anhise.]  THE    CORDILLERAS.  289 
hores  of  an  Archean  island.  Above  the  Archean  is  a  thiekness  of 
0,000  or  12,000  feet  of  unconformable  beds,  part  of  which  consists  very 
irgely  of  quartzite  and  is  regarded  as  before  the  Carboniferous,  while 
lie  upper  part  is  placed  in  the  Upper  Coal  Measures  and  Permo-Car- 
onjferous.  The  Upper  Coal  Measures  are  limestones  and  sandstones 
nd  bear  fossils ;  but  in  the  great  thickness  of  lower  beds  referred  to 
tie  Weber  no  fossils  are  found. 
King,7  in  1878,  describes  the  Archean  rocks  of  the  Uinta  range  as  a 
roup  of  pure  white  quartzites,  hornblende  schists,  hydromica-  (parag- 
nite)  schist,  richly  charged  with  garnet,  staurolite,  and  minute  crys- 
als  of  cyanite.    They  are  referred  to  the  Huronian. 
The  Paleozoic  rocks  of  the  Uintas  rest  unconformably  upon  the 
Lrchean.  They  comprise  an  immense  body  of  quartzites  and  indu- 
ated  sandstones  intercalated  with  shales,  12,000  feet  in  thickness,  re- 
ared— not,  however,  without  some  questioning — to  the  Weber  quartz- 
||  or  Middle  Coal-measures.  Directly  overlying  these  is  a  series  of 
andstones  and  limestones  having  a  thickness  of  2,000  or  2,500  feet  in 
rhieh  Coal-measure  fossils  are  obtained. 
Peale,15  in  1879,  describes  in  the  Green  river  district,  at  Station  77, 
Cambrian  section  consisting  largely  of  quartzite  and  amounting  to 
,000  feet.  At  Station  130  is  another  red  quartzite  which  has  a  lime- 
bone  below  it,  and  below  them  a  series  of  green  chloritic  rocks  unlike 
tiose  of  any  other  section  in  the  district.  The  author  inclines  to  place 
aese  below  the  Cambrian  quartzites  and  considers  them  of  probably 
[uronian  age.  None  of  these  sections  expose  the  underlying  crystal- 
ne  schists. 
Van  Hise,9  in  1889,  examined  the  Archean  core  of  the  Uintas.  The 
>-called  white  quartzite  is  found  to  be  largely  composed  of  white  feld- 
>ar.  It  is  thoroughly  crystalline  and  its  lithological  affinities  are  rather 
ith  the  granites  than  the  quartzites.  The  black  bands  contained  in 
,  supposed  by  some  to  represent  original  layers  of  a  different  consti; 
Ltion,  and  by  others  to  represent  dikes,  were  found  to  be  much  altered 
uptives.  The  unconformable  contact  between  the  Uinta  series  and 
le  Archean  was  seen  at  many  points. 
LITERATURE   OF  THE   WASATCH  MOUNTAINS. 
Hayden,19  in  1872,  describes  in  the  Wasatch  mountains  and  on  the 
iuyon  of  the  Weber  a  nucleus  »of  granite.  In  Box  Elder  canyon  are 
leisses,  quartzites,  and  slates.  In  the  Port  Neuf  canyon  there  are 
:posed  at  least  10,000  feet  of  quartzite,  the  age  of  which  is  obscure, 
.e  only  thing  indicating  its  position  being  that  Carboniferous  fossils 
e  found  in  the  upper  horizon. 
SillimAN,30  in  1872,  regards  the  granite  of  Big  and  Little  Cotton- 
ood  canyons  as  probably  metamorphic  from  conglomerates,  because 
the  conspicuous  patches  of  dark  colored  material  which  they  have 
a  light  gray  matrix,  and  because  with  a  glass  there  can  be  detected 
sort  of  pebble-like  roundness  in  the  quartz  of  the  granite. 
Bull.  86 19 
