STEVENSON, COAL BASIN OF DECAZEVILLE, FRANCE 259 



into a pocket between the two rigid conglomerates. On this bench, the 

 double fold becomes more intricate, for the westerly wrinkle has been 

 pushed past the vertical, the conglomerate underlies the coal, while the 

 shaly mass above the conglomerate shares in. the fold. On the easterly 

 side, the conglomerate rests on the eroded surface of No. 6, but at a few 

 feet away it has the same dip as Nos. 8 to 16, which underlie the badly 

 crushed and contorted mass, No. 7. 



The highest exposure of the coal is on the sixth bench, where it is over- 

 lain by shale. The coal rises to not more than three feet above the floor 

 of this bench. Thirty feet away on the easterly side the conglomerate is 

 at the floor; at the crest of the fold, it is 10 or 12 feet; at 25 feet away 

 toward the southwest it is again at the floor. But in the latter interval 

 it describes an extremely close fold; the two conglomerates are almost in 

 contact ; the shaly mass has been so squeezed that barely one foot of shale 

 separates the conglomerates, the rest being in the pocket seen on the 

 lower bench. This shale has laminae of carbonaceous matter, which pass 

 down vertically alongside of the conglomerate, in which the pebbles have 

 their longer axis almost vertical. 



The distortion of the conglomerate is most marked on the southwesterly 

 side of the fold, the dip being quite regular on the opposite side. The 

 severe effect of the crush was expended on the coal and the shaly beds 

 above the first conglomerate, which moved between the massive beds above 

 and below, giving local faulting in the coal and local crumpling in the 

 shales. Higher up on the hillside, where one reaches the thicker con- 

 glomerates, evidence of extreme distortion is wholly wanting, and the 

 dips throughout are comparatively regular. 



The easterly outcrop of the Campagnac-Paleyrets coal bed has been 

 followed northwardly beyond Eiou Mort to the Lot Eiver at the north 

 end of the basin. The Grande Faille de Bagnaud evidently crosses Eiou 

 Mort Just west from Decazeville, for the conglomerates of the Campagnac 

 system are reached at little more than 50 rods north from that stream; 

 but no trace of them appears in the hills west from Decazeville, where 

 apparently all of the deposits belong to the Bourran or highest system. 



The Campagnac conglomerates appear rather abruptly on the road 

 leading northward from Decazeville to Levinhac by way of the hamlet of 

 les Estaques, and they remain in sight almost continuously until one 

 passes beyond the Bouquies mine near the river. Those conglomerates, 

 in beds 6 to 20 feet thick, alternate with fine grained sandstones and ar- 

 gillaceous shales, 8 to 10 feet thick, showing alternations of torrential and 

 moderate flow in the stream which supplied the material. The pebbles, 

 often flattened in shape, are one to three inches long, but many of them 



