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I then passed to Red Cedar Rivei-, where I removed from the coal 

 b«d by excavating the overlaying gravel and clay, and laying bare the 

 ooal bed to the extent of upwards of a thousand superficial square feet, 

 and following the dip, which I found to be some 8 or 10 feet in 100 

 feet, until I had reached a depth of about 15 feet below the surface. I 

 found the coal stratum to vary in thickness, from 3 feet to 28 inches, 

 The coal from this area, on being removed to the surface, amounting to 

 upwards of 50 tons, was found to be very pure, but as is usually the 

 caae with surface coal, was not compact, but easily broken up into small 

 parcels, and in a state readily shoveled up witliout blasting. I found the 

 coal bed overlaid by a very compact stratum of clay of about four feet 

 thick, and increasing in compactness and thickness in its descent along 

 the dip of the coal. This clay, as is uniformly the case, when found 

 in contiguity with coal in place, is of the description called fire clay. 

 The rock on which the coal rests, fumisl\es a good material for build- 

 incr purposes, and must justify its being quarried, for the i-eason that 

 none but scattered surface stone has been found in any direction with- 

 in 15 miles of this locality. It follows, that in the process of subter- 

 ranean mining of the coal, if drifts are sent in along the coal bed of 

 6 to 10 feet in height-, there will be no waste in rubbish, for the whole 

 mass of excavation will bo coal, rock and clay, each worth the cost of 

 excavation. 



It is essential, in order to obtain coal of approved quality, that the 

 dip of the coal bed should be followed down until it is removal beyond 

 atmospheric action, and the coal pressed down into a compact state, by 

 the weight of heavy superincumbent masses. 



It may be assumed that all the coal of the lower coal basin, is below 

 the water Ime, thus involving, in the process of mining, artificial or 

 steam power, for the purpose of pumping up the water and running up 

 the coal cars. The discovery, therefore, of the out crop and dip of the 

 coal stratum, is much more essential than a General Geological know- 

 ledge of the existence of a coal region. 



In addition to the evidence in the foregoing pages, of the coal fields 

 of this State, 1 may refer to the accomplished Geologist, Hitchcock, 

 who in a recent outline of the Geology of the Globe, assign-s to the 

 State of Michigan, a coal field of 12,000 square miles. 



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