\ J4J ENGINEER DEPARTMENT, U. S. ARMY. REPORT OF THE EXPLORING EXPEDITION FROM SANTA FE, NEW MEXICO, TO THE JUNCTION OF THE GRAND AND GREEN RIVERS OF THE GREAT COLORADO OF THE WEST, 1859, UNDER THE COMMAND OF CAPT. J. N. MACOMB, CORPS OF TOPOGRAPHICAL ENGINEERS (NOW COLONEL OF ENGINEERS); GEOLOGICAL REPORT PROF. J. S. NEWBERRY, GEOLOGIST OF THE EXPEDITION. WASHINGTON: GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE, 1876. OFFICE OF THE CHIEF OF ENGINEERS, Washington, D. C., June 28, 1875. SIR: When Major Macomb, of the Topographical Engineers (now colonel of engineers), made his report of an important exploration in New Mexico, in 1859, he was unable to furnish the report on the geology of that region, owing to the fact that Dr. J. S. Newberry, the geologist who accompanied him, was then actively employed in his duties on the Sanitary Commission in the West. Colonel Macomb has recently transmitted to this Office Dr. Newberry's report, with its twenty-two illustrations; and I have respectfully to recommend that it be printed at the Government Printing-Office, and that 1,500 copies be furnished for the use of the Engineer Department upon the usual requisition; also, that this Office be authorized to procure the necessary copies of the illustrations. Very respectfully, your obedient servant, A. A. HUMPHREYS, Brig. Gen., Chief of Engineers. Hon. WILLIAM W. BELKNAP, Secretary of War. Approved: By order of the Secretary of War : H. T. CROSBY, Chief Clerk. JUNE 28, 1875. CONTENTS, / LETTER OF TRANSMITTAL. GENERAL REPORT. Report of November 1, 1800. Report of November 27, 1861. GEOLOGICAL REPORT. PREFATORY NOTE. LETTER OF TRANSMITTAL. CHAPTER I. GEOLOGY OP THE ROUTE BETWEEN ST. Louis AND SANTA FK. General geological sketch Independence to Dragoon Creek Carboniferous strata Character of coal and Coal" Measures of Kansas Due to what causes Coal-plants of Kansas Molluscous fossils Dragoon Creek to Cotton wood Creek Permo-Curhoniferous and Permian strata Difficulty of separating these formations Cotton wood Creek to Walnut Creek Gypsum formation Its parallelism Walnut Creek to Pawnee Fork Lower Cretaceous rocks Sand- stones withimpressions of leaves Pawnee Fork toCimarron Tertiary strata Arkansas basin Its relation to that of White River Cimarron to Enchanted Spring Jurassic? rocks Enchanted Spring to Cottonwool! Spring Lower Cretaceous and Tertiary beds Cottonwood Spring to Canadian Trap buttes and mesas near Raton Mountains- Cretaceous rocks of the Canadian Table-lands skirting the Rocky Mountains Canadian to Las Vegas Trap plateau at Burgwiii's Spring Cretaceous strata at Fort Union and Las Vegas. CHAPTER II. GEOLOGY OF THE VICINITY OP SANTA FE. Santa F6 Mountains Granite General geological features, its character and contained minerals Relations of the Santa F<5 mountains Placer Mountains Cretaceous and Triassic rooks Cretaceous lignite converted into anthra- cite by an outburst of trap Gold of the Placer Mountains Copper Iron The Crreillos Gold Silver Lead Copper Iron Turquoise Ancient Chalchuitl mines The Sandia Mountain The Valles Stratified rocks Carbo- niferous formations Santa Fe section Section at Pecos Village Peruio-Carboniferous beds Gypsum formation Section at San Jos!> Plate II. Near Vado del Chaina, upper cretaceous mesa 71 Plate III. La Piedra Parada, looking west 78 Plate IV. The Pagosa and San Juan River, looking easterly 76 Plate V. Bio Dolores g Sierra de la Plata. From near Camp 21 * Plato VI. Casa Colorado and La Sal Mountains, looking northerly Plate VII. Head of Labyrinth Crook, looking southeasterly Plate VIII. Head of Canon Colorado. Erosion of Triassic series. Plate IX. Lower San Juan, looking west. From near Camp 35 102 Plate X. The Needles, looking southwesterly 106 Plate XI. The Cabazon, from near Camp 54 - 112 Trap Dike, Pope's Well, south of Santa F6, New Mexico 51 The Pagosa, S. W. Colorado 75 Ruins of stone houses on cliffs, Labyrinth Canon PALEONTOLOGY. Plates I to VIII, inclusive, at cud of Descriptions of Fossils, by F. B. Meek and Dr. J. S. Newborry. LETTER OF TRANSMITTAL. UNITED STATES ENGINEER'S OFFICE, Hock Island, III., June 18, 1875. GENERAL : I have this day forwarded to you the Geological Report of Dr. J. S. Newberry, geologist of the San Juan exploration party, which went from Santa Fd, New Mexico, to the vicinity of the junction of Grand and Green Rivers, in Utah, and back to Santa Fc, in the summer of 1859, and which party was in my charge. This is the report to which I alluded in my report to you of November 1, 1860, MS setting forth wha.te.ver the route above mentioned afforded of interest to the public at large or to the man of science. I trust it may be found possible to publish it. The report is arranged in seven chapters, with a prefatory note, and is accom- panied by the following sketches and drawings, viz: p]leven water-color sketches, showing characteristic scenery of the region in Northwestern New Mexico, Southwestern Colorado, and Southeastern Utah. Also, eleven drawings (eight of fossils and three of scenery), all of which are interesting and important in connection with the report. My map of the route was engraved on a steel plate, and is on the files of the Engineer Department. I remain, very respectfully, your most obedient, servant, J. N. MACOMB, Colonel of Engineers, United States Army. Brig. Gen. A. A. HUMPHREYS, Chief of Engineers, United States Army. EXPLORING EXPEDITION FROM SANTA Ftf TO JUNCTION OF GRAND AND GREEN RIVERS. GENEEAL REPOET.' REPORT. WASHINGTON, D. d, Noiriiilirr 1, 1S(!(). SIR: For the information of the War Department, I beg leave to submit the fol- lowing remarks upon the exploration made by me, during the summer of 1859, in New Mexico and Utah. About the middle of July, 1S5!, my party set out from Santa Fe, New Mexico, and pursued a northwesterly course, crossing the Rio Grande Bravo del Norte at tin- old Indian pueblo of San Juan, and following up the valley of the Rio Cliania, pas. ing by the pueblo of Abiquiu, the outpost, of settlement in that direction, being about fifty-two miles from Santa Fe. We continued up the Chama Valley for some forty -five miles more, when we left, it and crossed the dividing ridge between the waters of the Gulf of Mexico and those of the Gulf of California, at a remarkable point, where then- is a small lake called Laguna de los Caballos, when we struck upon the headwaters of the San Juan River, crossing several branches before we came to the main stream. This we crossed in latitude 37 14' 48" north and longitude 107 2' 47" west*wh<-iv there is a hot spring, of temperature about 140 Fahrenheit and of magnificent dimensions. We looked down through its limpid waters until the power of vision was lost in the cavernous depths whence the waters now. From this point our route was westerly for about seventy miles, over a region very much broken and intersected by rapid mount- ain streams (branches of the San Juan), which afford an abundant supply of good water and have the appearance of being permanent. We had fryjruent rains, however, in this part of our route, and the grazing was thus far excellent. Up to a point abouf forty-five miles westward from the " Pagosa," or great hot spring above alluded to, we were accompanied by Mr. Albert II. Pfeiffer, sub-agent for the Utah Indians, and his interpreter, Neponocino Valdez, to both of whom we are indebted for acts of hospi- tality and for facilitating our passage through the country of the Capotes and other bands of the Utah Indians, in whose vicinity our route happened to lead us. In latitude 37 16' and longitude 108 4', we passed along the southern base ol the mountain group 1< no wi i as "Sierra de la Plata,;" hence in a northwesterly direction for about one hundred and twenty miles, over gloomy barrens, covered chieily with ArtcmesicB, but affording a scanty pasturage in some of the small valleys. The August rains favored us, and we had no scarcity of water on our route to the "Ojo Verde," in latitude 38 14' 50", longitude 10 ( J 26' 40", a point about three hundred and forty miles from Santa Fe. The greater part of our journey from Abiquiu to this point was C, EXPLORING EXPEDITION FUOM SANTA i'fi by the old Spanish trail, which has not heretofore boon accurately laid down upon any map. This trail is much talked of as having been the route of commerce between California and New Mexico in the days of the old Spanish rule, but it seems to have been superseded by the routes to the north and south of it, which have been opened by modern enterprise. At the "Ojo Verde" the Spanish trail strikes oil' more northwardly, to seek a prac- ticable crossing of Grand and Green Rivers. We left the trail here, and, leaving the main bod^y of our party encamped at the spring, with a small party of nine, went to the westward some thirty miles, under the guidance of an Indian, who had joined us many days previously, on our route to look for the junction of the Grand and Green Rivers. This part of our journey was very rough and dangerous, from the precipitous nature of the' route, winding down the sides of deep and grand canons, and it is fortu- nate that no attempt was made to bring forward our pack-train, as we must have lost many mules by it, and, moreover, there was not sutlicient pasture for the few animals that we had with us. I cannot conceive of a more worthless and impracticable region than the one we now found ourselves in. 1 doubt not there are repetitions and riir/rtii's of it for hundreds of miles down the canon of the Great Colorado, for I have heard of hut one crossing of that river above the vicinity of the Mojave villages, and I have reason to doubt if that one (El Vado de los Padres) is practicable, except with ihe utmost care, even for a pack-mule. On leaving the "Ojo Verde" we traveled south for about seventy miles, passing by the eastern base of the Sierra Abajo, until we struck the San Juan River, in lati- tude 37 16' 27" and longitude 109 24' 43", on the 2d September, 1851). We found bottom-land of the river at this point of a light and loose soil, into which the feet of the mules would frequently sink for some 18 inches. We followed up the river, remaining on its right bank for some one hundred and twenty miles, until we came oppo- site to the mouth of Canon Largo, in latitude ;)(l 43' 28" and longitude 107 43' 29". In the course of our march we observed many ruins of houses and found quantities of fragments of pottery scattered over the ground, indicating that the valley was once occupied by a race probably of the same origin and character as the Pueblo Indians extant in New Mexico. The fate of those former occupants of that dreary region is ..involved in mystery-. It requires, however, no ell'ort of the imagination to fancy that they may have been starved or frozen to death ; for the winters are severe and fuel is very scarce there. I have no doubt that the warm season is very short there, otherwise more of the valley of the San Juan would be cultivated by the Navajos, who are a corn-growing people, for the river affords abundant water for irrigation, and carries soil enough to enrich and renew the fields. On the 15th September, IS.")!), we forded the San Juan, opposite Canon Largo, with no little danger, the strong current and deep water sweeping down some of the mules, which were recovered with difficulty. We were fortunate in passing through Cation Largo just after heavy rains, as 1 learned afterward that the command of Major Simon- son, which passed through the canon in July, had suffered much for the want of water. There is one fine spring in the canon, about thirty-five miles from San Juan, but no other TO JUNCTION OF GRAND AND GREEN RIVERS. 7 reliable water until the San Jose spring is readied, abrmt thirty miles farther to the southeast. From the last-named water \ve followed down' the vallev of the Puerco (a branch of the Rio del Norte) for about fort}- miles, when we crossed the southern spur of the Nacimiento Mountain and came to the old pueblo of Jemez, about fifty-six miles to the west by south from Santa Ft'. The route has been passed over by , and also from Santa Fe to the upper valley of the (,'liama, a short distance above Abiquiu, but on the remainder of the route passed over by my party there is no evidence of a wagon having- ever been seen, and a suitable road for wagons could only be made al a heavy cost for construction, and it would doubtless meet with much opposition on the part, of the Navajos and Utahs, whose country it would pass through. During the expedition my time was taken up with the astronomical observations requisite for laying down the route. In these observations 1 was assisted by Mr. F. I'. Fisher, who noted the; time and kept the record for me with accuracy and neatness. Mr. Fisher also carried a barometer throughout the march. All computations required for the astronomical observations were necessarily made by myself. Mr. C. H. Dimmock made an excellent sketch of the route, which he has drawn in one large map upon a, scale of half an inch to the mile. This map I have tested by the results of my astronomical observations and computations with very great satisfaction. Messrs. Dorsey and Vail carried barometers and thermometers, and kept daily records of the indications of those instruments, chiefly from the readings of Mr. Vail. Mr. Dorsey also assisted the geologist in making some of the collections of natural history specimens. Dr. J. S. Newberry, the geologist, of the expedition, was particularly zealous and energetic in his examinations of the country, and I expect from him a report, setting forth whatever there may be of interest, in the route either to the public at large or to the man of science. I am now engaged, under your direction, in preparing for publication, upon a scale suitable for ordinary use, a map of the region visited by my party, which will exhibit with all requisite minuteness and accuracy of detail the features of the country, cover- ing an area of some twelve thousand square miles, which has heretofore been indicated upon the maps under the head of "unexplored." The expedition was accompanied by a detachment of infantry under the command of Lieut. M. Cogswell, of the Eighth Regiment, to whom we are indebted for our safe escort through a wild and inhospitable tract of country, partly occupied by hostile and treacherous Indians. I was directed, on my return to Santa Fe, to reduce my party and come in to Washington to prepare my report, and, on my way, to stop at the southwest corner of the Territory of Kansas, to set up a new monument at a point some two and a, quarter miles to the east of the one originally placed there. I accordingly diverged from the usual route across the plains from Fort Union and went up the Cimarron to the point indicated, and retraced that part of the thirty-seventh parallel from the old monument to the merdian of 10,'5, as laid down upon the map accompanying my instructions, and at the intersection of these two geographical lines I erected a rough stone monument. The 8 KXPLOIUNG EXPEDITION FROM SANTA Ffi original monument above alluded to is of earth and sods. This duty \vas finished about tlio middle; of November, lsf>!>, when the thermometer was ranging from zero to about li; above. I \vas accompanied to this position bv a small detachment of troops under the command of Lieut, H. M. Knos, of the regiment of mounted riflemen, to whose vigi- lance i am indebted for a sate transit to Fort Leavenwortli, at a time when the Indians of the reat, plains had manifested the most decided determination to be troublesome. I remain, very respectfully, your most obedient servant, J. N. MACOMB, ( 'a/if ah/, Topographical Capt. A. A. HUMPHREYS, Toj>. Kiii/nim-s, in charge of Office of Explorations M]/<>>/i>]>//i/ n/u'j>litif(i/i.^ J'roilxrtus, Atliyrix, Cltoiirlrx, Xanli/ti^, Hr/lrn>j>'/t(t, , &c. Of these one species of Monotis, and another of Myaliiitt, are scarcely distinguishable from those which occur in the Coal-Measures below, though very possi- bly distinct. The Athyiis, however a variety of A. subtil ita, but broader and more gibbous than the common form recurs in the underlying strata with a fauna decidedly Carboniferous. The same is probably true of a species of Betterophon common in these magnesian limestones. The 1'rodnctns mentioned (P. Calhouni(tiittx) is scarcely differ- ent from P. st'inirciiciiltifnu. With the possible exceptions I have enumerated the fauna of this group is decidedly Permian in character; and if the Permian formation is to be regarded as distinct from the Carboniferous, which is scarcely to be doubted, although the separation would not have been made if our American strata had been the basis of ideological classification, this upper group of magnesian limestones should undoubtedly be called Permian. Below the magnesian rocks to which I h;we referred, occur numer- ous alternations of magnesian limestones and variously-colored clays which contain a mingling of Carboniferous and Permian fossils, or perhaps more properly a, mingling of the species contained in the upper group of magnesian limestones with others common in the Carboniferous st.j-a.ta below, added to which are a few species that seem to be 20 EXPLORING EXPEDITION FEOM SANTA FE restricted to this geological horizon. In the upper part of this intermediate group of strata, we have the Bakevettia, Pleitrophorous, Axinus, c&c., of tlie beds above, and a fauna perhaps more Permian than Carboniferous, but below we soon reach a level where the Carboniferous types predominate. This group of strata has been regarded by Professor Swallow as all of Permian age, while Mr. Meek terms it Permo-Carboniferous, draw- ing the line which marks the base of the Permian at the base of the first group of mag- nesian limestones, and restricting this term to those members of the series in which the Permian fauna predominates over the Carboniferous. From this interlocking of the Carboniferous and Permian faiinse, it is evident that the line of separation., between the two formations must continue to be debatable ground; and as there is, in fact, a group which contains a mingled fauna in truth, a Permo-Carboniferous group we must introduce this new member into the geological series, or fix upon some conventional line which shall form the boundary between the summit of the Carboniferous and the base of the Permian formations. To avoid com- plicating the geological sCale, the latter course would undoubtedly be the wiser one; and since there is neither physical nor vital break in the series, it is perhaps not a matter of great consequence whether the line be drawn at the horizon where the first Permian type makes its appearance, or at the horizon beyond which the last Carbon- iferous species ceases to exist, or even at the point, if indeed it were determinable, where the species of the two formations are represented in eqiial numbers; in other words, whether at the top, bottom, or middle of the Permo-Carboniferous group. It will be seen by reference to the papers which have been before cited, that, while con- taining several Permian types, the fauna of the "Lower Permian" group of Swallow and Hawn has considerably more of the Carboniferous than Permian character; and as great bodies attract more strongly than small ones, it seems more natural that the debatable ground should be ceded to the great and well-defined Carboniferous series, of which the symmetry would suffer without it, rather than to the comparatively insig- nificant and ill-defined Permian formation. It seems probable, therefore, that the "Lower Permian " group of Swallow and Hawn will be regarded as an integral portion of the Carboniferous system, while the term Permian will be restricted to the Permian of Meek and Hayden, to the "Upper Permian" of Swallow and Hawn. It is evident that only those strata should be regarded as Permian in which the Permian fauna pre- dominates. In the hills bordering Dragoon Creek I first found limestones containing the group of fossils Pleurophorom, Bahevellia, Axinus, Jirl/ci-opkon, &c. to which I have referred above. Farther west, toward Council Grove, the hills are capped with yellow mag- nesian limestone, in many places crowded with the valves of I>IH<( parva. Over a considerable area in this vicinity the highlands are occupied by what may be consid- ered true Permian strata, while the valleys of all the water-courses are excavated to and into the Permo-Carboniferous, or, as I have called them, Upper Carboniferous strata. At Council Grove, Diamond Spring, Lost Spring, and Cottonwood Creek, obser- vations were made and fossils collected by Major Hawn, Messrs. Meek and Hayden, and myself last year. The geology of all these points is nearly the same. At each the TO JUNCTION OF GRAND AND GREEN RIVERS. 21 Permian magnesian limestones occupy the general surface, but are cut through bythe valleys of the draining .streams. Below them are exposed strata containing Orlliix'nta Hiitlirtirtiltiui J'roi/tirfii:-; C(i/l/ territory in this region, from which they have been entire! v removed, or so nearly so as to be represented by isolated and often widely separated patches. As will be seen bv reference to the sections exposed at various points along the western portion of the Santa 1'Y road, these Tertiary rocks are entirely unconformable to those upon which they rest ; are of very much later date, and were deposited, not only subsequent to the period when the entire series of Cretaceous strata had been laid down, but after they had been much disturbed, and elevated to such a point that vallevs, eroded by surface action, had been cut down to and through the base of that series. In different localities the Tertiary strata rest up on the Middle or Lower Cretaceous rocks, or even on the underlying Triassic formation. The vicinity of the Raton Mountains has, in former times, been the theater of violent and wide-spread volcanic action. At that time numerous mountain masses and subordinate buttes of trap were thrown up, and floods of lava poured out, covering an extensive area in their vicinity. During this period of violence the Cretaceous rocks were locally much disturbed and metamorphosed, and the lowest members of that series elevated to, and pea-haps far above, the surface of the ocean. At some time sub- sequent to the period of greatest volcanic activity, and yet apparently before the tires in this great furnace were entirely extinguished, the Tertiary strata began to be deposited in the depressions, and over the irregularities which then existed on the surface. Unfortunately, in all the localities where I examined these strata, they seemed to be destitute of fossils. We are, therefore, as yet without the light which they woidd throw upon the conditions of their deposition, and the conclusions to which I have arrived in reference to the precise age of these beds are to a certain extent con- jectural, and liable to be modified by future discoveries, yet there seems to be good reason for supposing that they are what I have called them, Tertiary, and that they are continuous with the Tertiary basins of Northwestern Kansas and Nebraska. The reasons for this conclusion are, first, that these deposits are considerably more recent than any portion of the Cretaceous series represented in the region in which they exist; second, that in their lithological characters and the circumstances of their depo- sition the\' are the exact counterparts of the fresh-water Tertiary strata of the basins to which 1 have referred, and which are also only locally and rarely fossiliferous ; third, that the Tertiary strata of the Upper Platte extend southward toward the Arkansas, where their only possible representatives are those under consideration ; fourth, Tertiary fossils are said to have been found in these beds on the banks of the Arkansas, above the crossing. In lithological characters the Tertiary rocks of the Arkansas basin are considerably unlike any marine deposit with which I am familiar, but the greater portion of them 4 s F 26 EXPLORING EXl'KIMTION FROM SANTA Fft strikingly resemble the fresh-water Tertiary limestones of the Paris basin ; and, as I have said, are undistinguishable from those of the "bad-lands" of tin- l T pper Missouri, shown by their fossils to be all of fresh -water or estuary origin The great mass ot the Arkansas beds is made up of white or cream-colored limestone, closely resembling much of the calcareous tufa deposited from springs, and frequently containing masses of black or red, very light and porous scoria; with this tiiiaceous limestone are associated strata of more compact laminated cream-colored limestone; abed of coarse, friable light-colored sandstone, frequently a conglomerate; and at a higher level a stratum of exceedingly coarse conglomerate, of which the pebbles, if such they can be called, are often 6 or 8 inches in diameter. These pebbles are principally composed of quartz or the harder erupted rocks, basalt, porphyry, &c,, with occasionally a frag- ment of Carboniferous limestone. 1 noticed that in going toward the west the mate- rials composing these sandstones and conglomerates became much coarser, showing that they had been derived from the direction of the Ivocky Mountains. Although the Tertiary basins of the West have been studied in but a small portion of their extent, and we are as yet very far from being in possession of all the facts in reference to their areas, their structure, or their fossils, which will permit us to write in full the history of their deposition, the observations already made all seem to point to the con- clusion that the Tertiary epoch was an era of progressive elevation overall the central portions of our continent ; and that during the greater part of this epoch, the continent had nearly the form and area which it has at present. The purely marine Tertiaries appear to be restricted to the immediate vicinity of the present ocean ; and to a narrow belt along the valley of the Mississippi, which continued to be occupied till a comparatively recent period by an arm of the Gulf of Mexico. So far as at present known, all the Tertiary strata which are found between the Mississippi and the Sierra Nevada are of fresh-water or estuary origin. The gradual retrocession of the ocean is also indicated by the fact reported by Dr. Hayden that where estuary shells are found in the Tertiary strata of Nebraska they are generally restricted to the lower be< Is of the series; the overlying strata containing fresh-water species. We are led to infer, therefore, that the Tertiary basins which skirt the bases of the Rocky Mountains, were once the beds of rivers and lakes of the Tertiary continent; and, except in the immediate vicinity of the coast-line, were wholly occupied by fresh water. It is also probable that some of these basins occupy former lines of drainage from the Rockv Mountains; and that the beds of coarse sand and gravel made up of fragments of crystalline rocks, wholly foreign to the localities where they are found, but abundant in and peculiar to the Rocky Mountains, were transported from their distant places of origin by the rapid currents of these ancient rivers. The further consideration of these facts, as well as others bearing on the subject of the physical geography of the central portions of the continent during the Tertiary epoch, must be deferred to a subsequent portion of this report, where it will more properly find place. The details of structure of the Tertiary basin of the Arkansas*will be, perhaps, most readily understood by a few extracts from my notes, made at various points alony- our route where the Tertiary strata are exposed. "After leaving Pawnee Fork, the road passes over level bottom-lands for several miles, where it divides: the left-hand branch TO JUNCTION OF GRAND AND GREEN RIVERS. 27 following the windings of the Arkansas; the other, called ^the 'dry road,' rising on to and crossing the table-land which separates the valleys of Pawnee Fork and the Upper Arkansas^ This table-land is underlain by a white tufaceous limestone, exposed in the bed of the Coon Creeks, and still better at the point where the dry road comes down again to the Arkansas. It is also thrown out in many different places from the burrows of the prairie-dogs. In lithological characters, this rock is precisely like a portion of the strata of the 'bad-lands' of Nebraska; contains no fossils, but a few pebbles of crystalline rock. At .the ( 'aches, sixteen miles below the crossing of the Arkansas, the same stratum is seen overlaid by some thirty feet of coarse, soft, light- bro\vn conglomerate-, much cross-stratified. The cement is coarse silicious sand; the pebbles, from the size of an egg downward, of granite, trap, quartz, porphyry, trachyte, jasper, quartzite, chert, etc., with a few of Carboniferous limestone." "At the crossing of the Arkansas, the following section is exposed: " 1. Spongy tufaceous limestone like that on Dry road. "2. Coarse, soft conglomerate, same as at Caches, 35 feet. " o. Tufaceous limestone, like No. 1, to base." "The sand-hills, which border the Arkansas on the south side, seem to have been derived from the decomposition of the Tertiary conglomerate." "The same stratum forms the banks of the Cimarron, and has apparently given character to its- sandy and sterile valley. The 'Jornada,' the divide between the Arkansas and Cimarron, is another portion of the high prairie, precisely like, in physi- cal and geological structure, that crossed by the 'dry road.'" "At Eighteen-mile ridge, on the Cimarron, the coarse conglomerate and chalky tufa are exposed, as at many points below. The conglomerate is composed of a coarse sandy cement, with pebbles from the size of shot to eight inches in diameter. The larger ones are compact, fine-grained, reddish-yellow sandstone, doubtless of Lower Cretaceous age, and such as comes to the surface farther westward. Others are com- posed of granite, amygdaloid, clay-slate, quartz, jasper, &c. The greater size of the pebbles in this conglomerate perhaps indicates that, in going westward, we are approaching the source from which they were derived. The conglomerate would seem to be a drift from the Rocky Mountains, where, and where only, as far as I am aware, such materials occur in place. If this is true, when on the Cimarron, we were doubtless standing in the channel of a great line of drainage of the Tertiary epoch." At the middle spring of the Cimarron a very instructive and interesting section is exposed, in which we again see the base of the Tertiary series. On Pawnee Fork, the tufaceons limestones and conglomerate which I have described rest upon the coarse ferruginous Lower Cretaceous sandstone. Here we find them underlain by soft yellow or red sandstone, of which the place is considerably lower than that last mentioned. In other localities further west we shall see that these Tertiary beds rest first on Lower Cretaceous sandstone, then on trap, again upon the Middle Cretaceous limestones and shales, and, finally, upon the red calcareous sandstones of the Trias. The elements composing the section of the middle spring of the Cimarron are indicated in the fol- lowing table: 28 EXPLORING EXPEDITION FROM SANTA Ffi Section of strata at Middle Si>i-h/(/ of ('hiutrron. 1. Coarse gravel from disintegrated conglomerate - (! 2. Spongy, tufaceous limestone, cream-colored - 3 3. Soft, chalky tufa, cream-colored 4. Laminated, tufaceous limestone, cream-colored '. . . G 5. Massive, tufaceous limestone, iipper part hardest, containing halls of red and black scoria 50 6. Cream-colored tufa, similar to No. 5, but softer 19 7. Hard, foliated tufaceous limestone 5 8. Yellow or reddish, soft, massive sandstone 40 The cream-colored tufaceous limestones of the above section are the equivalents of the lower tufaceous limestone of the Arkansas, and, though containing no fossils, are doubtless Tertiary. The balls of scoria which they include, though not positive evidence of the fact, may be regarded as an indication that volcanic action was going on somewhere in this vicinity during their deposition. If this was the case, the scoria must have been derived from the vicinity of the Raton Mountains, where volcanic eruptions were taking place, geologically speaking, about that time. Scoria is very frequently contained in the Tertiary strata near the Rocky Mount- ains; a fact which has suggested the thought that the water from which these tufaceous limestones were deposited may, in some instances, have been heated, and that this is one reason why they contain so few fossils. The sandstone which forms the base of the section, at the Middle Spring of the Cimarron, will be soon noticed, in connection with the group to which it belongs; but its place in the series, as has been stated, is below the Lower Cretaceous sandstone. We have here abundant evidence of the entire unconformability of the Tertiary beds with those on which they rest, and that they were deposited in basins scooped out of the underlying rocks, doubtless by subaerial action, precisely as similar valleys or basins are forming at the present day. A few miles further westward the Lower Cretaceous, and even some portions of the Middle Cretaceous strata, are found in place, and there is no question but that they once stretched over all the adjacent country, and occupied the place since held by the Tertiary beds, but, by the long action of eroding agents, they had been entirely re- moved or deeply excavated before the Tertiary limestones began to be deposited; and that subsequently this latter series filled up and obliterated all traces of that ancient denudation. During the present epoch the process of erosion has again begun, and the valleys of the Cimarron and Arkansas are being for the second time excavated. GROSSING OF GIMARRON TO ENGIIANTED SPRING. JURASSIC ? ROCKS. At the crossing of the Cimarron, and for some miles west of that point, the Ter- tiary strata have been entirely removed; the bottom of the basin exposed and deeply eroded. It is here composed of a. series of strata of which the sandstone, King at the base of the cliff at, the Middle Spring, forms a part. This series consists of a number TO JUNCTION OF GRAND AND GREEN RIVERS. 29 of alternations of strata which are quite different in color., texture, and composition. They are, as far as my observation extended, destitute of fossils, nnd it is therefore im- possible to fix accurately their place in the geological Scale. It will be seen from the section i>'iven below that they underlie the coarse red and yellow sandstones of Lower Cretaceous age, which have been so frequently referred to in the preceding pages. They are, however, in Hthological characters quite unlike the strata which ;ir<> gen- erally found immediately beneath ihe Lower Cretaceous sandstones of New Mexico. The position they hold is apparently the same with that of the Jurassic rocks discov- ered by Dr. Hayden in the Black Hills. It is possible, therefore, and perhaps prob- able, that they are of the same age. It will, however, be necessary to wait the detection of fossils in the group before its place in the series can be more than conjec- tured. The section taken from the summits of the hills at Enchanted Spring, down the side of the valley toward the Cimarron, as far as the rocks were exposed, is as follows : 1. Gray, yellow, or brown coarse sand-rock, the equivalent of that of the Smoky Hills, here containing obscure impressions of large dicotyledonous leaves, 70 feet. '2. Thin layers of laminated brown sandstones, with very smooth surfaces, 20 feet. ,">. I hn'il lif/lit-h/itr tii' ilorc-colnrcil /'nitcx/iiiti' in tltiu layers, Jurassic? 50 feet. 4. Slope covered, about 30 feel. 5. Yellow or reddish quartzose sandstone, 2 feet. (I. lied shale, 5 feet. 7. Yellow calcareous sandstone or silicious limestone, with ferruginous concretions, 20 feet. S. Brecciated conglomerate, 5 feet. !). Blood-red shale, 25 feet. 10. Yellow calcareous sandstone, similar to No. 7, 8 feet, 11. Blood-red shale, with one or two narrow bands of green, 10 feet. 12. Red and yellow argillaceous limestone, somewhat concretionary, often laminated, sun-cracked and ripple-marked, pierced by vertical cavities from one to two inches in diameter, to bast*, 8 feet. Much of the coarse sand-rock, No. 1 of the section, is precisely like that contain- ing the fossil plants of Blackbird Hill, Nebraska; being partly dark-brown and ferru- ginous, and partly gray, quartz-like, and intensely hard. Other portions of the mass are yellow and softer, in this respect resembling the general aspect of this rock in New Mexico. The limestone, No. 3 of the section, is the most interesting feature of the group, and the one to which we must look for fossils that shall determine its age. It is a fine- grained, homogeneous rock, such as I have nowhere seen near the same geological horizon in the Southwest. With the exception of the limestone, I should have no great difficulty in supposing that this group represented the strata which in New Mexico im- mediately underlie; the Lower Cretaceous sandstones; 4mt the limestone is entirely for- eign to the geology of those; portions of New Mexico which I have examined. I am strongly inclined to believe that it is a member of the series not represented further to the south and west, and I shall be surprised if it does not yield to future explorers well- marked Jurassic fossils. 