of  red  and  white  color  occur,  but  are  not  so  universally 
distinctive  of  the  Wasatch  as  they  are  in  many  other  parts  of  this 
general  region. 
The  principal  coal  district  immediately  accessible  is,  as  before 
stated,  restricted  to  the  Douglas  Creek  drainage  basin.  Baked  rocks 
indicative  of  the  burning  of  coal  beds  are  a  conspicuous  feature  in 
nearly  all  the  bluffs  that  border  the  main  stream  as  far  south  as  a 
point  beyond  the  principal  forks.  These  burned  rocks  were  described 
in  a  report  of  the  Hayden  Survey  by  F.  M.  Endlich,a  who  thought  they 
represented  the  reddish  strata  of  the  Wasatch  formation,  evidently 
failing  to  recognize  the  significance  or  cause  of  their  color.  The  red 
cliffs,  slag,  ashes,  baked  and  hardened  rock,  and  clinker  are  so  con- 
spicuous that  it  seems  as  if  they  could  scarcely  be  overlooked  by  any- 
one who  travels  through  the  region.  There  are  also  natural  expo- 
sures of  the  coal  itself,  but  these  are  comparatively  rare.  For  some 
distance  along  the  gulch  or  canyon  walls  the  sandstone  on  the  west 
side  of  Douglas  Creek  south  of  the  base  line  outcrops  in  brown  and 
weathered  ledges  with  numerous  reddened  bands,  having  a  slight 
resemblance  to  the  beds  found  in  the  red  and  white  banded  Wasatch 
strata  which  normally  overlie  these  Mesaverde  rocks  in  the  fields  of 
the  Uinta  Basin. 
Owing  to  the  sparsity  of  settlement  in  this  district,  but  little  demand 
has  been  created  for  the  development  or  use  of  any  of  the  coals  that 
might  be  available.  A  single  local  coal  bank  in  a  gulch  about  1| 
miles  northeast  of  the  N  Bar  ranch  has  been  worked  within  the  last 
few  years  for  domestic  use  at  the  ranch.  It  consists  of  a  short 
slope  running  down  N.  25°  E.  on  a  pitch  of  5°.  The  dip  of  the 
beds  is  about  7°  N.  10°  W.  The  coal  itself  is  5  feet  thick  and  possi- 
bly thicker,  the  floor  being  concealed  in  the  present  entry,  so  that  a 
complete  measurement  could  not  readily  be  obtained.  The  roof 
consists  of  a  thin-bedded  sandy  carbonaceous  shale  2  feet  3  inches 
thick,  overlain  by  a  massive  sandstone  at  least  15  feet  thick.  The 
coal  is  apparently  of  good  quality,  similar  to  the  coals  of  the  Meeker 
district,  but  it  seems  to  have  been  somewhat  affected  by  the  heat 
from  the  huge  burned  zone  that  overlies  it.  This  bed  is  one  of  the 
lowest  of  the  middle  coal  group  of  the  Mesaverde  formation.  The 
strata  do  not  appear  to  be  burned  at  all  on  the  east  side  of  the  gulch 
a  Tenth  Ann.  Rept.  U.  S.  Geo!,  and  Geog.  Survey  Terr.,  1878,  p.  80. 
