MORGAN COUNTT. 161 



Economical Geology. 



Coal. As will be seen by the foregoing pages, at least four or five different 

 beds of coal appear in the surface outcrops and artificial excavations of this 

 county, several of which have been more or less extensively mined. In fact, 

 the whole surface of the county, excepting the Illinois bottoms, and a small 

 area immediately adjoining, is probably underlaid by one or more veins of coal. 

 The lowest of these, the No. 1, or Exeter coal, has been mined to some extent 

 along the river bluffs, near the northern border of the county, where the seam 

 is about two and a half feet thick. It is, also, probably, the seam that is 

 worked at McPherson's, and on Indian creek in section 4, township 16, ranjre 

 11, but beyond these points I have not identified it in any exposures within 

 the limits of the county. Although the coal of this seam is of a good quality, 

 yet it is not generally of sufficient thickness to be profitably mined, except 

 along the natural outcrops, or where it is only of comparatively insignificant 

 depth below the surface. 



The next seam above this, the Neelyville coal, is rather extensively worked 

 at that place. The seam here is about four feet thick, and only twelve or four- 

 teen feet below the surface at the principal diggings along the railroad. As, 

 however, it has no good natural roof, but is overlaid immediately by the clays 

 of the Drift, from six to twelve inches of coal has to be left for a roof, and 

 much trouble and expense must be incurred in cribbing. The coal is of good 

 quality, and is much used on the Toledo, Wabash and Western railway, and is 

 also sent elsewhere to market. 



The four-foot vein, which outcrops along Coal creek, in section 30, township 

 13, range 10, and which I have referred, with doubt, to No. 3 of the general 

 section, has been mined to some extent, but the works have been abandoned. 

 This bed contains some pyrites, disseminated throughout the mass, but when 

 sufficiently free from this material, the coal is reported to be of a very good 

 quality. 



The other veins of coal which are worked at all in this county, probably be- 

 long to the middle and upper Coal Measures, and as far as they have been 

 opened, are generally of comparatively slight thickness. It would seem proba- 

 ble, however, considering these beds to belong to the upper or middle parts of 

 the formation, that other and heavier seams of coal may be met with at greater 

 depths beneath the surface. All the borings which have been made in the 

 central part of the county seem to confirm this, as far as they go. The small 

 vein outcropping along Apple creek, in the southeastern part of the county, 

 is not easy to place in the general section. It probably is, also, in the middle 

 portion of the series, if not higher. The thickness is too slight to admit of its 

 being profitably worked, except by stripping, etc., along its outcrop. 

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