242 KANSAS ACADEMY OF SCIENCE. 



I have carefully weighed 10 specimens — two from each mine in the dis- 

 trict — and find the average specific gravity of Leavenworth coal to be 1.283. 

 This gives 80 pounds 3 ounces as the weight of a cubic foot of Leavenworth 

 coal. That is, a cubic foot is almost identical with a bushel. 



This may be compared with some English and Pennsylvania coal, whose 

 specific gravities are as follows: 



Newcastle coal (Hartley mine) 1.29 



Wigan "four feet" 1.20 



Pennsylvania 1.40 



Leavenworth 1.283 



If we estimate that the length of the coal vein be extended to 10 miles and 

 the breadth of it as now known be increased one mile, which is an extremely 

 low estimate, we should have an area of 40 square miles, which, with the aver- 

 age thickness before given of 22 5-12 inches, would give a total of 2,088,136,000 

 bushels. This, at the rate of output for 1891 (7,479,406 bushels) would last 280 

 years, or if the rate of output were doubled would hold out 140 years, which 

 might be reckoned from 1885. 



I have previously stated that a lower coal vein has been proved at four 

 places within the district. If its average thickness were taken at 18 inches 

 over the same area the present output might be doubled and the coal would 

 still last over 200 years. It is probably safe to predict that before that time 

 other fuels will be largely used. Of these we shall speak further on. 



In 1888 a boring was made at Tonganoxie to a depth of 852 feet. The last 

 22 inches is given in the drill record as coal of the best quality, and it is 

 claimed that it is Leavenworth coal. The upper part is very different in its 

 succession of strata from the Brighton mine, which is the nearest of the 

 Leaven^yo^th mines, but the lower part shows some similarity in the occur- 

 rence of sandstones, black shales, thin coal and fire clay; so that there is no 

 good reason to doubt that coal is there, and if not actually a continuation of 

 the Leavenworth main coal it is not far from the same horizon. If it were 

 the same seam the area of the coal field would have to be taken at double or 

 treble the estimated area given above. A consideration of the south by west 

 trend of the elongation of the other veins of coal in Kansas is in favor of ex- 

 pecting continuity of the Leavenworth vein in the direction of Tonganoxie. 



It is a well known fact that coal seams run out in the course of a few miles 

 in given directions, and are replaced by shales or other deposits. The con- 

 verse of this is also true, that in the opposite direction the shale sometimes be- 

 comes coal. If then a seam of coal should be found very thin at some spot 

 and it were known not to exist at all in a given direction, it might possibly 

 be found a vein of workable thickness and high quality in the opposite direc- 

 tion. If, then, in the future it should be desirable to make a test with a 

 diamond drill in the valley of Little Stranger, besides the coal near the sur- 

 face, already described, the 8-inch, 7- and 10-inch veins of the penitentiary 

 shaft (at 575, 606 and 670 feet, respectively) might possibly be found each 

 about 100 feet deeper, and one or more of them might give a workable coal, 

 before the horizon of the main vein was reached. 



Of the heat-producing power of the coals of Kansas, Professor Blake, of 

 the state tiuiversity, has made a full comparative report, in which he says: 

 "The coals depreciate in their steam-producing powers from the southeastern 

 part of the state toward the north and west," but Leavenworth coal is so far 

 an exception to this rule that in the tables it is bracketed with the Cherokee 



