VERMILION COUNTY. 247 



. FEET. 



96. Flint 10 lOin. 



97. Compact limestone, with flint 22 



98. Magnesian " " 2310 " 



99. Soft, fine sandstone 5 



100. Compact, fine sandstone 10 



101. Gray limestone 6 



102. Hard drab to the semi-crystalline limestone, with drusy cavities 28 10 " 



No. 1, of the foregoing section, as already stated, is a lig;ht drab or fawn 

 colored, fine grained, sub-crystalline to massive limestone, in some parts quite 

 pure, in others somewhat shaly and slightly ferruginous. It is generally quite 

 fossiliferous, containing Productus, 2 or 3 sp., Spirifer lineatus, S. cameratus, 

 Atliyris subtilita, Terebratula bovidens, etc. The only known outcrops in this 

 county, are near Big Spring, south of Fairmount, on section 16, township 18 

 north, range 13 west, and for two or three miles south and west of this point. 

 The bed is here said to be from fifteen to eighteen feet thick, though the bot- 

 tom has never been certainly reached, and only from five to ten feet are now 

 exposed. Some lime has been burned here, and considerable portions of the 

 bed seem well fitted for that use. It is too irregular, and breaks up too readily 

 with the frost to be of any value as a building stone. The same bed occurs at 

 several points in Edgar county, where portions of it afford very solid stone, 

 fitted for any rough work, such as foundations and culverts. The supposed 

 outcrop of this rock at Osborn's mill, on Salt Fork, a half mile east of the 

 county line, is only one of the large drifted masses before mentioned. From 

 below this limestone, flow very strong springs ; therefore, although there is no 

 outcrop of rock on the south side of the water-shed toward the Little Vermil- 

 ion, where we should naturally expect to find it, I am inclined to consider the 

 strong springs on the land of John M. Sidell, near the west line of township 

 17 north, range 13 west, on the north side of the Little Vermilion, as pretty 

 good signs of its presence at that point. Still, some other circumstances may 

 have given exit at that point to the water, which, in both cases, doubtless comes 

 from the great water-bearing quicksand of Champaign county. 



Below this limestone, there is in the section a space of undetermined thick- 

 ness and character, since no outcrop has been found which will give a con- 

 nected view of this and the sandstone beds numbered "2," and no borings have 

 been made in this neighborhood to decide the matter. It is entirely possible 

 that the limestone belongs below this sandstone, and is simply missing from its 

 place in the section along Salt Fork, in consequence of having been removed 

 by the heavy erosion which the beds in that region evidently suffered before 

 the deposition of the sandstone No. 2. There is, however, at present, no suf- 

 ficient reason for believing this. 



