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Show APPENDIX NN. 1299 erals, but all withont avail. At one time placer- mining was carried on for a few days in one of the gulches of the Turkey Mountains. Gold was found in small quantities amid intense excitement. By the time a large crowd of miners had been collected about the spot the placers gave out. It is my opinion that the gulch was simply " salted." At Coyote, about 14 miles from Fort Union, traced of copper have been found half a mOe north of the town. Ore was first discovered here in the summer of 1866. Iu the same year a mining company was organized with Kit Carson as president and J. B. Collier as vice- president. There was no definite capital, but small personal assessments were made to begin work. There is a vein about 4 feet wide occurring in gray micaceous sandstone, having general direction from northeast to southwest. This vein contains a little malachite aud aznrite, and is traceable at iutervals for the distance of a quarter of a mile. At one point a shaft 22 feet deep has been sunk. At another point, on the ridge near the summit, a slope has been driven about 40 feet iu the sandstone rock. Both these places had been abaudoned at the time of my visit. Just east of the plain of Fort Union are the Turkey Mountains. The height of the ridge above the plain is about 700 feet, and the length is perhaps 15 miles. The mountains are composed of grayish saudst > ne, horizontally stratified, with numerous vertical joints. The ridge rnns northwest and southwest, and is much broken up by canons. The formation between Fort Union and the Canadian River is both igneous and sedimentary. Directly northeast of the Turkey Mountains a large number of but tea and mesas of basalt occur. Most of the bnttes are conical in shape and rounded on top, bnt a few have the turreted form. Many of the mesas have a perpendicular border of basalt about 10 feet thick, and slopes slanting very gradually on some sides and quite abruptly on the others. About 15 miles east of the Turkey Mountains limestone outcrops, containing a species of ammonites, which Professor White informs me belongs to the cretaceous. A zone of cretaceous limestone appears to lie between the basalt on the west, and horizontally stratified sandstone on the east. Bat my observations in this section of country were too limited, by the rapid daily marches, to enable me to define the limits of this zone either on the north or sonth. Nearing the Canadian River, sandstone again outcrops, containing fossil angiospermous leaves, identical with ttiose occurring in the sandstone near Trinidad, about 65 miles farther north. The Canadian River has cut a channel in the sandstone about 300 feet deep. There is a little soil alongside the river in the bottom of the can on. The country lying east of the Canadian is a rolling prairie as far as the eye can reach. On the west side of the Canadian the country is much broken up by callous and ravines, rendering it well- nigh impassable. From the Canadian, our route lay northeast over a rolling prairie, with an occasional low mesa to break the monotony of the plains, until the basaltic country in the vicinity of Langhlin's Peak was reached. Amygdaloidal basalt, with particles of white calcite in the cavities, covers the country ou both sidos of the Santa Fe* road, from a few miles east of the Canadian River to beyond Langhlin's Peak. The geological formation of Lnughlin's Peak is peculiar. It is a mas* of pinkish trachyte breaking through a plain of basalt. The mountain is 8,949 feet above the sea. The slopes are covered with grass, and the summit has a depression like a crater. Some of the basaltic but tee east of Langhlin's Peak are very perfect in outline. All of them have a moderate height. Sometimes tue buttes are altered to ridgy, saddle- shaped hills, a form which volcanic cones have frequently been observed to assume by degradation. There are no lava bombs, lapilli, volcanic sand, or ashes, as in the extinct volcanoes of Central France. The basalt is usually in situ. Very little water oocurs in this basaltic country. One can travel miles without finding running water, and the only animals seen are occasional herds of antelope that roam over the plain. Ou the north side of Langhlin's Peak a mesa- like ridge, with precipitous sides, runs north as far as Trinidad, about 2d miles distant. This is the Raton mesa. On the west side of Langhlin's Peak a hard, grayish slate outcrops, which U overlaid by a bed of loose black shale. The dip of both these rocks is slightly to the southwest. The shale outcrops again at a point about 5 miles west, bnt I was unable to trace the beds any farther. A narrow dike of basalt has broken through the shale about half a mile from Hole- in'- the- Rock. At Hole- in- the- Rock, which by the bye is merely a break in the strata that has been denuded so as to leave a gap, the sandstone with horizontal stratification outcrops again, presenting the same lithologioal character as the sandstone in the foot- hills a few miles farther west. No fossils were found. Tbe thickness of the exposed s t r a t a was not more than 30 feet. On account of tbe rapid progress through this section of country it was impossible for me to define the limits of the sandstone. Dikes of basalt have in many places broken throngh and sometimes overlaid this sandstone. Mesas of vesicular basalt cover the country for 15 miles west of Laughlin's Peak. Tenaja Creek has cut a canon in the mesa, which is known as Bragg's Canon. Ou the lower part of Teneja Creek a bed of gray laminated slate outcrops, dipping very gently to tbe west. Between this creek aud the foot- hills of the Cimarron Range the country is rolling prairie withont any rock in situ. The Canadian River forms the dividing- line between the igneous rock on the east and the sedimentary rock on the west. This refers only* to the upper part of the river. The foot- hills from Fort Union |
