STEVENSON, GOAL BASIN OF DECAZEVILLE, FRANCE 253 



Pits have been opened at several places between Sainte Genevieve and 

 Cransac; near the latter place, the Compagnie des Mines de Cransac has 

 removed the coal by open workings, or decouvertes, from an extensive 

 area, and now the mining is done in underground workings, which reach 

 westwardly for a long distance, the coal having been taken out to a dis- 

 tance of more than a kilometer from the shaft. Faults are very numer- 

 ous, and the coal varies from 33 to almost 100 feet in thickness. 



Exposures outside of the great decouvertes are so rare that any con- 

 tinuous section becomes interesting to the student. In going eastward 

 along the railroad from Cransac station, one comes to a through cut in 

 shales. These have been stripped alongside from a considerable space in 

 order to secure the ironstone which they contain. The succession, de- 

 scending, is, the thicknesses being estimated. 



Feet 



1. Dark shale with ironstone and streaks of coal 6 



2. Shales, mostly hard, weather yellowish, are gray or drab on 



fresh surface 6 



3. Shale, distorted, with irregular patches of coal toward the 



bottom 15 



4. Shales, rather hard, dark to brown, with some streaks of black 



band 8 



5. Shales with ironstone and coal streaks 3 



6. Coal and clay, with 3 inches of fireclay below 1 



7. Shale and coal streaks 5 



8. Shale, mostly drab, weathers dark 20 



9. Coal, irregular, with clay parting 1 



10. Fireclay 1 



11. Shale and conglomerate sandstone, with irregular pockets of 



coal 10 



12. Coal in lenses of 12 inches thickness, mingled with fireclay. . . 1 



13. Shale and sandstone, some conglomera<^e 9 



14. Sandstone and shale, with irregular lenses of coal 12 



No. 9 is thicker on the southern side of the railroad, and it is said to 

 reach three feet at some places, but it is always irregular. The under- 

 lying shales and sandstones rise very rapidly on that side toward the east, 

 and they are shown in somewhat distorted condition on the northerly side 

 where the Eulhe-Cransac road crosses the railroad. The dips there are 

 all westward, varying from 27 to 35 degrees, but on the other side of the 

 railroad, the dips in the same direction increase to 60 degrees. Evidently 

 the axis of a fold is near, but it is not exposed. The lenses of coal in No. 

 12 are apparently fragments of a small bed broken up during the sharj) 

 folding. No effort was made to determine the exact relations of this sec- 

 tion, but it is in the Campagnac system at a considerable distance above 

 the main coal bed ; judging from exposures elsewhere, the conditions may 



