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Notes on the Geology of Macon County^ Missouri. 



By W J McGee, U. S. Gelogisi. 



PREFATORY NOTE. 



During the summer of 1SS7 a company was organized in Macon, the 

 county seat of Macon county, Missouri, for the purpose of putting down 

 a prospect-bore to a depth of from 1,500 to 2,500 feet, as the developments 

 might indicate to be wise. The cost of boring was met by subscription 

 among the citizens. Workable coal-seams within limited depth, petro- 

 leum or natural gas or both at greater depths, or, failing in all else, arte- 

 sian water, were the desiderata. 



Partly to render the record of the boring valuable to science, and partly 

 to secure the advantages of scientific direction and prognostication, the 

 leading citizens and municipal officers united in requesting the Director 

 of the United States Geological .Survey to have made such a study of the 

 local geology as the circumstances appeared to require ; and these notes 

 represent the results of the hasty survey inaugurated in response to this 

 request. 



The tract specially studied includes the west halves of townships 56 

 and 57 north, range 13 west, the whole of townships 56 and 57 north, 

 range 14 west, and the east halves of townships 56 and 57 north, range 15 

 west; or, in civil townships, the west_^halves of Round Grove and Middle 

 Fork, the whole of Hudson and Narrows, and the east halves of Bevier 

 and Chariton. It is exhibited upon the accompanying rough map, Fig. i« 

 Most of the exposures (including all of the more important) in this area 

 of 144 square miles were carefully examined. 



TOPOGRAPHY. 



The "grand divide" between the Missouri and Mississippi riv- 

 ers extends from north to south through the middle of the tract 

 studied. West of this divide the main drainage is to the south- 

 ward in a series of nearly parallel streams, flowing in dispropor- 

 tionately large valleys only a few miles apart, into which fall 

 numerous small and short but widely -branching secondaries, 

 generally flowing in narrow, steep-bluffed ravines. East of the 



V. — 1 — 20 [Aug. 24, 1S8S. 



