213 fy + < es, a ne O, aint SY a i fa x we i o % Ss \ s Ss wv e <, Saw » @, iw ‘ - ? | ae ee oO hl alk = E < 3 O VOLUME IV. III-IV UMTED STATES GEOLOGICAL EXPLORATION OF THE FORTIETHL PARALLEL. “CLARENCE KING, GEOLCGIST-IN-CHARGE. PARE I. PALMONTOLOGY. BB. MEBK. PART if. teen CIN LOwOG Y . BY JAMES HALIL AND R. P. WHITFIELD. PART IIL. ORNTPAOLOGY. ROBERT RIDGWAY. SUBMITTED TO TUE CHIEF OF ENGINEERS AND PUBLISHED BY ORDER OF THE SECRETARY OF WAR UNDER AUTHORITY OF CONGRESS. ILLUSTRATED BY XXIV PLATES. WASHINGTON: GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE, 1877. y-VI TABLE OF CONTENTS. INTRODUCTORY LETTER ... - PART INTRODUCTORY REMARKS DESCRIPTIONS OF FOSSILS—SILURIAN SPECIES DEVCNIAN SPECIES CARBONIFEROUS SPECIES TRIASSIC SPECIES J CRETACEOUS SPECIES. ...-. J. PALAONTOLOGY, BY IF. B. MEEK URASSIC SPECIES . I'RESH AND BRACKISH-WATER SPECIES. TERTIARY SPECIES Part II. PALAZONTCLOGY, BY JAMES HALL AND R. P. WHITFIELD.-......... GENERAL REMARKS FOssILs OF THE POTSDAM HOWE RAS TLUIRUAN we estates ae eek ore DEVONIAN. .- WAVERLY. LOWER CARBONIFEROUS COAL-MEASURES AND PERMO-CARBONIFEROUS..-. TRIASSIC .. JURASSIC Part III. ORNITHOLOGY, BY ROBERT RIDGWAY TABLE OF CONTENTS PITYSICAL FEATURES OF THE GREAT BASIN LOCAL AVIFAUNZS........ DESCRIPTION OF CAMPS ... CATALOGUE OF SPECIES BIOGRAPHICAL SECTION .... NDE XacT OREN DY le oops, ore cievaisiw a eiolere crete NDE XaTOU AR De ats INDEX TOMRART TT 2.2. VU-VIII ips aOR ATS: The plates accompanying this voleme were engraved and printed by JULIUS Bien, of New York. The original drawings for Part I were exeented by H. W. ELuiot?, of Washington; those of Part II, by H. M. Martin, of Albany. 2 aud at J ee JPAG AUDIOS Wes Poser Eat oN aitere ne sicsioiwiatersre SILURIAN AND DEVONIAN SPECIES. lll tannoobnac seco cece soc ... DEVONIAN SPECIES. Ice cestesnes can soesoo asc one DEVONIAN AND CARBONIFEROUS (?) SPECIES. UVES Eee: Benchoieienereetes oie terelasene CARBONIFEROUS SPECIES. Weteos oandootreocusecsnanac CARBONIFEROUS SPECIES. VASP e speiereuaicrcteseistelaisee Son .GnBOOe CARBONIFEROUS SPEKCIEBS. ESTES Spates totersteiaiccete aiatere See ayelensiene CARBONIFEROUS SPECIES. WAUUL -pasoeones poaeoncmese ..... CARBONIFEROUS SPECIES. IING nace ecu onoe Seren caer CARBONIFEROUS SPECIES. Oe heb aco cne cobesapreoecerice TRIASSIC SPECIES. deg aqsae pane ee er tiee ese sitiota TRIASSIC SPECIES. DUDE Anoepebeanodineco oso cear por JURASSIC AND CARBONIFEROUS SPECIES. WUE oSpoeecacesocc Risa ares erapoie CRETACEOUS SPECIES. DOING é5ea saneeennae vee. --.--. CRETACEOUS SPECIES. PXGV MN fer crore fos rrcvorsiceeere: 5 ersateveicl= CRETACEOUS SPECIES. SWI aasaetiepayasnecascauronoges CRETACEOUS AND TERTIARY SPECIES. EXOVITIM moesereietel sss es ier Be re tietane CRETACEOUS AND TERTIARY SPECIES. eA le I ceone ocoodds sacoeguane sauK PRIMORDIAL AND SILURIAN SPECIES. UTP oe etic cneretteisie secs suse steers ekess PRIMORDIAL AND STLURIAN SPECIES, UU RM AepoSseos Bey pec eeeins DEVONIAN SPECIES. leas PROS ato POSE OOOO WAVERLY SPECIES. Wes sys:s RP en area cto ge 5 ate) atee LOWER CARBONIFEROUS SPECIES. WAL sovbcodoGnsoctos cepeontoen Upprr CARBONIFEROUS AND TRIASSIC. WIP sca cetoamonmosemd ates .. JURASSIC SPECIES. OrriceE oF THE U. S. GeoLogica, ExpLoration OF THE FortieTH PARALLEL, New York, April, 1877. GeyerAL: Herewith I have the honor to transmit Volume IV of the Reports of this Exploration, composed of Memoirs on Paleeontoloe sy, by Messrs. F. B. Meek, James Hall and R. P. Whitfield; also on Ornitholog sy by Robert Ridgway. Very respectfully, your obedient servant, CLARENCE KING, Geologist-in-charge. Brig. Gen. A. A. Humpureys, Chief of Engineers U. S. Army, Washington, D. C. XI-XII UNITED STATES GEOLOGICAL EXPLORATION OF THE FORTIETH PARALLEL. CLARENCE KING, GroLoGIstT-IN-CHARGE. PART I. eee POMiOgay. BY F.B. MEEK. INTRODUCTORY REMARKS, This being a strictly palzeontological report, any extended remarks on the geological formations from which the fossils described were obtained are not expected, and would be out