CASS AND MENARD COUNTIES. 165 



lively angular outlines, and unworn surfaces, evidences that they have not been 

 transported far from their original beds. Some of these latter, near the mouth 

 of the shaft, are of such size and in such positions, as to appear like a natural 

 outcrop of the Coal Measure rocks, and might perhaps be taken for such, were 

 it not for the incontestible proof to the contrary afforded by the rocks them- 

 selves. Throughout the western portion of this district, good sections of this 

 formation are rarely met with, and accurate information as to its details cannot 

 be obtained. Its thickness, however, may be put down approximately, as at 

 least averaging sixty or seventy feet, over the greater part of this region. 



Coal Measures. This formation, as developed in this district, comprises a 

 thickness of over three hundred feet of the middle and lower portion of the 

 series, and contains two or three seams of coal of workable thickness. The 

 best development appears to be to the eastward, the westernmost exposures 

 being also the lowest in stratigraphical position, and the higher beds appearing 

 as we travel east. The principal exposures, commencing with the lowest, are as 

 follows : 



In the southwest part of section 21, township 18, range 11, where the road 

 between Virginia and Beardstown comes down through the bluffs to the bottom 

 lands along the Illinois river, there are several old coal shafts, only one of 

 which, (Mr. Kinney's,) is now worked. This is reported to have afforded the 

 following section : 



FEET. 



1. Soil, (Loess.) 15 



2. Brownish sandstone, containing many vegetable impressions 13 



3. Limestones, (" Blue rock.") 2 



4. Clay Shale, (" Soapstone.") , 12 



5. Coal, (No. 1 of Illinois river section.) 3 



6. Fire clay, very hard -4 



No. 2 of this section crops out along the bluff road, at the edge of the bluffs, 

 and a few rods farther west, in ledges several feet in vertical exposure. It is a 

 soft micaceous sandstone, of a light brown, or whitish-brown color, and appears 

 slightly crumbling at this locality. About a quarter of a mile farther north, 

 the coal seam, No. 4. is reported to have been reached by digging in at the foot 

 of the bluff, and worked by stripping. Still farther to the northward, in the 

 northwest quarter of the same section, I noticed in an old quarry on the 

 side of the bluff, a little to the right of the wagon road, an exposure of about 

 ten feet in thickness of a heavy bedded sandstone, the same as that which is 

 met with in the shaft, and exposed on the roadside near by. A little farther 

 northeast, near the eastern line of section sixteen, the coal seam is said to 

 appear again, and to have been worked to a slight extent in the side of a ravine 

 about half a mile from the road. 



