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pg b199a: Fourth annual report of the Geological Survey of Texas Publication 5235917-4.

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199

of more accurate description, and that the relation of the different beds to each other may be more readily understood. The following is the order in which they occur and in which they will be mentioned:

  • 5. Tule.
  • 4. Goodnight.
  • 3. Blanco.
  • 2. Loup Fork.
  • 1. Triassic.

TULE DIVISION.

This name is taken for the reason that the beds are well developed along Tule Canyon, in Swisher county, a tributary of the South Fork of Red river, reaching that stream at or near the mouth of the Palo Duro Canyon in Briscoe county. On the old maps it was known as Benson's Fork. The head of the canyon is in Swisher county, about ten miles east of the town of Tulia, the county seat. From the mouth to near the head, the water has cut down through the beds of the Triassic as well as of the Tertiary. On either side precipitous bluffs rise to the height of 400 or 500 feet. There are only a few places where it is possible to cross this canyon with wagons, and many miles where it is impossible to descend its bluffs on horseback.

At the head of the canyon the stream passes to the top of the Triassic strata by several small rapids, yet this is by no means the head of the stream, for it extends many miles to the westward, having cut a channel partly through the Tertiary beds.

It was at the head of this canyon that Gen. McKinzie had his fight with the Comanche Indians, and where he captured the whole band and killed 800 ponies. The only evidence of the slaughter are a few scattered bones. There are a number of Indian pictographs upon the walls where the Indians were at the time of the capture, but whether they were made at that time or previously there is no means for determining.

A half mile east of the canyon there are several small side canyons, and the bad lands are a mile wide and several miles long. In these gulches were found the fossils by which the horizon of the bed was determined. These fossils have been described by Prof. Cope in another paper.

The following section was made at this place:

6. Fine white sand .................................................. 25 feet. 5. Coarse sand, with pebbles ................................. 20 feet. 4. Bluish clay .. ...................... ........ 15 feet. 3. Coarse sand ...................................................... 30 feet. 2. Reddish clay . ..................................... ... 60 feet. 1. Triassic sandstone................................................ 20 feet. 170 feet.

 

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