ADAMS COUNTY. 49 



above which there is a thin seam of bituminous shale and soft coal, indicating 

 the horizon of another coal seam, which has been opened on another branch of 

 the creek, about half a mile southeast of Ferguson's mine. The coal in this 

 upper seam, which we refer to No. 3, is only from eighteen to twenty inches 

 in thickness, and is full of iron pyrites, at the only point where it had been 

 opened in this vicinity. It is overlaid by about two feet of black slate, and by 

 eighteen to twenty feet of sandstone. 



A mile and a half southwest of Ferguson's, on section 19, coal has been 

 mined for several years, by stripping the seam along the valley of a small 

 creek, a tributary of Bear creek, but the mines are now abandoned. 



On Little Missouri creek, six miles northeast of Clayton, coal is dug in the 

 same manner, by stripping the seam in the creek valley. The seam is here 

 about twenty-eight inches thick, and the coal is of good quality. This is on 

 section 12, township 1 north, range 5 west. On the southeast quarter of sec- 

 tion 12, township 2 north, range 5 west, this seam has been worked on Cedar 

 creek. The coal is here about thirty inches thick, and is underlaid by a white 

 fire clay, and overlaid by fifteen or twenty feet of clay shale. 



On the southwest quarter of section 34, township 1 north, range 5 west, 

 about a mile southwest of Clayton, a thin seam of coal was opened in the early 

 settlement of this part of the county, where the coal outcrops on a small branch 

 of McGee's creek. The coal was found to be only from fourteen to sixteen 

 inches thick, and was overlaid by four feet of black shale, which contained a 

 few fossil shells, among which were, Discina nitida, and an Aviculo-pecten. 

 This is, perhaps, coal No. 3, of the above section. On the northeast quarter of 

 section 36, township 2 north, range 8 west, coal was dug at an early day on 

 Mr. Higby's land. The coal was found here in the bed of a small creek, with 

 no exposure of the beds associated with it, and was mined by stripping the 

 seam of the overlying soil and clay. It was said to be from two to three feet 

 in thickness, with six inches of blue shale, and about a foot of black shale 

 above it. The coal was rather poor in quality, and is probably an outlier of 

 the lower seam, No. 1. The coal was underlaid by sandstone, which was ex- 

 posed near by, and a half mile southwest of this point, the concretionary lime- 

 stone of the St. Louis group was found in situ. 



South of Clayton, the country becomes quite rolling and hilly, but the 

 ravines seldom expose the bed rock, and no coal is found outcropping, though 

 it probably underlies most of the surface, north of McGee's creek. After 

 crossing this creek at Hughes's ford, coal is found in the bluff on the south 

 side, on section 28, township 2 south, range 5 west, while below ifc, are outcrops 

 of the St. Louis and Keokuk limestones, the latter forming the bed rock in the 

 creek valley. The coal seam has been opened here by Mr. Luke Snow, at two 

 points ; one in the face of the bluff, where a tunnel has been commenced, and 

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