CASS AND MENARD COUNTIES. 173 



FEET. 



1. Hard limestone ........................................................... 2 



2. Pipeclay ................................................................ 10 



3. Shale, (" Soapstone." ...................................................... 40 



4. Limestone ................................................................. 3 



5. Black slate .............. ................................................. 5 



6. Coal ..................................................................... 5 



*7. Fire clay, not penetrated more than a few inches. 



The coal in this section is doubtless No. 4 of the general section, which will 

 probably be found to underlie the greater part of the northern portion of Me- 

 nard county. No. 6 had probably dwindled in thickness until it was not 

 detected in the boring, as its proper place would be between 1 and 2 of the 

 above section. This boring affords almost the only means of ascertaining with 

 any degree of accuracy the lay of the strata in the more northern parts of 

 Menard county. There remain only two or three isolated localities where the 

 beds of the older rocks have been met with in artificial excavations, and in 

 these instances, the facts necessary to enable one to form a correct judgment 

 are wanting. Near the center of the south line of section 12, township 19, 

 range 7, a bed of yellowish sandstone is said to have been once uncovered in 

 the side of the river bluffs. This is immediately overlaid by a silicious con- 

 glomerate, which I am not disposed to consider older than the Drift, and the 

 sandstone may very possibly be of the same age. Near the base of the bluffs, 

 not far from this point, I heard it reported that a small sixteen-inch vein of 

 coal had once been found, but is not now visible. Other localities where coal 

 is stated to have been found are, at the foot of the bluffs of the Sangamon, 

 near the center of section 3, township 19, range 7, and on Clary's creek, near 

 the center of the south line of section 27, township 19, range 8. In neither 

 of these localities were the beds visible, nor could any very satisfactory informa- 

 tion be obtained. 



Economical Geology. 



Coal. As has been stated in the foregoing pages, all parts of this district 

 appear to be underlaid by the Coal Measures, which here include the horizon 

 of four or five different seams of coal. It seems highly probable, indeed, that 

 there is no portion of the district, excepting the bottom lands along the Illi- 

 nois and Sangamon rivers, in the western part, that is not underlaid by at least 

 one coal bed of workable thickness. The lowest of these seams, which is 

 exposed or worked anywhere in this region is probably the coal No. 1 of the 

 general section of the State, identical with the Exeter coal of Scott county, 

 although it is possible that it may prove to be No. 2 of the general section, or 

 the same as the Neelyville coal, in Morgan county. The absence of black 



