100 GEOLOGY OF ILLINOIS. 



ness often or twelve feet, and then thinning out entirely in a distance of a few 

 rods. It affords a softer and lighter coal than that from No. 4, and in this re- 

 spect, it bears some resemblance to the coal from No 6. A section of the Cuba 

 coal shaft, including the beds below, down to the horizon of No. 4 coal, is as 

 follows : 



FEET. IN. 



Hard blue limestone 8 to 4 



Black slate 1 " 2 



Coal No. 6 6 



Fire clay 5 



Nodular limestone, with Ckcetetes milleporaceous 4 6 



Clay shale 6 



Limestone 1 6 



Sandstone and shale ... 5 



Limestone 1 



Black shale 9 



CoalNo.5 4" 5 



Shale 30 



Black slate 2 



Coal, No. 4 6 



In the vMJinity of Canton, the horizon of this coal is exposed at many points, 

 where no indication of coal is seen. This is the seam worked in the shaft at 

 Cuba, and it affords a tolerably soft coal, that burns freely and leaves but little 

 clinker. 



At Mr. John Williams's place, five miles and a half northeast of Canton, 

 there are two coal seams exposed in the same hill-side, and both are directly 

 overlaid by sandstone. I am inclined to regard them as coals 5 and 6, and 

 they are separated by about thirty feet of sandstone, very similar in its appear- 

 ance to that usually found overlying No. 6. These coal seams average about 

 four feet and a half in thickness, and the sandstone forms a very good roof. 

 These are the only points in the county where we found No. 5 sufficiently well 

 developed to be of any practical value, though it is quite probable that it may 

 be found elsewhere. It usually lies about midway between coals 4 and 6, or 

 thirty feet above the former, and about the same distance below the latter, and 

 when either of these seams are found, the horizon of No. 5 can readily be de- 

 termined. 



Coal No. 6 is the highest coal in the series that has been worked to any ex- 

 tent in this county, and it affords an excellent coking coal, and also a better 

 smith's coal than is usually obtained from either of the lower seams. On our 

 first visit to this county, in 1859, we found this seam opened at Mr. Piper's 

 place, two miles north of Canton ; at Mr. Burton's place, two and a half miles 

 north of Farmington, and it was also worked by Mr. Burbridge at that time, 

 about three miles west of Farmington, on Little's creek. More recently, it has 



