KANSAS ACADEMY OF SCIENCE. H 



This gives 230 feet for the difference in elevation of the coal, if we reckon 

 from the Weir City vein, and fully 300 feet, if we reckon from the surface 

 vein referred to. The distance between the two points is 25 miles. This gives 

 a dip of 9 feet to the mile for the Weir City vein, and of 12 feet to the mile 

 should the coal found prove to be the surface vein above mentioned. But 

 there can be no figures obtained which can be looked upon as being even 

 approximately correct, until we can obtain an accurate topographical survey 

 of the southeastern portion of the State 



2. My investigations have led me to believe that "faults" should be 

 looked for in this part of the State. In all of these mines are a great many 

 "horse-backs," or almost vertical seams of fire clay passing through the coal. 

 A number of these were carefully examined, and without exception they 

 were found to be true breaks in the coal, the irregularities of one side corre- 

 sponding almost exactly with those of the other. In some instances the 

 openings or fissures were seen to penetrate the shale above for as much as 

 eight feet, and had the clay which filled them been removed, they would 

 doubtless have been seen to extend much farther. 



That these were made after the coal was perfectly solidified, is shown by 

 the angles on the roughly-broken edges of the coal itself. In some casesj 

 fragments of coal are imbedded in the fire-clay filling, and these also look to 

 be fragments broken from perfectly solidified coal. It is difficult to ascer- 

 tain the width of the fissures, because the tunnels seldom strike them at right- 

 angles. Some are not more than twenty inches thick, while others are eight 

 or ten feet. Their directions vary; even the same fissure does not follow the 

 same course, but in general they trend northeast and southwest. Is it pos- 

 sible that they could have been formed by the northwestern portion of the 

 strata being lowered or raised, while the southeastern remained stationary? 



The sandstone and shales are very poor in fossils. I was fortunate enough 

 to secure a very perfect specimen of the ammonite family. This was found 

 in the shale immediately over the Weir City vein. It is of great interest, 

 because, being a marine fossil, it shows that just after the deposition of the 

 coal the surface was for a time covered by salt water. That this time was 

 very short, is proved by the absence of a limestone formation. 



