1st -12th Annual Report of the United States Geological and Geographical Survey of the Territories ...U.S. Government Printing Office, 1873 - 12 pages |
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Common terms and phrases
abundant angle anticlinal appearance arenaceous clays Arkansas basaltic basin bed of coal bluffs Boulder bushels Cañon Cañon City carboniferous Cheyenne coal coal beds color Colorado City composed covered Creek cretaceous beds crops Dakota group Denver deposits dike distance Drab clay drift extend feet in thickness feet thick fifty formations Fort Benton fossils geological gneiss granite grass gray hundred feet igneous inches inclining Inoceramus iron jurassic Laramie Laramie Plains layers lignite lime limestone lode marls metamorphic rocks mineral mines Missouri River nearly Nebraska Niobrara northeast northwest Park pass plains Platte portion prairie quartz red beds region Rocky Mountains rusty salt sand sandstone Santa Fé seams sedimentary rocks seen shales slope soil southward southwest species springs strata streams summit surface syenite Territory tertiary beds thin triassic Union Pacific Railroad upper valley variegated vegetable veins wheat White River yellow
Popular passages
Page 114 - With the commencement of the Tertiary was ushered in the dawn of the great lake period of the West. The evidence seems to point to the conclusion that from the dawn of the Tertiary period, even up to the commencement of the present, there was a continuous series of fresh-water lakes all over the continent west of the Mississippi river.
Page 81 - Platte and has a valley about 100 miles long. It has been for many years a favorite locality for wintering stock, not only for the excellence of the grass and water, but also from the fact that the climate is mild throughout the winter. Cattle and horses thrive well all winter without hay or shelter. The soil...
Page 188 - ... highest portions may be composed of eruptive peaks and ridges. In this case the igneous material is thrust up in lines of the same direction as the trend. It becomes therefore evident that all the operations of the, eruptive forces were an event subsequent to the elevation of the metamorphic nucleus. This is shown in hundreds of instances in Southern Colorado and New Mexico, where the eruptive material is oftentimes forced out over the metamorphic rocks, concealing them over large areas.
Page 71 - Wind river, we come in full view of the Wind River mountains, which form the dividing crest of the continent. The streams on the one side flowing into the Atlantic, and those on the other into the Pacific. This range is also composed, to a large extent, of red and gray feldspathic granite, with the fossiliferous rocks inclining high upon its sides. After passing the sources of Wind river, the mountains appear to be composed entirely of eruptive rocks. Even the Three Tetons, which raise their summits...
Page 86 - These terraces are covered with a considerable deposit of drift ; but when they are cut through by streams the basis rocks are shown. The scenery on either side of this valley is beautiful beyond description. On the west side are the snow-clad peaks of the Medicine Bow range in the distance, with numerous intervening lower ranges ascending like steps. The snowy mountains are mostly destitute of vegetation and are covered with eternal snow, but the lower mountain ridges are covered mostly with what...
Page 115 - Every year, as the limits of my explorations are extended in any direction, I find evidences of what appear to be separate lake basins, covering greater or less areas, and bearing intrinsic proof, more or less conclusive, of the time of their existence.
Page 119 - Near the base of these beds are thin layers of a fine grained grayish calcareous sandstone, with a species of Ostrea and fragments of Pentacrinus asteriscus.
Page 15 - I might cite many examples from the African deserts how the planting of palm-trees is redeeming those barren sands. Much might also be said in regard to the influence of woods in protecting the soil and promoting the increase in number and the flow of springs, but all I wish is to show the possibility of the power of man to restore to these now treeless and almost rainless prairies the primitive forests and the humidity which accompanies them. The counties of Otoe...
Page 168 - We have, therefore, in the valley of the Rio Grande, if my investigations are correct, three groups of tertiary beds of different ages. 1st. The coal strata, with abundant impressions of deciduous leaves, lying above well-marked cretaceous beds. 2d. The Gallisteo sand group, which plainly overlies the coal strata, but inclines equally with and conforms to them. 3d. The Santa Fé marls, which are of much later date than either of the other two, and rest unconformably upon the Gallisteo group, and...
Page 51 - There is a relationship between the flora of Nebraska and that of the upper chalk of Europe, although identical species are wanting. But to the present time no characteristic genus of the cretaceous flora of Europe has been found in Nebraska. " If we compare the plants of Nebraska with the tertiary plants we find no identical species, but seven genera (Populus, Salix, Ficus, Platanus, Andromeda, Diospyrus, and Magnolia) are miocene, and likewise living.