White Lias Limestone. 



41 



Section of White Lias Limestone Strata^ on the ^* Clear Fork^^ of 



the Little MusMngim. 



Order, ascending. — Dip S. E. 



Fig. 5. 



Bed of the Creek. 



1. Limestone; compact; dark; carbonaceous; in beds of six 

 incbes to two feet in tbickness. It is destitute of fossil sbells at this 

 point, but on Papaw creek, a few miles south, contains orthocera- 

 tites of more than a foot in length, in sparry lime rocik, resting on a 

 bed of light blue clay, filled with beautiful crystals of the sulphuret 

 of iron. — 8 feet. 



2. Bituminous coal ; slaty structure. This bed is nearly all pure 

 coal ; fracture brilliant, and in spots, having the appearance of being 

 melted, or made fluid by heat. It rests on the limestone below, and 

 has a roof of the white variety, whh a very thin bed of shell between. 

 Its specific gravity is 1 .38, being very near that of the cannel coal. 

 It contains about fifty-six per cent of charcoal ; twenty-two grains 

 decomposing one hundred of nitre ; forty grains burnt in a crucible, 

 leaving twenty-two grains of coak. 



3. Water lime, in thin beds, and not so firm and compact as the 

 bed above, reposing on the coal- — 6 feet. 



4. Achloritic rock» This bed has all the outward characters of 

 chlorite. Its fracture is rough and splintery, breaking into cunei- 

 form fragments; saponaceous; not easily scratched with the nail, 

 but may be cut with a knife. Its color is a deep, almost verdi- 

 gris, green. The chemical constituents of chlorite, silex, alu- 



feet. 



Vol. XXIX.— No. 1. 



6 



