BTJSI7J 



PEORIA COUNTY. 239 



these, with Spirifer cameratus. Eetzia pnnctulifcra and Platyostoma 

 < <V;/Ar, were obtained from the lower beds. WILLIAM GIFFOBD, Esq.. 

 obtained here a magnificent specimen of Chcetetes milleporaceous, about 

 two feet in diameter, by far the largest specimen of the kind yet found 

 in this State. It came from the lower part of the limestone, or perhaps 

 from the clay-shales which underlie it. 



The beds overlaying the limestone we found but partially exposed in 

 the vicinity of St. John's church, where a quarry had been opened show- 

 ing a face of about five or six feet of thin-bedded soft brown sandstone, 

 and above this some partial outcrops of sandy shale. In the side of the 

 road nearly opposite the church, the seam of smut was found which we 

 have placed at the top of this section, but whether it was derived from 

 a rotten coal or a bituminous shale, could not be determined without 

 further exploration. It lay immediately under the boulder clay, and 

 had probably been for a long time subjected to atmospheric influences 

 before the drift-clays were deposited upon it. It is not probable that it 

 represents a coal seam of any considerable thickness: otherwise it would 

 have been discovered in sinking wells in this vicinity, as the outcrop was 

 not far below the general level of the prairie. The bed Xo. 4 of the fore- 

 going section is usually an arenaceous shale, but locally it becomes 

 partly argillaceous, and affords some fine specimens of silicious wood, 

 that are found in the beds of the small streams that cut through it, and 

 probably come from the argillaceous layers of this bed. On one of the 

 branches of the north fork of the Kickapoo creek, on section 4, in Jubilee 

 township, there is an imperfect exposure of the following beds, all of 



which seem to belong above the horizon of coal Xo. 7 : 







Xo. 1. Brownish gray limestone 2 to 3 feet. 



No. -2. Green and yellow argillaceous stales 20 to 30 ' ' 



Xo. 3. Limestone conglomerate 2 " 



Xo. 4. Sandy shales partially exposed 15 to 20 " 



The ravine where this section was made abounds with fossil wood, all 

 of it completely silicified, and many of the specimens representing 

 tious of what were once large trees: many of the fragments are now 

 from two to three feet in length, and so large as to require the strength of 

 two stout men to load them into a wagon. Several wagon loads of this 

 silicious wood could have been obtained from this ravine in a. distance of 

 two or three hundred yards. Although not found in *itu, it no doubt came 

 from the argillaceous shales represented by Xo. 2 of the above section, 

 as it seemed to be most abundant along the outcrop of this bed. We 

 found one fine specimen on the south side of the Kickapoo at about 

 the same horizon, but the shales are there more arenaceous, and the 

 specimens of fossil wood comparatively rare. The limestone conglome- 

 rate, Xo. 3 of the above section, was- not seen on the south side of the 



