The Daily state register. [volume] (Carson City, Nev.) 1870-1872, 1872-02-29
rocks, and syenitic granite, of the age
of the mountain upheaval.

legations, Mr.. King cites the author
lty of Prof. Whitney as to the age o.
the Sierra range which he believe.
to have been formed mainly at the
same date with all the ranges east
ward to the Wasatch. He remarks
that Prof. Whitney %"early pointed
out that the Sierra Nevada was fold
ed after the Las and prior to the
CretaceOus whose strata of sand and
clay rocks repOse unconformably
upon the upturned and metamor
phosed mass of Jurassic states"
All of the parallel ranges of the
Great Basin, including the Wasatch,
the eastern wall, have been demon
strated by this exploration to have
had their origin in the same system
of ~upheaval. The ranges west of the
Sierra Nevada, and east of the Wa
satch, are of later date. these were
largely formed from Cretaceous de
posts of immense thickness. lying
as Otf-shore beds. which were in the
Tertiary age, subsequent to the Mo
Gene, folded into mountain ranges
outside, and parallel to the earlier
system. These include the Coast
Range and the Rocky Mountain sys-
tenn.
We have not space to allude to
many of the facts substantiated by
this exploration. We can only refer
briefly to the date of tie origin of
the mineral-bearing veins. Mr..
King believes these to date from the
two periods of geographical disturb
ance, We have referred to. one in the
late Jurassic period, and one in the
late Miocene period, which were ac-
eompanied by the rending of noun
ain chains and the election ofigneous
rocks. He says, The period which
illuminated in the Jurassic produced
over the entire system a most pro-
disturbance, and in all proba-
was the dating point OF alarge
Of lodes. To the second, or
Tertiary period, may be definitely
assigned those mineral veins which
traverse the early volcanic rocks
These two periods have, he believes,
produced two types OF metalliferous
-odes !; which, briefly speaking,
ire found wholly enclosed III the
GRANTEES, or metamorphic rocks of
hat series, up to the Jurassic: as the
Humboldt mines. located upon
,anges of folded strata of the Triassic
.ge, Reese River in granite, and
some lying in the metamorphic rocks
IF the CarboniferOus. The White
Pine mines are cited as of this descrip
ton, and are remarkable in being
in limestones of the Devonian
age. "the oldest known silver bear
ing rocks III either of the Americas"
The Comstock ledge he places in the
later age of Tertiary disturbance.
The lodes Of this second type are
wholly or in part inclosed in
volcanic rocks. Belonging to this
group he cites some veins in Mexico.
On the Colorado river, and In gen
eral that zone which lies along the
eastern base of the Sierra Nevada"
5he Virginia mines, and the Owyhee
district in Idaho.
Attention is called by Mr.. King to
he fact that though most of the
netalliferous lodes occur either in
he stratified metamorphic rocks, or
the ancient eruptive rocks which
late from the Jurassic upheaval, the
most wonderfully productive have
been these silver lodes which lie
in the recent, Or Tertiary,
volcanic formation.
In regard to the Carboniferous
Mr.. King notes the fact,
hat though these rocks are album