30 EXPLORING EXPEDITION FROM SANTA F ENCHANTED SPUING TO COTTONWOOD SPRING. TERTIARY AND LOWER CRETACEOUS STRATA. At Enchanted Spring the Lower Cretaceous sandstones form a line of bold Mull's, which border the excavated valley of the Cimarron. From this point up to the base of the mountains the surface has nothing of the monotony of the plains below, but is greatly varied, and the scenery is frequently impressive, occasionally grand. With the exception, however, of the volcanic outlayers of the Raton Mountains, there arc- few evidences of the action of violent disturbing causes, and the variety which the scenery presents is due almost entirely to the erosion of nearly horizontal strata by the drainage from the Rocky Mountains. Here the traveler, journeying to New Mexico, obtains his first view of the peculiar and impressive scenery so characteristic of nearly all portions of the great central plateau of the continent. Here he first hears the word mesa, and sees it embodied in the long lines of table-lands which fill the horizon and stretch away in perspective, like the walls of Cyclopean cities. I have, in a former report, described somewhat in detail the phenomena of erosion which are presented by the high table-land bordering the Rocky Mountains. It is, therefore, only necessary for me to say in this connection that the views then advanced in reference to the origin of the great natural features of that region, its mesas and canons, have been fully con- firmed by subsequent observation, and that there can be no question that they are to be regarded simply as phenomena of surface erosion, of which they are the grandest examples known. The geology of the region lying between Enchanted Spring and Cottonwood Spring is similar throughout. The rocky basis of the country is formed by the Lower Cretaceous sandstone, covered here and there with patches of white tufaceous Tertiary limestone. These Tertiary beds were, perhaps, once continuous, but now form only a relatively thin covering over the divides between the streams, being wholly removed from the valleys and lowlands. As on the Arkansas, they an; without fossils as far as ol (served, and were deposited nearly horizontally over the irregular surface of the underlying sandstone. A section of the strata at Cedar Spring is as follows: (.) Tertiary. 1. White, chalky, tufaceous limestone, with hard, gray, compact bands If) feet. 2. Cream-colored, spongy, tufaceous limestone, (similar to that on the Arkan- sas and Cimarron) 40 feet. (/>.) Cretaceous. 1. Yellow fine-grained sandstone, with obscure impressions of fucoids G feet. 2. Light blue or white shale, \\*ith many obscure vegetable impressions, about 4 feet. 3. Yellow sandstone, soft and rather coarse, in thin (often rippled-marked) layers, containing impressions of dicotyledonous leaves, resembling those of Salix and Quercus 5 feet. TO JUNCTION OF GRAND AND GREEN KIVERS. 31 4. Bluish shale, containing impressions of leaves, and a thin lc. Yellow soft sandstone, with impressions of dicotyledonous leaves, apparently identical with some of those from Smoky Hill, to base of section 50 feet. From Cedar Spring to McNee's Creek the road passes over a high prairie under- lain by Tertiary limestones. At, McXee's Creek the Tertiary rocks are cut through and the Cretaceous series freely opened. No fossils were found here, but the rock is gener- allv similar to that at Cedar Spring. At Cotton wood Spring the surface rock is Tertiary tufaceous limestone, which is cut through by the stream, and its line of junction with the underlying Cretaceous rocks exposed. The sandstone is here considerably disturbed and metamorphosed apparently by the upheaval of the erupted mass of the "Rabbit- ear Buttes," which are near by. l^pon the uneven surface of the sandstone the Tertiary strata are laid down nearly or quite horizontally, and have evidently been but little disturbed since their deposition. In the upper part of the Cretaceous sandstone near the spring I found many vegetable impressions, generally trunks of trees and fragments of wood, and also some leaves. One of these is apparently a Salix, and perhaps identical with S. ]\feeJ>ii. There are also others, which are similar to the leaves found at Smoky Hill. The metamorphosis of the Cretaceous strata is shown not only in tint peroxidationof the iron which the}' contain, but an associated clay-shale is rendered nearly as white and as hard as porcelain; the contained iron being segregated in thin vein-like bands. OOTTONWOOD SPRING TO RED FORK ( F CANADIAN. TKAP, TERTIARY, AND CRETACEOUS ROCKS. The interval indicated by the above heading includes a portion of the volcanic district adjacent to the Raton Mountains, to which I have before alluded. Rabbit-ear, Round Mound, Wagon Mound, &c., form part of a group of trap buttes, which are scattered over the prairie for a long distance east of the mountains. They are in some cases entirely isolated, and seem to mark minor vents, where a portion of the molten matter contained in some vast subterranean reservoir found exit. ( >thers are connected by sheets of trap, and in some instances are but portions of a volcanic flood, separated from their connections by subsequent erosions. Toward the mountains the erupted material more completely covers the country, and forms extensive mesas, or high table- lands, which have been deeply cut by the canons of the streams once flowing over but now through them. They have also been left in strong relief by the cutting down of the country bordering them on the east. In many places the sheets of trap are covered by Tertiary tufa, which has been deposited quietly and uniformly over their surfaces, and is evidently much more recent than they. This Tertiary bed is here not of great thickness, and perhaps represents only the extreme upper portion of the series described in the preceding pages. Wherever the trap is cut through in the stream-beds it is found resting on the Lower Cretaceous sandstones, which are in such cases somewhat metamorphosed ; being vitrified, or at least hardened; the iron being peroxidized, and more or less segregated in bands or veins. In other localities the Lower Cretaceous sandstone is covered by 32 EXPLORING EXPEDITION FROM SANTA FE the Tertiary tufa; but, over large areas, it is itself the surface rock. At Whetstone Creek this group is exposed iu the hanks of the stream, and shows a great number of alternations of very fine-grained, laminated sandstone, with more argillaceous hands. These strata contain fossil plants in large numbers, which would undoubtedly well reward collectors who could have more time to devote to the locality than was at my command. Several of the species noticed there are apparently different from those obtained from outcrops of this formation from other localities, but a narrow leaf, per- haps a Salix, seems to be identical with one obtained at Smoky Hill, Pawnee Fork, ivc. A remarkable fissure has been opened by volcanic force in the rocks containing these plants. It is aboiit four and a half feet wide following the main jointings of the sandstones, which here run nearly east and west, No trap fills the fissure, but it is evident that it was once a kind of flue through which a vast amount of heat escaped from below. Its sides are blackened, glazed, and blistered, and the sandstone which forms its immediate walls is considerably metamorphosed; to the depth of an inch it is vitrified; back of this it is converted into a hard, blue, sonorous rock, resembling a compact basalt, The effect of heat is noticeable in the changed condition of the sand- stone several feet from the sides of the fissure, but at a distance of twenty feet the rock again exhibits its normal appearance. VALLEY OF THE CANADIAN. MIDDLE CRETACEOUS STRATA. The valley of the Red Fork of the Canadian is a broad eroded trough, excavated almost entirely irt the great group of limestones and calcareous shales which rest upon the sandstone group I have so frequently referred to as the Lower Cretaceous sand- stones. The overlying calcareous mass, which contains immense numbers of Cre- taceous fossils, is apparently the equivalent of Nos. 2, 3, and 4 of Meek and Hayden's Nebraska section. In my former notes on the geology of this region, I designated this series as I 'pper Cretaceous, to distinguish it from the Lower Cretaceous sandstone group. At that time I had seen no evidence of the existence in New Mexico of higher members of the Cretaceous formation. In our recent explorations of the San Juan countrv, where this series is very largely developed, I- found the equivalents of the strata under con- sideration covered by soft sandstones and marls, which I regarded as also members ol the great Cretaceous formation. This latter group is, therefore, more properly I'pper Cretaceous, and the calcareous strata of the Canadian and their equivalents will be designated in the subsequent portions of this report as Middle Cretaceous. In describing the Cretaceous strata of the country bordering the San Juan, I shall have occasion to return to the subject of the classification of the rocks belonging to this series, as developed in New Mexico, and, as far as practicable, establish a. paral- lelism between them and those of the Upper Missouri, as described in the Nebraska section of Messrs. Meek and Ilayden. I may here say, however, that the division of the ( 'retaceous rocks of New Mexico into three great groups Upper, Middle, and Lower will be found to be the most convenient, if not the only one practicable TO JUNCTION OF GRAND AND GREEN RIVERS. 33 Wherever I have observed them these different divisions are marked by obvious and distinctive Hthological characters, and the fossils contained by each group are usually recognizable at a glance. Those of the Lower sandstone group being generally angi- ospermous leaves; those of the Middle group, marine shells and the remains of fishes; those of the Upper division, as far as yet observed, being leaves and trunks of trees different from those found below. It is true, that in Southeastern New Mexico and Texas there is veiy little sandy matter in any of the Cretaceous rocks, while in the Rocky Mountains the upper and lower arenaceous divisions are greatly developed, and the limestones have nearly disappeared from the middle division. This latter group is, however, distinctly marked even there; consisting of calcareous shales, with thin bands of limestone and beds of lignite, interstratified with layers, of greater or less thickness, of fine-grained sandstones, usually containing considerable lime. On the banks of the Canadian, from 800 to 1,000 feet of the Middle Cretaceous strata all exposed. The section from the summit of the hills at the "Breaks of Red River," down to the bed of the stream, is as follows: 1. Rolled gravel, composed of fragments of porphyry, trap, Paleozoic limestone, &c., drift from the Rocky Mountains. "2. Light-blue compact limestone, on exposure cracking into flattish chips or "spalls," containing Inoccmmus problemati&us, Gryphcea Pitcheri, &c. 3. Ferruginous, laminated, sandy limestone, with rounded concretions, one to five feet in diameter, of compact blue limestone, much cracked, and fissures filled with crystallized carbonate of lime. This rock is a great store-house of fossils, of which, perhaps, the most abundant is a remarkably neat little Ostrea, hitherto undescribed, which I have called Ostrea clcgantula ; one of the most common and widely distributed Middle Cretaceous fossils of New Mexico. With this are Inoceramus frayilis, H. & M., /. Crispiif, Ammonites percarinatus, Shark's teeth (Lamna and Oxyrhma), &c. The surfaces of the layers of this stratum are covered with small Ostreas (0. conyeata), and fragments of Inoceramus, which resemble fish-scales; thickness 80 feet. 4. Light-blue compact limestone in thin beds, weathering white, similar to No. 2; about 30 feet exposed. From this point to the bed of the river, some 700 to 800 feet, the cliffs are composed of blue compact limestone in thin beds, alternating with dark- blue and brownish bituminous calcareous shales, which underlie the preceding mem- bers of the section, and rest upon the Lower Cretaceous sandstones In every part of these lower limestones Inoccrannis problematicus is exceedingly abundant. They also contain large numbers of (iriiplKca I'l/cl/cri, of which remarkably large and fine speci- mens were collected a- short distance east of the crossing. All the foregoing calcareous beds rest upon the sandstones of Lower Creta- ceous age to which I have so frequently referred. These sandstones form the bed of the Canadian at the crossing and the walls of the canon below, and here exhibit nearly the same Hthological characters as at many localities where they are exposed farther eastward. They seem to be somewhat disturbed and hardened, and it is possible that a slight unconformability may be discovered between them and the overlying rocks- This is a mere suspicion, however, which I could not verify or disprove in the time at 5 s F 34 EXPLORING EXPEDITION FROM SANTA FE my command. The divide between the valleys of the Red Fork and its tributary, the Ocate, a swell as the western bank of the Ocate", is formed of the Middle Cretaceous limestones and marl, enumerated in the preceding- section. The structure of the picturesque table-lands from which these streams issue I had no opportunity of determining, as they lie several miles north of the road, but I could see that they are in part covered by a thick layer of trap, to which their nearly hori- zontal surfaces and precipitous sides are doubtless due. VALLEY OF THE CANADIAN TO LAS VEGAS. As far westward as Burgwin's Spring, patches of Tertiary tufa appear in numerous localities, usually resting upon trap, which is the prevailing surface-rock, and which caps the picturesque mesas bordering the road on either side. Here, as farther cast, numerous trap buttes stud the prairies, and there are several lines of trap hills which run off toward the south as diverging spurs from the Raton Mountains. Near Dragoon Spring, by a long and painful ascent we reached the summit of a trap mesa, apparently the continuation of the table-lands bordering the Upper Canadian. The underlying sedimentary rocks are here concealed by the debris of their trappcan cover- ing. A few miles farther westward, however, the Lower Cretaceous sandstones again come into view, and it is probable that they here form the surface over which the vol- canic flood was poured. The trap of all this region exhibits great similarity of char- acter; its weathered surfaces are black, while within it is dark brown or gray. It is generally more or less vesicular, sometimes quite scoriaceous. Aboitt Fort Union the only rocks visible are a mass of vesicular trap similar to that just described, apparently only a narrow and local lava-stream, and the Lower Cretaceous sandstones, which are very fully exposed. This latter groiip has here a thickness of at least 300 feet, perhaps considerably more, as its line of junction with the underlying rocks is nowhere reached. It forms the hills at the base of which the fort is located, and a large part of Gallinas Mountain.- Probably still older strata ant thrown up at the latter locality, but I had no opportunity to look for them. Just below Fort Union the Cretaceous sandstones, dipping to the south and east, away from the mountains, pass beneath the surface, and are succeeded by the Middle Creta- ceous limestones so fully exposed on the banks of the Canadian. These rocks occupy all the interval between this point and Las Vegas. On my former visit, to Las Vegas I \\ as unable to discover any fossils in the blue limestone which crops out there, though I regarded it as equivalent to the Middle Cretaceous beds elsewhere examined. This conjecture I was able more recently fully to confirm by finding in it Inoceramus prob- lematicus and other fossils of that horizon. At Las Vegas the road leaves the prairies, and thence to Santa Fe is constantly involved in the foot-hills of the Rocky Mountains. As the geology of this portion of our route is somewhat complicated, and was studied principally on excursions made at different times from Santa Fe, it will perhaps more properly form part of a distinct chapter, where the structure of a limited geographical district is considered by itself, and where the light derived from this one of its parts may serve to illuminate the others. This division is the more natural, as in this vicinity we passed out of the TO JUNCTION OF GRAND AND GEEEN KIVEKS. 35 great basin in which we hud so long been journeying the- valley of the Mississippi and entered that of the Rio Grande. At Las Vegas, too, the granite of the Rocky Mountains is first seen in place, forming the axis of a subordinate anticlinal, on the eastern flanks of which the Triassic and the Carboniferous formations re -appear in suc- cession, thus bringing us to the base of the section which has occupied our attention in the preceding pages. The exposures of these strata are much less full and satisfac- tory here than nearer Santa Fe, where they are also less metamorphosed and more lossiliferotis, and where the contrast and coincidences which their exposures present with their eastern outcrops may be more accurately determined. 36 EXPLORING EXPEDITION FROM SANTA Ffi CHAPTER II. GEOLOGY OF THE VICINITY OF SANTA FE. GENERAL GEOLOGICAL FEATURES SANTA FE MOUNTAINS GRANITE ITS CHARACTER AND CONTAINED MINERALS RELATIONS OF THE SANTA FE MOUNTAINS PLACER MOUNTAINS CRETACEOUS AND TRIASSIC ROCKS CRETACEOUS LIGNITE CONVERTED INTO ANTHRACITE BY AN OUTKUUST OF TRAP GoLD OF THE PLACER MOUNTAINS COPPER IRON TlIE CERRILLOS GOLD SILVER LEAD COPPER IRON TURQUOISE ANCIENT CHALCIIUITL MINES THE SANDIA MOUNTAIN THE VALLES STRATIFIED ROCKS CARBONIFEROUS FORMATION SANTA FE SECTION SECTION AT PECOS VILLAGE PERMO-CARBONIFEROUS BEDS GYPSUM FORMATION SECTION AT SAN JOSE FOSSIL PLANTS CRETACEOUS FORMA- TION SUBDIVISION OF THE SYSTEM YELLOW SANDSTONES OF CANON BLANCO CRETA- CEOUS SECTIONS AT GALLISTEO AND POPE'S WELL TERTIARY BEDS OF FRESH- WATER ORIGIN. The region about Santa Fe has occupied the attention of several geologists who have visited New Mexico, among whom Messrs. Wislizenus, Marcou, and Blake have given full reports of their observations upon it. I also was able to devote a short time to its study while connected with the party of Lieutenant Ives in 1858, a resume of the observations then made being given in my report to that officer. It might, there- fore, be supposed -that this subject was by this time freed from all obscurity, and, per- haps, exhausted of all interest. This is, however, far from being true, as may be shown in few words. The geological structure of that region is complicated by several distinct lines of upheaval, which have been classed together in the so-called Rocky Mountain system; and yet the relations of these groups and chains of mountains are far from being fully understood, or at least demonstrated. They have been regarded, perhaps justly, as of the same age, but, as will be seen, when we come to speak of them more in detail, evidence of complete synchronism is yet wanting, while there are some facts which seem to point to a contrary conclusion. Aside from the obscurity which hangs over the erupted rocks, an obscurity that cannot be dissipated without much careful study in the field as well as in the labora- tory, the splendid exposures of the three great groups of sedimentary strata, the Car- boniferous, the Triassic, and the Cretaceous to say nothing of the Tertiary beds largely developed, but without fossils: deserve and demand for their full analysis more time than has yet been devoted to them. The three; months spout in the vicinity of Santa Fe during the past season by our party have, I trust, not been entirely without TO JUNCTION OF GRAND AND GREEN RIVERS. 37 value, as regards the determination of doubtful points in- the geology of this region. It must be confessed, however, that many questions are left unsettled which we had hoped to solve, and I am convinced that there are few localities within the field of the American geologist where patient and accurate investigation would be so likely to result in the discovery of facts of high scientific value as in that under consideration. SANTA FE MOUNTAINS. As I have mentioned in my former report, the great mass of the Santa Fe Mount- ains is composed of coarse, red, feldspathic granite, which , if not peculiar to, is at least highly characteristic of, many of the mountain ranges of the central portion of the con- tinent included in what is known as the Rocky Mountain system. As we shall see further on, a granite to the eye identical with this forms the core or axis of the Nasci- miento Mountain, the Sierra de la Plata, and other of the more westerly ranges of this system. In the Coast Mountains of California or Oregon, in the Cascade Mountains, or in the Sierra Nevada, though I have examined outcrops of granite in many thousand different localities, I have never seen even a hand specimen similar in character to the red granite of the Rocky Mountains. It will be seen, by reference to the description formerly given of the country bordering the Lower Colorado, that the granites of all the mountain ranges which cross that stream in the lower 500 miles of its course are like those of the Pacific coast, white or grey, and contain a large quantity of albite. In the bottom of the canon of the Great Colorado, north of the San Francisco Mount- ain, where the river flows in a granitic trough, this rock, which is covered by several thousand feet of Paleozoic strata, is generally grey and fine-grained. It is, however, in many places penetrated by veins, or replaced by masses of a bright-red granite very similar to that of the Santa Fe Mountains. This was the first locality in which, coming eastward from the Pacific, I met with a rock of this character. In the Alle- ghanies, or the mountains of New England, I have never seen any granite like that of the Rocky Mountains, but, in the bowlder-drift of the Mississippi, and in places north of the great lakes, a rock is found much more closely resembling it. In this, however, the crystals of feldspar are of a less decided red than those of the Canadian rock, being pale rose-red, those of Santa Fe a bright brick-red. To the erosion of the red granites of the Rocky Mountains, during the Paleozoic and Secondary ages, I have been inclined to attribute the prevailing red color of so large a part of the sedimentary rocks. On the banks of the Colorado, several hundred feet of the Carboniferous strata consist of blood-red sandstones and shales, witli large quantities of gypsum; nearly the entire interval between the summit of the Carboniferous system and the base of the Cretaceous is filled with similar materials, and some portions of the Upper Cretaceous strata have the same decided tint. The granite of the Santa Fe Mountains is not universally of the character I have described; occasionally it is seen to be light-colored, gvcy or white, as it is near Rock Corral, a few miles cast of Santa Fc, on the Independence road. Veins of quartz and epidote are very common in the granite of the Santa Fe Mountains; the former being numerous and large. I was never able, however, to discover in them any traces of metallic minerals. They are certainly not the repositories of the copper, lead, silver, and gold which are found in the region immediately about Santa Fd. 38 EXPLORING EXPEDITION FROM SANTA FE The relations which thfc Santa Fe Mountains sustain to the geology of the sur- roundiBg region may be given in a few words. Like most of the ranges which go to make up the complex group of the Rocky Mountains, though attaining a great altitude, this is comparatively short. How far it may be traced to the north, we are at present not able to say; probably not more than fifty or sixty miles. It is then succeeded by other ranges, which, with more or less interruption, extend to and beyond the parks, forming the broad mountain belt which gives character to the topography of the cen- tral portions of the continent. On the south it falls off abruptly near Santa Fe, and either wholly disappears or is represented at a distant point by some of the mountain chains which lie east of the Rio Grande. The trend of this chain a few degrees west of north and east of south would, if prolonged, strike altogether to the eastward of its nearest neighbors on the south, Placer and Sandia Mountains. The altitude of its highest peak is supposed to be between twelve and thirteen thousand feet. Upon the flanks of the Santa Fe Mountains, where not removed, the sedimentary rocks rest in regular order, and are, with the exception of the Tertiary, nearly or quite conformable. THE PLACER MOUNTAINS. From the southern base of the Santa FC" Mountains the surface descends toward the south, to the valley of Galisteo Creek, some twenty miles distant ; thence it rises again, three or four miles, to the base of the Placer Mountains; the course of Galisteo Creek being nearly east and west, following the line of greatest depression between the adjacent mountain groups. This depression forms a natural pass from the plains to the valley of the Rio Grande, affording a practicable and convenient railroad route. Viewed as a whole, the interval between the Santa Fe" and Placer Mountains may be regarded as a plain, the inequalities of the surface being slight compared with those of the surrounding country. It is cut, however, by numerous eroded valleys and ravines, and a limited portion of it is occupied by a group of erupted hills Los Cer- rillos some of which have an altitude of several hundred feet. The rocks exposed in the valley of Galisteo Creek are mostly of a sedimentary character, representing portions of the Triassic, Cretaceous, and Tertiary formations East of the Cerrillos, though much disturbed, these are but little changed in structure; the Cretaceous strata abounding in fossils characteristic of the middle and lower beds the first, mollusks; the second, angiospermous leaves the Triassic rocks containing great numbers of silicified trunks of coniferous trees similar to those so frequently met with in the same formation farther westward. The stratified rocks are, however in several localities, cut by trap dikes, which, offering greater resistance to erosion, have been left in strong relief above the surface. Two of these, one north, the other south of the village of Galisteo, are particularly conspicuous, running with a nearly parallel course in an east and west direction for several miles across the country. Of these the southern is the most remarkable, standing like a huge, Dearly-continuous wall, its crest being in many places a hundred and fifty feet above the plain bordering it on either side. West of the Cerrillos similar but smaller dikes arc common, and a large area on both sides of the Rio Grande is nothing less than a lava-plain, the flood which formed it having apparently flowed from one or several volcanic vents near the TO JUNCTION OF GRAND AND GREEN RIVERS. 39 eastern base of the Valles, the mountain-chain forming the western boundary of this portion of the valley of the Rio Grande. In this lava-plain the Ilio Grande has excavated the canon through which it flows above Santo Domingo, and its cut edge forms the high mesa-wall which borders Galisteo Creek on the north, from the Cerril- los to its month. It is only near the Rio Grande that the Tertiary beds to which I have referred make their appearance. Here they are altogether similar to those I have described as occurring on the Arkansas and other localities east of the mountains, viz, white tnfa- ceons limestones and beds of conglomerate, the pebbles mainly of pumice or trap, and all without fossils. ( )n both sides of Galisteo Creek the Cretaceous strata contain beds of lignite. ( )n the south side, in the foot-hills of the Placer Mountains, an outburst and overflow of trap has, over a limited area, changed the lignite into bright, hard anthracite coal. This will doubtless have considerable economical value. The bed is four to five feet thick, included between strata of bluish argillaceous shale, with bands of nodular iron-ore, the whole forming an accurate copy of the most characteristic sec- tions a Horded by the Coal-Measures of the. Mississippi Valley. The Placer Mountains form a group rather than a chain, their extent east and west being nearly or quite equal to that north and south. They are made up, how- ever, of a series of short lines of upheaval, having a trend somewhat, north of west and south of east. Like most -isolated mountains and mountain groups, as distinguished from the chains which have come under my observation in Central and Western North America, they are composed, for the most part, of rocks decidedly eruptive in charac- ter, and to a much less degree than their neighbors the Sandia and Santa Fe Mount- ains, consist of granite or stratified materials. The principal constituents of the Placer Mountains are porphyry, trachyte, tufa, and trap, with masses of granite and mica-slate. About their bases, and in some cases upon their flanks, the stratified rocks of the country may all be found, but are less fully exposed than in the more important mountain ranges of this region. The Placer Mountains have received their name from the gold which they furnish; considerable quantities having been taken during a long period of years from the placers of their bases and slopes. More recently, systematic, mining operations have been commenced in the auriferous rocks, and a limited amount of gold has been extracted from them. The gold of the Placer Mountains is of remarkable purity, and there is no question but that a great deal of it exists there, yet it is quite doubtful whether these gold-dig- gings will ever become vcrv productive, from the fact that it will be difficult, if not impossible, ever to bring to the placers an adequate supply of water, and the gold is so sparsely and widely distributed through the metalliferous rock that mining and crush- ing it. will be but moderately compensated by the quantity obtained. The "Old Placer" has been worked by the Mexican population since the first occu- pation of the country by the Spaniards, and probably was a place of resort by their predecessors the Pueblo Indians. The gold is obtained in the bed of an intermittent stream flowing through a. ravine which separates two of the principal peaks, and in and beneath the debris which has accumulated where this gorge opens into the valley of 40 EXPLORING EXPEDITION FROM SANTA FE Galisteo Creek. It generally occurs in fine scales, and but few nuggets of any consid- erable size have been found. The supply of water for washing out the metal is so small and irregular that gold-digging here is too uncertain a business to be depended upon as a means of subsistence by any considerable number of miners. Only a fen- Mexican families reside in the vicinity, and these employ but part of their time in gold- washing. When the quantity of water is sufficient to enable them to wash out the gold, the average gain of each man provided with shovel and shallow wooden wash- pan, batea, may perhaps be estimated at a dollar per day. Some Frenchmen formerly resided here, who, for a long time, carried on mining operations in a somewhat systematic manner. They excavated the gold-bearing rock; crushed it between blocks of porphyry, made to revolve by mule-power; the gold being extracted by quicksilver. The auriferous rock is said to have yielded about thirty dollars of gold to the ton. With their rude processes of obtaining the gold it is probable that the operations of these parties were not very remunerative, as they have been now for some years discontinued. An American company has recently purchased a proprietorship at the Old Placer; but, as they represent, from the want of proper machin- ery and the difficulty of obtaining laborers skilled in the business, the experiment has so far been unsuccessful. The quantity of gold which exists here is, however, evidently large, and it is quite possible that, with more ample means, with more skillful operators, and better machinery, these mines might be worked with profit to the proprietors. It is possible, too, that something might be done by building reservoirs to increase, or at least to regulate, the supply of water for the placer, and thus render it more produc- tive. It is true, however, that the fall of rain in all this region is both small and exceed- ingly irregular, and the structure of this mountain group, so limited in extent and so simple, would render it difficult, if not impossible., to utilize fully the few and fitful rains by which it is visited. The rock containing the gold at the Old Placer has been regarded by some who ha ve visited the locality as an altered sandstone, but there can be, I think, little doubt that it is the gossan of an auriferous quartz vein. The material now excavated is a cellular silicious rock, of which some portions are soft and oclirey, others hard and quartz-like. In some localities itis associated with a soft yellow tufa, in others with a hard trachyte! or porphyry. The same rock recurs in the Cerrillos; and I have received from tin- gold diggings of Pike's Peak specimens of auriferous vein-stone presenting precisely the same characters. Copper. Considerable copper is found at the Old Placer, though as yet no effort has been made to turn it to account, and it is doubtful whether the quantity is sufficient to make it a proper object of attention in an economical point of view. I obtained from there, however, very beautiful specimens of the sulphides of copper and iron, both yellow and variegated (chalcopyrite and bornite). Iron. Many large masses of magnetic iron ore were noticed about the Old Placer, and it is said to occur in abundance there in place. This ore is very pure, of a nearly uniform dull black color, less crystalline in appearance, and containing less silica, than the Cliamplain and Canada ores. That which is freshly mined is highly magnetic in character, and often exhibits the properties of the loadstone. TO JUNCTION OP GEAND AND GEEEN EIVERS. 41 LOS CEEEILLOS. These are a group of hills or small mountains between Santa F6 and the Placer Mountains, on the north side of Galisteo Creek. The highest has an altitude of per- haps a thousand feet; they are somewhat conical in form, and have no distinct linear arrangement. West of them are several smaller hills, extending oft 7 toward the Rio Grande, of which one, from its perfect symmetry called the Potato Hill, will probably attract the attention of all who visit that region. The Cerrillos are wholly eruptive in character, mainly trap and trachyte, and by their upheaval seem to have little disturbed the sedimentary plateau on which they rest. They are principally, interesting from their minerals, and contain many old mines worked by the Spaniards or Indians. There are found there gold, silver, lead, copper, iron, and turquoise or "chalclmitl." The gold apparently exists in but small quantity; a single locality only, so far as known, having furnished it. It there occurs in a quartz vein, running through a yellow sili- cious trachyte similar to that of the Placer Mountains. The silver is found, in combi- nation with lead and copper, in veins in trachyte. These veins have a direction a little \vcst of north and east of south. By many it is believed that the silver mines of the Cerrillos are very rich, and that they will at some time be a source of great wealth to their possessors. The veins which I examined, however, are not promising; where exposed they are not rich, and the evidence is wholly wanting that they will prove more so upon further exploration. The most interesting mines of the Cerrillos are those from which the chakhuitl was taken by the ancient inhabitants of the country. Of these there are several, but one much more extensive than the others that so fully described by Mr. W. P. Blake, Amer. Jour. Science, Vol. xxv, p. 227. The chakhuitl occurs in a yellow, porous, trycUytic porphyry, in numerous thin and interrupted veins. The mineral is rather abundant, but most of it is of an inferior quality, being of an apple-green color. Pieces of the requisite blue tint, and of sufficient size to form the ear-drops or nose-jewels worn by the Indians, could probably only be obtained by long and laborious excavation; the value which they have always borne attesting their rarity. We found but a single specimen of the requisite purity after some hours' search, and that less than a fourth of an inch in diameter. These mines have undoubtedly been worked for ages; the conical cavity which marks the site of the most extensive one being still a hundred feet in depth by nearly two hundred feet in diameter. Prob- ably no excavation has been made here since the occupation of the country by the Spaniards, but the Pueblo Indians and the Navajoes are still in the habit of visiting the spot and digging in the loose rock thrown out by the ancient miners for fragments which they have overlooked. The chakhuitl is not unfrequently found about the ruins which are scattered over New Mexico, and the value set upon it by the ancient inhab- itants is still retained by the modern Indians. I have seen ornaments of it worn by the Apaches, Mohaves, the Navajoes and Pueblos, and so highly prized that a fragment of fine quality no larger than the nail of one's little finger and one-eighth of an inch in thickness was regarded as worth a mule or a good horse. The Indians are excellent judges, too, of the quality of the article, discriminating accurately between the different shades of color, and not to be deceived by any base imitation. 