A CENTURY OF GEOLOGY IN INDIANA. 113 



and the lovers of the profoundly sublime, we would recommend a visit to 

 Wyandotte Cave — it will amply repay the time, labor and expense of a visit." 



In this report of Dr. Brown we find also the first written words praising 

 the qualities of the Indiana oolitic limestone. He states that at that time 

 it was being shipped from a quarry near Bedford for use in the construction 

 of the United States Custom House at Louisville, that the face of the quarry 

 "exposes one stratum of eight feet in thickness without a seam, or the slight- 

 est fault. By means of wedges, blocks may be split the whole thickness and 

 of any desirable length. The accuracy and ease with which it may be split, 

 its softness when fresh from the quarry, its beautiful whiteness when dry, 

 its durability and great strength renders it all that could be desired as a stone 

 for building purposes. The same rock, with slight local variations, extends 

 to Gosport; occupying a band of country about ten miles in width, traversed 

 in its whole length by the New Albany and Salem Railroad. At Mount 

 Tabor near Gosport, a variety of this stone is now being worked which 

 receives a high polish, and presents a finely variegated appearance, being 

 indeed an excellent and beautiful marble." 



Attention is called for the first time also to the Falls of Eel River and the 

 statement made that he "knows of no place which combines greater advantages 

 for manufacturing. The location is six miles southwest of the railroad, but 

 a single lock of a six feet lift in a mill dam at Millgrove will connect the falls 

 with the railroad by slack water. This location should be in the hands of 

 a manufacturing company with capital sufficient to use all the power afford- 

 ed." These words were written 63 years ago and for that many years this 

 source of power has been neglected. 



Twelve of the 34 pages of the report are devoted by Dr. Brown to a 

 description of the coal measures of the State, especially those north of the 

 National Road, and the only illustration given is a double page geologic 

 section on the Wabash River near Lodi, Fountain County, in which six veins 

 of coal, ranging in thickness from 18 inches to 12 feet, are shown. The 12- 

 foot vein probably includes some black shale or else Dr. Brown drew on his 

 imagination, as later records show no such seam in that locality. 



No mention is made of the block coal of Clay County, though it had been 

 discovered in 1851. The statement is made that at that time (1853) coal was 

 being mined more extensively near Cannelton, Perry County than at any 

 other place in the State. "An able and energetic company under the title 

 of the 'American Cannel Coal Company,' has possession of about 7,000 

 acres of coal lands on the immediate bank of the Ohio River. About 500,000 

 bushels of coal are mined annually at this point, the greater part of which is 

 consumed by steamboats on the Ohio and Mississippi rivers. In the proximity 

 of an infallible market, and in the energy and ample capital of the company, 

 consists the main advantage of Cannelton as a mining locality. The principal, 

 and indeed, the only workable seam of coal, is the equivalent of No. 3 in my 

 Lodi section. Now, each section or square mile of this coal seam will yield 

 about one hundred millions of bushels. Other localities in the State have at 



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