MORGAN COUNTY, 153 



am inclined to consider it above the coal in stratigraphical position. If other- 

 wise, its presence here must be due to a fault, of which we have no other 

 evidence. 



Other localities, of probably this same vein of coal, are in the northwest cor- 

 ner of section 34, township 16, range 12, and in the southern part of sections 

 21 and 22 of the same township. The former of these localities is on the land 

 formerly owned by Mr. Robert McPherson, and the coal is said to have been 

 worked by drifting into the side of a small ravine. The bed was reported to be 

 about four feet in thickness. No satisfactory information as to the overlying 

 beds could be obtained. This coal bank is distant about half or three-quarters 

 of a mile from McPherson's shaft, already noticed as a locality of the lowest 

 seam, No. 1, of the Illinois river section. Its level is probably from forty to 

 fifty feet above the coal seam opened by the shaft. In the southeastern quarter 

 of the same section, I observed exposures of arenaceous shales and shaly sand- 

 stone, which I judged to be the overlying beds of this coal, and at one or two 

 points the exposures were from ten to fifteen feet in vertical thickness. 



In the southern part of section 22, the workings were scattered along the 

 bank of Coon run, for a distance of about half a mile. The coal was worked 

 by horizontal drifts, in the side of the bluff, all of which have been long dis- 

 used, and few particulars as to the vein itself, or its surroundings, could be ob- 

 tained. It was reported to be three feet or more in thickness. A short dis- 

 tance below the coal diggings, limestone is reported to occur in the bed of the 

 stream, but this was not visible at the time of my visit. It is possible that 

 the coal in this locality may be No. 1, although from the position of the dig- 

 gings, I had thought it more probably No. 2. 



In the northwest corner of section 18, township 15, range 11, at the point 

 where the Toledo, Wabash and Western railroad crosses the Mauvais-terre, 

 there is an exposure on the side of the bluff, and in the railroad cutting, of 

 thirty feet or more of shaly sandstone and arenaceous shales. The shaly beds 

 may be traced along the stream for a distance of between a quarter and a half 

 a mile from the bridge, where they finally disappear, and above this point along 

 the stream, and indeed in the whole northeastern portion of the county, there 

 are no prominent exposures of any of the beds of the older formations. 



On Willow Branch, in the southeast quarter of section 19, township 15, 

 range 11, I observed the following section, in a small quarry near the road- 

 crossing : 



FEET. 



1. Shale, slightly argillaceous at top, and passing downwards into a shaly sandstone, 



containing concretions with indistinct vegetable impressions 6 



2. Massive, brownish-white sandstone, containing a few imperfectly preserved impres- 



sions of plants 12 



3. Clay shale, only exposed at one or two points in the lower bed of the quarry. . . 6 or 7 inches. 



20 