6 s F 42 EXPLORING- EXPEDITION FROM SANTA FE Of the two great mountain chains visible from Santa FC", referred to in the pre- ceding pages, the Sandia and the Valles, the former is so fully described in the reports of other geologists (Messrs. Marcou and Blake), and in my report upon the geology of the country bordering the Colorado, that it is scarcely necessary that anything more should now be said in reference to it. The Valles, lying west of the Rio Grande, will be more appropriately noticed hereafter in the description to be given of the geology of the country between the Rio Grande and the Colorado along the route of our ex- pedition. This region includes numerous important mountain ranges, which will be best examined from a point of view where their relations can be most clearly seen. The stratified rocks of the neighborhood of Santa Fe now claim our attention, and the features which they present will perhaps be most readily appreciated from a resume of each formation considered by itself. CARBONIFEROUS STRATA. The rocks of this age are exposed in numerous localities in the vicinity of Santa F6", and are apparently the oldest sedimentary strata represented in that region. It is possible that Devonian and Silurian rocks exist in this part of New Mexico ; but if so, they have hitherto escaped detection, and are probably concealed by a covering of more recent materials. It is certain that at Santa F6, in several localities where I had an opportunity of seeing the line of junction of the sedimentary and crystalline rocks, the Carboniferous limestones, the equivalents of the Coal-Measures, rest directly upon the granite, or a layer of coarse sandstone two or three feet thick intervenes, the only possible representative of the older rocks. It will be remembered by those who have read the description given in the report of Lieutenant Ives of the section presented in the canon of the Great Colorado, that in the table-lands west of the Rocky Mount- ains an interval of over three thousand feet occurs between the base of the Coal- Measure limestones and the surface of the granite. This interval is filled by a series of limestones," shales, and sandstones, which I have supposed to represent the Lower Carboniferous, Devonian, and Silurian formations. All that great mass of sediment is wanting at Santa Fe. It is wanting, too, on the more westerly ranges of the Rocky Mountains, and also from those which border the table-lands at their western verge. The absence of this group of rocks in all these localities seems to me to be accounted for only by supposing that they were deposited after some of the great lines of up- heaval which traverse the central portion of the continent had already attained consid- erable elevation above the surfaces which bordered them. The facts revealed in the canon of the Colorado show plainly that the granitic basis of this country was consol- idated previous to the deposition of the Paleozoic strata, and that over many of the minor irregularities of the sea-bottom the older sedimentary rocks were quietly and horizontally laid down, surrounding and abutting against granitic pinnacles, which rose above the shallow waters in which they were deposited. These inferences, if con- firmed by future observations, will considerably modify the hitherto accepted ideas in regard to the age of the ranges of the Rocky Mountains. We are at least warranted in the conclusion that these great lines of fracture in the earth's crust are few of them wholly of modern date, and it even seems probable that through all the geological TO JUNCTION OF GRAND AND GEEEN EIVERS. 43 ages they have served as hinges upon which the great plates of the earth's crust turned, as, in repeated elevations and depressions, the angles which they inclose have been ever varying. The following detailed sections of the Carboniferous strata, exposed in the hills immediately back of Santa Fe, will be read with interest by all those who are familiar with the Carboniferous rocks of the valley of the Mississippi. Section of strata at Santa Fe. No. 1. Feet. 1. Soft reddish-yellow conglomerate 2. Red shale and sandstone, without fossils 45 3. Yellow magnesian, shaly limestone, containing large numbers of Orthisina iimbraculum and Productus semireticulatus 4. Red and yellow shale without fossils 25 5. Red and yellow argillaceous shale, with thin bands of ferruginous sandy lime- stone 20 6. Yellow and pink shale, with bands of calcareous nodules 8 7. Yellowish-pink (flesh-colored) limestone, containing Productus nodosus, Spirifer cameratus, Retzia mormoni, &c 7 8. Red and yellow shale, with layers of limestone nodules 15 9. Yellow limestone, with partings of shale 6 10. Soft red shales, with two bands of intensely hard, grey, quartzose, fine con- glomerate, with numerous but obscure impressions of stems of plants. ... 45 11. Yellowish-blue compact limestone, with Productus semireticulatus, Spirifer cam- eratus, etc., in great numbers 12. Purple, pink, and yellow shales, with thin bands of ferruginous limestone, con- taining the same fossils as the bed above 50 13. Coarse, brown, sandy limestone, full of crinoidal columns 16 14. Coarse, gray saiulstone - 5 15. Gray clay 3 1 6. Coarse, reddish sandstone 7 17. Coarse, massive, silicious sandstone, with large grains of quartz, containing Spirifer cameratus 10 18. Gray clay 19. Gray limestone, with Productus semireticulatus, P. nodosus, &c 8 20. Pinkish and variegated sandstone 12 21. Gray limestone 4 22. Ferruginous and micaceous sandstone 6 23. Ferruginous foliated limestone, with Orthisina iimbraculum, Spirifer cameratus, Athyris Roysii 7 2 I. Reddish-gray, compact limestone, with Spirifer cameratus, S. lincatus, Prodiic- tus nodosus, P. Puogcrsi, P. scabricidus, P. semireticulatus, Atlujris snlitdita, &c . . 5 44 EXPLORING EXPEDITION FROM SANTA Ffi , Feet. 25. Gray shale -_-.- 2 26. Ferruginous sandstone 3 27. Gray shale 7 28. Dark-red or coarse gray sandstone, with obscure impressions of Lcpidodcndra and Sigillaria 29. Gray and red shales, or indurated clays 5 30. Dark-red ferruginous limestones, with nodules of red chert 15 31. Grayish-blue 01 reddish silicious limestone, rather massive, without fossils. . 30 32. Compact crinoidal limestone, reddish or gray in places, made up of bodies and stems of crinoids, the latter often large; also containing fish-teeth, spines of Arcliccocidaris and great numbers of Prodiidus nodosus, 1\ Itoycryi, A tliyris stiltlUta, Spirifvr cameratus, &c 25 33. Dark-red ferruginous sandstone, sometimes a conglomerate and quartzose, in other localities soft and coarse 10 34. Red, blue, green, and yellow, and mottled indurated clay, with nodules of . jaspery chert at bottom 18 35. Cherty concretionary limestone, gray, yellow, blue, red, and contains a few Spirifers of an undescribed species 35 36. Foliated silicious limestone, gray, yellow, or mottled, with dendritic man- ganese in the joints; no fossils; like the last, frequently a handsome marble. - 20 37. Red massive granite to base. In the preceding section bed No. 1 is certainly not a member of the Carboniferous series, but is probably the base of the Triassic formation. It is, however, less coherent and of lighter color than any of the lower members of this group as they appear when exposed near Santa Fe. It is conformable to the rocks below, while the Tertiaries of that vicinity are, I believe, always un conformable. It will be seen that in this section well-known Carboniferous fossils are found within less than 50 feet of the granite. It, therefore, the older rocks are represented here, they are restricted to a portion of that limited space. Without positive evidence to the contrary, I must regard all the rocks of the section, except bed No. 1, as Carboniferous, and as the equivalents of the upper division of that great formation; that is, the Coal-Measures. As before remarked, in the walls of the canon of the Great Colorado is a limestone mass, lying beneath the Coal- Measure limestones, which I have supposed might be the Mountain limestone; but of whatever age, that rock and the strata which underlie it are here wholly wanting. There are doubtless some geologists who will regard the granitic base of the preceding section as a metamorphosed condition of the sedimentary rocks which are here due beneath the Carboniferous strata; but this view of the case seems to me wholly unten- able. The massive, unstratified, red granite of the Santa Fe Mountains presents char- acters, both iri its physical structure and chemical composition, which could never be assumed in any possible phase of metamorphism by the older Paleozoic rocks of the Colorado Canon. Much the greater part of their mass is calcareous, and only the extreme upper and lower portions are red. Again, the lower members of the scries of sedimentary strata at Santa Fd are but slight!}', if at all, metamorphosed. Even if those which rest on the granite in the preceding section be supposed to be changed from TO JUNCTION OP GEAND AND GEEBN BIVEKS. 45 their original condition, in the succeeding section, taken in a locality 'less than two miles distant, the lowest sedimentary rock is not in the least affected by the proximity of the granite. These facts conclusively show, as it seems to ni e, that the granite was already consolidated before the sedimentary rocks were deposited upon it, and that the reason why the strata underlying the Carboniferous rocks in the Colorado basin are here wanting is simply this: that the surface of the granite upon which they should have been deposited was here too high to receive them. It will be noticed that in the foregoing section of the Coal-Measure strata there are no beds of coal, and yet the preponderance of mechanical over organic sediments, that is, of shales and sandstones over limestones, and especially the presence of coarse sandstones and conglomerates, give to this section a character strongly contrasting with that of the strata of the same age in Kansas a character unquestionably due to the closer and more constant proximity to high land. Section of the Carboniferous rocks in the yorye of Santa Fe River. No. 2. Fort. Inches. 1. Compact blue limestone 10 '2. Gray, brown, and black shales 1 - 3. Pinkish shelly limestone, a mass of fossils, containing Atlujris Roysii, A. locidei/x, A. stibtUita, Spirifcr cameratHs, S. Hm-atus, Producing I/IH/OSUS, P. semireticulatus, P. Ncal/ricidus, P. Itogersi, OrthlaliM tinihra- ciihun, Ortlds MicltU'uii (."), lihi/i/choncUa iita, 1'lati/ccras, sp., Nautilus, SI)., &G '- 5 4. Brown, black, and greenish shale 4 5. Gray limestone (> 11. Gray and blue shale, with bands of bituminous shale and coaly matter, with Calamites and leaves of Cor dalles 5 12. Ferruginous sandstone 4 1 ,">. G ray and blue shale - 8 14. Massive concretionary and brecciated gray limestone, containing crinoi- dal columns, Atliyris suUilita, Productus semireticulatus, &c G 15. Foliated limestone, gray and mottled, with dendritic manganese. . . 15 1 f i. Coarse, soft, white sandstone 3 17. Red granite, passing into mica slate, to base. In this section the Carboniferous fossils approach nearer the granite than in the preceding one, and the sandstone No. 16 is very soft, and exhibits no trace of ineta- morphism. Another section, (No. 3), taken at the south base of Ccrm (iordo, will, with tha preceding one, suffice to give a clear idea of the character of the Carboniferous strata near Santa Fe. 46 EXPLOKING EXPEDITION FEOM SANTA FE. Section No. 3. Feet. 1 . Greenish shale 10 2. Soft greenish sandstone, including a band of ferruginous conglomerate, con- taining impressions of Lepidodendrq 16 3. Gray marl, with nodules of blue limestone 6 4. Yellow and mottled limestone, (a handsome marble) 10 5. Blue, concretionary, cherty, silicious limestone, same as No. 35, section No. 1 . 50 6. Shelly argillaceous limestone, (same as No. 36 of section No. 1) 16 7. Yellow micaceous sandy shale, very soft 3 8. Coarse, soft white sandstone, sometimes a conglomerate 5 9. Red massive granite, to base. The other localities in the vicinity, where the Carboniferous strata are exposed, are on the Sandia, Placer, and Jemez Mountains, and in the valley of the Pecos, at and below Pecos Village. They underlie, it is true, almost all parts of New Mexico, but are only visible on the flanks of the mountains and in some of the valleys, which are cut through the overlying rocks. I had not an opportunity of obtaining a complete section of the Carboniferous group on the Sandia and Placer Mountains, as only a portion of the series is exposed in the localities which I examined. As far as observed, however, they seem there to be but little metamorphosed, and contain many of the fossils most characteristic of the Coal-Measure strata of Santa Fe and of the valley of the Mississippi. At Jemez, the rocks of this age rest upon the opposite sides of the red granite core of the mountain, are inclined at a high angle, and are highly fossil- iferous. The features which they present there will, however, be described more in detail in a succeeding portion of this report. The exposures of the Carboniferous strata, at and near Pecos Village, are of pecu- liar interest, for, although the section which they afford is less complete than at Santa Fd, the line of junction between the Carboniferous and Triassic series is more distinctly marked, and the upper beds of the former group are more fossiliferous. The strata forming the cliff at Pecos Village are the equivalents of the upper portion of the Santa Fe" section, consisting of beds of limestone, separated by layers of shale and sandstone, the former containing, as characteristic fossils, Athyris subtilita, Producing scmireticu- latus, P. scabriculus, P. Rogersi, Spirifer cameratus, &c. The dip is here from the mountains toward the south and east, and, near the old Pecos church, all the Carbon- iferous series pass beneath the chocolate-colored sandstones and shales the base of the Triassic formation and disappear. The upper member of the underlying group is a brownish, rough, somewhat sandy limestone, of which portions are more purely calcareous. This bed contains a large number of fossils, as far as observed, without exception, such as are common in the Upper Carboniferous strata Permo-Carbonifer- ous of Meek and Ilayden of Kansas. These are a Monotis, not well preserved, but resembling M. Ilawni (and, perhaps, as much, another found in the Middle and Upper Coal-Measures of Missouri and Kansas), Athyris subtilita f, the same found in the Upper Carboniferous and Permian beds of Kansas, referred doubtfully to A. subtiUta by Mr. Meek, and which is larger, broader, and more gibbous than what is known TO JUNCTION OF GEAND AND GEEEN RIVERS. 47 under that name in the Coal-Measures east of the Mississippi, yet accords well with the figures and descriptions of the type specimens by Professor Hall; spines of Archce- ocidaris, in great numbers, scarcely distinguishable from A. aculeattis of Shumard; a Betteroplion, very like, if not identical with, one found in the Upper Carboniferous and Permian of Kansas ; a species of Myalina (M. perattenuata), and an undeter- mined Avicula. These fossils occur in great numbers, and there are, perhaps, other species, which I have not enumerated, contained in the bed. It will be seen that in this list of fossils there are none which are peculiarly Permian. The Bakevellia, Pleuro- phorus, Axinus, and the species of Murchisonia, which give character to the fauna of the upper magnesian limestone of Kansas, are here all wanting. It is evident, therefore, that the question whether this bed shall be regarded as of Permian age depends upon where the conventional line shall be drawn dividing the Permian and Carboniferous formations in Kansas. If that line be drawn at the base of No. 10 of Meek and Hay- den's section, this stratum would be excluded from the Permian and connected with the Carboniferous series below. Should the Permo-Carboniferous beds of Meek and Hay- den be included in the Permian, this would, of course, be Permian. If these beds were divided midway, this would probably fall into the Permian division, but it might be necessary to divide even this stratum, only 3 or 4 feet in thickness. TRIASSIG FOEMATION. The Red Beds of the Gypsiferous series form a conspicuous feature in the geology of the neighborhood of Santa FC", being very freely opened both in the valley of the Rio Grande and in that of the Pecos. In a previous report I have given a general description of the rocks of this formation as developed in this vicinity, and have com- pared the sections which they present with those of their equivalents in the Navajo country and other parts of New Mexico, where I have examined them. The question of their precise place in the geological series is also there discussed at some length, so that already much has been said, which, though essential to a full presentation of the facts relating to this group, need not be here repeated. A general re*sume" of this for- mation will also be given in a succeeding chapter. I have before remarked, in the description given of the geology of the country bordering the Santa Fd road, that the vertical interval occupied by the Gypsum series in Kansas is much less than in New Mexico. This fact will be at once obvious to the traveler coming from the East when he enters the valley of the Pecos. Where last seen on' the Kansas, Little Arkansas, or Cow Creek, "the Red Beds" which represent this group have nowhere a thickness of more than 500 or 600 feet, while at Pecos 'village more than 1,000 feet of the series is exposed in a single section, and its entire thickness in the vicinity of Santa Fd can- not be less than 1,500 or 1,600 feet. By Mr. Marcou, this formation, considered as the equivalent of the Trias of Europe, is represented as attaining a thickness of 5,000 to 6,000 feet ; but even in the Navajo country or on the San Juan, where it is apparently most fully developed, its entire thickness is not more than 2,500 feet. In the Pecos section the red sandstones and shales rest directly upon the Coal-Measure limestones, and the Permian magnesian rocks of Kansas are entirely wanting. It is possible, however, as I have before stated, that they are represented by the extreme upper portion of the calcareous beds and by a part of the overlying red sandstones and 48 EXPLORING EXPEDITION FROM SANTA FE. shales the "Saliferous group" of my former report; the "Bimtcr Sandstein" or lower division of the Trias of Marcou. In the valley of the Pecos, both at Pecos Village and San Jose", I obtained from the Lower Red Beds vegetable impressions, which, if more perfectly preserved, would probably enable us to draw the lines of classification more sharply than has hitherto been possible. As it is, they give us reason to suspect that the lower portion of the Gypsum series should be regarded as of Permian age; and, by proving that these strata are not entirely without fossils, encourage us to hope that their place in the series may soon be accurately determined. The mesa bordering the valley of the Pecos on the south forms a part of the great table-land which stretches away eastward from the base of the mountains, of which a portion has received the name of the Llano Estacado. Except where cut by the valleys it is continued throughout, and has, apparently, everywhere the same geological struc- ture. The section afforded by its cut edge in the valley of the Pecos is as follows: Fccf 1. Yellow and brownish foliated sandstones with alternations of red, purple, and gray shale, forming detached buttes on the mesa, without fossils 200 2. Yellow, massive sandstone, summit of cliff, without fossils 150 3. Red, white, or green, soft calcareous sandstones and shales with gypsxim, with- out fossils 800 4. Red and green sandstones and conglomerates, separated by thicker beds of green, blue, and purple shales, with oxide of iron and copper, and with ferns, Walchiaf and Catamites '. . . 200 5. Limestones and sandstones containing Carboniferous fossils, to bed of stream. In this section I have supposed Nos. 1 and 2 to represent the Lower Cretaceous sandstone group. No fossils wei*e discovered in them in this vicinity, but on the banks of Galisteo Creek, a few miles farther south, in the yellow sandstones which rest on the red gypsiferous strata, I found the leaves of angiospermous dicotyledonous trees, which prove them to belong to the Cretaceous system. No. 3 of the section is apparently entirely without fossils, and consists of a series of alternations of deep or pale red and white rarely greenish indurated marls or soft, fine calcareous sandstones. No analysis has been made of these beds, but they prob- ably contain as much sulphate as carbonate of lime. They are precisely similar to the strata forming the upper of the two plainly-marked divisions of the Gypsum series throughout Western New Mexico what I have called in my former report the Varie- gated marls and are distinguished by striking lithological characters from the "Saliferous sandstone group" which underlie them, and form No. 4 of the section. This latter group is nowhere exposed in a section which could conveniently be measured, but its thickness is somewhere between 200 and 250 feet. A very good idea may be formed of its prevailing character from the following section taken at the village of San Jose ; the first stratum being the highest: Fret. 1. Coarse reddish or gray sandstone, frequently a conglomerate 8 2. Chocolate-colored or greenish foliated micaceous sandstone shading into shale; containing a band of compact dark-gray silicious limestone, weathering brown . 20 TO JUNCTION OF (IRANI) AND GKEEN KIVKRS. 49 Feet. 3. Foliated micaceous sandstone, generally gray, but often brownish-red, with very smooth surfaces ; the red portions presenting precisely the lithological characters of the brown freestone of the Northern Atlantic States. The lighter portions more compact, containing many impressions of vegetable stems and small branches of Walrhia f 11 . 4. Chocolate and greenish micaceous shales 18 5. Purplish-gray conglomerate, quite hard, containing much peroxide of iron. . . 10 (j. Purple and green shales 30 7. Conglomerate, with masses of peroxide of iron and copper 9 8. Purple and green shales to covered slope 20 At Pecos, on about the same level geologically with the stratum containing the vegetable remains of the preceding section, I found the surfaces of slabs of red sand- stone marked with impressions of a large and handsome fern, evidently a Pccopteris, but too imperfect for specific determination or description. There is no doubt that, with more time than I had at command, fossil plants would be found in the valley of the Pecos, which would throw much light upon the geological age of the lower divi- sion of the Gypsum formation. Those which I obtained are insufficient to decide any of the questions which have been raised in regard to the parallelism of the beds con- taining them with those of other countries, while they may perhaps justly afford ground for a suspicion that the classification which refers all the Gypsum formation to the Trias may be in part erroneous. Calamites are ordinarily of little value in deter- mining nice points of geological parallelism, and the specimens here obtained are few and imperfect. The same has been said of the ferns. The Walchia however, if undoubtedly such, would afford good evidence that the strata which contain it should be classed with the Permian of Europe, as that genus, as restricted by Brongniart, is confined to the Permian and older formations. But in the Trias, Walchia is succeeded and represented by Voltzia, a closely allied conifer, so similar that imperfect specimens of the two genera are not readily distinguishable; and until more and better specimens can be procured from the Pecos Valley, I should scarcely be justified in saying that the plant to which I have referred is a Walchia of Permian age, and not a Volteia, an evidence of the Triassic date of the rock containing it. The specimens before me, however, have all the characters, so far as preserved, of the Walchias, but exhibit none of the cones, which wcmld be decisive. The branchlets are closely approximated, pinnate and parallel,, covered with small falcate or subulate, acute leaves, apparently more acute and less fleshy than the smaller leaves of Voltzia heterophylla, or even V. acutifolia. There is also, apparently, no tendency of the foliage to assume the dimor- phous character so marked a feature in the Voltzias. If a Voltzia, it is evidently a new species, quite distinct from those of Europe. Until farther information can be obtained in reference to this plant, I am disposed to regard it as a Walchia, and as very similar in its general aspects to W. Schlotheimii of the schists of Lodeve. By Messrs. Unger and Endlicher the genus Walchia is not recognized, its species being placed by these authors, as formerly by Brongniart, in Lycopodites. Sternberg, and more recently Brongniart, have, however, regarded it as distinct, and the latter author compares it with the Norfolk Island pine (Araucaria excclsa). 7 S F 50 EXPLORING EXPEDITION FROM SANTA FE CRETACEOUS FORMATION. * Kxcept for the surface erosion, which has so greatly modified the topography of the region surrounding Santa Ft', we should still find the Cretaceous strata reaching high up on the slo|>es of the mountains and completely covering the underlying rocks, now so freely exposed, both on the mountain-sides and in the valleys of the streams. So deej) and wide-spread has been the denudation, however, that, from the mountains proper, the Triassic and Cretaceous rocks have been wholly removed, and of the sedimentary series nothing- but a part of the Carboniferous strata is left. The Triassic beds are generally soft and have offered little resistance to the mountain-torrents which have acted upon them, but they were once all covered with the massive, though not hard, sandstones of the Lower ( Cretaceous group, and, wliere these were not broken up by the upheaval of the mountain crests and cones, they have protected the lied Beds below, so that we find the latter in full thickness all around the bases of the mountain masses, still covered by the harder strata to which they owe their preservation. The Upper Cretaceous rocks are also soft, and it is now necessary to go a long 1 way from Santa Fe before anything like a fair representation of the upper portion of this series can be found. Indeed, east of the mountains the extreme Upper Cretaceous strata are only seen in place near the Mississippi and the Gulf of Mexico. In tlie valley of the Rio Grande none remain, and it is only after crossing- the main divide, between the waters of the Atlantic and Pacific, and seeing the magnificent exposures of the Cretaceous series in the valley of the Sail .Juan, that we can form a just con- ception of the grand scale on which the Chalk formation was originally built up in New Mexico, or of the enormous denudation which this region has suffered since it was raised above the surface of the ocean. The attention of every traveler over the great central plateau of our continent is attracted to the canons which give character to the scenery, and when he learns that they are simply the effects of surface erosion, they become sources of unending wonder and interest; but, notwithstanding their magnitude and impressiveness as records of the lapse of countless ages, it is quite certain that they are referable to a single producing cause, viz., the slow, though con- stant, erosive action of running water. The proof of the truth of this assertion is given in my report on the geology of the country bordering the Lower Colorado, to which I have already frequently referred. In the description of the Cretaceous strata, which came under our observation on our first expedition through New Mexico, I divided them into two groups, which I denominated Upper and Lower Cretaceous ; that being the most simple and natural division of the strata exposed in Kastern New Mexico and the Indian Territory. I had at that time, however, no opportunity <>f examining the extreme upper portion of the formation, and it was only when, going west from Santa 1'V, we had passed the divide between the waters of the Atlantic and Pacific, that we gained any knowledge of the upper thousand feet of the series. These we found to be made up of a group of rocks quite unlike, in lithological characters and fossils, the calcareous beds Upper Creta- ceous of my former report of the banks of the Canadian. These true Upper Creta- ceous beds will be described in detail in a. subsequent chapter, and, as they do not TO JUNCTION OF GRAND AND GREEN ItlVEUS. 51 appear in the vicinity of Santa Fe, they require to be mentioned only as constituting the group which I have denominated Upper Cretaceous in the present report, and to distinguish them from the "Upper Cretaceous" of a former one, which I am compelled to regard as the middle portion of the series. The Cretaceous formation, then, as exhibited in the vicinity of Santa I'Y, consists of the two groups to which I have- referred in the preceding pages as Lower and Mid- dle, on a former occasion as Lower and Upper Cretaceous. Of these the first con- sists, as elsewhere in New Mexico, mainly of coarse yellow sandstones with impres- sions of angiospenn dicotyledonous leaves; the second, of calcareous shales and ferruginous, shaly, sandy limestones, with numerous marine fossils, such as Amman it<'*, Nautilus, I'Hoa-ntmtiK, (lrlt', fish -teeth, ttc. Of these two groups the lower caps the cliffs bordering the valley of the Pecos on the south, forming the floor of the great plateau which stretches away southeast, where it becomes the Llano Fstacado. It is not yet demonstrated that all the yellow standstoiie formation of this plateau belongs to the Creta- ceous formation, and that it is not in part, as claimed by M. Marcou, of Jurassic' age. I should say, however, that in the vicinity of Santa Fe I was able to discover no Jurassic. fossils ; but, on the contrary, near < Jalistco, in the yellow sandstone specifically noticed by M. Marcou, and regarded by him as Jurassic and identical with that of the Llano, I found impressions of dicotyledonous leaves, which prove it to be Cretaceous. In the vicin- ity of the mountains the stratification is considerably disturbed, and in man)- localities the Cretaceous rocks are broken through or removed by erosion ; but, with local excep- tions, they constitute the surface formation in all the area examined by our party east of the Sandia and Placer Mountains, and south and east of the mountains of Santa Fe. The valley of Galisteo Creek has cut through the Middle and Lower ( YHaccons rocks, and has freely exposed the Red Hods below, doing from the base of the Cer- rillos to Clalisteo Creek, after passing the eruptive material which composes this group of hills, the Middle Cretaceous shales are seen occupying a belt a mile or more in width on the north side of the stream. Ueneath them are the yellow Cretaceous sand- stones, underlying which are the blood-red sandstones and shales of the Trias. On the south side of the creek, ascending toward the base of the Placer Mountains, this section is again encountered. The Middle Cretaceous shales here contain beds of lig- nite several feet in thickness: at one point, by an' eruption and overflow of trap, this liicnmis species ( 0 3. Sandstone similar to No. 1 .... 70 72 EXPLORING EXPEDITION FEOM SANTA Ffi Foot. 4. Black shales with bands of light-dove-colorcd limestone 150 The upper of these shale-beds is greenish-brown, with bands of foliated sandy limestone, containing immense numbers of fragmentary or entire fossils. These are principally Inoceramus problcmaticus, J. fray/Us, Ostrcn congcsta, J3aculitcs anccps, Scapliites Warrcni, 8. laviformis, <&c. 5. Bluish-black shales, with concretions and bands of limestone containing a large undulated Inoceramus, the broken fragments of which are thickly set with Ostrca congesta 1 , 000 The lithological characters of this division are nearly the same through- out, but the limestone bands and fossils are nearly restricted to the lower portion. The layers of limestone are from 6 to 12 inches in thickness, quite pure and compact, blue in color, but weathering reddish yellow, and breaking on exposure in vertical prisms, like starch. H. A light dove-colored sandy limestone or calcareous sandstone, weathering yellow, massive toward the top, foliated below, without fossils 200 7. This, the cap-rock of the high mesa, is a higher member of the Cretaceous series than has before been met with in New Mexico. Our subsequent observations showed it to be the base of the third great division of this formation as developed on the Colorado Plateau. 8. Gravel hills, valley drift. At the Laguna de los Cavallos we reached the summit of the divide between the waters of the Pacific and the Atlantic, at the height of 7,600 feet. No conspicuous elevation marks the summit, but the strata are somewhat broken by a line of displace- ment, apparently a continuation of the Nacimiento axis. The country about the Laguna may be taken as a type, both as regards its general aspects and its geological structure, of all that bordering our route while we were skirting the bases of the mountain ranges, the drainage of which supplies the flow of the San Juan River and its tributaries. This region includes three topographical belts or districts in which the physical features exhibit the most striking contrasts, viz., the mountains, the foot-hill.*, and the table-lands. The mountainous district includes a large number of lofty chains, having a north and south trend and the general characteristics of the Rocky Mountain system, connected by thousands of interlocking spurs, or separated by nar- row valleys, traversed by clear, cold, and rapid streams. These ranges terminate southward en echelon, and, when viewed from a distance, present the appearance of a continuous sierra, having a northwest and southeast trend. The oxitlines of these mountains are bold and picturesque ; their highest summits having an altitude of 12,000 or 13,000 feet, entirely bare of vegetation, and showing, here and there, patches of perpetual snow; their slopes covered with forests of spruce and fir above, of yellow pine below; many of their gorges set with thickets of scrub-oak and quak- ing-asp. Along the base of the mountains stretches a belt of foot-hills, a region of which the surface is broken into rounded or abrupt hills, from 100 to 1,000 feet in height, generally composed of sedimentary rocks, very much disturbed, often pitched about TO JUNCTION OF GRAND AND GREEN RIVERS. 