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appearance to the outcrops, and there are seams of jet, 1 to 12 inches in thickness, which look much like cannel coal, and is thus termed by the miners.

The Union Pacific Railroad will pass directly through those great coal fields, and as most of their freight will go westward for many years, the cars, on their return, can be loaded with this lignite, thus to be distributed through Nebraska, at a cost much less than that of wood at the present time.

There are also indications of an abundance of iron ore in the vicinity of these deposits, and the Union Pacific Railroad Company contemplates establishing rolling mills in the Laramie plains at no distant period.

The next point visited was South Boulder Creek, the Marshall mines, which are probably the most valuable in the West. I made a pretty", careful examination of these mines, which have been wrought for four or five years. An average of 5O tons is taken from this place daily, and sold in Denver at prices varying from $12 to $15 per ton. The beds are at the foot of the mountains, and dip to such an extent as to expose the whole series, eleven in number, varying from 5 to 12 feet in thickness, so that we have front 30 to 50 feet at least of solid lignite."

I give the above long extracts, because the value of Texas tertiary coal has been questioned, lignites, as they have generally been called.

Prof. Rogers, many years ago, in his report on the geology of Pennsylvania, proposed to class coals according to their chemical composition. He proposed the following classification, which seems preferable to any other, and better fitted to designate coals as they are now known.

The semi-bituminous he divides into semi-bituminous cherry coal, and semi-bituminous splint coal.

The bituminous into coking coal, cherry coal and splint coal.

When Prof. Rogers proposed the above classification,