206 GEOLOGY OF ILLINOIS. 



them are not now worked. Some have been abandoned for years. Xone 

 of them have been worked with any great energy or capital; but the 

 aggregate amount of coal taken from them in past years has been im- 

 mense. The drifts extend back into the hills from fifty to two hundred 

 yards. The style of mining has been and now is very primitive. The 

 seam of coal is from three to four feet in thickness, and is underlaid 

 with a coarse fire clay, and overlaid in some places with soapstone ; in 

 others with a black shale; and in others still, with a massive, dirty- 

 white, heavy sandstone. The same seam of coal is mined at the mouth 

 of Tinsley's Bun, about a mile north of Sparlaud, where it presents the 

 same characteristics, and is found to be about the same altitude on the 

 sides of the bluffs. Following up Tinsley's Kun, in its devious windings 

 through the bluft's, outcrops of the same seam are abundant. From three 

 to four and a half or five miles north-west of Sparland, is another group 

 of mines, drifted into the hill sides, very similar to the group near Spar- 

 laud, and all belonging to the same coal seam. From two to three miles 

 north of Sparland, between that village aud Henry, and in the face of 

 the Illinois river bluffs, the coal has also been struck, and presents the 

 same general appearance. Several mines are close to the railroad track 

 in this last locality. A heavy company is running a drift into the bluffs 

 as I write this article. The intention is to fully prove the seam, and if 

 it will justify the outlay, to commence heavy and systematic coal mining 

 on a scale similar to the Coal Valley Company's operations in Rock Is- 

 land county. Indeed, I believe some of the Eock Island men are largely 

 interested in the enterprise. 



Below Sparland, at several places, for a distance of four or five miles, 

 indications of the same seam exist, but as yet it has not been exten- 

 sively worked in the latter localities. The fact is, this western bluff 

 range, for a distance of six or seven miles, being between a point about 

 three miles north of Sparland, and a point about four miles south of the 

 same place, and extending back a few miles into the hills, is all under- 

 laid with coal seams of more or less value. 



The quantity of coal already mined, as above stated, has been great. 

 Competition among the small miners brought down prices to the 

 lowest living rates, and caused the abandonment of many drifts, 

 w T here the show for coal was good. When capitalists and companies 

 commence working this seam on a large scale, many valuable beds, of 

 perhaps limited extent, will be discovered ; and the mineral wealth of 

 these Marshall county hills will add largely to the material resources of 

 the county. 



The quality of coal found in this seam is fair. The coal is somewhat 

 soft, of a dark or shining black color. It contains a considerable quan- 

 tity of iron pyrites, or "sulphur" of the miners. In a few places I no- 