73 in the greatest confusion. These hills are covered with noble forests of yellow pine, with open intervals where grama and Imneli grass grow with great luxuriance. Between the lulls are charming mountain valleys, carpeted with fine grass, in the summer season perfect gardens of flowers, through which meander cool and sparkling mountain streams, fringed with thickets of willow, or shaded by groves of the narrow-leaved COttonwood. Through this delightful region our route lay, going from Santa'Fe" toward the Colorado. On our return we traversed the third of the districts 1 have enumerated, that of the table-lands. Where unaffected by the disturbing forces which have elevated the mountain chains, the sedimentary rooks lie nearly horizontal, forming a wide plateau deeply canoned by the streams which take their rise in the mountains. Although the generalities of the country of the foot-hills, with which we at present have to do, may be given in few words, perhaps a more detailed description will be needed ti convex- all the information that may be sought of a region destined to become the home of many of our countrymen, and, therefore, of considerable economical and political importance. For the purpose of satisfying the want I have anticipated, I shall, from lime to time, copy from -my journal such detailed descriptions of local scenery or structure as may seem best fitted to complete the picture I have already sketched. From my mites made at our camp on the Rio Navajo, sixteen miles west of Laguna de los Cavallos, I take the following extracts: "From the Laguna our route westward passed through a beautiful -and fertile countrv, the trail winding among hills composed of Upper Cretaceous rocks, covered with trees of yellow pine, often attaining large size. On the south is a high mesa,, with picturesque broken edges, a continuation of that east of the Laguna bordering the valley of the Chama. On the north is a similar wall in which the strata are more highly inclined. IJevond this is another valley or series of valleys which border the bases of the mountains connected on the east with the Tierra Maria, a charming spot at the forks of the Chama, where the Mexicans had formerly a settlement, now abandoned on account of the depredations of the Indians. The drainage toward the west begins a mile -west of the Laguna, and the Ri<*Navajo is the first of the tributaries of the San Juan. This is a small but rapid stream which rises in the Sierra del Navajo, of which the southern extremity is but a few miles distant from our camp. This range apparently forms the divide north of the Laguna, the drainage of its eastern slope falling into the Chama, its western forming the Rio Navajo. The material washed down from the Sierra del Navajo is mostly eruptive in character, trap, trachyte, and porphyry, and the outlines of this extremity of the range show that it is mainly composed of rocks of this character, .lust above our cam]) the river issues from a magnificent wooded goi-o'e, which it has cut through the chain of Cretaceous hills that 1 have mentioned as bordering our route of to-day on the right, A little below our camp is an isolated mesa, an outlier of the great table-lands which spread out to the south. This mesa, called by our guide the Cerro del Navajo, has a superficial area of perhaps 100 acres, a relative altitude of l,. r )()0 or 1,600 feet, and an absolute altitude of about 8,500 feet. It is entirely composed of the Middle and Upper Cretaceous rocks, lying nearly hori- zontal, and stands a stupendous monument of the erosion which this region has suffered. 10 s K 74 EXPLORING EXPEDITION FROM SANTA FE * * * As we approached Rito Blanco we entered a narrow ravine or canon cut in the Upper Cretaceous rocks yellow sandstones and gray shales which rapidly deepens till, at its junction with the Rito, its bounding hills have an altitude of ;i least 1,000 feet. "This canon is verv picturesque; the sides covered with vellow pine, Douglas' and Menx.ies' spruc.es, the latter now tor the first time seen in Xevv Mexico. It grows here very beautifully, somewhat more spreading than in Oregon, the foliage very dense and silvered. Among the evergreens are slopes on which grow thickets of wild cherry, serviceberry, and gooseberry, all now in fruit. In the bottom are bushes of black currant, also fruiting, all these berries are called HHtn.:niit() feet in diameter, its walls of white rock, of unfathomable depth, in which the deep-blue water seethes and surges as in a boil- ing caldron, giving off a column of vapor which in damp weather is visible for miles. The water, though hot, is not at the boiling-point, and the ebullition is produced by i a TO JUNCTION OF GRAND AND GREEN RIVERS. 75 the escape of ibises, wliieli :ire generated in enormous quantities. The temperature at the side of the basin is 140; in the center, perhaps something higher. The gases with which the water is charged consist, in part at least, of carbonic acid and sulphu- retted hydrogen ; .the former giving it an effervescence, like that of soda-water, and the same pungent taste. The sulphur is also perceptible by taste and smell; a strong sul- phurous odor, which is distinguishable at some distance, being exhaled from the spring. When cooled, the water has a strong mineral taste, though rather agreeable than other- wise. It was freely drank by all our party while in this vicinity with no unpleasant effects, but, on the contrary, a decided sharpening of the appetite. No analysis has yet been made of it, but it is evident that the large amount of saline matter it contains is of somewhat complex composition, and such as gives it a character unlike that of the water of any other mineral spring with which I am familiar. To make a rude comparison, the water of the I'agosa might be imperfectly imitated by mixing Blue Lick and Congress water and heating the compound to 140. The flow of water from the 1'agosa is very large, and it finds its way into the San Juan by several subter- terranean channels. The deposit, from it is very copious, generally snow-white, but in many places bright pink or green in color. It floats in crusts which revolve upon the surface of the basin I have described, and which envelop the bodies of water-beetles, frogs and snakes that have incautiously plunged into it. When iirst precipitated this deposit consists, in a great degree, of chloride of sodium, but. mingled with this are silicates probably of soda, lime, and potassa which form a hard and indestructible white rock. In the lapse of ages an immense amount of this material has been thrown out from this spring. All the low, broad mound, which I have men- tioned as surrounding the basin, is composed of it, and over an area of ten to twenty jvcres it has a thickness of at least twenty feet. This is shown on the banks of the San Juan, which is for some distance bordered by walls of this material, having an altitude of twelve to fifteen feet. The geology of all this region is Cretaceous. The upper members of the series are exposed in all the hills surrounding the I'agosa; and it is evident its waters issue from the bitumino-calcareous shales forming its middle division. These shales are of marine origin, have a thickness of over 1,000 feet, contain many animal remains, and are highly charged with salts and sulphur; in all these respects resembling the Hamil- ton group of the New York geologists. I think it is true that mineral springs more frequently flow from rocks of this character than any other, and I have, been led to suppose that the water of such springs derives its peculiar character immediately from the rock from which it emanates. It is certain that hot water, forced through these strata, would dissolve and carry off many of their constituent elements, and would become the agent by which an extensive range of chemical combinations would take place. In the case of the I'agosa, the hot water is doubtless derived from a great depth, yet it is entirely possible that the gases and salts which it contains are all derived from the superficial strata, through which it passes. THE SIERRA SAN JUAN. This name has been applied by geographers to several distinct mountain ranges wliich really exist in this portion of the continent; or, more generally, to 7<> EXPLORING EXPEDITION FROM SANTA FE a great imaginary chain, which was assigned an inordinate extent and a trend altogether hypothetical and abnormal. It is to be hoped that one result of our expedition will be to bring 1 something- like order out of the confusion of ideas which has prevailed in regard to the intricate mountain ranges of this region. As has been before Intimated, thgse ranges, though numerous, exhibit no exceptional features, and are comparatively simple and harmonious in structure and trend; while it is true that the great mountain belt north of the San Juan River, with its higher chains, their thou- sand interlocking' spurs and narrow valleys, form a labyrinth whose extent and intri- cacy will at present defy all attempts at detailed topographical analysis. It is equally true that a general topographical character has been given to all of this region by a comparatively few lines of lofty summits, which have nearly a north and south trend, and seem to form an integral portion of the, Rocky Mountain system. This great truth may be learned at a glance by the drainage of this country; tin's all flows through streams which have approximately a north and south direction. On the south, the tributaries of the San Juan, the Navajo, the Blanco, the Upper San Juan, the Piedra, the 1'inos, the Florido, theAnimas, the La Plata, and the Mancos, all flow southward- and most of them issue from the north and south valleys, lying between the parallel ranges to which I have so frequently referred. On the north side of this mountain-belt similar topographical features present themselves. The tributaries of Grand River, which sweep the bases of the northern extremities of these ranges, almost without exception issue from valleys which have approximately a north and south direction; hence, it is plainly apparent that one great fundamental idea pervades the topography of all this region, and that one great force has given shape to all its principal topo- graphical features. Most of the prominent ranges visible from our route have received from the Indians and Mexicans distinct names, by which they are well known to those who know the country; for example, the chain north of the Lagnna, of which the southern extremity is drained by the Chama and Rio Navajo, is called the Sierra del Rio Navajo or the Sierra del Navajo. From between the spurs of this sierra flows the Rito Blanco (Little White River), so called from the milky color given to its waters by the Cretaceous shales. From the valley separating the upper part of this sierra from the Sierra San Juan, which does not extend so far south, issues that branch of the San Juan River which retains its name. West of the San Juan Mountains, as we shall see as we pro- gress with our geological narrative, the b'io de los Pinos issues from the. valley between the Sierra San .Juan and the Sierra de los Pinos; beyond the Sierra de los Pinos the great valley of the Animas; then the Sierra de la. Plata, west and north of which lies the Sferra San Miguel; west and south of the latter chain, the broad expanse of the Colorado Plateau. From this sketch, it will be seen that the great cast and west chains of the Sierra San Juan and Sierra, de la Plata, which form so conspicuous features on some of our maps, have really no existence, and need therefore no longer vex us as incongruous elements in theorology of our country. Like the Santa Fc Mountains, the Sierra San Juan terminates abruptly south- ward, standing out as a bold headland on the margin of the sea-like plateau. The altitude of its highest summits must be nearly 1,"., 000 feet, as snow lies on them in r o o 3; z O en H m D D> o o 3 o- r G 3" TO JUNCTION OP GRAND AND GREEN RIVERS. 77 places throughout the year, while from the Sandia and Santa Fe Mountains over 12,000 feet in height it entirely disappears in midsummer. Only a small portion of the range came under our observation ; but enough was seen to show that its struc- ture was essentially the same with that of the other chains belonging to the same scries which we were able to examine more fully. The southern extremity is mostly eruptive in character, consisting of basaltic trap, porphyry, and trachyte, some of the latter containing crystals of feldspar of large size. As usual, the summits composed of these materials present very varied and picturesque outlines. In the opposite chain of the Sierra del Navajo are some castellated summits, which, as seen through a powerful glass, presented an appearance exceedingly imposing and beautiful. Among these are precipices, ornamented with imitations of columns, arches, and pilasters, which form some of the grandest specimens of nature's Gothic architecture I have ever beheld. When viewed from some nearer point they must be even awful in their sublimity. The Cretaceous strata at the base of the San Juan Mountains are highly fossil- lil'eroiis, and yielded me a large number of species. The ferruginous, sandy lime- stones and shales near the base of the middle division of the Cretaceous series, where exposed just north of the I'agosa, are almost made, up of the shells of (Mmi, Inocera- iittiH, sliiniHHtifi'H, c. This is the horizon from which the oysters, gryplueas, fish- teeth, &(.'.., were collected in such abundance on the Canadian, at Galisteo, at the ford of the Chama, and various other points on our route. These fossils are limited to the first hundred feet of the shale-beds above the Lower Cretaceous sandstones; the most abundant at the Pagosa are Ostrca lutjubris, 0. uniformis, Meek, n. sp., Inoceromus prob- Iciiittticnx, and /. frayilis. I also found here an interesting series of the teeth of I'tijchotlns Whlpitlei, described at length in the chapter on Paleontology. Above the beils in which these fossils are found, the black bituminous shales contain large, gener- ally broken, shells of Nautilus and InoceraiintN, thickly set with Ostrea coitf/rx/ii. All the interval between the I'agosa and Rio Piedra is occupied by Cretaceous rocks. Over large surfaces the Lower Cretaceous sandstones are laid bare, generally much disturbed, and somewhat changed. The only fossils discovered were indistinct vegetable impressions, among which the most conspicuous is a tuberculated fucoid (Hdft/iiK'nifcn) common in the Cretaceous sandstones of all this region. 1 1 ere, as at the Tierra Maria, these rocks arc cut by joints into blocks of nearly uniform size. Of these joints the most strongly marked have a bearing approximately north and south; the others cross these nearly at right angles. In the great number of localities in New Mexico where I observed jointings of these rocks, I found them to have similar direc- tions, and to be in no case influenced by local disturbances, nor having any obvious connection with the prevailing dip. This rule is of so general application that I have been driven to refer the jointing of all "the rocks of this region to one great common cause. This has seemed to me probably magnetic, but may possibly be connected with the action of the forces which have given to all the great lines of elevation a general north and south trend. ( )n the Nutria Frances, a small tributary of the Rio Piedra, the black shales of the Middle Cretaceous are exposed in various places. They here contain large Ino- 78 EXPLORING EXPEDITION FROM SANTA KK crnniti, Nautili, and fish-scales. The Piedra Parada, a well-known landmark, which has conferred its name upon the Rio Piedra, is a chimney-like column of rock, rising with its base to the height of eight or nine hundred feet above the surrounding conn- try. It is itself composed of the Upper Cretaceous sandstone, resting upon a base of dark shales, (Middle Cretaceous,) and is a remnant of a- plateau now almost entirely removed by urosiou. The valley of the Rio Piedra is, in physical aspect and geological structure, the counterpart of that of the Rito Blanco, already described; the only noteworthy point of difference being that the Upper Cretaceous sandstone here contains beds of lig- nite of considerable thickness, though of limited lateral extent. The disturbances which the Cretaceous strata have suffered in this region are very well shown in the immediate vicinity of our camp on the Piedra. On the east side of the river the plateau, with which the Piedra Parada was once connected, stretches away south for several miles, with a rapid dip in that direction. On the west side is a mesa of which the .cut-edge rises abruptly from the margin of the stream to the height of over twelve hundred feet. This me.sa is composed of precisely the same materials as that bounding the valley on the east, but its strain are almost perfectly horizontal. Just above our camp this mesa is broken short off by a lino of fracture running nearly east and west; its component rocks, set nearly on edge, forming a wall which rises to the height of eighteen hundred feet above the river. Between this disrupted mass and the mesa from which it has been broken is a low pass through which our trail ran. Soon after leaving the Rio Piedra we began to ascend rapidly and soon rose on to a high divide between the Piedra and Rio de los Pinos. This divide seems to bean axis of elevation, running southward from the mountains between the Piedra and Pinos. It is composed of Cretaceous rocks irregularly broken up, generally inclined at a high angle. It has an altitude of about sixteen hundred feet above our camp on the I'iedra. The view from its summit is peculiarly grand and interesting; eastward the Xavajoand Sau Juan mountains bound the horizon, terminating southward in the Cerro del Nav- ajo. On the south and west sides of these ranges the fixers we have recently passed take their rise, and their valleys may in part, be followed by the eye. None of the summits visible in this direction are covered with perpetual snow, but all bear patches in the higher valleys. Nearer us than the mountains was a labyrinth of hills, spread out before us as on a. map. These seern to have been generally formed by a series of breaks in the Cre- taceous rocks, and, so far as we could see, are all composed of these materials. Toward the west our view was quite different. In that direction we looked down on . what seemed an extensive plain, extending northward to the base of the Sierra de la Plata, now for the first time distinctly seen, and on the south bounded by high mesas, through an opening in which, the gap of the Rio las Animas, was visible the high chain of the Carriso Mountains south of the San Juan This plain before us we subsequently found to be a basin-like space, lying between the mountains on the north and the table-lands south; a depressed area, completely inclosed in high lands, except where these are cut by the narrow- gorges through which the waters of > TJ m o 3) r o o m cn H . T es TO JUNCTION OF GRAND AND GREEN RIVERS. 79 the Animas and the Pinos have forced their way to join the San Juan. It is, in fact, an expansion of the valley of the Animas, has been mainly excavated by its current, and is everywhere covered with beds of transported material washed down from the mount- ains.* As we descended into the valley and thus opened it more to the north, we gained sight of a chain of mountains in that direction, which our guide calls Sierra de los Pinos. These are quite lofty, and consist, as 1 discovered from the drift brought down from them, of quart/ites, silicious slates, limestone, and granite, with some trap, but with a prevalence of metamorphic over erupted rocks. The Rio de los Pinos is a clear, cold, trout-stream, full as large as the San .Juan at the Pagosa. The bottom-lands are wooded with willows, cottomvood, alder, etc., and scattered trees of yellow pine, the latter of which mark its course in the open sage-covered country through Avhich it flows, and have naturally suggested the name which it bears. The interval between the Rio de los 1'inos and Rio Florido is underlaid by the Middle Cretaceous shales; is gently. rolling in outline, its more level surfaces covered with sage (Artriiiixid /I'/rlci/ldta.), its rounded hills with cedars or scrub-oak. Here and there are meadows of good grass, with a strong growth of annual plants. On the whole, however, the nuintrv is less picturesque and less productive than that lying south and east of it. The Rio Florido, or River of Flowers, is so named from the flowery meadows which line its banks; meadows which, so far as we could see, are no broader, greener, or more flowery than those which border the other rivers of this region. It is, however, a bright, handsome stream, similar in character to the Pinos, and about half as large. It is probably not more than thirty or forty miles in length; rises in the foot-hills of the Sierra, de los Pinos, aud joins the Animas some fifteen miles southwest from where we crossed it. The bowlders which it has brought down from its sources are quite varied in character, aud probably give a very fair representation of the geology of the mountains which it drains. Of these many are composed of coarse red granite, much like that of the Santa Fe Mountains, black and white porphyry, closely resembling that which is so abundant at the gold-mines in the Placer Mountains ; blue limestone, containing many of the characteristic Coal-Measure fossils so common at Santa Fe, such as 1'nxlnr/nx xrniim-firH/utus, P. nodosus, Spirifer camcratus, Chonetes mesolnl>, etc.; with these are masses of red and white sandstone, probably Triassic. The course of the Florido lies altogether within the basin-like area of which I have before spoken. The extent and character of this area were fully learned in an excursion which I made from our camp on the Florido, about forty miles down the Animas, to visit some extensive 1 and interesting ruins situated in the valley of that stream some twenty miles above its mouth. From my notes of this trip I make the following extracts : "Aiif/Hxf I/A. Left camp early with Pfeiffer, the Indian agent, Messrs. Fisher and Dorsey, and several Indians, to visit the ruins reported to exist at a certain point on the banks of the Animas ; crossed over in a direct line to the Animas, a distance of about ten miles. All this interval is occupied by a gravel mesa, of which the surface is * Since named Animas Park. 80 EXPLORING EXPEDITION FROM SANTA FK gently rolling, generally covered with grass or sage-bushes, with scattered trees of pi fioii and cedar. Reaching the Animas we found it flowing- in a valley one to three miles wide, bounded by gravel terraces, of which there are two, sometimes three, dis- tinctly visible. Near the month of the Florido the first terrace, which is near the stream, has an altitude of about 50 feet; the second, 260 feet higher; the third, the general surface of the plain which we crossed, 200 feet higher still. All these terraces are, I suppose, of local origin, having been left by the sinking of the bed of the stream consequent upon the cutting down of the gorge it has opened in the table-lands south. Between the junction of the Florido with the Animas and the valley of the San .luan, the table-land seems to be continuous, but has its greatest altitude along its northern margin. Immediately after receiving the Florido the Animas enters a deep and narrow canon, in which it flows for several miles; the walls of this canon are l,f>(>0 to l,(i(M) feet in height; in places nearly vertical ; the rocks exposed are principally sandstones, of which the prevailing color is a light brownish-yellow, sometimes becoming a pale red. These sandstones belong to the Upper Cretaceous series, which is hen* more fully exposed than anywhere in that portion of our route already passed over. Through the canon the river is very rapid and much obstructed bv rocks, and can- not be followed on horseback; below this the valley widens and the declivities of the bluffs which bound it become more gentle ; the bottom-lands are from a mile to two. miles in width, and quite fertile; the river is bordered bv thickets of willow and buffalo-berry, with groups and sometimes groves of cottomvood. It is in this part, of the valley that the ruins are situated. The principal structures are large pueblos, handsomely built of stone, and in a. pretty good state of preservation. The external walls are composed of yellow Cretaceous sandstone, dressed to a, common smooth surface without hammer-marks; in some places they are still 25 feet in height. As usual in buildings of this kind, the walls were unbroken by door or window to tin* height of 15 feet above the foundation. The interior shows a great number of small rooms, many of which are in a perfect, state of preservation, and handsomely plastered. These larger structures are surrounded by mounds and fragments of masonry, mark- ing the sites of great numbers of subordinate buildings; the whole affording conclu- sive evidence that a large population once had its home here. The fragments of highly ornamented and glazed pottery which cover the surface in the vicinity of these build- ings, as well as the peculiar style of architecture in which thev are constructed, show that the people who -built and occupied these structures belonged to the common aboriginal race of this region, now generally known as the Pueblo Indians. "After our return from the ruins on the Animas, our party moved over and encamped on that'stream, at the point where it is crossed by the old Spanish trail. It is nearly a hundred yards wide, deep and rapid, and, at, the present, stage of water, not easily forded. It here issues from the hills and enters the basin before described. Above this point it flows through a, broad mountain valley not yet explored, but of which the general features are given by the two great mountain groups which border it on the cast and Avest the Sierra de los 1'inos and Sierra de la Plata. ( )f these the Sierra de la Plata is the most conspicuous feature in the scenery, a broad and lofty mountain belt stretching continuously northward as far as the eye can reach. TO JUNCTION OF GRAND AND GREEN RIVERS. 81 "The drift from the moinitiiins drained by tin; Animus shows that their structure is essentially that of the Santa Fe Mountains and the other principal ranges of the Uocky .Mountain system. In this transported material are blocks, often weighing several tons, of red granite, similar to that of Santa Fe; gray granite, not unlike that forming the base of the section in the Colorado Canon at the mouth of Diamond River, described in my former report; Carboniferous limestone, with many of the fossils found at Santa Fe and in the Coal-Measures of the Mississippi Valley; black and white porphyry, trachyte, trap, and metamorphosed red sandstone. No traces of Silurian or Devonian rocks were discovered. The hills just above our camp are composed of red sandstone and conglomerate (Triassic), very much disturbed." ISelow the crossing- of the Spanish trail the valley of the Animas is susceptible of cultivation to the junction of the Florido, though the belt of arable land is narrow, and, in part at least, can only be cultivated by irrigation. In regard to the origin of the broad valley or basin which borders this part of the course of the Animas, I think \ve may safely say that its features were give:: by the disturbances which this region has sulVered; that, in the breaking up of the table-lands, a basin-like depression was left, into which the Animas flowed, and which it partially filled with gravel and bowlders brought down from the mountains above. Subse- quently, the enclosing walls of this area, were cut down, along the natural line of drain- age, until the river reached its present level, and what was its bed at different epochs, now forms gravel terraces high above it. The geology of that portion of our route lying between the Animas and the l\io de la Plata is precisely similar to that of most of the country previously passed through; the only rocks exposed are those of the upper portion of the Cretaceous formation, which compose broken hills flanking the eastern and southern slopes of the Sierra de la Plata. Among these hills the trail winds, following the courses of the picturesque and fertile, though narrow, valleys which separate them. From the headwaters of a small tribu- tary of the Animas we crossed over a divide which rises to the height of about l,ii()i) feet above our Camp 17; thence descending nearly as much, we struck the La Plata, just where it issues from the mountain-gorges in which it takes its rise. Of our camp on the La Plata I find the following description in my notes: "The l\io de la Plata is a beautifully clear, cold, mountain-brook; like the Animas and other streams we have recently crossed, well-stocked with trout. The valley in which it flows, as it issues from the mountains, is exceedingly beautiful, and our camp one, of the most delightful imaginable. Our tents are pitched in the shade of a cluster of gigantic pines, such as are scattered, here and there, singly or in groups, over the surface of the valley, sepa- rated by meadows thickly coated with the finest gramma grass. Stretching off south- ward, a wall of verdure, tinted with the fresh and vivid green of cottonwoods and willows, marks, while it conceals, the course of the sparkling stream whose murmuring How conies softly to the ear. On either side of the valley rise picturesque wooded hills, which bound the view both east and west; between these on the south an open vista reveals, far in the distance, the blue chains of the Sierra del Carriso and Tune- cha. On the north the bold and lofty summits of the Sierra de la Plata look down upon us in this pure atmosphere with an apparent proximity almost startling. Patches 11 s F 82 BXPLOKING EXPEDITION FROM SANTA Ffi of snow are visible upon them, which, by their wasting, supply the flow of the Rio le la Plata, which rises in the gorges beneath them." The geology of the vicinity is similar to that of much of our route already passed; the prevailing rocks are Upper Cretaceous, which compose the hills bordering the val- ley ; the thick mass of sandstone, which forms the Piedra Parada, caps these hills and lias a rapid dip away from the mountains; this is succeeded below by a series of gray and yellow foliated sandstones or sandy shales, containing immense quantities of fucoidal stems, so many indeed that these casts make up the greater part of the deposit. They are a half-inch in diameter, the surface covered with indistinct annular markings. Be- side the fucoids, these beds contain the well-known Cretaceous fossil, Ammonites pla- centa, and in lenticular masses of limestone immense numbers of BacuUtcs aitct')>x, ( 1 nr- (liiun lellalum, Meek, Astarte Shumanli, M., Aporrhais Ncwlern/i, Meek, &c. Several of these fossils are common in the Upper Cretaceous beds of Nebraska (Nos. 4 and 5 of Meek and Hayden's section of the Cretaceous rocks of Nebraska,), and afford satisfactory confirmation of the parallelism before suggested between the rocks of this region and those of more eastern localities. The Baculitcs are so numer- ous as to form in some places half the bulk of the rock. Of these, the greater num- ber are ornamented with nodes, in the manner of B. asper (Roemer), with which they maybe identical. The smooth ones resemble //. ovatus and II. coiitpressus. They vary much in form, some being nearly cylindrical, others much compressed, with every pos- sible variety between these extremes. All, however, as it seems to me, belongs to one species. From the summit of the hills, near camp, we have a fine view of the country south of us to the San Juan. All this interval is occupied by a mesa composed of the Upper Cretaceous rocks, deeply scored along the lines of drainage. The dip of the rocks composing this plateau is here southward, and very rapid; farther from the bases of the mountains they seem to lie nearly horizontal. The southern end of the Sierra, de la Plata is composed mainly of light-colored porphyry and other forms of erupted rock. It also consists in part of granite, with mica and clay-slate, traversed by extensive veins of quartz and epidote, which are metalliferous, containing magnetic iron, and sulphides of iron, copper, and lead; doubt- less, also, in certain localities, silver and gold; at least there is better promise of the discovery of the precious metals in these mountains than in any others we have visited since leaving the Rro Grande. The name given by the Spaniards to this great sierra, Silver Mountain, would seem to indicate that at some time silver had been found there, but I cannot learn that any definite knowledge is possessed by the Mexicans or the Indians of the existence of metallic veins such as would justify their choice of a title so significant. TO JUNCTION OF GRAND AND GREEN RIVERS. 8L> C II A I J T K R GEOLOGY OF THE SAGE-PLAIN AND VALLEY OF THE UPPER COLO- RADO. GENERAL FKATURES op THE NORTHERN PORTION OF THE COLORADO BASIN ASPECTS AND STRUCTURE, OF THE SAGE PLAIN MESA VEHDK ENORMOUS DENUDATION OF THE COLO- RADO PLATEAU CROSSING THE SAGE PLAIN Rio DE LOS MANGOS RioDoLORES SECTION OF LOWER CRETACEOUS ROCKS RUINS ON THE DOLORES Si EUR A SAN MIGUEL SUROU- ARA TlERRA 1JLANCA GlTA.TELOTES CANON PINTADO TRIASSIO ROCKS SAURIAN BONES LA TENEJAL ERODED BUTTES CASA COLORADO Ojo VERDE SIERRA LA SAI EXCUR- SION TO GRAND RIVER CANON COLORADO PLATEAU BORDERING THE COLORADO RIVER ERODED MONUMENTS LABYRINTH CANON RUINED BUILDINGS SUMMIT OF THE CARBON- IFKROUS FORMATION SECTION OF TRIASSIC ROCKS REMARKABLE COUNTRY ABOUT THE JUNCTION OF GRAND AND GREEN RIVERS SINGULAR ERODED BUTTES AND PINNACLES NETWORK OF CANONS CANON OF GRAND RIVER SECTION OF CARBONIFEROUS STRATA TRANSVERSE SECTION OF THE COLORADO VALLEY RETURN TO SAGE-PLAIN JOURNEY SOUTHWARD TO THE SAN JUAN SlERRA ABAJO. Uetween the Rio dela Plata and the Rio de los^ Mancos we skirted the base of the extreme southern point of the Sierra de la Plata. These mountains terminate south- ward in a loiiy slope, which falls down to a level of about 7,500 feet above; the sea 7 forming a plateau which extends southward to the San Juan, the Mesa Verde, to which T shall soon have occasion again to refer. This mesa terminates on the west by an abrupt nearly vertical precipice from 1,"20) to 1,500 feet in height. Between the mesa and the mountains is a natural pass or jitu'rfu, through which the Spanish trail leads where it crosses the divide. On the west this puerta opens to the right and left; bounded on the north by the retreating southwesterly slopes of the Sierra de la Plata, on the south by the wall-like edges of the Mesa Verde. As we stood on its threshold \ve looked far out over a great plain, to the eye as limitless as the sea; the monotonous outline of its surface varied only by two or three small island-like mountains, so distant as scarcely to rise above the horizon line. Here we were to leave the lofty sierras of the Kocky Mountain system, which had so long looked down on our- camps and marches, the picturesque scenery of the foot-hills, their flowery valleys and sparkling streams, the grateful shade of their noble forests, and take our weary way across the arid ex- panse of the great western plateau; a region whose dreary monotony is only broken by frightful chasms, where alone the weary traveler finds shelter from the burning heat of a cloudless sun, and where he seeks, too often in vain, a cooling draught that shall slake his thirst, To us, however, as well as to all the civilized world, it was a terra 84 EXPLORING EXPEDITION FROM SANTA FE incM/itita, and was'viewed with eager interest, both as the scene of our future explora- tions and MS the possible repository of truth which we might gM.ther and add to the sum total of human knowledge. An outline sketch of this portion of the Colorado Plateau has been already given in Chap. Ill, and but little more need be said to make its general features clearly compre- hended. The plain which stretches westward from the Sierra de la Plata indicated on the accompanying map, where it is called the Great Sage-plain is part of an immense plateau which once stretched continuously far beyond the course of the( Jolwrado. 