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Show f I- - i i t WESTERN F T p EEKLY JfEWSPAPEI VOLUME I. f1 DEVOTED TO THE JA INING JNTERESTS OP THE SALT LAKE CITY, SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 19, 1SS1. We8T, NUMBER 27. GEOLOGICAL DESCRIPTION OF THE COTTONWOOD of Algae and other fossils found in the fetid lime of the CottonDISTRICTS , 7M. woods, in reality, belong to the Azoic, still the metamorphic action to which the rock undeniably has been subjected, verifies The districts commence about fourteen miles southeast of Salt the conclusion of Paleazoic origin. Lake City; and are situated in the highest portion of the Wasatch , .. ; Davenport Hill. 1 from feet above the level of the sea. Little range, 9,000 to 1,000 On the Davetiport hillside, the second upheaval has raised a Cottonwood Canyon is a deep gorge fifteen miles long. Big Cotseries of rocks, which contain no quartzite, but schist and copper tonwood canon splits itself into several forks and is in the g the same' a fact, which demonstrates the deschist with .the different forks, over forty miles long. The lower struction of the missing strata, by the action of the upheaval. the of Cottonwoods cut a mass of gran- This part through large, grand part of Davenport hill is veiy extensively traversed by sevand aweite, extending northerly southerly and rising in solemn, eral dykes, of a hard compact trap, hardly distinguishable from feet two thousand above the level the inspiring grandeur more than surrounding lime. Two of these dykes pass within the vithe of canyon. Proceeding easterlyup the canyon, we observe a of the Victoria tunnel mouth. The upper dyke runs north, mass of coarse grained, in places, porphyritic rock, containing cinity passes the Imperial and crosses the divide by the Davenport Over-lyinveins with g silver and quartz galena, copper, antimony. mine. A fault in the northern part or end of Emerald hill, forms the granite, we observe a mass of schist 1,200 feet in thicka synclinal curve in the ridge, to within a short distance of the ness, dipping from east, northeast, gradually by Emma Hill north. mine (Little Cottonwood) passing thence over to Above the schist we observe about 300 feet of christalline lime; Wellington American Fork mining. district Another fault on the southern then, 250 of metamorphic sandstone, commonly known as quartz- flank of Patsey Marly, corresponds with the northern fault which ite; then, a layer of schist varying in thickness from twenty to caused the absence of sandstone and schist. The missing rock forty feet and crowning, all is a mass of Silurian limestone nearly is visible to within a short distance of the break itself, a fact feet in thickness. lime In belt this Cottonwoods the 2,000 appear which verifies the foregoing conclusions. treasure chambers, known as the 'Carbonate, Reed & Benson, It is undeniably beyond dispute that the varying character of Ophir, Ohio, Einilie, Rough & Ready, Eclipse, Virginia, Nabob, Cottonwood ores, was caused through and by the influence of Flagstaff, South Star & Titus, Vallejo, North Star, Montezuma , the different country rocks. Emma Hill, shqws carbonate of Savage, Highland Chief, Revolution, Centennial, Caledonia, Emma, lead and galena in Dolomite ; and between Dolomite and Cal-cit- e, Davenport, Richmond, Theresa, Prince of Wales, City Rock, soft oxides with galena in the fetid lime. In the granite, we Oregon, Butte and many other mines. observe sulphate of silver, galena and iron pyrites containing Virginia Mountain, gold, oxides and carbonate of copper. Of course there are exAdvancing further eastward, we observe Virginia Mountains or ceptions. In the upper belt or bed on Emma Hill, the ore Patsy Marly, a second mass of granite, adding to the surroundappear as parallel ore chimneys, on an east and west line. ing grandeur, rising out of the schists, which schist3 are highly In the lower or Emma ore belt, the deposits appear as seggre-gatioimpregnated with copper, I say second mass, because it is distinct or pseudo-morphi- c displacements on an extensive scale. from the first mentioned mass of granite in points of age and up- Nature in her curious and mysterious works, has caused here heaval. The second mass of granite has split the upper part of the different fissures so to run and join each other, as to form, the canyon into a northerly and southerly fork. The presence of to all appearance, a well defined strata vein, which in reality, it is gneiss as boulders, the spurs of schist breaking through this not. By a close observation it will be seen; that the ore does not granite, and the mass of granite itself, being syenitic in structure occupy a real vein fissure, but that the mineral solutions circulating and course grained, indicate a more recent origin than that of the and ascending from below, have entered into all and every open ' granite in the lower and western portion of the canyon. space of the extensively fissured rock, rooted in the same, dissolved northwest the of ends the mountain, the effjrfsof the the carbonates of lime and Un magnesia, and deposited in its place second upheaval and disturbance are clearly illustrated by mass the mineral wealth, as we find the same at present. An illustraof common schist and christalline lime, appearing at least 2,000 tion of this action is observable in the Flagstaff, South Star and feet above tlie place whence the mass was torn. This second Emma mines. Here the wall rock is decomposed in the line of across extended the is and observable on the fracture, upheaval canyon apparently washed out by water, and rough projecting side of Emma Hill tunnel. Thus we have two upheavalthe boulders show the action of mineral regents upon the same. first from the west throwing east, the second rises through the So, every small seam of vein matter should be followed up, as the locil so rock mass of thrown, and everts a merely influence by same must lead invariably to larger deposits of ore and indeed f . faulting said mass to a slight extent. to Bonanzas; examples of which facts are in abundance. An ex' i Emma Hill. amination of the ore beds shows that they were formed subsePassing along the wagon road from Alta to the Emma mine, we quently to the great upheaval, by ascension from below. Deobserve another mass of granite, a fact which, taken together scending, we observe the action of the igneous rock more frewith the other masses of granite, should demonstrate beyond quent, trap dykes traversing the lower beds ; in association with dispute, that the granite underlies the whole of both districts, these dykes are observable large deposits of ferruginous ores. together with those of Uintah and American Fork. The forma- Some of these dykes seem to be of a granitic origin, changing tions belong to the Paleazoic age, but for all that the specimens ( Continued on 8th page) . . ; ag-gregat- - e, over-layin- de-pos- its ns - |