of place here. A few words, however, respecting some points on which the specimens investigated throw more or less light, seem to be necessary to a clear understanding of the paleontology itself. Before proceeding further, however, it is proper to state here, that, in order to give as full and complete an account of the palzontology as possible of the district explored, some collections brought from the same region more than ten years since, by Col. J. H. Simpson, of the United States Topograph- ical Engineers, while conducting a Government expedition through the same country, have also been included. In 1860, the writer published, in the Pro- ceedings of the Philadelphia Academy of Natural Sciences, brief preliminary descriptions of the new species of fossils contained in Colonel Simpson's collection, and soon after prepared, for that gentleman’s report, more extended descriptions and figures of the same. Unfortunately, however, Congress failed to make the necessary appropriation to publish Colonel Simpson’s report. Consequently, the large amount of important information contained in the same remains unpublished; and, as it is now extremely improbable that his report will ever be printed,* at. any rate with the accompanying illustrations, it has been thought desirable that we should give here descriptions and figures of the new fossils of his collection, now in the *Since this was written and revised, Colonel Simpson’s report has been pub- lished. 3 4 PALM ONTOLOGY. museum of the Smithsonian Institution. In doing this, however, he has been duly credited as the discoverer of each species, and the original types have generally been figured, even where specimens of the same forms are contained in Mr. King’s collections; though figures of the latter have also been given, where better specimens than those first found have been obtained. The fossils here reported on, evidently came from the following eeolog- ical formations, viz., Lower Silurian, Devonian, Carboniferous, Triassic, Jurassic, Cretaceous, and Tertiary. The small number of Lower Silurian forms are represented on the upper part of plate 1. Two of the Trilobites, from Antelope Springs, House Mountains, belong, one to the genus Cono- coryphe, and the other to the genus Paradoxides, or some allied group. They are decidedly Primordial types, and show that rocks belonging to this ancient period occur at that locality.* The other Silurian forms merely consist of small univalve shells that ‘ame from a gray, granular limestone on the summit of Ute Peak, Wa- satch Range, Utah. One of these is a small Ophileta, scarcely distinguisha- ble from O. complanata of Vanuxem, first described from the Calciferous sand- rock of New York. The other two are lenticular, or much depressed forms, with an angular periphery and a large umbilicus, and evidently belong to the same formation, being nearly allied to forms found in beds of the age of the Calciferous period, in Minnesota, Wisconsin, and Texas. From the affinities of these fossils, we can therefore scarcely entertain any doubts that the rock from which they were obtained belongs to the Calciferous epoch. The Devonian forms in these collections are more numerous than the Silurian. They are illustrated on the lower part of plate 1, and on plate 2, and the upper part of plate 3. Those on plate 1, with the exception of a small Proctus, to be mentioned further on, came from a light-colored argil- laceous limestone about three miles south of Pinon Pass, Pinon Range, Ne- vada, and consist of a small subglobose, undetermined species of Favosites, Atrypa reticularis, a new Spirifer, a bivalve of doubtful genus, and fragments of a Dalmanites. It is possible that the last-mentioned fossil may be an Upper Silurian species, as Mr. King found it in the lowest bed exposed at the locality, and it seems to be quite as nearly allied (so far as its charac- * See Proceed. Acad. Nat. Sci. Philad., Ap. 1870, p.°56. INTRODUCTORY REMARKS. 