1 low it has been divided by the canons of the draining streams, and how, by erosion, its plateau character has been so modified as to be locally lost, will full) appear in tin- progress of our geological narrative; yet no one who observes the orderly and un- broken arrangement of its underlying rocks, the perfect correspondence of the sections on opposite sides of the profound canons which cut it, will hesitate to assent to the assertion that an unbroken table-land once stretched from the base of the Sierra de la Plata all the way across to the mountain chains west of tin; Colorado, and that from this plateau, grain by grain, the sedimentary materials which once filled the broad and deep valleys of the Colorado and San Juan have been removed by the currents of these streams. The mind is awestruck in the contemplation of the magnitude of the element of time which enters into the analysis of the process by which these stupendous monuments of erosion have been produced; but if the numerical faculty is baffled in the effort to count the years or ages which must have; been consumed in the erosion of the valleys and canons to which I have referred, even the imagination itself is lost when called upon to estimate the cycles on cycles during which the much grander features of the high table-lands were wrought from a plateau which once overspread most of the area of the Colorado Basin, burying the present Sage-plain 2,000 feet beneath its upper surface. As I have before said, the Great Sage-plain is everywhere floored by the' Lower Cretaceous sandstones; massive resistent strata, 300 to 500 feet in thickness. These are succeeded in the ascending series, where the upper members of the formation are present, by the Middle Cretaceous shales, principally soft argillaceous beds, from 1,200 to 1 ,500 feet in thickness. Above these belong the Upper Cretaceous sandstones and marls, occupying an equal vertical space. Now, over the great plateau, floored and protected by the Lower Cretaceous sandstones, are everywhere scattered mounds of greater or less elevation, composed of the Middle Cretaceous shales, and in the inter- val between these mounds are scattered thousands and millions of the fossils charac- teristic of these shale-beds, washed, like pebbles, from their soft envelope!. Here we have conclusive evidence that the Middle Cretaceous shales once completely covered the sandstone-floor of the Sage-plain from which they have been nearly removed by aqueous action. As we approach the margin of the sandstone plateau, we find the mounds of overlying shale becoming more numerous and higher, until, reaching tin- edge of the high mesa, they blend in solid escarpments more than 1,000 feet in altitude, crowned by the massive, but soft, sandstones which form the third and upper division of the Cretaceous series. Such are some of the facts which may be observed about the base of the Mesa TO JUNCTION OF GRAND AND GREEN RIVERS. 85 Vorde, facts of which the significance will be readily appreciated; but these are not all the things that may lie seen from the vicinity of our present standpoint. The Mesa Verde is, geologically, but a portion of the high table-lands which border the Upper San Juan; the northern margin of which is followed by our route from the ford of the Chama to the Mancos. I Fere this plateau terminates abruptly in a bold and most pic- turesque wall, of which the general course, though varied by many salient and re-entering angles, is nearly north and south from the Sierra de la Plata to the San Juan. This mesa we completely encircled; examined it at a thousand points, and can speak of its structure and extent with confidence. To obtain a just conception of the enor- mous denudation which the Colorado Plateau has suffered, no better point of view could possibly be selected than that of the summit of the Mesa Verde. The geologist here has, as it seems to me, satisfactory proof of the proposition I have before made, that, from the greater portion of the Colorado Plateau, strata more than 2,000 feet in thickness ha.ve been removed by erosion. He here has a view toward the west, limited only by the powers of human vision. 1 )irectly west the Sage-plain stretches out nearly horizontal, unmarked by any prominent feature, to the distance of a hundred miles. .There the island-like mountains, the Sierra Abajo and Sierra La Sal, rise from its sur- face. South of these is the little doubled-peaked mountain, called by the Mexicans Las Ort'JKK del Oso the bear's ears; beyond these his vision could not reach, but our explorations enable us to tell him there lies the broad eroded valley of the Colorado, bounded by two steps, of over 1,000 feet each, below the level of the Sage-plain, and in the bottom of that valley, the chasm of the Colorado Canon, whose perpendicular walls are 1, ">()() feet in height; beyond the trough of the Colorado, a plateau corre- sponding to the Sage-plain, and beyond this a representative of the Mesa Verde. Looking southwest, he would see the Sage-plain terminated in that direction by the excavated valley of the San Juan; beyond this its representatives of similar character and elevation; higher and more distant than these, the long perspective lines of the lofty mesas north and west of the Moqui villages; the precise counterpart of that on which he is supposed to stand. On the northern margin of the plateau, we are assured by those who have been there that the constituent rocks of the Mesa Verde are exposed, holding the same posi- tions as here Are we not then driven by these facts to conclude that, over all this area of undisturbed sedimentary rocks, surrounded by table-lands composed of like strata, presenting corresponding, but now widely separated faces, these strata once stretched in unbroken connection; and that, from the great interval, where now wanting, they have been removed by the same all-potent influence which has left such grand and so similar records in tin; canons of the Colorado and its tributaries. The geology of the country lying between the Sierra La Plata and Sierra Abajo is so monotonous as to require no lengthy description; all that need be said of it is in brief notes of our different days' marches contained in my journal. From these I make the following extracts: "Aitf/itxt \(}//>, (!u/> 21, on ilio Dolores. The Rio de los Mancos is a clear mount- ain stream, formed by two branches, which unite just below our camp, and which rise in the foot-hills of the Sierra, de la Plata, on its western side;. Each of the two 86 EXPLORING EXPEDITION FKOM SANTA Ffi branches is about the size of the La Plata; they flow through a pretty valley, and are bordered by thickets of willow and alder, and groves of pine and cottonwood. As usual, at such high elevation, the cottonwood is all of the narrow-leaved species I'lijtitlttH uiif/tiNtifvlia. The immediate banks of the Mancos are at this point composed of the black shales, which overlie the Lower Cretaceous sandstones, containing (Mrcd c/ii/f/rxla, IiKii-n-ttnniK probfomatieus, &c. Very near camp (19) is a clear, cold spring, of which the water is highly charged with sulphuretted hydrogen ; another of the mineral springs flowing from the dark Cretaceous shales, so common in New Mexico, where they are known as Ojos lieriondns. Soon after leaving the Mancos, we came upon the Lower Cretaceous sandstones, which form the surface-rock to the Dolores. These sandstones are covered in places by detached hills of overlying shales and light-blue limestone, as usual, crowded with their characteristic fossils. The sandstones below are exposed in all the ravines which we crossed, and in nearly every locality where I examined them, I found in them impressions of angiospermous leaves, I'O/HI/HH, Hufi.r, QuercuSj &c. After traveling 15 miles, we descended into a narrow valley of erosion, traversed by a small clear stream, a tributary of the Dolores. The walls of the valley are in places nearly perpendicular, and are composed of the Lower Cretaceous sand-- stones, of which some 200 feet are exposed. These are general! v yellow and coarse, but alternate with laminated, greenish, ripple-marked layers, beds of greenish and gra v shales, and occasional bands of lignite. Nearly all contain the impressions of the stems of plants and dicotyledonous leaves, similar to those so frequently before seen in the same formation. The lowest stratum visible at this point, is a fine-grained com- pact sandstone, very uniform in texture, and as white as loaf-sugar; a most beautiful building material." The country lying between the Mancos and Dolores is generally dry and sterile, yet is everywhere covered with fragments of broken pottery, showing its former occu- pation by a, considerable number of inhabitants; it is now utterly deserted. Near the mountains it is pretty well timbered ; farther west, trees become more scattered and smaller, the pines confined to the narrow valleys, the uplands dotted with groves of pinon and cedar, with wide intervals covered with sage-bushes and soap-plant, VIK-CH tntf/ustifolia. The Dolores rises on the west side; of the Sierra do la Plata, many miles north of our route, and is here a clear, rapid stream, as large as the San Juan at the Pagosa. It runs through a beautiful but narrow valley, several hundred feet below the surface of the surrounding country. This is a valley of excavation, cut in tin- Lower Cretaceous rocks, which form bluffs on either side over 200 feet high, in ma.nv places perpendicular. The bottom-lands are nearly level, half a mile wide, and verv fertile, covered with fine grass, with groves of cottonwood and willow, and scattered trees of yellow pine. Near the river the thickets are overgrown with virgin's bower and hop, which form almost impenetrable jungles. Great numbers of flowers ornament the open grounds, generally of the species so common in the valleys before! passed through. The blufVs bounding the river below our camp show the following section: 1. Soil with rolled gravel and bowlders, drift from the Sierra, de la Plata, princi- pally white and black porphyry like that on the Mancos and La Plata. 33 O O o r o 7) m x O z rn m Z) D m Tl r CD o o 3 X "O 2 3 V ej 3" TO JUNCTION OF GRAND AND GREEN RIVERS. 87 2. Dark-blue calcareous shales with bands of dove-colored limestone, weathering light-ash, with thinner layers oi' brown sandy limestone. In the shales are imbedded great numbers of Gr//i>l/(c- I'itcheri, generally of small si/,o but beautifully perfect They exhibit a great variety of form, some being very high and narrow; others broader, like the typical G. Pitcheri; others nearly orbicular like G. dilatntn of the Oxford clay; others still broader, with a transverse diameter con- siderably greater than the antero-posterior. Between these various forms are connect- ing links which seem to prove that all belong to one species. The dove-colored lime- stones, here as on the (Jhama and Canadian, contain almost exclusively Inoccramtiy problematictis, and also exhibit the peculiar fracture noticed in the localities mentioned above, and others, on exposure, cracking horizontally into concavo-convex chip-like fragments, having sharp edges. The ferruginous layers represent the fish-bed of the Pagosa, the Chama, the Canadian, &c., a clearly defined geological horizon throughout all the Cretaceous area of New Mexico; they contain hen; (Mira liii/nhri.^ and many fragments of Inoceramus I. i>i-i)l>/t'iiiiifi<-n* and a much larger species probably not described. .'!. Coarse yellow sandstone, often a conglomerate, containing impressions of dico- tyledonous leaves, Salix, &c., and thin bands of lignite. 4. Greenish or light-brown soft calcareous sandstone, with local layers of blue clay-shale and thin seams of lignite ; no fossils observed. 5. Thick-bedded light-yellow or white sandstone, locally coarse or fine, some- times a conglomerate containing quart/ pebbles, generally fine-grained and nearly white; no fossils. 6. Green or purple clay stones and shales. 7. Soft greenish sandstone. Most of the strata enumerated above are exposed in the cliffs bordering the valley; for several miles are entirely unbroken, conformable throughout, and have a gentle dip to the west. The facts here observed are of special interest as deciding" beyond all appeal the question of the relative age of the sandstone group containing angiosperm- ons leaves, so marked a feature in the geology of New Mexico. This is but one of the great number of cases where these sandstones were found overlaid by strata con- taining well known Cretaceous fossils. It is to be hoped that this mooted question will now be considered settled, since it must be so in the mind of every honest inves- tigator. From the summit of the hill from which the preceding section was taken, we obtained a magnificent view of a wide extent of country lying on every side of us. In the east the Sierra de la Plata rose as a high and unbroken wall, presenting a more varied outline than when seen from the other side ; south of the Sierra, the puerta through which we had passed; beyond this, stretching far off southward, the green slopes and lofty battlements of the Mesa Verde beetling over the plain like some high and rock-bound coast above the level ocean; south, and near us, the miniature peak and chain of La Late ; far more distant, the Sierras Carriso and Tunecha in the Navajo country ; occupying the whole western horizon the monotonous expanse of the Sage- plain, beyond which rose the low summits of the Orejas del Oso, Sierra Abajo, and 88 EXPLORING EXPEDITION FltOM SANTA FE Sierra l;i Sal. In the north appeared a new and grand topographical feature. From N. 10 W. to N. E. magnetic stretched a chain of great mountains, higher and more picturesque than any we had seen. These have no common name, Imt one of the peaks is called, from the stream which washes its base, Sierra San Miguel. Whether these mountains form a single chain or several, and what is their prevail- ing trend cannot he said with certainty without closer inspection ; the overlapping lines of their bases, which would decide that question, being concealed by intervening high- lands. I should infer, however, from the view \vo had of them, that, they represent several distinct ranges, with a trend nearly north and south, set >'// n-lirloii. Between the most easterly of these mountains and the Sierra de la Plata is a low gap, in which stands a remarkable pinnacle of rock; even at a distance of seventy or eighty miles a striking object. One of the mountains in this group bears a large surface of snow, and its height cannot be less than 13,000 feet. Several others are nearly as lofty, and are cones of great beauty. * The hill from which we obtained this view is crowned with an extensive series of very ancient ruins. The principal one is a pueblo, nearly 100 feet square, once sub- stantially built of dressed stone, now a shapeless heap, in which the plan of the original structure can, however, be traced. Like most of the ruined pueblos of New Mexico, it consisted of a series of small rooms clustered together, like cells in a beehive. Xear the principal edifice are mounds of stone, representing subordinate buildings. Among these are numerous large depressions marking the places of cisterns or cxltij/ (S) o o I o r * O > O z o QO m > 3 i- f -< 2 O c z H > Z V) I o> o o 3 r r ' TO JUNCTION OF GRAND AND GREEN RIVERS. 93 of the sandstone buttes, which I have described, and it has often happened to me, after a fatiguing climb to the top of some high cliff or pinnacle, to find its smooth-washed summit-rock scooped out in cavities from- 2 to 20 feet in diameter, holding sometimes many barrels of the clearest rain-water, and affording me the two rarest possible luxuries in this arid region a drink of pure water and a cleansing and refreshing bath. The Ojo Verde is a copious spring in a canon cut out of the red sandstone, ten miles west of La Teneja. The surrounding country is very sterile, sparsely set with sage bushes and small cedars, but about the spring the bottom of the canon is cov- ered with the greenest and most luxuriant grass. The La Sal Mountain shows very finely from this point, distant twenty miles. It is seen to be composed of several short ranges, separated by narrow valleys, having a trend several degrees north of east, but these are set somewhat en echelon, and the direction of the longest diameter of the mount- ain mass is north-northwest and south-southeast ; such, at least, seems to be the structure of this sierra as seen from a distance. Perhaps closer inspection would show that the view obtained from this point was in some respects deceptive. Of the compo- sition of the Sierra La Sal we know nothing except what was taught by the drifted materials brought down in the canons through which the drainage from it flows. Of this transported material we saw but little, but that consisted mainly of trachytes and porphyry, indicating that it is composed of erupted rocks similar to those which form the Sierra Abajo, of which it is in fact almost an exact counterpart. From the cliffs over Ojo Verde we could see the strata composing both the upper and second plateaus, rising from the east, south, and southwest on to the base of the Sierra La Sal, each conspicuous stratum being distinctly traceable in the walls of the canons and valleys which head in the sierra. It is evident, therefore, that the rocks composing the Colo- rado .Plateau are there locally upheaved, precisely as around the Sierra Abajo and the other isolated mountains which I have already before enumerated, and to which I shall have occasion again to refer. VALLEY OF THE COLORADO. The general features of the trough of the Colorado, at the junction of Grand and Green Rivers, have been already sketched, but the detailed description of our ex- plorations of this remarkable region yet remains to be given. From the difficulties in the way of such exploration, reported by our scouts, it was not thought advisable to attempt to reach the river with our entire party. A depot camp was therefore estab- lished at Ojo Verde, where most of the men and animals remained, while a small de- tachment, with which I was connected, made the desired reconnoissance of this part of our route. Of this excitrsion I find in my journal the following descriptive notes: Any list 22. Started this morning for the junction of Grand and Green Rivers, Captain Macomb, Lieutenant Cogswell, Mr. Dimmock, Mr. Campean, myself, and three servants forming the party. On leaving camp we struck southwest, gradually ascending for six miles, when we reached the brink of a magnificent canon twelve hundred feet in depth, called, from the prevailing color of its walls, Canon Colorado, into which with great difficulty we descended. The summits of the cliffs are here nearly five hundred feet above the Ojo Verde, composed of the same rock exposed 94 EXPLORING EXPEDITION FROM SANTA FE there, the base of the section in Canon Pintado. The sandstone is here yellow or straw-color, very massive, without fossils, and very remarkably cross-stratified. About four hundred feet of this stratum are here exposed. Below this succeed one hundred and fifty feet of red, foliated sandstone, with some bands of red shale, precisely like the red sandstones of New Jersey and the Connecticut River Valley. Below this two hundred and seventy feet of reddish-brown sandstone, very massive, forming perpendicular faces. Still below, a series of green and red thin-bedded sandstones and red and purple shales, three hundred and fifty feet in thickness. The strata here rise gently to the westward, till, at a point ten miles from Camp 28, a low anticlinal crosses our route. From thence to the river the dip is westward. This part of the canon is exceedingly grand and beautiful, both from the form and coloring of its walls. A few piilons and cedars cling to the sides and crown the summits of the walls, while scattered cottonwoods and thickets of willow, with here and there a small tree of a new and peculiar species of ash, form a narrow thread of vegetation along its bottom. This, and many similar gorges, form the channels through which the drainage of the western slope of the Sierra Abajo reaches the Col- orado. Twelve miles west from the Ojo Verde the several canons unite by the elimi- nation of their dividing walls, and debouch into a comparatively open country. De- scending the canon we, therefore, at its mouth come out upon a third distinct plateau, from which the mesa cut by the Canon Colorado has been removed; its edges reced- ing in magnificent broken walls south and northwest. From this point the view swept westward over a wide extent of country, in its general aspects a plain, but everywhere deeply cut by a tangled maze of canons, and thickly set with towers, castles, and spires of most varied and striking forms; the most wonderful monuments of erosion which our eyes, already experienced in objects of this kind, had beheld. Near the mesa we were leaving stand detached portions of it of every possible form, from broad, flat tables to slender cones crowned with, pinnacles of the massive sandstone Avhich forms the perpendicular faces of the walls of the Canon Colorado. These castellated buttes are from one thousand to fifteen hundred feet in height, and no language is ad- equate to convey a just idea of the strange and impressive scenery formed by their grand and varied outlines. Toward the west the view reached some thirty miles, there bounded by long lines and bold angles of mesa walls similar to those behind us, while in the intervening space the surface was diversified by columns, spires, castles, and battlemented towers of colossal but often beautiful proportions, closely resembling elaborate structures of art, but in effect f;ir surpassing the most imposing monumeiils of human skill. In the southwest was a long line of spires of white stone, standing on red bases, thousands in numbe: 1 , but so slender as to recall the most delicate carv- ing in ivory or the fairy architecture of some Gothic cathedral; yet many, perhaps most, were over five hundred feet in height, and thickly set in a narrow belt or series some miles in length. Their appearance was so strange and beautiful as to call out exclamations of delight from all our party. Next to the pinnacles the most striking objects in our view were buttes of dark, chocolate-colored rock, which had weathered into exact imitation of some of the feudal castles of the Old World ; yet, like all the other features in the scene, they were on a z; CD o ^ en H3 o !z! M ffi O d en M CO O a o 01 g a a H w o > 25 o is! TO JUNCTION OF GRAND AND GREEN RIVERS. 95 gigantic scale. These buttes are composed of the liver-colored sandstones and choc olate shales of the walls of the Canon Colorado, which consist of a great number of alternations of thinner or thicker layers of sandstone with those of shale. This struc- ture in erosion gives rise to many curious and beautiful results, such as a beaded ap- pearance in columns, while harder or thicker layers form their capitals and bases. It also produces what seem to be walls of masonry, with frieze and cornice. Soon after issuing from the mouth of Canon Colorado, the little intermittent stream which traverses it begins to cut the floor of the rocky plain that borders the Colorado Uiver, and, following that stream as the only possible avenue through which we could reach our destination, we were soon buried in a deep and narrow gorge, which is thence continuous till it joins the greater canon of Grand River. This canon, from its many windings and the many branches which open into it, we designated by the name of Labyrinth Canon. Its walls are from one to two hundred feet in height, so that there is no egress from it for many miles. The bottom is occupied with cotton-woods, and thickets of narrow-leaved willow, cane, and salt-bush ; all of which, with fallen rocks, quicksands, and deep water-holes, made the passage through it almost impossible- Some two miles below the head of Labyrinth Canon we came upon the ruins of a large number of houses of stone, evidently built by the Pueblo Indians, as they are similar to those on the Dolores, and the pottery scattered about is identical with that before found in so many places. It is very old but of excellent quality, made of red clay coated with white, and handsomely figured. Here the houses are built in the sides of the cliffs. A mile or two below we saw others crowning the inaccessible summits inac- cessible except by ladders of picturesque detached buttes of red sandstone, which rise to the height of one hundred and fifty feet above the bottom of the canon. Simi- lar buildings were found lower down, and broken pottery was picked up upon the summits of the cliffs overhanging Grand River; evidence that these dreadful canons were once the homes of families belonging to that great people formerly spread over all this region now so utterly sterile, solitary, and desolate. At the ruined pueblos we reached the surface of the Carboniferous formation ; having passed through the entire thickness of the Gypsum series since leaving the Sage-plain. The complete section of the walls of the Canon Colorado continued to this point, is as follows: Feet. 1. Yellow massive calcareous sandstone, base of preceding section 400 2. Red micaceous sandstones, interstratified with red shales 150 3. Red and brown massive sandstone 270 4. Green and red shelly sandstones, and red shales, softer than No. 2 350 5. Greenish-gray micaceous conglomerate 15 G. Red and purple shale 60 7. Grayish sandstone 18 8. Chocolate and purple soft sandstones and shales in thin bands 275 9. Soft liver-colored and white sandstone - . 75 10. Brick-colored massive, calcareous sandstone, weathering into towers and bot- tle-shaped buttes 80 96 EXPLORING EXPEDITION FROM SANNA Ffi Feet. 11. Liver-colored sandstone 15 12. Gray limestone 2 13. Brick-red sandstone, like No. 10 25 14. Chocolate sandstone, like Nos. 8 and 11 12 15. Blue limestone, containing Atliyris siiUilita, Spirifer camcrutus, &c., and other Carboniferous fossils. Descending the canon till night came upon us, we made our camp under the over- hanging cliff's on the north side, whei'e some pot-holes in the rocky bottom promised us a supply of water. August 23, Camp 29 to Grand River. Leaving servants and packs in camp, we to- day descended the Cailon of Labyrinth Creek, to its junction with Grand River. Until within a mile of the junction, the character of the canon remains the same; a narrowgorgc, with vertical sides, from 150 to 300 feet in height, its bottom thickly grown with bushes and obstructed with fallen rocks and timber, passable but with infinite difficulty. At the place mentioned above, however, our progress was arrested by a perpendicular fall, some 200 feet in height, occupying the whole breadth of the canon, and to reach Grand River it was necessary to scale the walls which shut us in. This we accomplished with some difficulty on the south side, to find ourselves upon the level of the rocky plain into which we sunk when entering the canon. The view we here obtained was most interesting, yet too limited to satisfy us. Looking down into the canon we had been following, we could see it deepening by successive falls until, a mile below, it opened into the greater Canon of Grand River, a dark yawning chasm, with vertical sides, in which we caught glimpses of the river 1,500 feet below where we stood. On every side we were surrounded by columns, pinnacles, and castles of fantastic shapes, which limited our view, and by impassable canons, which restricted our movements. South of us, about a mile distant, rose one of the castle-like buttes, which I have already mentioned, and to which, though with difficulty, we made our way. This butte was composed of alternate layers of chocolate-colored sandstone and shale, about 1,000 feet in height^Jts sides nearly perpendicular, but most curiously orna- mented with columns and'pilasters, porticos and colonnades, cornices and battlements, flanked here and there with tall outstanding towers, and crowned with spires so slender that it seemed as though a breath of air would suffice to topple them from their foun- dations. To accomplish the object for which we had come so far, it seemed necessary that we should ascend this butte. The day was perfectly clear and intensely hot; the mercury standing at 92 in the shade, and the red sandstone, out of which the land- scape was carved, glowed in the heat of the burning sunshine. Stripping off nearly all our clothing, we made the attempt, and after two hours of most arduous labor succeeded in reaching the summit. The view which there burst upon us was such as amply repaid tis for all our toil. It baffles description, however, and I can only hope that our sketches will give some faint idea of its strange and unearthly character. The great canon of the Lower Colorado, with its cliffs a mile in height, affords grander and more impressive scenes, but those having far less variety and beauty of detail than this. From the pinnacle on which we stood the eye swept over an area some fifty miles in diameter, everywhere marked by features of more than ordinary > o r > CD -< 3) Z H I m m O O Z o CO o c m > 33 | -C n m 0) o o 3 o- 5 f f 3 i TO JUNCTION OF GRAND AND GEEEN K1VEES. 97 interest ; lofty lines of massive mesas rising in successive steps to form the frame of the picture ; the interval between them more than 2,000 feet below their summits. A great basin or sunken plain lay stretched out before us as on a map. Not a particle of vegetation was anywhere discernible ; nothing but bare and barren rocks of rich and varied colors shimmering in the sunlight. Scattered over the plain were thousands of the fantastically formed buttes to which I have so often referred in my notes; pyramids, domes, towers, columns, spires, of every conceivable form and size. Among these by far the most remarkable was the forest of Gothic spires, first and imperfectly seen as we issued from the mouth of the Canon Colorado. Nothing I can say will give an adequate idea of the singular and surprising appearance which they presented from this new and advantageous point of view. Singly, or in groups, they extend like a belt of timber for a distance of several miles. Nothing in nature or in art offers a parallel to these singular objects, but some idea of their appearance may be gained by imagining the island of New York thickly set with spires like that of Trinity church, but many of them full twice its height. Scarcely less striking features in the landscape were the innumerable canons by which the plain is cut. In every direction they ran and ramified deep, dark, and ragged, impassable to everything but the winged bird. Of these the most stupendous was that of Grand River, which washes two sides of the base of the pinnacle on which we stood, a narrow chasm, as we estimated, full 1,500 feet in depth, into which the sun scarcely seemed to penetrate. At the bottom the whole breadth of this canon is occupied by the turbid waters of Grand River, here a sluggish stream, at least with no current visible to us who were more than 2,000 feet above it. In this great artery a thousand lateral tributaries terminate, flowing through channels precisely like that of Labyrinth Creek ; underground passages by which inter- mittent floods from the distant highlands are conducted through this country, producing upon it no other effect than constantly to deepen their own beds. Toward the south the cafion of Grand River was easily traced. Perhaps four miles below our position it is joined by another great chasm coming in from the northwest, said by the Indians to be that of Green River. From the point where we were it was inaccessible, but we had every reason to credit their report in reference to it. After reaching the elevated point from which we obtained this view, I neglected to take the rest I so much needed, but spent the little time at my command in endeavor- ing to put on paper some of the more striking features of the scene before us. Stand- ing on the highest point, I made a hasty panoramic sketch of the entire landscape. The effort had, however, nearly cost me dear ; for before I had completed the circle of the horizon I was seized with dreadful headache, giddiness, and nausea, and, alone as I then was, had the greatest difficulty in rejoining my companions. The greater part of the walls of the canon of Grand River are formed of Car- boniferous rocks; the summits of the cliff's are, however, composed of Triassic red sandstone, the equivalent of those resting on the Carboniferous limestone on the Little Colorado and in the valley of the Pecos. The Carboniferous cannot, therefore, be said to be the surface formation anywhere in this region, as it is nowhere exposed except in the trough of the Colorado, and there in the cafions. The composition of that portion of this formation to which I had access in the canon of Labyrinth Creek is as follows; the Triassic sandstone resting on the upper member of the section : 13 s P 98 EXPLORING EXPEDITION FROM SANTA FE Section of Carboniferous rod's in Labyrinth Canon. Feet. 1. Blue slaty argillaceous limestone, with nodules of chert, and containing cri- noidal columns in great numbers, Athyris subtilita, Bellerophon, Product us, dr.. 20 2. Massive blue limestone, portions of which are quite sandy, generally variable in color and composition 50 3. Slaty blue argillaceous limestone, somewhat cherty, crowded with fossils, among which are Athyris sultilita, Spirifer camcratus, Productus scmireticidatus, P. scabriculus, P. Rogersi, P. punctatus, P. nodosits, Ortliisina wnbracidum, Mya- lina ampla, Plcurotomarla excclsa a large and fine new species Allorisma subcuncata, &c 40 4. Eed shale, no fossils 6 5. Bluish- white, red or mottled sandy limestone, no fossils 35 6. Red calcareous shale, no fossils 7 7. Red or bluish- white, mottled sandy limestone, massive, no fossils 25 8. Coarse blood-red sandstone, in some localities becoming red shale, no fossils. . 22 9. Hard blue cherty limestone, with a few fossils of the same species found in No. 3 . 36 The last number of the series forms the fall or precipice which stopped our prog- ress down the canon. The remainder of the section was inaccessible to us; as seen from above it seemed to consist of alternations of strata, similar to those already enumerated. If we may judge of the thickness of the Carboniferous formation in this vicinity by what it is lower down on the Colorado, we cannot suppose that the base of the series is reached in the canon of Grand River. On comparing this exposure of the Carboniferous strata with that at Santa Fe, described in Chapter II of this report, and those of the banks of the Colorado below the mouth of the Little Colorado, noticed in my report to Lieutenant Ives, Chapter VI, pp. GO and G2, it will be seen that the fossils are generally identical; that, while two or three neAv species were added in each localit}^ to the Carboniferous fauna of the Mississippi Valley, most of them are the same with the most common and characteristic fossils of our Coal-Measures in Illinois, Ohio, and Pennsylvania. In lithological characters there is a general correspondence between all the locali- ties in New Mexico where the Carboniferous rocks are fully exposed, but at Santa Fe there is a greater proportion of coarse material, sandstones and conglomerates, than at the more western localities. At Santa Fe, too, we find land-plants, characteristic Coal- Measure form's, and even a thin bed of coal; all of which indicate the immediate prox- imity of dry land. Too little was learned of the lower part of the series on Grand River to enable me to institute a fair comparison between the Carboniferous rocks at this locality and those on Cataract Creek, 150 miles below. In the upper part of the formation we find, however, here as there, cherty limestones with similar fossils, but the great beds of gypsum of Cataract Creek are certainly wanting here. Combining the sections exposed at different points along our route in our descent, step by step, from the summit of the Mesa Verde to the canon of Grand River, we have the following rc^umr of the strata and formations passed through: 0) o o 3 o- M 5' r TO JUNCTION OF GKAND AND GKEEN 1UVERS. General section of the Valley of the Colorado. No. Strata. Feet. Formation. Locality. 1 Soft, yellow sandstones, alternating with gray, purple, and green- ish marls, containing silicified coniferous wood COO Cretaceous. Mesa Verde. 2 Dark bitumino-calcareous shales, with concretions and thin bands of compact bine limestone weathering yellow. Fossils in the upper part, immediately beneath No. 1, Ammonites placenta, Jlacitlites anceps, Aporrhait ^'twberryi, &c. ; toward the lower part, Iiioceramus, Nautilus, Ostred conyesta, fish-scales 1 200 do Do 3 Gray or dark-brown shales, -with bands of dove-colored limestone weathering white, and thin layers of brown sandy limestone. Fossils: GrypJuea Pitcheri, Inoceramns problematicus, I. fragilis, Ammonites percarinatus, A. Macombi, Oztrea luyubris, 0. unifurmis, Ptychodus Whipplei, Lamna Texana, &c - 150 do Sage-plain. 4 Coarse, yellow sandstone, sometimes interstratified with beds of shale and lignite. Fossils : Leaves of angiospermons plants, Salix, Qitercus, \c...... . . ... . 250 do Do 5 Green and gray shales, and soft green or yellowish sandstones or conglomerate .... . .... 200 do G Red and green shales, with bands of soft, white, red or greenish micaceous sandstones. Fossils: Saurian bones and silicifled 350 7 8 Red, yellow, or white massive calcareous sandstone. No fossils Red, thin-bedded sandstones; with red shales. No fossils 550 150 Triassic. ....do Do. Do. 9 Red and brown massive sandstone, fine-graiued, not hard. No fossils 270 do Colorado Canon. 10 Soft red sandstone, in thin layers, separated by beds of red or dark brown shales 350 ..do Do. 11 Greenish-gray micaceous conglomerate and gray sandstone, sepa- rated by red and purple shales . ..... .. 1)2 .... do Do. 12 Soft, liver-colored sandstones, becoming, suddenly and locally, uearly white, with partings of shale . 350 .do Do. 13 Brick-red massive calcareous sandstones, with some like the last 164 do.. . Do. 14 Blue limestone, somewhat chorty. Fossils : Spirifer cameratits, 110 Canon of Grand 15 Bluish-white, red, or mottled sandy limestone, with partings of red shale ... ... ... .. 