d4 TRANSACTIONS OF THE [Nov. 18, 
The McAlester bed, about midway in this division, attains its 
chief importance near the Missouri, Kansas and Texas railroad, 
being mined at McAlester, Krebs and Alderson, It is from 3’ 
6’ to 4’ thick at McAlester, but before reaching Arkansas, ac- 
cording to Mr. Mitchell, the Choctaw Coal Company’s prospec- 
tor, it becomes too thin to be of any importance. The coal is 
good, but is is somewhat tender, and does not bear handling so 
well as does that from the Grady bed; it gives off abundant 
soot in burning. This bed was worked at one time near Savanna, 
south from McAlester, but the mine was abandoned owing to in- 
creasing steepness of dip. Probably the same bed is mined at 
Lehigh and Coalgate,about ten miles northwest from Atoka, on 
a branch of the M. K. and T. railroad, about 35 miles from Mc- 
Alester; the coal is said to be equally g ‘good. 
The coals show a notable decrease eastward in the amount of 
volatile, as one might expect from the Arkansas conditions de- 
scribed by Mr. Winslow. The variations are best shown in the 
Grady coal, as the analyses of that bed have been made from 
samples collected at mines in several basins between Hartshorne 
and the Arkansas line. They were made by Mr. A. S. McCreath 
for Dr. Chance. The fuel ratios are as follows: 
1. Average of 8 analyses in Grady basin ............ whee stleene 
2. Average of 2 analyses in McKinney basin 10 miles east. 1.35 
3. Coal from Bryan mine, 20 miles further east ........... 2.10 
4. Coal from pit in Mitchell basin near Arkansas line......3.77 
The especial interest lies in the fact that the decrease in vola- 
tile bears no relation to the disturbance in the strata, there being 
no increase of disturbance eastward in Indian Territory or in 
Arkansas; on the contrary, the disturbance of the rocks shows 
little change in the Territory, while in Arkansas it practically dis- 
appears as one approaches the area of semi-anthracite. 
The rocks of the Appleton and Danville stages below the Cross 
Plains sandstone are not exposed except in a fragmentary way 
in the shallow ditches through which petty streams flow. That 
sandstone makes a well defined ridge, which is the southern 
boundary of the coal region proper. The lower beds are almost 
wholly shale, only one bed of sandstone, very thin, being rigid 
enough to form a ridge. 
The coal area is cut off abruptly at the south, between the 
Arkansas line and the Missouri, Arkansas and Texas railroad, by 
a limestone ridge or rather a succession of ridges, there being 
at least six of them south from Hartshorne. An exposure of 
shale at a few rods from the most northerly ridge shows a north- 
ward dip, while the limestone in all of the ridges crossed near 
