Sioux City register. [volume] (Sioux City, Iowa) 1858-1871, 1865-04-01
GEOLOGY OF THE BLACK HILLS
AND HBAD LANDS"

subject which may we'll excite the inter.
ests Of the people Of the Northwest The
Maxcaise Terra or bad Lands is name
given to strange belt Of country run
ming from the eastern base of the Black
Hills, in latitude AZ north and longitude
1922 W. nearly due north to the Yellow.
stone river in latitude 473o Forth. They
cover an area Of about two hundred miles
ia length and from fifteen TO thirty miles
III width. A range Of isolated mountains
known as the Black Hills, runs along the
west side Of this strip OF bad Lands"
with constantly decreasing attitudes as
they tend to the northward, until near the
Yellowstone they are known as the "Brok.
en- Hills Many peaks Of the Black Hills
have been assembled TO the hight of $500
feet above the sea level, while the long
deep basin Of the bad Lands" which
winds itself at the foot of the Hills is sun.
ken in many places to the depth Of 1900
feet below the level Of the surrounding
plain.
Peaks ard castellated towers of every
conceivable shape, size and color, arise
from the bed Of the Bad Lands to level
with the surface Of the id acent prairie
Coal seams, many feet in thickness, are
found shelving from the sides of these
elevations, while the great floor Of the
basin is covered with ligh. porous soil,
composed apparently Of combination Of
ashes, cinders and dust. Specimens Of
petrifed lizards, turtles, fern leaves, and
the trunks of fallen trees with the stumps
of the same, sixteen feet in diameter,''
standing where they grew, have been
found there by Harvey, Warren, Sully and
others within The last few years.
The adjacent Black Hills which are
covered with pine forest are composed of
the same formations Of etratifed rocks as
are found in the gold bearing gulches of
the Wind River mountains, situated about
two hundred miles further west, in which
range coal oil springs have been discover
ed where petroleum issues in large guam.
titles from the assures Of the rocks.
The most leerncd Of modern Geclogist
agree in their conclusions that the OIL
bearing strata Of rock, are to be found
most abundant in the Dew oman system of
the earth. Some very good authority
claim that they have traced the real source
of petroleum or rock oil, down deep into
the old Salurian systems. We will here
state that the upper and lower Salurian
systems are deposited Immediately below
the Devonian formation, and ,ha: the
great coal deposits are met with in all
countries next above the Devonian series.
This system is known to geology at the
period in the earth's formation which cor
responds with the third day Of creation in
the book Of Genesis, when the Creator
first caused vegetation to appear on the
earth, when he said-"Let the earth bring
forth grass, the herb yielding seed and
the fruit tree yielding fruit after bis kind,
whose seed is in ITSELF
LIE Conte, one of the frat Of modern
Geoloeistc, says: " 1t is now universally
admitted among Biologists that coal is en-
'irely of vegetable origin" The same
author states that during the deposition Of
the Devonian system, and "preyous to
the coal period there lived none but aqua.
tic animals Of low order;' but that all
things, air and earth, we're prepared, by
heat and moisture, to produce "the aston.
ishing luxusiance of the vegetation Of that
period" "A seam of coal is
overlaid by black slate and underlaid By
6re-clay. In the black slate are found the
finest impression Of leaves and other ten.
der parts of trees; in the Ere clay which
underlies the coal seams are found in the
greatest abundance the roots of plants and
not unfrequently the stumps Of trees with
the roots attached, precisely as they grew.
And what is still more remarkable and
significant, trunks Of trees are not unfre.
quently found almost entire, standing
erect, with their 70 OTIS still IN the fire.clay,
their trunks passing through the coal seam
and far into the everything strata Of shals
and limestone"
No one who accompanied the expedi.
ton Of General Sully last season will fail
to call to mind the resem blance Of this
description Of natural coal measures to
that of the Bad LANDS on the Little Mis-.
souri, river. We have before stated it a.
our belief that the oasin Of the Bad Lands
is the ancient bed Of great coal field, the
upper seam Of which has been burned out
by self ignited Gres, and that tue same
layer undsrlies all the territory between
the Missouri and the Yellowstone. We
believe this more fully from the fact .ha.
IN the early part If the present century
the trappers aud Indians represent the
region Of the Bad Lands as being on Ere,