96 FROSTBURG COAL FORMATION. 



ascertained; the coal of the 14 and 8 feet beds is of the caking 

 kind, but the coherence of the pieces cemented together is so 

 slight, that it may be readily broken on the grale, a circumstance 

 that, when taken in connection with the fact that the coal of 

 the 14 feet bed, does not make smoke or deposite soot in the 

 chimney, peculiarly adapts it to the warming of apartments •, 

 those below the 8 feet coal do not cake. The 14 feet bed is 

 very uniform, wherever it has been opened, but the 8 feet bed 

 does not present exactly the same appearance in any two dis- 

 tant points; for instance, at the Dug hill section it is 7i feet 

 without seams of shale ; H mile west it is divided by two beds 

 of shale, each 1 foot in thickness — into three beds of coal each 



3 feet thick, while three-fourths of a mile to the south-east of 

 the section it is separated by 1 foot of shale into two beds of 



4 feet each. In some parts of the district it has been called a 

 10 feet bed. 



The iron ores are such as are common to the coal forma- 

 tions of Great Britain, being carbonate of iron, more or less 

 mixed with argillaceous and calcareous matters, and contain- 

 ing from 25 to 40 per ct. of iron. 



Casts and impressions of fossils, have not been found 

 abundantly, and no marine remains have been met with. 

 Among the vegetable remains, are the Glossopteris Phillipsii, 

 calamites, and others not yet determined. The beds in the 

 north eastern part of the formation, are more highly inclined 

 on the side towards Savage mountain, than on Dan's moun- 

 tain ; while the reverse is the fact in the vicinity of Dug hill, 

 and in the south-western parts of the trough; but the dip 

 no where exceeds 10°, and very rarely 2 or 3°. The shales, 

 slates and limestones, are such as are common to the regular 

 coal formations ; but the sandstones, as far as at present 

 known, are less micaceous than usual. The millstone grit, 

 upon which the European coal measures usually rest, has not 

 been observed under this formation; or if it does exist, its 

 thickness must be insignificant; but it seems probable that 

 the formation was originally covered unconformably with the 

 grit, because it appears to be the only rack on the summits of 

 Dan's and Savage mountains, where it lies horizontally. 

 Detached fragments of it are frequently seen on the present 

 surface of the coal basin. 