95 River. Do ir, Hard bine cherty limestone. Fossils same as No. 14 36 . do . . Do. 17 Alternations of blue limestone, red and gray sandstone, to bottom 1 000 do Do Finding it impossible to pass down in the vicinity of the Colorado to its junction with the San Juan, we were compelled to retrace our steps, and again ascending to the Sage-plain, crossed southwardly over its western extremity, along the eastern base of the Sierra Abajo, to the San Juan Valley. This part of our route afforded us little that was new in any department, and need not, therefore, long detain its. We found the structure of this portion of the Sage-plain precisely like that before passed over. The Lower Cretaceous sandstones everywhere form the surface-rock, except where covered with the overlying shales. The fossils of these shale-beds are often thickly scattered over the surface, as in many localities enumerated on the preceding pages. The plateau is here, as farther eastward, more or less broken by the canons of the draining streams. These head in the Sierra Abajo and progressively deepen until they terminate in the eroded valley of the San Juan. At various points along this part of our route we saw ruins of ancient buildings, similar in character to those on the Dolores ; and fragments of broken pottery, an equally characteristic record of the Pueblo race, were everywhere met with. Sierra Abajo. Our near approach to the Sierra Abajo, while skirting its northern and eastern bases, gave us a better knowledge of its extent and structure than we had before obtained. The impressions we then received of it are given in the following extract from my notes: "August 30, Camp 31, Mormon Spring. Our last camp was 100 EXPLORING EXPEDITION FKOM SANTA Ffi at the eastern base of the Sierra Abajo. Within the last few weeks we have been on three sides of this sierra, and have learned its structure quite definitely. It is a mountain group of no great elevation, its highest point rising some 2,000 feet above the Sage-plain, or perhaps 9,000 feet above the sea. It is composed of several distinct ranges, of which the most westerly one is quite detached from the others. All these ranges, of which there are apparently four, have a trend of about 25 east of north, but being arranged somewhat en echelon, the most westerly range reaching farthest north, the principal axis of the group has a northwest and southeast direction. The sierra is composed geologically of an erupted nucleus, mainly a gray or bluish-white trachyte, sometimes becoming a porphyry, surrounded by the upheaved, partially eroded, sedimentary rocks. The Lower Cretaceous sandstones and Middle Cretaceous shales are cut and exposed in all the ravines leading down from it, while nearly the entire thickness of the Cretaceous series is shown in spurs which, in some localities, project from its sides ; apparently the remnants of a plateau corresponding to, and once connected with, the Mesa Verde. Whether the Paleozoic rocks are anywhere exposed upon the flanks of the Siei'ra Abajo I cannot certainly say, though we dis- covered no traces of them. It is, however, probable that they will be found in some of the deeper ravines, where, as in most of these isolated mountains composed mainly of erupted material, they are doubtless but little disturbed, but are buried beneath the ejected matter which has been thrown up through them. The relations of the Cretaceous rocks to the igneous nucleus of the Sierra Abajo are very peculiar, for, although we did not make the entire circuit of the mountain mass, and I can, therefore, not speak definitely in regard to the western side. As far as our observations extended we found the sedimentary strata rising on to the trachyte core, as though it had been pushed up through them. TO JUNCTION OF GRAND AND GREEN RIVERS. 101 CHAPTER VI GEOLOGY OF THE BANKS OF THE SAN JUAN. GENERAL FEATURES OF THE COUNTRY BORDERING THE SAN JUAN SECTION OF LOWER CRE- TACEOUS STRATA SOUTH OF SlERRA ABAJO BlRD'S-EYE VIEW OF COUNTRY BORDERING SAN JUAN HIGH MESAS OF THE NAVAJO COUNTRY TRIASSIC ROCKS OF LOWER SAN JUAN LOWER CRETACEOUS STRATA OF CAMP 37 MIDDLE CRETACEOUS BEDS AND FOS- SILS SOUTH OF LE LATE THE NEEDLES THE CRESTON UPPER CRETACEOUS STRATA AT MOUTH OF THE ANIMAS RUINS IN THE SAN JUAN VALLEY CANON LARGO SECTIONS OF UPPER CRETACEOUS STRATA PLATEAU COUNTRY BORDERING CANON LARGO BUTTES OF MARLS AND SANDSTONES, HIGHEST MEMBERS OF THE SERIES OF SEDIMENTARY ROCKS COMPOSING COLORADO PLATEAU GENERAL SECTION OF UPPER CRETACEOUS STRATA NACIMIENTO MOUNTAIN, ITS STRUCTURE AND RELATIONS NOTES ON THE DIFFERENT FOR- MATIONS EXPOSED ON ITS SIDES JOURNEY THROUGH COUNTRY BORDERING WESTERN BASE OF NACIMIENTO MOUNTAIN DIVIDE BETWEEN SAN JUAN AND Rio GRANDE MOUNT TAY- LOR CABEZON TERTIARY STRATA AT JEMEZ THE VALLES TRAP PLATEAUS. The great features in the structure of the country traversed by the San Juan River have been given in a preceding chapter, and there now remains for the comple- tion of the picture only the presentation of the more local details upon which the gen- eralizations before advanced were based. Anticipating in some degree the progress of our geological narrative, to render the subject more readily comprehensible, the following outline sketch of the geology of the immediate banks of the San Juan is here given : Taking their rise in the valleys dividing the parallel ranges of the Rocky Moun- tains, Sierra de la Plata, Sierra de los Pinos, Sierra San Juan, &c., the tributaries of the San Juan unite in the open country lying south of these mountain ranges to form a chan- nel of drainage, having nearly an east and west course, to the Colorado. In addition to the tributaries of the San Juan which have been enumerated, far less important ones flow from the east and south. These are the rivulet traversing Canon Largo, rising at the north end of the Nacimiento Mountain, the Chaco, Gothic Creek, and the Chelly, which drain the arid mesas of the Navajo country and the slopes of the Tunecha and Carrizo. The country traversed by the northern and more important branches of the San Juan, bordering our outward-bound trail, has been fully described in the preceding chapters. That bordering Canon Largo and the course of the Chaco opens to us a new geological field, and one which includes the exposures of the highest portion of the 102 EXPLORING EXPEDITION FROM SANTA Ffi series forming the table-lands of the Colorado Plateau. This interesting region requires for its full illustration the detailed description to be hereafter given. Its general character is, however, as follows: The Nacimiento Mountain here bursts up through the table-lands in an unbroken wall forty miles in length, with a nearly north and south trend. On its western flank the various stratified rocks composing the Colorado Plateau lie inclined at a high angle with the horizon. Of these the Carboniferous series and the overlying Triassic forma- tion stand nearly vertical. Upon these the Lower and Middle Cretaceous groups rest with a gentler inclination, while the Upper Cretaceous sandstones, and perhaps Tertiary strata, are represented in detached buttes and mesillas, the remnants of continuous sheets mostly removed by erosion. A few miles westward the disturbing influence of the elevation of the Nacimiento range ceases to be visible, and the different stratified rocks, which I have enumerated, hold a nearly horizontal position, which they main- tain thence westward, with little variation, to and beyond the Colorado. Through the table-lands which they here form, Canon Largo is excavated, gradually deepening till it joins the valley of the San Juan, where its walls have an altitude of 700 to 800 feet. At the eastern terminus of Canon Largo, and along the base of the Nacimiento Mount- ain, are scattered the insulated buttes to which I have before referred as representing the summit of the series of conformable strata composing the Colorado Plateau ; a group of purple, white, and gray marls, interstratified with soft, yellow calcareous sandstones, the latter predominating as we descend, and forming what has been described in the preceding pages as the Upper Cretaceous group, containing, near its base, the fossils collected on the Rio de la Plata, Ammonites placenta, Baculitcs anceps, &c.; a horizon probably corresponding to No. IV of Meek and Hayden's Nebraska section. From the perfect conformability throughout this group of rocks, their general lithological simi- larity from summit to base, where they contain Cretaceous fossils; in short, from absence of proof to the contrary, I have been driven to include them all provisionally in the Cretaceous formation. It is by no means certain, however, that this classifica- tion is rigidly correct, for it is not impossible that future investigations will prove that the upper part of this group should be regarded as Eocene Tertiary. That no Miocene beds occur here, is, I think, certain, as all the information obtained of the geology of the Rocky Mountain region goes to show that, between the time of the deposition of the Upper Cretaceous strata and the Miocene epoch, important changes occurred in the physical geography of the central portion of our continent changes of level by which the conformability prevailing throughout the sedimentary strata, from the Silu- rian up, was finally interrupted. The only reasons we yet have for suspecting that the upper portion of the series on the San Juan is Tertiary, are the inordinate thick- ness (if all Cretaceous) 3,000 to 4,000 feet of the rocks which are more recent than the Triassic formation; and the more suggestive fact that, in Texas, the Eocene beds exhibit a marked lithological similarity to those forming the summit of the series at the head of Canon Largo, and follow the Cretaceous strata in perfect conformability. We can only say, therefore, that, with the evidence now before us, while it is possible, and perhaps probable, that the uppermost members of the Colorado series are Eocene Ter- tiary, we have as yet no proof that such is the case. m 3] o z s c_ Z C n > Z o s D O u 01 Z o m cn H I o o I j 2 3> a 5T 2- S" TO JUNCTION OF GRAND AND GREEN RIVERS. 103 The area occupied by the most recent strata found in the San Juan country is but limited. The detached buttes which they form, and to which reference has before been made, stretch southwesterly from the north end of Nacimiento Mountain toward San Mateo, along the line of the divide between the Chaco and the Chelly; in other words, between the waters of the Rio Granda and those of the San Juan. Westward from this summit the table-land, which I have described in the preceding chapters as the pla- teau of the Upper San Juan, extends to the distance of one hundred miles or more, terminating in the mural faces of the Mesa Verde. Through this plateau Cafion Largo and its continuation, the valley of the San Juan, are cut to the meridian of the Sierra de la Plata; thence, westward, the lower plateau of the Sage-plain stretches to the margin of the valley of the Colorado. In this lower plateau the trough of the San Juan is also deeply sunk; cutting through the Lower Cretaceous group, and exposing, especially toward its mouth, many hundred feet of the underlying Triassic formation. Throughout the whole of its course through the table-lands the valley of the San Juan is a narrow trough, bounded by abrupt, often perpendicular, rocky sides; its rich and verdant bottom-lands forming a thread of fertility which traverses a region elsewhere arid and barren. On our way south from the Sierra Abajo we struck the San Juan at a point some fifty miles or more above its mouth. Before descending from the plateau of the Sage- plain into the valley of the river, we obtained from several points views which swept over all the country bordering the lower part of its course. Of these that from the vicinity of Camp 33 was peculiarly comprehensive and grand; revealing features so novel and striking that I regarded them as worthy of somewhat detailed description in my note-book,, That description is as follows : " Soon after leaving camp (33) we obtained a beautiful view of all the country bor- dering the Lower San Juan, of which nearly 10,000 square miles were at once visible. From this point the eye swept a great semicircle from the Sierra de la Plata in the east around southward to the Bear's Ears in the west. From the Sierra de la Plata the long line of the lofty Mesa Verde stretched southward to the valley of the San Juan, there terminating in high and abrupt cliffs. In the open valley of the river stood the isolated pinnacles of the Needles, a peculiar and picturesque feature even at this great distance. In the southeast the bold front of the northern end of the Sierra del Carrizo rose frown- ingly from the immediate borders of the valley, and stretched away southward in a succession of peaks till lost in the distance. "Directly south the view was bounded by the high and distant mesas of the Na- va jo country, succeeded in the southwest by the still more lofty battlements of the great white mesa formerly seen by us from the Moqui Villages, and described in my report to Lieutenant Ives. Of these high table-lands the outlines were not only distinctly visible, but grand and impressive at the distance of a hundred miles. Nearly west from us a, great gap opened in the liigh table-lands which limit the view in that direction ; tl uit through which the San Juan flows to its junction with the Colorado. The features presented by this remarkable gate-way are among the most striking and impressive of any included in the scenery of the Colorado country. The distance between the mesa walls on the north and south is perhaps ten miles, and scattered over the interval 104 EXPLORING EXPEDITION FROM SANTA Ffi are many castle-like buttes and slender towers, none of which can be less than 1,000 feet in height, their sides absolutely perpendicular, their forms wonderful imitations of the structures of human art. Illuminated by the setting sun, the outlines of these sin- gular objects came out sharp and distinct, with such exact similitude of art, and con- trast with nature as usually displayed, that we could hardly resist the conviction that we beheld the walls and towers of some Cyclopean city hitherto undiscovered in this far-off region. Within the great area inclosed by the grander features I have enu- merated, the country is set with numberless buttes and isolated mesas, which give to the scene in a high degree the peculiar character I have so often referred to as exhib- ited by the eroded districts of the great central plateau. Here and there we caught glimpses of the vivid green of the wooded bottom-lands of the river, generally con- cealed by the intermediate and overhanging cliffs." The general geological structure of the wide area then seen was nearly as intelli- gible and apparent as it could have been upon closer inspection; the higher mesas everywhere composed of the Upper Cretaceous strata isolated portions of a once con- tinuous sheet; the plateau on which we stood the massive sandstones and conglomerates of the Lower Cretaceous group; while the bottom of the trough of the San Juan, where exposed, showed the blood-red tint of the Triassic rocks. Near Camp 34 we descended from the plateau of the Sage-plain and encamped in the valley of the Rito del Sierra Abajo, a few miles above its junction with the San Juan. In this descent we passed over the cut edges of all the members of the Lower Cretaceous group, which afforded me the following section: Section of Loiver Cretaceous strata at Camp 34. Feet. 1. Dove-colored calcareous shale, with Gryphcea Pitcltcri, in knolls on No. 2. 2. Yellow, coarse sandstone, often a conglomerate, with pebbles of black and white flint 25 3. Gray shale, with lignite and silicified wood 12 4. Yellowish, coarse sand-rock, with pebbles of flint (locally), sometimes mas- sive, nearly white, quartzose 50 5. Green shale 2 6. Massive, nearly white sand-rock; the same noticed on the Dolores at Tierra Blanca, &c 16 7. Yellowish- white sand-rock, with pebbles of flint 12 8. Soft greenish-yellow sandstone, massive, but easily decomposed 10 9. Verdigris-green concretionary, hard calcareous sandstone 2 10. Green and chocolate shales, with bands of fine argillaceous and calcareous sandstone of several colors 30 11. Soft greenish-yellow sandstone 29 12. Green, chocolate, purple, pink, and white marls, with concretionary bands of similar colors of hard, fine argillo-silicious rock 110 13. Greenish-yellow sandstone, like No. 11 85 14. Soft greenish sandstone, decomposing like No. 8 8 TO JUNCTION OF GRAND AND GEEEN RIVERS. 105 Fuet. 15. Soft greenish sandstones and shales, alternating with and replacing each other. 140 Locally, this group is very massive, hard, almost quartzose, like No. 4; in other places, almost replaced by greenish shales. This is probably the base of the Cretaceous system. Continuing the section down the valley of the Rito to the San Juan, we have 1C. Red, white, and greenish thin-bedded micaceous sandstones, alternating with red shales the Saurian beds of Camp 26, No. 2 of section on page 91 130 17. Red, massive, cross-stratified calcareous sandstones No. 3 of section of Camp 26; No. 1 of section (p. 95,) to river-bottoms ICO The last two members of the section evidently represent the upper portion of the Gypsum formation (Trias.) They form the cliffs immediately bordering the valley of the river at Camp 35, and the trough in which it flows from Camp 36 to its mouth. The second bench, or higher cliffs bordering the valley at Camp 35, composed of the Lower Cretaceous rocks, contain conglomerates the equivalents of the upper members of the preceding section much coarser than those observed farther north; the pebbles being frequently as large as the fist, with only sufficient paste to cement them. Among these pebbles I noticed several composed of silicified wood, probably derived from the erosion of the Triassic rocks. In the trough of the San Juan, at this point, are extensive beds and terraces, com- posed of coarse gravel and bowlders, evidently brought down by the river from the mountain-ranges which it drains, and, in some instances, the bowlders must have been rolled by the stream fully two hundred miles from their place of origin. The structure of the country about Camp 37 is quite fully given in my journal. My notes are as follows: "That portion of the valley of the San Juan passed through to-day is, in its general aspects, similar to that before described, but the cliffs border- ing it are less continuous and abrupt. In many places they are 300 or 400 feet high, perfect canon walls, but oftener they recede from the river, leaving open areas; the mouths of lateral valleys cutting up through the mesas toward the mountains. "Geologically as physically, we have ascended considerably, and have just sunk the 'Saurian rocks' (Upper Triassic?), leaving the cliffs bordering the valley com- posed exclusively of Lower Cretaceous strata. During the greater part of to-day's march thin-bedded Triassic sandstones and shales formed the base of the wall along which Ave passed. These rocks are here more argillaceous than farther north, contain much saline matter, but no beds of gypsum, and no fossils so far as observed." By reference to my report on the geology of the Colorado expedition, it will be seen that farther south they are still less sandy ; at the Moqui Villages, consisting mostly of soft red and green marls. The Lower Cretaceous strata are here more fully exposed, and have a greater thickness than where examined farther north and east ; approaching more nearly the character exhibited by this group at the Moqui Villages. The cliffs near camp are composed of Feet. 1. Yellow, coarse sandstones and conglomerates ; floor of Sage-plain 200 2. Greenish shales and sandstones 175 3. Greenish-yellow sandstones and greenish shales. 250 14 s F 106 EXPLORING EXPEDITION FROM SANTA FE Tlie character of the subdivisions will be better seen by the following analysis: 1st. Yellow sandstone group; here less coarse and containing less conglomerate than at camps 33, 34, and 35. As at those localities, on the Cimarron, in Kansas and Nebraska a portion of this group is here an exceedingly hard, whitish, quartzose sand- stone. Beds of lignite and silicified wood are common. 2d. Greenish shales and sandstones ; the same group described in my notes on the geology of the vicinity of Camp 34, Nos. 10, 11, 12 of section, page 104, here much less highly colored, consisting of thick beds of greenish shale, locally pink or purple, with bands of yellowish, greenish or purple concretionary silicious rock; no fossils. 3d. Greenish sandstones and shales; the same group exposed in the lower part of the section at Camp 34. The shales and sandstones frequently replace each other; the group at Camp 37 being nearly all massive, yellowish-green sandstone, while, a few miles below, the shales greatly predominate; no fossils discoverable. "Mouth of the Mancos. Camp 38, thirteen miles. We have to-day ascended in the geological scale, have nearly submerged the lowest member of the section at Camp 37, and the mesas back from the river on the north side run far up into the Middle and Upper Cretaceous group. On the south side the mesas are not as high; the Lower Cretaceous rocks forming the surface almost to the Sierra Carrizo, near which the Upper Cretaceous beds appear again. The mesas north of our camp, composed of the Middle Cretaceous strata, 'extend north and east to the base of the Sierra Le Late, and, if not cut off by the valley of the Mancos, would connect with the Mesa Verde. As usual in all this region, the shales contain great numbers of Gfyphaea Pitcheri. "In the Lower Cretaceous sandstones, I here find impressions of dicotyledonous haves, similar to those found on the Dolores and elsewhere. "As in other parts of the valley of the San Juan which we have passed through, the rains of ancient buildings are here very frequently met with; some in the open ground of the valley, some in or on the cliffs ; all built of stone, surrounded by broken pot- tery, evidently the remains of that great Pueblo race which once occupied all this region, but which is now without an inhabitant. "Camp 38, 39, 15 miles. In our march of to-day, a marked change has taken place in the valley of the San Juan, which has become more open, is bounded by less high a id abrupt walls ; the bluffs, like the bottom, being covered with fine grass. This change is dependent, mainly, upon the fact that we have ascended from the Lower to the Middle Cretaceous strata, and have passed from a region of coarse massive sandstones to one where almost nothing but soft-bhie shales are visible. "Before leaving the Lower Cretaceous sandstones, some interesting local peculiari- ties were noticed in that group. The lignite, which in greater or less quantity they always contain, about and above the mouth of the Mancos becomes a very conspicu- ous feature in their structure. Of one cliff which we passed, not more than 100 feet in height, full one-half was composed of carbonaceous matter. The dip, as before, is gently eastward, and at Camp 39 the Lower Cretaceous sandstones had entire!}' disap- peared beneath the overlying rocks. "Here the cliffs near the river are composed of the dark shales of the Middle Cre- H I m m o r m o o z o 0) o c H I I ^ m (f) H m 3) I s CO o o 3 O" S3 I 5' 2- S" TO JUNCTION OP GRAND AND GEEEN EIVERS. 107 taceous series, quite rich in fossils. Perhaps a hundred feet above the sandstones is a band of brown, shelly, sandy limestone, which forms a projecting ledge in the face of the cliffs, giving cornices and capitals to the castles and palaces into which they have been worn. This ferruginous stratum marks a distinct horizon, and may be traced over an immense area in New Mexico. It is the same that I have before referred to in my notes on the banks of the Dolores, Camp 21, the Pagosa, the ford of the Chama, Galisteo, and the banks of the Canadian. This stratum is characterized by the following fossils: Inoceramus problematicus, Ostrca luyubris, Scaphites larvlformis, Ptychodus Whip- plci, &c. Several undescribed species of Inoceramus, Ostrea, Ammonites, &c., are also found in it; one of the Inocerami, abundant at Camp 39, being 2-3 feet in diameter. The place of Gryphaa Pitcheri is just beneath this stratum; while the overlying shales are filled with fragments of a large Inoceramus, covered with the closely-set shells of Ostrea congcsta. "A few miles north of Camp 39 is the southwestern corner of the Mesa Verde, which stretches from this point northward to our former trail, and, eastward, forms the north bank of the San Juan as far as the eye can reach. It has an altitude of 2,000 feet above camp, and presents, with its many detached buttes and pinnacles, its long and lofty walls, a most grand and imposing object. On the south side of the river, now quite near to us, stand out in strong relief the picturesque basaltic pinnacles of ' The Needles,' while further south the view is bounded by the high ridges of the Carisso and Tunecha Mountains." From Camp 40 we obtained a nearer and still better view of "The Needles," which is represented in the accompanying lithograph plate. This is a mass of erupted rock, rising with perpendicular sides from the middle of the valley. From all points, where seen by us, it has the appearance of an immense cathedral, of rich umber-brown color, terminating in two spires. Its altitude is about 1,700 feet above its base; above the river 2,262 feet. It is everywhere surrounded by stratified rocks, and its isolated position and peculiar form render its origin a matter of some little doubt. My conviction, however, is very decided that its remarkable relief is due to the washing away of the sediments which once surrounded it, and which formed the mold in which it was cast. In no other way can I imagine its vertical faces of 1,000 feet to have been formed. For ten miles after leaving Camp 40 we were traveling along the trough of the river excavated in the Middle Cretaceous shales; the Upper Cretaceous sandstones cap- ping the bluffs on either side. We here reached what seemed to be, in the distance, a mesa wall crossing the river. This proved, however, to be a mass of dislocated and ruptured strata, forming a huge broken wall, similar to that described in the Geology of the Colorado Expedition, page 95, called by the Mexicans the Creston. This wall marks a great line of fracture which traverses the country in a zigzag course from the Sierra de la Plata southward toward the Tunecha Mountains. It crosses the river nearly at right angles, with a trend N. 20 W. magnetic, forming a wall several hun- dred feet high, cut by the river in a narrow passage, through which we worked ourway with extreme difficulty. The Creston evidently once formed a dam across the valley of the San Juan, over 108 EXPLOEING EXPEDITION FEOM SANTA FE which its waters poured in a cascade. This is shown by the gravel terrace which, east of it, rises to the height of 300 feet above the present bed of the stream. The strata composing it are set at an angle of about 35, and are the equivalents of those which form the greater part of the Mesa Verde. As affording a more complete section of the Upper Cretaceous rocks in this region than any I had before observed, I ex- amined them with some care, and found them to consist of the following elements : Section of rocks composing the Creston. Foot. 1. Yellowish-brown calcareous sandstone, generally thick-bedded 2GO 2. Yellowish-brown sandy shale, with thin bands of sandstone and beds of lig- nite 150 3. Yellowish sandy limestone, with strata of hard blue limestone ... 70 4. Dove-colored and purplish shales, with beds of impure lignite 1 75 5. Gray and purple shales, with bands of sandy limestone, and lines of concre- tions of umber-colored and purple iron-stones 200 6. Brown calcareous sandstones 20 7. Gray and purplish shales, with bands of ferruginous sandy limestone 170 8. Yellowish-brown sandstones, whitish above 150 9. Gray and blue shales, continuous with those of Camps 39 and 40. In this section, No. 1 is geologically the highest, and forms the most elevated por- tion of the Creston. The shales of No. 9 immediately overlie the ferruginous limestone of Camp 39, which contains so many Inocerami, fish-teeth, &c. The interval between these two groups represents the middle and upper portions of the great group of shales which form the middle division of the Cretaceous system, so often referred to in the preceding pages. As in the sections observed on the northern route, the bands of sandstone and fer- ruginous sandy limestone are shown to be only local phenomena; since they sometimes expand and assume great local importance, and again disappear and give place to a nearly homogeneous mass of calcareous shales, 1,300 to 1,500 in thickness. Among the strata forming the Creston are several beds of lignite, of which one, six feet thick, visible for many miles along the river, is unusually compact and pure ; in its general appearance precisely resembling some of the coal strata of the Carbon- iferous series. No fossils wore discovered in any of the rocks here exposed above the Inoccramus limestone, but probably impressions of plants would be obtained from the shales over the lignite beds, if time were given to search for them. From the Creston to the mouth of Canon Largo the banks of the San Juan are composed throughout of the strata which have just been enumerated, lying in unbroken sheets, with a gentle easterly dip. In these strata the valleys of the San Juan, La Plata, and Animas have been deeply cut, and are bounded by abrupt, frequently per- pendicular walls, the edges of table-lands, many hundred feet in height. The bottom- lands of these valleys, though narrow, are fertile; sustaining a vigorous growth of grass, TO JUNCTION OF GRAND AND GREEN RIVERS, 109 and along the margin of the streams groves of cottonwood, and thickets of willow and buffalo-berry (Elcaijnus argenteus?}. Though now entirely deserted, these valleys were once occupied by a dense pop- ulation, as is shown by the extensive ruins with which they are thickly set. Those on the Animus, twenty miles above its mouth, have already been noticed. At the junction of this stream with the San Juan the remains of a large, but very ancient, town are visible, the foundations of many buildings of considerable size still remaining, and traces of an acequia through which water was brought from a point some miles above on the Animas. Near Camp 43 also are the ruins of several large structures, of which portions of the walls of stone are still standing, twenty or more feet in height. Indeed, it may be said that from the time we struck the San Juan we were never out of sight of ruins, while we were following up its valley. CANON LARGO. At Camp 44 we left the valley of the San Juan and entered the mouth of Canon Largo, which we followed up in an easterly direction until, at its head, near the western base of the Nacimiento Mountain, we came out on to the surface of the great plateau of the Upper San Juan, through which we had been so long passing, sunk far below its surface in the excavated valleys which intersect it. Of these valleys Canon Largo may be taken as a type. It differs in nothing from that of the San Juan or Animas, except that, instead of a large perennial stream, a small, generally dry, arroyo traverses its bottom, and its boiinding cliffs, composed of the upper strata of the table-lands, exhibit geological features not met with in other portions of our route. By the easterly dip of the rocks and the rapidity of the fall of the stream, we were constantly ascending in the series from the Creston to the head of Canon Largo. At the moiith of the Animas we had nearly sunk the whole of the Middle Cretaceous group, its upper members (gray shales and marls) forming the base of the high cliffs, composed mainly of the Upper Cretaceous sandstones, here very massive, and showing- a thick- ness of 600 to 700 feet. At the mouth of Canon Largo we had risen still higher in the series, the Middle Cretaceous shales having entirely disappeared; the lofty cliffs which bound the valley at this point being formed entirely of the Upper Cretaceous rocks, alternations of soft yellow sandstones and white, gray, or purple marls. The lowest member of this series here is the same with that which forms the summit of the Creston section, and more fully exposed at the mouth of the Animas, where it presents perpen- dicular faces of 300 to 400 feet of massive, homogeneous, soft, yellow, calcareous sand- stone. A few miles farther north, on the La Plata, this rock contains at its base Am- inonitcs placenta, Baculites ovatus, &c., Avhich serve to mark very satisfactorily its place in the geological scale, viz: Upper Cretaceous, No. IV or V, of Meek and Hayden's Nebraska section. This is surmounted by some ten alternations of marls and sand- stones in the cliffs bordering Canon Largo, the series being entirely conformable and similar in lithological character throughout. At the head of Canon Largo, as we shall see further on, these strata are succeeded by others, several hundred feet in thickness, also conformable, but, lithologically, showing a preponderance of marls over the sand- 110 EXPLORING EXPEDITION FKOM SANTA Ffi stones. Whether all this great group belongs, like its base, to the Cretaceous system, we have at present no means of determining ; the only fossils found being such as do not suffice to solve the problem. These are, so far as observed, silicified trunks of large coniferous trees, and abundant, though rather obscure, impressions of angiospermous leaves of .species different from any found elsewhere in the Tertiary or Cretaceous strata. The character of the marls of this series is very well given in my notes upon the lowest bed exposed at Camp 43, a few miles below the mouth of Canon Largo. These notes are as follows: "The hills which bound the valley opposite camp are about 250 feet high, com- posed of greenish-gray and yellowish- white marls, generally very soft, but occasionally containing lenticular masses of coarse sandstone and conglomerate. Dispersed through the marls are many spherical concretions of ferruginous sandstone which decompose on exposure; plates of selenite, in places covering the slopes, and masses of water- worn, silicified, carbonized, calcified, or gypsumized wood. All the beds contain much saline matter (mostly sulphates) which effloresces on the exposed surfaces. The pre- vailing color of these marls is whitish, and in their general aspect the hills which they form closely resemble the chalk-hills of Southern England." At Camp 44, 1 made the following entry in my journal : "To-day we reached the mouth of the Canon Largo, and the crossing of the San Juan. The valley is here, as below, moderately fertile, bounded by rounded hills of chalky strata, with terraces of gravel near the river ; all covered with good grass. The soil of the bottom-lands is alkaline, often covered with salt-bush (Sarcobatus), but sus- taining extensive groves of cotton wood and thickets of buffalo-berry ; the latter loaded with fruit. In geology little change is noticeable; the dip of the rocks continues east- erly, and we have the chalky marls mentioned in yesterday's notes, succeeded by a stratum some 50 feet in thickness of yellowish, soft, oolitic, coarse-grained, calcareous sandstone, so friable as to be scarcely transportable, but very massive, and standing in perpendicular faces in the cliffs. In this stratum is a band of gray clay-shale, in which I find abundant impressions of leaves, but have been unable to obtain any specimens sufficiently perfect for determination. "Above this sandstone is a bed of greenish- white and purple marl, weathering like the marls of the Trias, and closely resembling them in all things. Above the marl is another bed of sandstone similar to that below ; then another bed of marl, &c." At Camp 45, my journal says: "Canon Largo is bounded by high and precipitous walls on either side, composed of soft yellow sandstones, and white and variegated marls. The cliffs are not absolutely perpendicular, but ascend in grades; the sand- stone forming vertical faces, the marl, slopes." "The alternations in this series present very little variety; the sandstones, some ten in number, being very like each other ; the marls, of about equal force, showing no marked differences. They often form rounded but furrowed hills, of which the surfaces are whitened by a saline efflorescence or are covered with fragments of ferru- ginous concretions and fossil wood. This silicified wood is very abundant and seems to be all coniferous." TO JUNCTION OP GRAND AND GREEN RIVERS. Ill " Since leaving the surface of the great sandstone-bed, the base of the Upper Cre- taceous series, so fully exposed at the mouth of the Animas, we have passed up through three 'strata of soft calcareous sandstone with an equal number of marl-beds; the average thickness of the sandstone being about 50 feet, of the marl, 75." At Camp 46 I ascended the cliff on the south side of the canon and found it to be 674 feet in height. The section of the strata composing it is as follows : Feet. 1. Coarse soft yellow sandstone, partially conglomerate 55 2. Greenish- white marl, with silicified wood 50 3. Soft yellowish sandstone, partly conglomerate, with small quartz pebbles con- taining obscure impressions of plants 120 4. Greenish argillo-silicious rock, breaking into irregular masses above, shaly below, shading into purple marl 50 5. Soft, white, massive, calcareous sandstone, in places traversed by veins of gyp- sum 20 6. Gray or greenish-white marl, with bands of hard bluish-gray limestone, con- taining fucoids and silicified wood 80 7. Yellowish soft sandstone 50 8. Greenish-white and purple marl, with selenite, bands of concretionary limestone and large trunks of silicified wood 80 9. Soft yellowish, coarse sandstone 60 10. Greenish and purple marls, with concretionary limestone 109 From the summit of this cliff I was able to overlook most of the country border- ing Canon Largo, and could see that it was occupied by broad mesas extending east to the Nacimiento Mountain, and north to the bases of the Sierra de la Plata, Sierra San Juan, Navajo, &c., all of which were in full view. South and west higher por- tions of the plateau limited my vision. On this plain I noticed islands of higher strata than those on which I stood. These are 300 or 400 feet in thickness, and of the same general character as the walls of Cailon Largo. Adding these to the strata exposed in CafiOH Largo, and those noticed in the San Juan above the mouth of the Animas, and we have an aggregate thickness of about 1,500 feet for this upper series alone. In my notes made at Camp 47, 'I find the following memoranda: "In the expos- ures I have now examined of the Upper Cretaceous (?) strata, I have enumerated eleven beds of sandstone, with an equal number of marl-beds. The aggregate force of these two groiips is nearly the same, though each stratum is liable to great local variation ; the section at one point being considerably different from that at others. The sand- stones are quite variable in thickness, both as regards the same stratum at different places, and comparing the different beds with each other. The summit of the cliffs along Canon Largo is formed of a group of sandstones of unusual thickness, in places full 200 feet, with only thin partings of marl. This stratum has protected the beds below and produced the abruptness of the walls. It forms the floor of the adjacent Sage-plain, from which the upper layers, being softer, have been removed by erosion." At Camp 48 I write : " To-day left Canon Largo and came out on the plateau 112 EXPLOKING EXPEDITION FIIOM SANTA FE before mentioned. A sage-plain with rolling surface, fashioned by erosion, on which rise the extreme Upper Cretaceous (?) strata in buttes and detached mesas." One of these buttes at Camp 48 afforded me the following section : Feet. 1. Soft yellow sandstone - 60 2. Greenish-white marl 70 3. Soft yellow sandstone with large concretions, weathering brown 50 4. Marl, greenish- white above, purple below 75 5. Soft white sandstone with hard concretions 20 6. Marls, greenish-white above, purple below, with concretions of silicious lime- stone 50 7. Coarse, soft, whitish sandstone 30 8. Greenish-white and purple marls 90 This series should be added to that of the cliff at Camp 46. Just before reaching the base of the Nacimiento Mountain, we crossed the divide between the Pacific and Atlantic, and reached the highest point, geologically, attained on any part of our route. The immediate base of the mountain is swept by a line of drainage which flows south along its western side, around its southern extremity passes into the Puerco, and thence into the Rio Grande. The line of divide diverges from the north end of the Nacimiento Mountain, running southwesterly to San Mateo and the Sierra Madre. For at least a hundred miles it stretches across the table-lands unmarked by any disruption of the strata or line of upheaval. The crest of the water-shed is here formed of series of biittes and mesas com- posed of soft, marly strata : the extreme summit of the great group, which, on nega- tive rather than positive evidence, I have designated as Upper Cretaceous. BUTTES WEST OP THE NACIMIENTO MOUNTAIN (EOCENE TEETIAKY (?). These buttes include about 400 feet of strata not included in the sections before given. They are as follows : Feet. 1. Soft yellow sandstone 40 2. Purple, yellow, and greenish soft marls 60 3. Soft yellow sandstone 35 4. Green, purple, yellow, and white marls, with thin layers of white sandstone. . 