PAPERS OX GEOLOGY AND GEOGRAPHY 383 



COAL EESOUECES OF SOUTHEEX ILLINOIS 



COUXTIES JUST XOETH OF THE OZAEK 



OUTLIEE 



W. G. Latheop. Johxstox City 



The Illinois coal field is a spoon-shaped basin with 

 the Duquoin anticline at the west edge, the LaSalle anti- 

 cline at the east edge, and the Ozark uphft at the south. 

 From the foothills of the Ozarks and from the Duquoia 

 anticline where the beds appear at the surface, the coal 

 seams deepen to the east and north at the rate of from 

 forty to sixty feet per mile, reaching their maxunnm 

 depth of 1200 feet in "White Comity or vicinity. It is 

 the coal resources of the southern comities of this basin 

 that I desire to discuss in this paper. 



The coal beds of the state are all found in the Pennsyl- 

 vania series of the carboniferous system and are num- 

 bered from one to seven upward from the bottom. The 

 producing beds included in this discussion are number 

 two, or Murphysboro, number five, or Harrisburg, and 

 number six or Herrin. Seam number six. known as the 

 '•blueband" coal, is the greatest single producing seam 

 in the state, having an average thickness of nine feet, 

 five inches. Coal number five lies about twenty-five feet 

 below the number six, and has an average thickness of 

 four and one-third feet. Vein number two varies in 

 thickness from one to six feet.^^^ 



COMPAEATIVE PRODUCTION 



The bituminous coal field of Illinois underlies three- 

 fourths of the state. Eighty-five counties share in the 

 wealth of this, the greatest of bituminous fields. It was 

 estimated by the State Geological Survey in 1907 that the 

 original deposits in Illinois amounted to 136,966,000,000 

 ton^. At that time the Survey estimated that 645,868.309 

 tons had been mined. Based upon an average of 62% 

 recovery in mining, there had been mined and wasted in 

 1907 about 891,00\^,000 tons.(=> Since 1907 there have 

 been mined and wasted 677,747,615 tons of coal in Illinois 

 fields. ('> This gives a total of 2,205,858,000 tons of coal 