5 ters can be made out from the imperfect specimens) to Upper Silurian as to Devonian types. The Spirifer, however, is very closely allied to forms found in the Upper Helderberg (Devonian) limestones, at the Falls of’ the Ohio; while the specimens of Atrypa reticularis belong to a variety very common in rocks of that age in the vicinity of Louisville, Ky., and in the neighboring portions of Indiana. It is also worthy of note, that these fossils were found quite abundant, weathered out of the matrix, and that they are silicified and in all respects similar, in their state of preservation, to the Upper Helderberg fossils, so common in the Western States mentioned above. From these facts, it is highly probable that these Pinon Range fos- sils came from a rock belonging to about that horizon. The other Devonian fossils, figured on plates 2 and 3, came from an entirely distinct rock from those mentioned above, and are more than usually interesting, because they were found, with a few exceptions, in the formation containing the rich silver-mines of the White Pine Mining District, Nevada. They were all found in a dark-colored or grayish matrix, entirely different from that containing the Pinon Station fossils mentioned above. Those from the White Pine District consist of several species of Corals, Brachiopods, and two species of Orthoceras. Among the Corals, there are species that seem to be undistinguishable from the European Devonian forms Acervularia penta- gona and Smithia Hennahii. The other Corals are an apparently new Alve- olites and a Diphyphyllum.* The Brachiopods consist of a small Productus, at, least allied to the Devonian species P. subaculeatus, Atrypa reticularis, a small Hemipronites, apparently undistinguishable from a New York Hamil- ton Group species, and several small Spirifers, some of which resemble Ham- ilton Group forms. The presence of the genera Productus and Smithia would alone be a strong argument, in the present state of paleontological science, against the supposition that these silver-bearing beds might belong to the Silurian, to say nothing of the specific affinities of these and the associated fossils; while the occurrence in the same beds of Atrypa reticularis, and the Acervularia, Smithia, and Ptychophyllum, with the specific affinities of the other fossils, * The little Favosites and Cyathophyllum, represented by figures 2 and 3 of plate 2, are from a different horizon in Arizona. 6 PALAZONTOLOGY. furnish even a stronger argument against the conclusion that this formation might belong to the Carboniferous. Hence we cannot doubt that these beds belong to the Devonian, and probably to about the horizon of the Hamilton Group of the New York series.* Indeed, in 1860, on nearly the same evi- dence, this formation, at localities a little farther north, was referred by the writer to the Devonian, from the examination of specimens brought from there by Colonel Simpson; though at that time this rock was not known to contain silver-mines. + ; The little Proetus, illustrated by fig. 10 on plate 1, probably also came from near the same horizon as the Devonian fossils mentioned above, as it is contained in a similar matrix quite unlike that containing the Pinon Range fossils. On the lower part of plate 3, a few fossils are figured together in a sepa- rate division, because they are of a somewhat doubtful nature. They are also from the White Pine District, and came from beds known to hold a position between well-marked Carboniferous and Devonian rocks. All of them, excepting the Spirifer, came from a black bituminous shale, asso- ciated with some more or less arenaceous beds, beneath well-marked Car- boniferous limestones. The Aviculopecten (fig. 10) is very closely allied to some western Carboniferous forms; and the little shell represented by fig. 8 also resembles Carboniferous species believed to be at least nearly related to Postdonomya. The Brachiopod represented by fig. 9, however, is remark- ably like Devonian species of Leiorhynchus, and hence would favor the opinion that this