268 GEOLOGY OF ILLINOIS. 



Nos. 1 and 2 of this section are here given in general terms from the report 

 of the boring at Sutherland's distillery, two miles north of Paris. The out" 

 crop of the corresponding beds on Sugar creek, the only point where they were 

 seen, is so disconnected that a detailed section can not be made. With the ex- 

 ception of the limestone bands of No. 2, of which I can find no trace along 

 the outcrop, I am inclined to accept them as generally correct. Apparently 

 belonging near the top of No. 2, I found, at two or three points, about three 

 inches of shaly coal, overlaid by from one to two feet of black, slaty shale, with 

 pyritous nodules apparently of coprolitic origin, though no fossils were seen. 

 Of the shaly sandstone next beneath these beds, several layers will yield very 

 fair sized flag-stones, though they do not appear very durable. The coal must 

 represent seam " No. 13," according to the numbering adopted in these reports 

 for the Wabash valley coals. 



The bed of limestone numbered 3 in the section, was reported as being 

 twenty-five feet thick in the boring. The best outcrop seen is at the Roman 

 Catholic church, one mile east of Baldwinsville, where a small stream runs over 

 and exposes twelve or fifteen feet of its lower layers. These are partly compact, 

 partly shaly, and, near the base, contain several thin layers of green, shaly clay. 

 Fossils are tolerably abundant, but only of the most common species. The 

 higher layers of this bed are more solid, and have been quarried for culverts 

 and foundations at several points near the southeast corner of township 14 

 north, range 11 west. The lower layers have been quarried, to a small extent, 

 near Mr. Clinton's, on Lane's branch, in the northeast quarter of section 5, 

 township 13 north, range 11 west. They are here also quite thin and with 

 shaly partings, and contain great numbers of fine fossils, such as Athyris subtilita, 

 Spirifer cameratus, S. lineatus, Meekella striato-costata, Pleurotomaria turbini- 

 formis, Cyathaxonia prolifera, 3eliophyttum?p\&tes and spines of Palsechinus, etc. 

 On the main branch of Sugar creek, there is no exposed outcrop of this bed, 

 though the large masses of it lying in the bed of the stream, a short distance 

 above the railroad bridge, may be considered as indications that the bed is not 

 far off. Tumbling masses of this rock are also seen in considerable numbers 

 just at the county line on Big creek, but no outcrop was detected in this neigh- 

 borhood. 



On Barren fork of Big creek, at the Big creek mill, in the southwest quar- 

 ter of section 1, township 12 north, range 13 west, the-same bed outcrops, with 

 nearly the same fossils as on Lane's branch. Not more than ten feet of the 

 lower shaly portion of the bed is here exposed. In descending this fork, we 

 come to shaly sandstones, which, near the county line, and especially in the 

 neighboring part of Clark county, give place to very heavy bedded sandstones, 

 forming abrupt banks and cliff's of from ten to perhaps forty feet in hight. The 

 connection between these beds and the limestone was not exposed, and the dip 



