FULTON COUNTY. 99 



FEKT. 



Black slate, with limestone nodules 3 



Coal No. 4 5 



Below the coal, there is a bed of septaria limestone, from three to four feet, 

 and below that, a fire clay, three or four feet in thickness, passing downward 

 into clay shale. This seam affords a heavy coal, rich in bitumen, and contains 

 from thirty-five to forty per cent, of volatile matters, and from fifty-five to fifty- 

 six per cent, of fixed carbon. At his middle shaft, a little further down on 

 Big creek, the outcrop of coal No. 6 may be seen about sixty five feet above 

 No. 4, with no indications of the presence of No. 5 at this point. The coal 

 from the two shafts near Canton, finds a market mainly on the line of the T. 

 P. & "W. railroad, while that at St. Davids, three miles below, finds a ready 

 market on the Lewiston branch of the C. B. & Q. railroad, now completed from 

 Rushville to Galesburg. 



At Breed's Station, on the T. P. & W. railroad, about six miles east of Can- 

 ton, a tunnel has been opened in this seam, by Mr. J. R. Breed. The coal 

 averages about five feet in thickness at this mine, and has a good roof of black 

 slate, from two and a-half to three feet in thickness. The coals Nos. 5 and 6, 

 or 6 and 7, are said to outcrop in the hills in this vicinity, but have not been 

 opened. The upper two feet of the coal at this mine, appears to be quite free 

 from iron pyrites, and is reputed a good smith's coal. A band of iron ore, re- 

 sembling "Black Band Ore," was observed in connection with this coal, but 

 apparently too thin to be of any practical importance. This seam outcrops at 

 various points on Copperas creek, and may be conveniently worked by tunnels 

 in the hill sides, or in open trenches, where it underlies the creek valley. 



About two miles southeast of Cuba, we found this seam opened in 1859, on 

 the land then owned by Mr. John Winterbottom. The coal at this locality 

 ranges from four and a half to five feet in thickness, and is overlaid by about 

 three feet of black slate, with concretions of argillaceous limestone. This seam 

 affords a coal of good quality, in this vicinity, hard, bright, and generally quite 

 free from iron pyrites. We also saw the outcrop of No. 4, about a mile north 

 of Cuba, where it was found, by measurement, to be thirty-two feet below No. 

 5. Northwest of Fairview, this seam is worked at several points on the breaks 

 of Coal creek, where it presents its usual thickness and appearance. It may 

 be fairly considered as the most valuable of all the coals outcropping in this 

 county, from its wide extent, and the average quality of the coal which it 

 affords. 



No. 5 appears to be quite local in its development, and we found it worked 

 only in the vicinity of Cuba, where it ranges from four to five feet in thick- 

 ness, but it has also been found at two or three points in the vicinity of Can- 

 ton, where it occurs in local basins, or " pockets," sometimes attaining a thick- 



