Preliminary Report of the United States Geological Survey of Montana and Portions of Adjacent Territories: Being a ... Annual Report of Progress ..., Volume 4, Part 1870U.S. Government Printing Office, 1872 - Geology |
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animals basin Bear River Black's Fork bluffs bones Bridger Bridger's Pass Camp Cañon carboniferous cattle caudal character Cir.-cu Cir.-str clays coal Colorado Colorado Territory convex Creek cretaceous Cu.-str Denver deposits dorsal east elevation elytra eocene extend Fork of Green formations Fort Bridger Fort Fetterman fossils fragments fresh-water genus geological granite grass gray Green River Henry's Fork hills hundred feet inch inclining irrigated Kansas land Laramie Laramie Plains layers length Lesqx limestone lower margin marls miles miocene Missouri nearly Niobrara River North Platte northwest Oreodon Pass plains pliocene portion posterior probably Professor Hayden pronotum quartzites range region remains ridge rocks Rocky Mountains sand sandstone Sept shale shells side slope southwest species specimens strata streams summit surface Sweetwater teeth tertiary beds thickness tion Uinta Mountains Union Pacific Railroad upper valley vegetation vertebræ White River width Wyoming Territory
Popular passages
Page 97 - Notes Explanatory of a Map and Section Illustrating the Geological Structure of the Country Bordering on the Missouri River, from the Mouth of the Platte River to Fort Benton.
Page 284 - No grass, no buffalo— food for neither horse nor man. I gave them some plugs of tobacco, and they went off, apparently well satisfied to be clear of us ; for my men did not look upon them very lovingly, and they glanced suspiciously at...
Page 172 - West comprises the vast area inclosed by the Wasatch Mountains on the east, and the Sierra Nevada on the west, the crest or water divide of the Columbia on the north, and that of the Colorado on the south. We shall also observe that this great region has no visible outlet; that it is composed of a multitude of smaller basins or valleys, each of which has its little lakes, springs, and water-courses, their surplus water either evaporating or sinking beneath the surface.
Page 128 - I was informed that in time of high water they can be taken down to the railroad from the mountains after being cut and placed in the water, at the rate of from one to three cents each. These are important facts, inasmuch as they show the ease with which these vast bodies of timber may be brought down into the plains below and converted into lumber, should the future settlement of the country demand it.
Page 338 - ... fauna retains but a few dwarfed representatives. Noble rivers flowed through plains and valleys, and sea-like lakes, broader and more numerous than those the continent now bears, diversified the scenery. Through unnumbered ages the seasons ran their ceaseless course, the sun rose and set, moons waxed and waned over this fair land, but no human eye was there to mark its beauty, nor human intellect to control and use its exuberant fertility.
Page 130 - We have, therefore, the most ample evidence that in past geotogical times the great ocean rolled all over the area now occupied by the mountain ranges. After passing Cooper's Creek Station we come into the black clays of the lower cretaceous, and the appearance of the country becomes dreary and sterile in the extreme. The waters are alkaline, and there is no timber along the creeks except stinted willows, and very little grass or vegetation except chenopodiaceous shrubs, which are fond of this alkaline...
Page 407 - VII.— ON THE FISHES OF THE TERTIARY SHALES OF GREEN RIVER, WYOMING TERRITORY.
Page 88 - ... cottonwood. The hills on its banks are from one hundred to one hundred and fifty feet in height, and possess bluffs of earth like the lower part of the Missouri; the bed is formed of small gravel and mud; the water turbid, and of a whitish tint; the banks low, but never overflowed ; in short, except in depth and velocity, it is a perfect miniature of the Missouri. Friday, 18th.
Page 332 - Nevada and the Rocky Mountains. In the northern and middle portions of the great table lands the general surface is somewhat thickly set by short and isolated mountain ranges, which have been denominated the " Lost Mountains." These rise like islands above the level of the plain, and are composed of volcanic or metamorphic rocks. The spaces between these mountains are nearly level, desert surfaces, of which the underlying geological structure is often not easily observed. Toward the north and west,...
Page 437 - ... sufficient moisture to nourish bountiful crops of grass. " The vegetation of the plains along wagon tracks and rail road embankments shows a capability of production scarcely suggested by the surface where undisturbed : wherever the earth is broken up, the wild sunflower (Helianthus), and others of the taller-growing plants, though previously unknown in the vicinity, at once spring up. " I have been on the plains all the time since early in May till this date (22d of September). There has been...