shale is Devonian. The Spirifer represented by fig. 11 seems to belong to the common and widely-distributed Carboniferous species S. cuspidatus, and came from a gray, subcrystalline, cherty limestone, above the above-mentioned black slate, and was associated with some large Crinoid columns, casts of an Orthis, like O. resupinata or O. Michelini, and imperfect specimens of a smaller Spirifer, apparently like the Devonian species 8. * These remarks on the Devonian age of the White Pine silver-bearing rocks were quoted by Mr. Arnold Hague, in the Mining Report of Mr. King’s Survey, 416, (issued in 1870.) It is to be regretted, however, that, owing to the fact that Mr. Hara did not see the proof, several annoying typogri iplical errors, in the names of the fossils mentioned, were not corrected.—F. B. M., Sept. 29, 1874. t See Proceed. Acad. Nat. Sci. Philad., 1860, XI. INTRODUCTORY REMARKS. 7 gregariuvs. The evidence to be drawn from these few fossils would therefore scem to be somewhat conflicting in regard to the exact age of these black shales and cherty limestones; but the first more probably belongs to the Devonian and the latter to the Carboniferous. Of all the collections that have yet been brought from this region, the decidedly Carboniferous types are far more numerous than those from any of the other formations. This will be more readily understood when it is remembered that we have illustrated on the accompanying seventeen plates, all of the known species of every age of which there are specimens accessible, while the Carboniferous forms alone occupy plates 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, and 9, with the exception of one Goniatite, of apparently the same age, from New Mexico. These fossils consist almost exclusively of Corals and Brachio- pods, and seem to have been obtained from two distinct rocks; that is, the Corals, with a few exceptions, together with an Orthis, a Hemipronites,* and Productus semistriatus, figured on plate 7, as well as a distorted specimen of Productus punctatus, and others of Fusulina, not in a condition to be figured, came from a dark-gray and deep bluish-gray limestone, while the other specimens came from a light yellowish-gray limestone. So far as has yet been ascertained from all of the explorers of Utah and Nevada, these two rocks have nowhere been observed to occur together at the same localities. That they belong to different horizons in the Carboniferous series of this region, however, seems to be evident, not only from their different lithologi- cal characters, but also from the fact that they contain mainly distinct groups of fossils. The specimens from the dark-colored beds came from Pinon and Diamond Mountains, Nevada, Long’s and Boxelder Peaks, Strong’s Knob, ete., Utah; while those from the light-colored beds are marked, north of Moleen Peak, Egan and Mahogany Ranges, Ruby Group, south of Railroad Canon, White Pine Mountains, and various localities in the White Pine District. From the fact that almost none of the peculiarly characteristic Coal- Measure species of the Mississippi Valley have been identified among the ‘species from the dark-colored limestones mentioned above, while there are, * Imperfect specimens of this species were also brought from the light-colored beds at Fossil Hill, White Pine. ‘i 8 PALAZONTOLOGY. among the specimens from that rock, fragments of an Archimedes, together with imperfect specimens of Spiriferina spinosa,* (both Lower Carboniferous types), it is very probable that this rock belongs to the Lower Carboniferous series. This view also receives some support from the presence, in these dark beds, of a species of Lithostrotion, a genus very abundantly represented by one or two species in the Lower Carboniferous, but unknown in the Coal- Measures of the Mississippi Valley. When we turn our attention to the fossils from the light-yellowish Car- boniferous limestones of Nevada, however, at the localities mentioned, we find among them forms undistinguishable from