10 KANSAS ACADEMY OF SCIENCE. 



is no town or city at Stilson. Each coal company has built houses to rent 

 to its miners, so that from a distance there is quite an appearance of four 

 different villages. A careful study of this vein shows two important facts : 

 First, That although varying in different places, its general dip is to the 

 northwest, and is but a few feet to the mile. Second, That since the coal has 

 been formed and compressed to its present solidity, there has been sufficient 

 disturbance to form a great many breaks or fissures in the coal itself. 



1. At the shaft north of Stilson, in section 5, a drift has been carried 

 225 yards to the north. In this distance the vein dipped thirteen feet. But 

 this is very unusual. At almost all other shafts the floor is so nearly level 

 that in a drift of 200 yards there is not enough rise or fall to be detected 

 without careful measurements. The depth of the coal is from 28 to 40 feet. 

 The various places marked where the mines have been worked by stripping 

 are all on low ground, in ravines, or near to them. Just how far southeast 

 this vein extends is not known, but it does not extend to Columbus, as is 

 shown by a drilled well, which has been sunk 150 feet without striking it. 

 This 150 feet consists of sandstone, shale and fire clay, and it is rumored 

 that two or three thin veins of coal have also been passed through, although 

 this is denied by the parties in charge of the enterprise. 



Northeast of these mines the same vein is worked at Opolis and Pittsburg. 

 These localities were not visited by the writer, but it is understood that the 

 depths of the shafts there are in general the same as the depths of the Cher- 

 okee county shafts. In any of these places a variation of surface level 

 would cause a corresponding variation ot the depth of the coal. 



With these data as guides, an attempt has been made to locate the south- 

 eastern limit of this very important vein of coal. The deep-violet line on 

 the accompanying map is intended to represent this limit. It is interesting 

 to note that this line is almost parallel with the line marking the boundary 

 between the Coal-measures and the Sub-carboniferous with the line connect- 

 ing the principal lead and zinc mining towns, from which-.it is distant about 

 fifteen miles, and finally with the general trend of the Ozark mountains 

 themselves. 



A few miles northwest of Stilson, a 12 to 14-inch surface vein is worked. 

 It is not known whether this is a continuous vein, or whether it is only local. 

 This question is of no small importance; because only a few miles northwest, 

 and therefore only a few feet higher geologically, there is an extensive lime- 

 stone formation. This is the first limestone after the Sub-carboniferous, and 

 between those two lie all of the above-mentioned coal veins. One and a half 

 miles east of Sherman City, a boring of 200 feet found no coal. Fifteen 

 miles east of Thayer, a vein, supposed to be the Weir City vein, was reached 

 at 400 feet. For these statements I am indebted to Mr. R. E. Jenness, of 

 Stilson. 



Thayer has an elevation of 1,054 feet above sea level, and the point 15 

 miles east is about the same height. Stilson is 914 feet above sea level. 