70 5. White sandstone - - 25 6. Green and purple marls 80 7. Coarse, white sandstone 20 8. White and purple marls 50 9. Soft yellow sandstone, summit of cliff in section at Camp 48. These strata are all conformable among themselves and to those below ; lying nearly or quite horizontal. The marls of this series are darker than those of the preceding sections, having a purplish-green appearance at a distance. The sandstones are very soft, and being thinner than the marls they form but a slight interruption to the uni- formity of the slope of the sides of the buttes, and are scarcely noticeable, except CD > N O z 0> O o 3 or M 3 S TO JUNCTION OF GRAND AND GREEN RIVERS. 113 when quite near. No fossils were found in any part of this section, and the abun- dance of selenite and the profuse efflorescence of the sulphates of alumina, magnesia, &c., seem to indicate the prevalence of conditions unfavorable to life during the depo- sition of these strata, as well as in the similar non-fossilliferous marls of the Trias. Combining the sections observed at various points between the mouth of the Animas and the Nacimiento Mountain, we have, for the aggregate thickness of the conforma- ble and generally similar strata resting upon the Middle Cretaceous shales, 2,000 feet, made up as follows : Feet. 1. Marls and sandstone forming buttes of divide 380 2. Marls and sandstone section at Camp 48 445 3. Marls and sandstone section at Camp 46 674 4. Marls and sandstone in valley of San Juan '500 Total... 1,990 It may be suspected, from the many alternations of similar strata in the preceding sections, that there has been in some cases a repetition, but that is quite certainly not the case. Although no fossils were found which might serve as criteria for the iden- tification of strata, the geological exposures are so full that all the more important beds may be traced without break or interruption, and the order of superposition accurately determined by simple inspection of the interlocking of the different sections. In meas- uring altitudes the barometer was constantly used, and the heights of inaccessible points frequently obtained by triangulation. By these means, and the use of Locke's level where necessary, all the generalities of the thickness of strata were determined with a good degree of accuracy. As regards the question of the precise geological age of this great group of sand- stones and marls, as I have stated in the earlier part of this chapter, we have not, as yet, the means of arriving at a perfectly satisfactory conclusion. The lower part of the series is, we know, Cretaceous; as it contains characteristic fossils of No. IV of Meek and Hayden's Nebraska section. The most natural inference, therefore, is, that a portion at least of the overlying beds represent the upper part of No, IV and No. V of the Nebraska section. Since there are no fossils in the upper beds, and since they are apparently conformable to the lower, and generally similar to them in lithological characters, we have evidence that they were deposited while the physical conditions of this portion of the continent remained essentially the same. In one sense, therefore, they do all belong to one great geological epoch, and, without evidence to the con- trary, should be classed together. This argument, however, has little force, for, as we have seen, all the sedimentary strata of the Colorado plateau are conformable, and there is unusual similarity of lithological character among those which we know, by their fossils, belong to different formations. That none of these strata are Miocene may be safely affirmed, as previous to that epoch great and radical changes were effected in the physical geography of our continent, and the uniformity which had characterized the deposition of the sediments forming the great central plateau was entirely broken up; the sea retreating from the 15 s F 114 EXPLORING EXPEDITION FROM SANTA FK central portion of the continent, throwing down its sediments only along the shores and up the valley of the Mississippi; the inland Miocene-Tertiary having been deposited in bodies of fresh water. It is possible, however, that some portion of this series is of Eocene age, though of this we have as yet no proof. It is true that, in Texas, the Eocene beds, distinctly marked by their fossils, are lithologically similar to some of those under consideration, and they are there entirely conformable to the Cretaceous strata, of which they seem but a continuation; the two formations blending and not separable by any sharp lines of demarcation. NACIMIENTO MOUNTAIN. Though not a lofty or extensive moiintain range, this is perhaps the most instruct- ive and interesting of all those which I had an opportunity of examining in the western country. Its extreme altitude is about 1Q,000 feet; its length something like 50 miles. Throughout this distance it forms a single simple ridge of nearly uniform height, with no peaks nor depressions. At either end it gradually falls off, and is lost in the level of the plateau country which nearly surrounds it. Although its physical features are so unpretending, its geological structure is in the highest degree interesting and sug- gestive; such indeed that it seems to me it not only furnishes a key to the mode of formation of all the great ranges of the Rocky Mountain system to which it belongs, but that, if properly studied, it would serve to explain nearly all the difficulties of that now much-mooted subject, the origin of mountain chains. What its structure is may be very briefly told. The central core or axis of the Nacimiento Mountain is composed of massive red granite, similar to that so common in the other ranges of the Rocky Mountain system. This forms its summit and the greater part of its mass. l r pon the slope of the granite axis rests the Carboniferous formation, for the most part limestone, in many places nearly vertical, yet but slightly metamorphosed. Outside of the Carboniferous are the white and red sandstones, marls, and gypsums of the Trias; many of these beds also standing quite vertical, but wholly unchanged. Outside of the Trias the Lower Cre- taceous rocks form another distinct circle; beyond these, the Middle Cretaceous shales ; still beyond, the great group of Upper Cretaceous sandstones and marls, which I have just described. When we stood on the summit of the mountain all these different formations were spread out before us as on a geological map, each distinguishable by its color or texture, and as readily recognized as though traced on a diagram for a lecture-room. The impression produced upon my mind by our first ascent of the Sierra do N;ici- miento may be gathered from the following extracts from my notes: "After arriving in camp (50) I went over with Mr. Fisher to the Nacimiento Mountain, which we ascended. Our approach was tip a beautiful but narrow valley, through which a clear, cold stream flows for some distance, then sinks and rises at intervals, forming a series of fine springs. The vegetation of this valley is almost identical with that of the valleys of our northern route; the elevation being nearly the sniiie 7,500 feet. The timber is yellow pine, pifion, cedar, (two species,) bitter and sweet cotton-wood, GambelPs oak, and the narrow-leaved willow.* On the summit of /'. uliilin, fitiiijiurus Iclragona, J. cinjiniuna, 1'opulun amjunlifuUu, 1'. moidlifi r, < t >in-n-na l.lainlirtli, tialix angustifolia. TO JUNCTION OF GllAND AND GREEN KIVER& 1 1 f> the mountain, Douglas' spruce, yellow pine, the western balsam-fir, with thickets of aspen, oak, maple, and red-flowered locust.* As we progressed we passed in succes- sion over the upturned edges of all the sedimentary rocks seen on our route. 1. The Upper Cretaceous sandstones and marls, but slightly inclined, and not reaching within two or three miles of the mountain. 2. The Middle Cretaceous shales, forming a broad belt of clay-soil, from which project here and there ledges of the harder strata, filled with the fossils characteristic of this formation Inoceramus proUematicus, Gryplum Pitcher/, Ostrca congesta, &c. 3. The Lower Cretaceous sandstones, from their hard and massive character, hav- ing resisted erosion, are now. forming hills and cliffs of considerable height. 4. The Triassic formation; its soft red marls, forming bare surfaces of blood-red color, its sandstones standing out in strong ^relief, forming walls and palisades, often nearly vertical, sometimes 40 or 50 feet in height, and only 5 or 6 feet in thickness. 5. The Carboniferous series, mostly massive gray or whitish limestone, reaching far up on the mountain sides, scarcely at all metamorphosed, arid filled with fossils. 6. A central core or axis of red granite forming the great mass of the range. Our view from the summit was particularly fine. Immediately below us the dif- ferent formations which I have enumerated were distinctly visible, running in parallel bands along the mountain side. Some five miles north of our position the range falls off and disappears in the plain, but the line of upheaval is distinctly marked by an arching of the unbroken sedimentary rocks. The upper part of the arch is removed, and the surface-rock is a pure white sandstone, probably Triassic, beneath which the "red beds" appear, forming on the east side of the mountain a beautiful rose-red valley. On the north we had a complete panorama of the mountains passed on our outward route, a view sweeping from the Santa Fe" and Taos Mountains to the Sierra de la Plata. Toward the west stretched a vast plain, deeply scored by many lines of erosion, of which Canon Largo may be taken as a type. This plateau the San Juan division of the Teat Colorado Plateau filled all the horizon, from the Sierra la Plata around to CJ ' San Mateo, the distant summits of the Carrizo and Chusca being just perceptible above its surface. Tins great Cretaceous plain sweeps up with nearly horizontal strata to the base of the Nacimiento ; the series being most complete, the strata still horizontal, six miles west of the mountain. At this point all the formations begin to rise toward the cast; their angles of elevation becoming greater as they approach the granitic axis, where they are frequently quite vertical. The Nacimiento axis is here and farther north the great divide between the waters of the Pacific and Atlantic, though, as before stated, the drainage of most of its western slope passes around the south end into the Puerco; the crest of the water-shed being formed by a line of high table-lands, which passes southwesterly between the head-waters of the Chaco and the Puerco toward Mount Taylor (San Mateo). The line of upheaval which forms the divide at Camp- bell's Pass, is widely different from the Nacimiento axis, being indeed no other than that of the Sierra Madre, which is entirely lost northward, as we saw no indication of it on the San Juan. After leaving Camp 50, we made several days' marches southward, skirting the * Popiilus tivmuJo'ules, (Jticrcus Ganibelli, Acer. s\>. liobinia A r eo Mcxicana. lift KXPLORING EXPEDITION FROM SANTA FE western base of the Nacimiento Mountain, until, reaching ;i practicable pass near its southern extremity, we crossed over to the peublo of Jemez. The country traversed in this part of our route we found to be much like the foot-hill region bordering the northern mountains, very picturesque, well watered, covered with fine timber, the valleys rich and productive, but from their great, elevation early touched with frost* and doubtless very cold in midwinter. Here, as almost everywhere else on our route, we found numerous ruins of stone-built structures, evidence of the presence in ancient time of a large population, where now neither Indian nor white man dwells. In geology our experience was for the most part but a repetition of that already described, as we were passing in review all the strata before so fully examined in the valley of the San Juan. The exposures were here, however, exceedingly full and satisfactory, and 1 had constantly recurring opportunities of testing the accuracy of the classification pre- viously adopted. That the evidence- furnished by our observations in this interesting region may be consulted in the solution of any question that may be raised in regard to the geological structure of this portion of New Mexico, I transcribe from my note-book some of the records made from da}' to day as we progressed on our journey. "September 21, Camp 50 to 51. To-day we followed south along the western base of the Nacimiento Mountain, over a rolling surface, crossing many wooded hills and pretty valleys formed by the erosion of the Cretaceous strata. This formation, as we can see, occupies all the country southeast from us as far as Mount Taylor ; there, as I learned on a former expedition, it is cut through by the valley of the San Jose", but beyond that extends, we know not, how far, southward. At Camp 51 we have precisely the same section as that described at Camp 50 ; all the formations, from the Carbon- iferous to the Upper Cretaceous, lying in sheets, with edges upturned, along the base of the mountain. There is, however, here a distinct valley worn out between the Cretaceous table-land and the mountain. Near our camp are buttes and mesas several hundred feet in height, composed of the yellow sandstones of Canon Largo, of which the summits are thickly strewn with bowlders of red granite and limestone, evidently washed down from the neighboring mountain before -the intervening valley had been cut out by the stream which now flows through it. The amount of erosion indicated by the presence of this local drift where it is now found is enormous. I previously noticed the same phenomena in many localities among the foot-hills of the northern mountains. We find here everywhere in the sandstones great numbers of silicified trees, many of them of very large size, apparently all coniferous. Fragments of these trunks are strewed so abundantly over the surface that they have been used very generally as building-stones in the construction of the ancient pueblos. "In seams and pockets of fine clay in the sandstones I find abundant impressions of angiospermous leaves, apparently of those of sycamore, alder, oak, &c., but the material inclosing them is so friable that they cannot be taken out entire, nor can the fragments be transported for determination. Among these impressions are some conif- erous leaves and stems of a conifer or cycad, very much like the Ulodoulrnn of the Coal- Measures ; a scaly trunk with elliptical disks three inches in diameter. I also obtained fragments of fern leaves, but too imperfect for determination. tO JUNCTION OP GRAND AND GREEN RIVERS. 117 "September 22. To-day we ascended the mountain in search of a pass, and found the base and flanks covered by the upturned sedimentary series, just as at Camp 50; the Trias here, as at Laguna, 50 miles south, containing immense masses of snowy gypsum, a thing rarely seen on the San Juan or Grand River." In the coarse yellow sandstones and conglomerates overlying the red beds of the Trias I find large quantities of the sulphide of copper, replacing trunks and branches of trees, just as at the "Cobre," near Abiquiu. The summit of the mountain where we ascended is over 9,000 feet above the sea; it is covered with forests of yellow and sugar pine, Douglass spruce, and the western balsam-fir,* interspersed with areas occupied by oak, maple, and aspen bushes, with here 'and there poison-oak f and red-flowered locust. ''September 23, Camp 51-52. Failing to find a pass across the mountain, we to- day resumed our course southward, camping as before on a tributary of the Puerco. The country is generally similar to that seen yesterday, but, as we descend, the forests of yellow pine are gradually succeeded by scattered clumps of pifion, and red and white cedar on the hills, the valleys grassy as before. We have also descended some- what in the geological scale, our present camp being surrounded by mesas of the great sandstone of the Animas the base of the Upper Cretaceous group with an exposure of several hundred feet of the underlying strata given in the section of the Creston, viz, gray shales, with bands of concretionary iron-ore, strata of yellow or brown sandstone and beds of lignite, all Middle Cretaceous; in the shale beds is much crystallized gypsum. "September 24, Camp 52 to 53. To-day our course has been southeasterly, ap- proaching the southern end of the Nacimiento, through a region much like that of yesterday, except that, as we have now penetrated deeply into the Middle Cretaceous shales, the surface is less broken, the hills being rounded, with long, gentle slopes; the timber has become more sparse, the country less picturesque and inviting. We have here a fine view of all the interval between the Nacimiento and San Mateo. This was apparently once occupied by an unbroken sheet of Cretaceous rocks, now for the most part removed through the agency of the tributaries of the Puerco. In the west and northwest, high mesas fill the horizon, forming the line of divide to which I have be- fore referred. Around the base of Mount Taylor, extending many miles in every di- rection, is a plateau of trap, which has apparently flowed from this great extinct vol- cano, covering all the sedimentary rocks in its vicinity. In the open valley of the Puerco stand many picturesque trap buttes, having a general resemblance to the Needles of the San Juan. Of these the most conspicuous, called by the Mexicans the Cabazon, resembles in its outline a Spanish sombrero, but is of gigantic dimensions, being at least 1,500 feet in height. "South from the Cabazon is a high level mesa, composed of Cretaceous rock, which forms the divide between the Puerco and the San Jose. This I have seen from the other side on a former expedition. ,_ "September 25, Camp 53-54. To-day we crossed over the south end of the Naci- miento Mountain to the pueblo of Jemez. The first part of our route was over the " I'itms ponderos, P. Lambertiana, Abies Douglasi, and Abies graiulix. \Rhiis diversiloba and Ilobinia Xco Mexictina. 118 EXPLORING EXPEDITION FROM SANTA FE, ETC. upturned edges of the Cretaceous and Triassic rocks; the angle of inclination beeom- ing greater as \ve approached the mountain. ( hir march afforded us many wild and picturesque views, made so both by the ragged outlines of the hills and the bright colors of the materials composing them ; some consisting of blood-red sandstone; others of snow-white gypsum; others still of the two intermingled. "After winding through a labyrinth of such hills, we reached the Carboniferous strata, resting directly on the granite. The rocks of this formation are here more cal- careous than at Santa Fe, and abound in fossils, among which I saw most of those enumerated in the Santa Ft$ section, and, in addition to these, collected a coral and a crinoid, which are apparently new. On descending the eastern slope of the mountain, we found the sedimentary rocks succeeding each other precisely as before. Near the pueblo of Jemez, however, the Cretaceoiis strata have been entirely removed, but they are visible a few miles farther north. As on the western side, copper occurs here near the junction of the Trias with the Cretaceous. In the valley of Jemex River are a number of buttes of white tnfaceous rock, representing a geological element of which we had seen no traces in all our explorations of the San Juan coun- try. These buttes are undoubtedly Tertiary, and, as I have stated in my notes on the geology of the vicinity of Abiquiu, doubtless belong to the great series of fresh- water deposits of Miocene and Pliocene age which skirt the eastern bases of the Rocky Mountains. Here, as elsewhere, they are of local origin and limited extent ; having been deposited in and partially filling an old eroded valley running north and south along the eastern base of Nacimiento Mountain. By the action of Jemex River this valley has again been washed out, leaving only here and there a mass of Tertiary rock standing isolated or adhering unconformably to the sides of the trough composed of the older strata. "September 26, Jemez to Santo Domingo. In tin's part of our route we were almost constantly upon the trap mesas which skirt the southern end of the Valles, and extend on the east side of the Rio Grande to the Cerillos. This great overflow of trap, though deeply eroded by the Rio Grande, is geologically quite modern, present- ing the same appearance, in all respects, as the trap plateaus which surround the San Francisco Mountain, Mount Taylor, the Raton, &c.; all of which I have before described." The Valles. No one has yet penetrated the Valles to study their geological structure, but there can be little doubt of its general character. This mountain group is composed of a number of parallel ranges, of but limited extent, having the general trend of all the chains of the Rocky Mountain system of this vicinity, separated by several well-marked, picturesque, and fertile valleys, from which, rather paradoxically, the mountains take their name. While we know that the sedimentary rocks are visible in many places in the Yalles, and that the principal axes are granitic, still the presence of immense sheets and masses of trap give an aspect to the scenery and a character to the geology somewhat different from those of most of the mountain regions visited on the present expedition. On the eastern side of the Valles, to and beyond the Rio Grande, nothing but trap is visible; and we here re-entered the region so fully described in a preceding chapter. EXPLORING EXPEDITION FROM SANTA Ffi TO JUNCTION OF GRAND AND GREEN RIVERS. DESCRIPTIONS CRETACEOUS FOSSILS COLLECTED ON THE SAN JUAN EXPLORING EXPEDITION UNDER CAPT. J. N. MACOMB, U. S. ENGINEERS. F. B. MEEK. A REPORT ON THE CRETACEOUS FOSSILS CONTAINED IN THE COLLECTIONS BROUGHT FROM NEW MEXICO BY THE EXPLOR- ING EXPEDITION UNDER THE COMMAND OF CAPT. J. N. MA- COMB, OF THE UNITED STATES TOPOGRAPHICAL ENGINEERS. HY V. I?. MKKK.* The following pages and the accompanying plates contain descriptions and illus- trations of eleven new species of Cretaceous fossils. Figures and descriptions have also been added of a few previously known forms, of special interest as guides in iden- tifying the several formations, and in determining their relations to established horizons in the same system elsewhere. By reference to the able report of Dr. Newberry, the geologist of the expedi- tion, it will be seen that he divides the Cretaceous rocks of New Mexico into three groups, as follows: 1. THE UPPER DIVISION, consisting of gray, white, and purple marls, alternating with soft, yellow, calcareous sandstone, altogether 1,500 feet in thickness. In this group, a portion of which he thinks may possibly prove to be of Tertiary age, he observed numerous silicitied trunks of trees, together with leaves of Alnus, Platanus, &.c. At the base of the whole, he found a thin bed containing Placenticer as placenta,^ Utirit/itrx iD/cfjts, rar., Aiiclntra, Inocerantus, &c. 2. THE MIDDLE DIVISION is composed of dove-colored and ferruginous limestones, shales, &c., altogether from 1,2 00 to 1,500 feet in thickness, and containing Prionocyclus, Mtiroiitlii, Sccijtli/tcs larnrformis, Inoccramus problematic us, Ostrca congcsta, &c. 3. THE LOWER DIVISION, consisting of yellow or brown sandstone and green shales, 250 to 400 feet in thickness, containing Ammonites, Exogyra, Plicatula, and leaves of Salix, PlatamiSj Qucrcns, (fee- After a careful examination of the specimens from these rocks, I fully concur with Dr. Newberry in the opinion that all of those of the Lower Division, with possibly * This report was prepared in 1860, and has remained unpublished until this time (November, 1875). I have at tliis latter date given it as careful a revision as numerous other engagements would permit ; and, in doing this, several changes of nomenclature were found to be necessary, in order to bring the whole up to the present more advanced state of palwontological science. Such changes as refer to other publications issued at any date after that first above incn- t iom-d, were of course made in the revision of the MS. at the latter date. F. 15. M. tThe name I'lacenticrras was first proposed by me in the Proceedings of the Philosophical Society of Philadelphia, 1.-VH ; and again used in Haydon's Second Annual Report of the United States Geological Survey of the Territories, 297, 1872 ; also in Upper Missouri rain-ontology, now in the press (November, 1875). Ammonihs placenta, Dekay, is the type of the gronp. 10 S F 122 EXPLORING EXPEDITION FROM SANTA Ffi the exception of n portion of its upper beds, represent the Dakota group (No. 1) of Upper Missouri Cretaceous series ; also that his Middle Division occupies the same horizon as the Fort Benton and Niobrara groups (Nos. 2 and 3) of the Upper Mis- souri section; while the lower bed at least, of his Upper Division, represents appar- ently a blending of the Fort Pierre group and Fox Hills beds, N'os. 4 and 5 of the same. The relations between the two sections will be more clearly understood by placing 1 the names of the several groups of each side l>y side ; thus: NEW MEXICAN CRETACEOUS SECTION. UPPER MISSOURI CRETACEOUS SECTION. 7 T -r- /i ^ Fox Hills Beds, No. f>. Upper Division (lowest bed at least) < -,, , ,,. , , XT . I Fort Pierre Group, No. 4. -.-. T 11 lv . . ( Niobrara Division, No. 3. Middle Division < v , 7 T . XT ( rort Union Group, No. 2. Lower Division Dakota Group, No. 1. The vegetable remains from the Lower Division of the New Mexican section (as well as those from the others) have been investigated by Dr. Newberry, in whose report the reader Avill find them fully described and illustrated. The molluscan remains from the Lower Division are, Exogyra colmiilcJhi, M.; J'/icatida arcnaria, M., Pinna (fragments), Gervilliat (fragments), (lri/]>li'a (undetermined fragments), and Prionotropis Woolgari* ( Ammonites percarinatiifi, II. & M.). The following is a list of the species described and identified from the Middle Division, each of those followed by the letter M. being new, and described by the writer from these collections, viz: Ostira congesta, Conrad, 0. lugubris, Conrad, 0. tu/i- formis, M., GrypJuea Pitcher i, Morton, Exogyra arictiua, Roemer, E. lamusculit, Roemer, E. columlclla, M., Anomia nitida, M., Caprothui h'n-oni'is, M., Inoceramus fragUis, Hall & Meek, I.prolli'mat/ci'i,-\ M., .Prioi/n/nt/t/.^ Woolgari, and Scapliites larwrformis, M. & II. Of these eighteen species, the following are common to the rocks of this horizon in New Mexico, Kansas and Nebraska, viz., Ox/rca coi/f/i'xta, Inoccramus )>roUcmuti- cus, I. fragiUs, I. latus f, Scaphites larv&formis, and Prionotropis Woolgari. None of them, however, are known to occur in New Jersey, or at other localities east of the Mississippi, in the United States; though Inoccrtinin* problematicue, I. Idtttx, and .Priotio- tropis Woolgari occur in Europe. From the lowest bed of the Upper Division, the collection contains specimens of Avicula Nebrascana, Evans & Shumard, Callista Dcivcyi, Meek & Hayden, Cur/Hntit belhtlum, M., Ancliura ? Neivbcrryi, M., Baculitt'* di/x, Lamarck ?, and Placcnticcras placenta, Dekay (sp.). Avicula Nebrascana, Callista Deivcyi, Ihicnlile* * ?, and J'l(U-t'>itilccnfa are common to this lowest bed of the Upper Division in New Mexico and the corre- sponding horizon on the Upper Missouri; and I'/itm/tim-a* plnci'iilu also occurs in the same position in New Jersey and Alabama, while Baculitcs s<'?.",) in thr press; the American form there referred to JYionofropi* Woolgari, Mantel], being the type. tThis generic name was proposed by mo in Ilayden's Report of the Geological Survey of the Territories in 1872- 296 (foot-note), and the genus is more fully described in the Paheoutology of the Upper Missouri, now in the press. TO JUNCTION OF GRAND AND GREEN RIVERS. 123 Jersey and in the Upper Chalk of Europe ; as well as on the North Platte, in the Fox Hills Group of the Upper Missouri Cretaceous section. Although it has been found convenient, throughout considerable areas on the Upper Missouri, to subdivide the equivalents of the Middle and Upper Divisions of the New Mexican section each into two groups, this is not everywhere the case, and Dr. Newberry did not find any well-marked physical breaks in either of these divisions in New Mexico. It is worthy of note that, as on the Upper Missouri, the strongest paleeontological break is just where Dr. Newberry draws the line between his Middle and Upper Divisions. Up to this time, not a single species is known to cross this line, either on the Upper Missouri, in Kansas, Nebraska, Texas, or in New Mexico. A careful study of extensive collections of these fossils, brought by Dr. Ilayden from these rocks on the Upper Missouri, has satisfied me that the beds above this horizon represent the Upper or White Chalk of Europe ( "Etage Senonien," d'Orbigny); while those below (from which we have yet obtained fossils) represent the Lower or Gray Chalk, and probably the Upper Greensand of Europe (= the Turonien and Cenomanien, d'Orbigny).* The evidence, so far as it goes, to be derived from the New Mexican collections under consideration, warrants the same con- clusion in regard to the rocks from which they were obtained. LAMELLIBRANCHIATA. Genus OSTREA, Linn. OSTREA LUGUBRIS, Conrad. Plato I, figs. 1 a, b, c, d. (Mrt'ti liiijubiiK, Conrad (1^57), U. S. anil Hex. Bound. Report, vol. 1, p. 15(i, phito 10, tig. 5 a, b. Shell small, thin, oval, or subcircular. Lower valve attached by most of its under surface; while its lateral and ventral margins rise abruptly, usually for a short distance, above the base of attachment, becoming at the same time ornamented by small regular plications, which are sometimes rendered slightly rugose by marks of growth; beak small, obtusely angular, usually turned a little to the left, and attached by its whole under side; area short, triangular; muscular scar transversely ovate-reniform, and placed near the left or anterior side. Upper valve flat, or sometimes a little convex near the umbo, and slightly concave in the middle; marked by small regular plications, which rarely extend to the umbo, and are often confined to the free margins. Length of a large specimen, 0.95 inch; breadth of same, 0.65 inch; depth vary- ing from 0.12 to 0.28 inch. This seems to be a common and characteristic species in the lower portions of the M iddle Cretaceous of New Mexico. The specimens usually have a proportionally larger scar of attachment than that figured by Mr. Conrad. Where they are attached by the whole under side of the lower valve, the plicated margins rise little above the base of attachment; but where the scar of adhesion is small, the free plicated margins are more produced; though it seems never to be a very deep shell. It was not gregarious to the * Proceedings of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia, January, l.-'IU. 124 KXPLOKING EXPEDITION FROM SANTA FE same extent as 0. congest of Conrad; the specimens being usually found scattered about on the surfaces of calcareous and sandy slabs, to which, in most instances, they were evidently attached during the life of the animal. Locality and position. Banks of the Canadian, Vado del Chama, Galisteo, Pngosa, Middle Cretaceous of Dr. Newberry's section. OSTREA (GRYPHJSA!) UNIFOBMIS, Meek. Plato I, figs. 2 a, b, c. Shell small, rather thin, trigonal-ovate or subcircnlar inform, not oblique; under valve rather deep, subcarinate along the middle, and arched beneath from the beak to the opposite margin; beak curved upward, but truncated by the area so as to rise little above the margins; area small; margins on each side of the area sometimes faintly marked by fine crenulations along the groove for the reception of the edge of the upper valve; surface marked by about three or four rather regular plications on each side of the larger mesial fold or carina; lines of growth obscure; muscular scar transversely oval, moderately distinct; upper value unknown. Length from the beak to the opposite extremity, 1.16 inches; antero-posterior diameter, about 1 inch; convexity or depth of the under valve, 0.65 inch. This is a very peculiar shell, and cannot be confounded with any other species with which I am acquainted. Its large, prominent, mesial fold, extending from near the beak of the under valve to the opposite extremity, with three or four smaller plica- tions on each side, give it much the appearance of some of the plicated Brachiapoda when viewed on the under side. The folds, or plications, vary somewhat on different specimens; but usually they are remarkably uniform for a species of this genus, and impart to the free margin opposite the beak a zigzag character, very similar to the front of some species of Spirifcr. No specimens of the upper valve were obtained; but it will probably be found to have a large mesial sinus corresponding to the elevation of the other valve, and must possess a projection, curving down at the middle of the free margin opposite the beaks, to fill the deep notch in the margin of the other valve. Thinking this species might be identical with one or the other of two peculiar oysters described by Dr. Shumard, from the Ci'etaceous rocks of Texas, under the names 0. Icllaplicata and 0. quadriplicata, I sent him sketches of our shell, and he wrote that it is most nearly like his 0. bellaplicata, though, he thinks, clearly distinct. The 0. l)d- laplicata attains a much larger size, some of the specimens being as much as three inches in diameter, while its hinge-line is proportionally much longer, and its surface distinctly ornamented with concentric markings. Locality and position. Pagosa; Middle Cretaceous of the New Mexican section. Genus EXOGYRA, Say. EXOGYRA COLUMBELLA, Meek. Plato I, figs. 3 a, i, c, cl. Shell small, rather thin, ovate; posterior side forming a semi-oval curve from the umbo to the ventral edge; anterior side rounded below the beak; ventral margin TO JUNCTION OF GliAND AND GKEEN 1UVERS. 125 rounded. Lower valve convex, tlie most gibbous part sometimes forming an obtuse unibonal prominence, which is not separated from the front by a sulcus; beak slender, pointed, and distinctly coiled to the left; surface ornamented by small, but distinct, rather regular, radiating eost;y, which bifurcate along the umbonal ridge; marks of growth rather obscure. Upper valve flat, oval, apparently smooth or only having ob- scure lines of growth. Length from the most prominent part of the umbo to the ventral margin, 1 inch; transverse breadth, 0.72 inch; depth or convexity, about 0.42 inch. Itis possible that this shell may be identical withjE. ^mzfscwfa of Roomer (Kreid. von Texas, plate ix, fig. 3 a, &, e); but with the means of comparison now within my reach, I can but regard it as distinct. All the specimens of it that I have yet seen are more oval in form and have a less distinctly spiral beak than the form described by Roemer. They also differ in having the under valve always marked by regular radiating costas, while that of E. Icviuscula is generally quite smooth, or rarely presents traces of nearly obsolete, rather broad, plications, as represented by fig. 3 c of Roomer's plate ix (Kreid. von Texas). It seems likewise to be a thinner and less robust shell than Roomer's species, and holds a lower stratigraphies! position. In surface-markings as well as in general form, it closely resembles young specimens of E. colunila of Lamarck (. \niin. sans Vert., vi, 108) as figured by Goldfuss in his Petrefact. Germ, and by d'Orbigny in the Paleont. Francais. It never attains more than one-eighth the size of adult individuals of that species, however, and differs in having an oval instead of a circular upper valve. Locality and position. Covero, Lower Cretaceous; also at Sierra Abajo,from the base of Middle Cretaceous, and at Galisteo, from the same member of Dr. Newberry's section. Genus ANOMIA, Linn. ANOMIA NITIDA, Meek. I'latol, figs..4a,ft. Upper valve subcircular or a little oval transversely, very thin and brilliantly pearly, depressed-convex, the most prominent part being near the middle; lateral mar- gins nearly equally rounded, ventral border forming a semi-oval curve; cardinal mar- gin arched, or apparently presenting a similar outline to the ventral side ; beak small, much compressed, nearly or quite marginal, and located at the middle of the dorsal side; surface marked by fine, rather regular, obscure, concentric striae. (Under valve unknown.) Transverse diameter, 1.07 inches; diameter from the cardinal to the ventral mar- gin, 0.89 inch. It is possible that some of the species referred to the genus Anomia from the Cre- taceous and older rocks would be found to present fundamental differences from the typical forms of this group if we could see the under valve and the hinge and muscu- lar impressions. Some six or seven species are now known from the Cretaceous rocks of this country, of nearly all of which, I believe, only upper valves have been found. Locality and position. Pope's Well ; top of Middle Cretaceous. 126 EXPLORING EXPEDITION FROM SANTA FE Genus CAPROTINA, d'Orbigny. CAPROTINA (REQUIENIA?) BIOORNIS, Meek. Plate I, figs. 7 a, T>. Shell apparently nearly equi valve; valves produced in the form of two oblique spiral horns; beaks greatly elevated, distinctly spiral, and directed obliquely forward and outward, the turns of each being widely disconnected; aperture of the valves comparatively small, ovate-subtrigonal in form, being a little higher than wide, and nearly straight on the basal and anterior sides, which range at right angles to each other; umbonal ridges rather prominent, spiral, and curving doAvn to the antc- rio-basal margin. In front of these ridges, the valves are flat, and behind them convex. Surface ornamented by moderately distinct marks of growth. Height, 2.43 inches ; antcro-posterior diameter, 1.74 inches; transverse diameter between the extremities of the beaks, nearly 2.75 inches ; height of aperture of the valves, 1.38 inches; antero-posterior diameter of same, 1.22 inches. The only specimen of this curious fossil I have seen is imperfect, the beak of its right valve being partly broken away. As near as can be determined, its valves seem to have been neai'ly equal, which, together with the greatly-produced and spiral char- acter of its beaks, give it much the appearance of a Diccras. Still, as it shows no traces of an external ligament, while its shell-structure and surface-marking are like those of Caprotina, I do not feel warranted in placing it in the genus Diceras, though its generic relations must remain doubtful until specimens showing the hinge and interior can be seen. The substance of the shell is of moderate thickness, and composed of two layers, which readily separate. The inner layer seems to be compact, and presents a distinctly- striated surface, the striae being parallel to each other and ranging at right angles to the marks of growth. The outer layer appears to be more laminated, and breaks readily at right angles to the surface. Where portions of the shell have been removed, a distinct groove is seen extending from the posterior side of each valve spirally toward the beak. These grooves appear to have been left by a ridge or lamina on the inner side of each valve, and curve around the beak so as to be visible in an anterior view, as represented at a, fig. 7 ft, plate 1. In form and general appearance, this shell is evidently rather closely allied to AV- quienia Archiaciana, d'Orbigny (Pal. Fran^ais, Terr. Oct., iv, 363, plate 51)7). The grooves left upon the cast of its interior by the spiral ridge, or lamina, extending from the posterior side of each valve, are also exactly as in that species. It differs, how- ever, in having much less prominent and angular umbonal ridges, while its valves seem to be more nearly equal, and its beaks are more produced and more widely separated. Locality and position. Fort Lancaster, Texas; from the middle portion of Dr. Newberry's section. Genus PLICATULA, Lam. PLICATULA ARENARIA, Meek. Plate I, figs. 5 a, 1>, c. Shell small, broad-ovate, usually a little oblique ; ventral margin rounded ; sides converging to the beaks at an angle of about 70 to 80 ; beaks more or less TO JUNCTION OF GRAND AND GKEEN RIVERS. 127 angular. Under valve moderately convex. Upper valve nearly or quite flat. Sur- face of each valve ornamented by eighteen to twenty small, rather sharply-elevated, plications, only about half of Avhich extend to the beaks, while the intermediate ones usually extend from one-third to one-half way from the free margins ; concentric markings rather obscure. Length from beak to the most prominent part of ventral margin, 0.50 inch; trans- verse diameter, 0.43 inch; convexity, 0.11 inch. Resembles in size and form P. incongrua, Conrad (United States and Mexican Boundary Report, vol. 1, plate 6, fig. 10, 1857), but differs in not having squamose concentric markings as well as in having shorter plications intercalated between those that extend to the umbo. The substance of the shell must be thin, since the plications are rather distinctly marked on internal casts. I, nr. Shell small, thin, ovate, a little oblique, gibbous, the most convex part of the valves being somewhat above the middle; beaks elevated, rather slender, incurved, slightly oblique, and located a little in advance of the middle; hinge very short, anterior and antero-basal margins forming together a semi-oval or nearly semicircular curve ; pos-- tero-basal border prominent, and somewhat narrowly rounded; anal margin obliquely truncated above, so as to form with the slope in front of the beaks an angle of nearly * Since writing the above, I have again examined the type-species, and find that it agrees so nearly with Ci/i>riin<-i-i.i that, so far as they show, there would seem to bo no satisfactory reason for separating it. TO JUNCTION OP GRAND AND GREEN RIVERS. 129 90; surface ornamented by about thirty small, simple, radiating costa?, all of which appear to be continued to the beaks. Height, 0.27 inch; breadth, 0.23 inch; convexity, 0.22 inch. There may be fine concentric markings on well-preserved specimens of this species, though none are visible on that from which the above description is made out The radiating costge are small, regular, and about equal to the grooves between. They are moderately well denned, but seem to become gradually obsolete toward the anterior and posterior dorsal margins. It is a neat little shell, presenting a regular cordate out- line as seen from the anterior or posterior side. Locality and position. Rio de la Plata; base of upper member of the New Mexican Cretaceous series. GASTEROPODA. Genus ACTION, Montft. ACTJEON INTERCALARIS, Meek. Plate II, figs. 4 a, b, c. Shell small, narrow-subovate, or subfusiform ; spire rather elevated; volutions five to five and a half, compressed-convex, increasing gradually in breadth, and more rapidly in height; last one a little produced below, and forming about half the entire length; suture well defined; aperture narrow-subovate, very acutely angular above; surface marked by fine, slightly-impressed, punctured striae, about twelve of which may be counted on the second turn. Length, about 0.40 inch; breadth, 0.21 inch ; apical angle nearly regular or a little convex, divergence about 35. The only specimen of this species in the collection has the lower part of the aper- ture and a portion of the columella broken away. The aperture, however, was evi- dently quite narrow, and the columella somewhat tortuous, with apparently one oblique fold below the middle. The fine, punctate, revolving grooves are not more than from one-third to one-half as wide as the spaces between on the second whorl, and can scarcely be seen without the aid of a magnifier. This shell is more nearly allied to A. subelliptica (Meek and Hayden), from the Fort Pierre Group (Cretaceous formation No. 4) of the Upper Missouri section, than any other with which I am acquainted. It may be readily distinguished from that species, however, by the much greater elevation of its spire in proportion to the length of its body-whorl, being in this respect about intermediate between A. subelliptica and A. attenuata (M. & H.), but quite distinct from them both. Locality and position. Same as last. Genus ANCHURA, Conrad. ANCHURA ? NEWBERRYI, Meek. Plate II, fig. 5. Shell of medium size, thin, fusiform; spire moderately elevated; volutions six, dis- tinctly convex, increasing rather rapidly in size; suture well defined. Surface orna- 17 s F 130 EXPLORING EXPEDITION FROM SANTA F15 mented by revolving lines, two of which, on the body-whorl, become so much larger than the others as to form small carina-. Of these two carin;r, the upper only is seen on the second turn, where it is much reduced in size; and, on those above, it is not distinguishable from the other revolving lines. Marks of growth obscure; aperture unknown; lip extended into a long appendage, the form of which cannot be determined from the specimen examined. Length, exclusive of the beak, 0.65 inch: breadth of body- whorl, exclusive of the lip, 0.37 inch; apical angle slightly convex, divergence about 40. The collection contains but a single specimen of this species, and it is unfortunately so firmly imbedded in the hard matrix that it is impossible to work out the labial appendage. It evidently extends out, however, at least as much as 0.5o inch from the axis of the shell; and as its lower margin (which is thickened and a little reflexed) is seen to curve downward, it is probable that there are two salient points to the lip, one of which curves a little downward and the other upward. The lower margin of the lip can be seen to extend out to /of fig. 5, plate 2. The body-whorl contracts into the beak below, but the latter is broken from the specimen, so that its form and length cannot be determined. Some eight or nine of the revolving lines may be counted on the upper turns, and about twenty (including the two caringe) on the body-whorl. Half of those on the under side of the body-volution are larger than any of those above the carinse, while between each two of them there are one or two smaller lines. In size and general appearance, this species (at least as seen with the lip concealed in the matrix) bears some resemblance to A. AHKT'ICIUHI, Kvans & Shumard (sp.), hut has a less-elevated spire, and differs in being destitute of vertical costac. In the latter character, it is more nearly like A. sttlifa'rix, Meek & Haydeu, from which it may be readily distinguished by its two revolving cariiuv on the body-whorl It may be an Ajinn'has, and have to be called Aporrhas Newberryi. Locality ami jioxifion. Same as last. CEPHALOPODA/ Genus BACULITES, Lam. BACULITES ANCEPS, var. OBTTJSUS.* Plato II, figs. 1 a, b, c, d, c, f, g, h. Baculites ancvps, Lamarck (1822), An. Sans Vert., vii, 648. D'Orbiguy ( 1835), Tab. des Oph., 75; anil (1840) Paleont. FT. Terr. Cr<;t., i, 565, plate 139, tigs. 1, 7. Rocinor, Texas, 41C.; and (]-">) Kivid. von Texas, :!ti, tal'. ii, tigs. :; a, b, c, &c.; and of many others. Huciilitet vcrtebralis, Defrance (1816), Diet. Sci. Nat., Snpp., iii, 168 ; and of some others, but not of Lamarck. The collection under examination contains a number of specimens agreeing almost exactly in size, form, and surface-undulations with those figured under the name of Ji. (Dtri'jts by Dr. F. Roemer, in his beautiful work on the Cretaceous rocks and fos- sils of Texas. As Dr. Roemer gives' no enlarged figures showing the details of the septa of the Texas specimens, however, we have no means of determining whether or * Originally I had not used the variety-name oblimnx in connection with this shell ; but I ha\ e applied t hat name, to this form in the I'pper Missouri I'atieontolngy, now in the, press ( November 'J, 1*7.")). and add it hero in rcviHing the MS. of this report. TO JUNCTION OK (1IJAND AND GREEN RIVERS. 131 not they agree witlitlio.se of the forms under consideration, though it is probable they will be found to present essentially tlie same characters. It is, therefore, chiefly owing to the probable identity of our specimens with those investigated by this distinguished author (who doubtless had an opportunity to make direct comparisons witli authentic European examples of Lanark's species) that those under examination are here referred provisionally to l>. aiin-ps. As I have had an opportunity to examine but two authentic specimens of B. anceps from foreign localities, and these were mere fragments, I have no means of knowing to what extent that species varies in form and internal characters. It is worthy of remark, however, that the two fragments of It. aiiccpK here alluded to, as well as tlie figures of that species given by Professor Mronn in his Lethtsa Geognostica, and those given by d'Orbigny in his Pu/roi/tohgie franc.ais, although agreeing very nearly in form and surface-undulations, all differ from our New Mexican specimens, as well as from those figured by Dr. Roemer, in being rather distinctly carinated on the dorsal side. Again, on comparing the septa of the two European specimens of B. anceps mentioned above with d'Orbigny's enlarged figure of the same, it was found that they agree quite nearly in all their essential characters, while they both present rather marked differ- ences from those of the New Mexican forms. These differences consist not merely in the greater obtuseness of all the smaller divisions of tlie septa-lobes of the specimens under examination, but also in the form and mode of branching of the lobes themselves, as may be seen by reference to the figures given on plate II. I strongly suspect these differences to be of specific impor- tance; but, without other means of comparison than those now available, it is difficult to determine whether this is the case or not. It will be observed that the figures on plate II represent two rather marked varie- ties, some of the specimens being more slender and less compressed than others, and provided with obtuse, nearly circular, nodes, instead of transversely-elongated, arcuate undulations, as in the more compressed forms. A careful study of the whole series of specimens, however, shows that there are intermediate; gradations between these two forms, while the septa present almost precisely the same characters throughout the entire series. These two extremes of form bear very nearly the same relations to each other that B. asper of Morton does to Iris B. carinatus, which forms they also very closely resem- ble in their external characters, excepting that neither of them is ever carinated on the dorsal side, as in the typical B. carinatus of Morton. Dr. Roemer suggests that the latter is probably not distinct from B. anceps of Lamarck; and Mr. Gabb, who examined Dr. Morton's typical specimens, has arrived at the conclusion that not only that form (./>'. carht(tttis), but B. asper also, are merely' varieties of B. anceps* (See Proceedings of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia for November, 1861.) Without expressing an}- decided opinion in regard to this latter conclusion (not having seen the specimens upon which it is based), 1 would remark that the figures ot the septa of B. car-hint nx and II. ax/in- given by Mr. Gabb, seem to present some rather marked differences from those of B. aneeps, though it is not improbable that there may * Our figures 2 a and 2 b, on plate II, represent a section and a septum of B. anceps of Europe, for comparison. 132 EXPLORING EXPEDITION FROM SANTA FE be intermediate gradations connecting these extremes with Lamarck's species. At any rate, Mr. Gabb's figures of the septa of B. carinatus and B. asper certainly differ so 'materially from those of our New Mexican specimens (which, as already stated, are quite constant in their internal characters) as to make it desirable that the latter should be designated by another name (at least as a variety), until all doubts in regard to their relations can be removed by a direct comparison of a good series of specimens of all the forms alluded to. Locality and position. Same as preceding. Genus PRIONOCYCLUS, Meek. PRIONOCYCLUS ? MACOMBI, Meek. Plate II, figs. 3 a, Z>. o, d. Shell discoidal ; umbilicus shallow, somewhat less than the diameter of the last whorl from the ventral to the peripheral side, and showing all the inner turns; volu- tions increasing gradually in size, very slightly embracing, compressed so as to be nearly flat on the sides, but rounding into the umbilicus ; periphery rather narrow, nearly flat, and provided with a small mesial carina, which is very slightly waved in outline ; lateral margins of the periphery each having a row of small compressed nodes, arranged one at the termination of each of the costse, with their longer diameters nearly parallel to the peripheral keel ; sides of each turn ornamented by from thirty- six to forty rather obscure, slightly flexuous costae, only every second, third, or fourth one of which extends across to the umbilical margin, where they are usually a little swollen. The septa are generally a little crowded in adult shells, and divided into two very unequal principal lobes on each side. Siphonal lobe slightly longer than wide, and ornamented by three branches 011 each side, the two terminal of which are a little larger and much less spreading than the lateral pair, and each ornamented by some five or six sharp digitations along the margins and at the extremity ; while the first pair of principal lateral branches above the terminal ones are of nearly the same form as the latter, but more spreading, and the third pair are smaller, and merely provided with a few digitations; first lateral sinus (dorsal saddle of old nomenclature) as long as the siphonal lobe, but much' wider, and deeply divided intb two unequal parts, of which the one on the siphonal side is larger than the other; each of these principal divisions being ornamented by some four or five short, irregular branchlets, with obtusely digi- tate margins; first lateral lobe longer and slightly wider than the siphonal, and pro- vided with some seven or eight short, rather unequal, merely digitate, and palmately- spreading terminal and lateral branchlets ; second lateral sinus narrower, but as long as the first on the outer or siphonal side, and much shorter on the umbilical, having two short, unequal, digitate, terminal branches at the end, and some three or four short, irregular divisions along the oblique margin of the umbilical side; second lateral lobe small, or scarcely more than twice as large as the auxiliary lobe of the siphonal sinus, and somewhat irregularly bifid, the divisions being short, and, like the lateral margins, more or less digitate. TO JUNCTION OF GRAND AND GREEN RIVERS. 133 Greatest diameter of a specimen retaining only a small portion of the non-septate outer whorl, 4.40 inches; greatest convexity of same, 0.95 inch; breadth of umbilicus, l..'>5 inches; breadth of last whorl from the siphonal to the umbilical side, 1.80 inches. Young specimens of this species differ materially from the adult ; those not more than an inch or an inch and a half in diameter being destitute of nodes, and provided with a continuous instead of a waved carina. Their costse are also more crowded, more numerous, and curve distinctly forward near the peripheral margins. At this si/<>, the shell closely resembles specimens of Ammonites percarinatus, Hall and Meek, of the same age ; but, as it advances in growth, it assumes quite different external characters, while its septa differ at all ages. It seems to be related to a Texas species, described by Dr. Shumard, in the Trans- actions of the St. Louis Academy of Sciences (vol. 1, p. 539), under the name of A. Gmysoncnsis. Dr. Shnmard, however, to whom I sent sketches of it, regarded it as clearly distinct. He wrote that he had seen quite a number of specimens of A. (lni//H'>iir'.iif 5 a. An internal cast of the under valve. 56. Outside of the upper valve. 5 c. A side view of same. FlG. 6. IKOCKRAMUS FRAGII.I8 127 FIG. 7. CAPROTINA BIOORNIS - 126 7 a. A view of one of the valves. 7 6. The two valves together. FlG. 8. CVPRIMERIA? CRASSA 128 8 a. Outside of a right valve. S 6. An internal cast of the same valve, showing the muscular and pallial impressions and a cast of the hinge. 8 c. Hinge of the right valve. 8 FIG. 6. CARDIUM BELLULUM 128 6 a. Side view. 6 ft. Anterior view (the left valve being restored). FlG. 7. CUASSATELLA SHU.MARDI 127 7 a. View of a specimen, with the lower part of the valves imperfect. 7 b. Cardinal \ iew of the same. 7 c. An internal cast of a larger specimen. FIG. 8. Ax UNDETERMINED BIVALVE, from the fame rock as fig. 7. PALEONTOLOGY of Capt. Macomb-s Expls. CRETACEOUS FOSSILS. Plate II. E V .. . T Sinclair iSori.V. PLA.TE III. Pace. FIG. 1. Deltodus Mereurii, Newb., upper surface 137 la. " " Newb., side view 137 Coal- Measures, Santa F6", N. Mex. FIG. 2. I'tycliofliix Whipiild, Marcou, upper surface 137 2a. " Marcou, side view 137 26. " Marcou, anterior face 137 Se-2/. " " Marcou, side and front view of small teeth 137 Middle Cretaceous, Pagosa, Southwestern Colorado. FIG. 3. Product UK r.odoms, Newb., ventral valve 140 Ha. " " Newb., side view 140 3fc,3c. " " Newb., specimen with narrow hinge 140 'id. " " Nowb., specimen with broail hingo 140 Coal Measures, Santa Fe, N. Mex. FIG. 4. Pleurolomaria excelsa, Newb., side view 4a. " " Newb., basal aspect 140 Carboniferous strata, Canon of Colorado River, Southeastern Utah. FlO. 5. Spirifer Texanns, Meek, side view, natural size f>a. A dorsal view of same specimen, showing cardinal area and foramen 130 .Vi. A ventral view of a larger specimen, showing the deep angular mesial sinus 139 PALEONTOLOGY of CARBONIFEROUS ft CRETACEOUS FOSSILS. l-'h Expi.-. ^ ^ Plate III. 2f 2c 4a \. T SmcUit lSon.Elh.PMla. FLA.TJU Page. KKJ. l,a. Otozamile* Maoombii, Newb., Copper-mines, near Abiquin, N. Mox 141 3,4. Branch of conifer, Copper-mines, near Abiquiu, N. Mex 109 4. Branch of conifer (Braekgfbyllxmf), Copper-mines, near Abiqnin, N. Mex 109 Capt. J.N.Macomb, Rxp. in New Mexico 8-U(ah. Plate IV. T. Sinclair & Son. Uti. Phila. FLA.TE Fio. 1 , 'liyllum "), Upper Trias, Copper-mines, Abiquin, N. Mex (!9 Capt. J.N.Macomb, Kxp. in Now Mexico R-Utah. Plate V. T- Sinclair & Son. Eft.. Ph.Ua. PLA.TE VI. Page. Fid. 1. Pecopteri* lullatiis, Bunbury 14 ;! la. " " Bunbury, pinnules with sori, Trias, Los Bronces, Sonora 143 2. Aletliopteri* Mcx\ca.na, Newb 143 2u. " " Newb., pinna bearing fruit, Los Bronces, Sonora 143 :!. Pecopteris falcatus, Emnious, in fruit, Los Bronces, Sonora 144 4. Frond of undetermined fern in fruit, Los Brouces, Sonora < 5. OtozamUes Macambti, Newb., Los Uronces, Sonora 141 (>, 60. Pteropliyllum dtlicatiiliim, Newb., Los Bronces, Sonora 144 7. Pterophyllum robustitm, Xewb., Los Brouces, Souora 14"> 8. Podozamites crassifolia, Newb., Los Brouces, Sonora '- !). Branch of conifer (PadiyphyUum?), Copper-mines, Abiquiu, N. ^lex 09 10. Branch of conifer ( Palyssia ?), Los Bronces, Sonora 145 dipt .J.N.MaCOmb, Kx|>. in -Vow Mexico 8- Utah . Plate V}. T. Sinclair & PLATE VII Page . 1. Aletlioptrrix ll'liiliieyi, Newb.,. upper portion of frond 14") In. Lower portion of frond 14"- 16. " Summit of frond, Los Bronces, Sonoi a 145 2. Camptoptrris /i'cio(7i, Newb., central portion of frond 14C> .'. " Portion of pinos, ahowiog nervailoo, LoeUronces'Sonora 14(i Capt. J.N. Ma comb, Kxp. in New Mexico Plate VII. T. Sinclair !. Son. lift. Bull. Page. Fit;. 1. Tieuiopteris elegant, Newb., Los Bronces, Sonora 2, 2a. T(fioptens glossopteroides, Newb., Los Bronces, Sonora :!. Taniopteris magnifolia, Rogers, Los Bronces, Sonora 4. Taniopteris magnifolia var. ?, Los Bronces, Sonora . . 5. Tairiopteri* sp ?, in fruit ; summit of frond, Los Bronces, Sonora 6. Jeanpaalin railiata, Newb., Los Bronces, Sonora Capt. J. N. Macomb, Kxp. in New Mexico 8-Utnh. Plate. VIH. T Sinclair i Son. lift. Fkilo . INDEX. A. p "R e - At >ii] 11 iu ' r > Abiquia copper-mines 67 Peak '''I' Arl;iM)ii inttsrcalaris 129 Alctliopteris Mexiciina, (Plato VI.) Serlii 18 Whitneyi II-"' Allorisma 98 Ainimmik's 33,51,52,77,91,99,102,107,1*5 Anrliurii Ntnvberryi 128 Aiiiii.:is 76,80,81 Aiiniilaria sphenophylloidea 18 Am >ii i in nitida 125 Aporrhais 99 Aquarius Mountains 55, GO Araucariii excelsa 49 Arcliu'oeidaris 16,21,47 Arkansas basin 25 Arroyo Seco 69, 70 Artemesiiw . 5 Atbyris 19,21,43, 45,40, 9(5, 98, 99, 138 Atrypha 60 Avit-.iila 47 Aximis 19,20,47 A/.tcc Mountains 60 B. Baculitt-H 72,99,102 anceps 130 " Ba,:!( Cuchillo 66 Cyprimeria crassa 128 150 INDEX. D. Deltodus Morcurei Dinunock, C. H Divide, High between Rio Grande and Sau Juan Dorsey, Mr 137 7 78 ... 74 7 Dragoon Creek ................................... 18,19 Drift ............................................ 81 E. Echinoderms .................... . ............ -. 18 Eighteen-Mile Ridge ............................. 27 El Vtulo do los Padres ................. ........... 6 Enchanted Spring ................................ 30 Enos, Lieut. H.M ................................ Eroded buttes... ........................ 92,96,97,107 monuments .............................. 94 Erosion ........................ 28,32,37,50,67,73,112 of Colorado plateau ...................... 84 Exogyra columbella ............................. 124 F. Fish-teeth ................. ..................... 51,108 Fisher, F. P ..................................... 7 Fissure, volcanic ....................... ......... 32 foot-hills ....................................... 72,73 Fort Union ...................................... 34 Fossil plants .............................. 29,32,33,69 Fossils, Carboniferous ............................ 18, 19 Cretaceous ............................... 32, 33 Jurassic ................................. 29 Permian ................................ 19,47 Fugulina ....................................... 18 G. Galisteo ........................................ 38,51 Creek ................................... 38,48 Gallinas Mountain .............. ..... ............ 34 Gasteropoda action ............................ 12J Gold of Galisteo Creek .......................... 39,40 Los Cerrillos ............................. 41 Placer Mountains ....................... 39 Rocky Mountains ...................... 59 Santa Fd ................................ 37 Grand River ..................................... 96 Granite ........................................ 27,81 of Santa F6 .............................. 37 Great Central Plateau ............................ 30,50 Green River ....... ............................. 97 Gres-bigarre' ..................................... 22 Gryphea Pitcher! ............ 33,51,52,71,88,99,104,115 Guajelotes ....................................... 90 GulfofMexico .................................. 24 Gypsum formation ......................... 21, 47, 49, 92 its parallelism ................. 21 H. llalyinenites .................................... 77 High Divide ..................................... 78 High Prairie ..................................... 22 I. Indian ornaments ............................... 41 Inoceramus ........................ 51,52,77,87,99,107 Crispii ............................... 33 fragilis ........................... 33,72,127 problematicus ...... 33,52,71,72,108,115,127 Iron, magnetic . of Los Cerrillos Rocky Mountains . old placer Pag*. 41 40 59 40 ore 19,31 J. Jeanpaulia Munsteriana 148 radiata 148 Jeinez 46,67,117 Jurassic formation 21,28,51,69 fossils 16,22,29 Labyrinth Canon 95 Creek 98 Lagiina de los Cavallos 5,72 I. Hiiu'lli branchial a 123 Lamna 33,99, 141 Las Orejas del Oso 85,103 Vegas 34 La Teiiejal 92 Lava Plain 38 Lead 37,39,41 Leda 19 Lepidodendrou 46 Lias 22 Limestone 26, 33 Fusiilina 16 maguesian 19,21,22 tufaceous 28 Lizards 90 Llano Estacado 48, 51 Los Cafiones til) Cerrillon 41 Lower Colorado Mountains 58 Permian formation 20 M. Manzanita 71 Marl 21,32,112 variegated 48 Marues irisdes 22 McNee's Creek 31 Meek, F. B 119 30, 4H above the Chaina broken High Great White 69 78 73 103 Verde H3, 85, 100, 107 Mesas of Navajo and San Juan 63, (M, 10:5 Mines, copper 07 gold . 40 silver 41 Mogollon Mountains 55, 57, 58 Monotis Hawni 19,21,46 Mormon Spring 99 Mountains drained by Animas 81 Mount Taylor 55, 114 Murchisonia 19, 47 Muschelkalk 22 Myaliua 19,21,47,98 INDEX. 151 N. Page. Nacimiento Mountain 7,37,50,67,102, 109,112,114 Nautilus 19,45,51,77,99 Navajo Spring 71 Needles, The 10:?, 107 Network of canons 97 Neuropteris llexuosa 18 hirsiitu 18 Newberry, Dr. J. S 1,7,9,135 O. Ojo del Cuerbo 90 Ojo Verde 5,93 Ojos Heriondos 86 Old placer M>, 40 Oolite 22 Orejas del Oso 85, 103 Orthis 45 Orthiniiia 21,43,45.98 Ostrea congesta 33, 72, 77, 87, 99, 115 elegantula 33 lugubris 52,77,107,123 nniforinis 124 Otozainites 69,141,142 Macoinbii 141 Oxyrhina 33,141 P. Pachyphyllnin 69 Pagosa 5,74,77 Palyssia 69 Pawneo Fork 22 Pecopteris arboresceus 18, 49 bnllatns 143 falcatna i 144 Mexicaua 143 Stutgurdtensis 69 Pecos 49 Pernio-carhoniftToiis group 20 I'feiffer, AlBert H 5,67,68,69 Piedra Parada 77 Placer Mountains 38 Plateau west of Rocky Mountains 54 Plateaus bordering Canon Largo 109 Platyceras 45 Plenrophorona 19,20,47 Pleurotoiuaria 98, 140 Plicatula areuaria 126 Podozamites crassifolia , 145 Pope's Well 51 Porphyry 26,27,41,52,76,77,81 Prioncyclus Macombii 132, 133 Productus 19, 21, 43, 45, 46, 58, 98, 99, 140 Puerco 7 Q. Quartz 26,27,37,41 Quercup !t!) R. Rabbit-Ear Buttes 31 Rain-fall 40 Raton Mountains 25,28 Red beds 47,56 Red Fork of Canadian 31,32 Page. Reservoirs 89 Retzia mormon i 43 Rhynchonella 21,45 Rio de la Plata 81 los Mancos 85 Pinos 79 Dolores 86 Florido 79 Grande 5 Navajo 73 Piedra 77, 78 Rito Blanco 74, 76 Rock Corral 37 Rocks, jointed 77 bright-colored 68, 90, 92 Rocky Mountain system 55 Mountains, time of elevation of the 57 Ruins at Abiqnin 69 Labyrinth Canon.'. 95 in San Juan Valley 109 on the Animas 80 Dolores 88 Sage-plain 67', 83, 85, 89 Saliferous group 48 Salix Meekii 24,31,32,87,99 Sandia Mountain 56, 77 Sand-hills 27 Sandstone 24, 26, 33 San Francisco Mountains 55,60 San Juan 5,74,75,101,106 San Juan River 106 San Jos6 Spring 7 San Mateo 55, 56, 60 Santa Fe" 5,34,36 geology of 36,37 minerals of 38, 39 Mountains 37, 38, 50, 65 Santo Domingo 118 Sarcobatus 90 Saurian bones 91 Scaphites Warreni 72,121 Scoria 28,52 Section of rocks at breaks of Red River 33 btitt.es west of Nacimiento Mountain 112 Canon Colorado.... 95 Pintado 91 Largo Ill camp 34 104 Captain Pope's Well 52 Cedar Spring 30 Cerro Gordo 46 Colorado Valley 99 Clift's at Moqui villages 105 Creston 108 crossing of Arkansas 27 Enchanted Spring... 29 gorge of Santa F<5 River 45 Labyrinth Creek 98 Middle Spring of Cimarron 28 Pawnee Fork 24 152 INDEX. Page. 86 43 48 71 48 Section of rocks at Rio Dolores Santa F6 San Jos6 in the Valley of the Cluima Pl'COS Sierra Abajo 6, 55, 62, 90, 100 delos Finos 76,79,80 de la Plata 5, 56, 7(i, 80, 82, 84, 88 del Navajo 73,76,77 el Wanico 66 La Sal 55,62,85,88,80,93 La Late 55 Madre 56,62 San Juan 75, 76 San Miguel 56,88,90 Tucane 55,62 Sigillaria Menardi - 18 Silicitied wood 38,110 SilverofLos Corrillos 1 41 Sierra do la Plata 81,82 Rocky Mountains. Santa F6 Simon sou. Major Siredon Smoky Hill Fork Smoky Hills Spanish Trail Speuophylliim dentatnm . 59 37 6 90 22 24 6 18 Spirifer 43,45,46,60,96,98,99,138,13!) Surouara 88 T. Table-lands skirting Rocky Mountains 34 Taeniopteris 69 elegans 147 glossopteroides 147 magnifolia 147 Tertiary basin of the Arkansas 24 fossils 25 strata 25, 26, 28, 30, 31, 3G, 39, 52 at Jemez... 11<> Pago. ThautnatoptcrLs 14(> Tierra Blanca '->0 Mnria 73,77 Trap 27, 31, 73, 77, nl plateaus 34, 117 butt.es and mesas near Raton Mountains 31 Triassie formation 47, (>'.!, si, 102 rooks of Lower San Juan 103 Turquoise 41 U. Union, Fort Upper Colorado 53 Peimian formation ... magnrsian limestone. 20 21 V. Vada del Chaina ('-7,71 Vail, Mr Valdez, Neponocino 5 Valles, The 'l~ Valley of the Animas 76, HP, si Arkansas 22, 28 Canadian 32, 34 Cimarron 28, 30 Little Colorado 63 Pecos 48 View from High Divide 78 of country bordering San Juan 103 Volcanic action 25, 31, 34, 38, 52, (50, 61 , 62 Voltzia 4H, 69 W. Walchia 4-i, 49 Walnut Ureck 21,22 Wasatch Mountains :,.\i;i> Water-supply 89,90,92 /amites oncidentalis 142 5 7744 RETURN TO the circulation desk of any University of California Library or to the NORTHERN REGIONAL LIBRARY FACILITY Bldg. 400, Richmond Field Station University of California Richmond, CA 94804-4698 ALL BOOKS MAY BE RECALLED AFTER 7 DAYS 2-month loans may be renewed by callina (510)642-6753 1-year loans may be recharged by bringing books to NRLF Renewals and recharges may be made 4 days prior to due date . DUE AS STAMPED BELOW DD20 15M 4-02 3 1175 00458 0364' 1*29^50 QE U.S. Army. Corps of Engineers. 1^3 Report of the exploring expedition from U58 Santa F6. PHYSICAL SCIENCES UBRARY