PEOEIA COUXTY. 243 



feel confident the irregularity in the deposition of the coal here is not 

 due to any dislocation of the strata, but must be accounted for on some 

 other hypothesis. Xo systematic attempt has yet been made in this 

 neighborhood to work Xo. 6, but its outcrop is continuous along the face 

 of the bluff, at an elevation of about sixty-live feet above Xo. 4. The 

 coal afforded by this lower seam is considered to be somewhat softer 

 and freer from pyrite at the mines along the Illinois river bluffs, than on 

 the Kickapoo, which is perhaps, in part, the reason why the upper coal 

 has been so generally neglected here. 



Commencing on the south side of the Kickapoo, we find continuous 

 outcrops of these two seams in the bluffs of that stream for several 

 miles to the westward, until the elevation of the valley towards the head 

 of the stream brings it above the level of these coals, and Xo. 7 is the 

 only seam remaining above the level of the water courses. On the north 

 side of the creek the outcrops are not continuous, the coal strata being 

 partially removed by erosion, and their place subsequently filled with 

 deposits of modified drift. 



Walter Treasure's mine is on the south bluff of the Kickapoo, on the 

 south-east quarter of section 24, township 8 north, range 7 west. Xo. 4 

 is the seam worked here, and it ranges from four feet to four feet two 

 inches in thickness, with a roof of bituminous shale passing upward in- 

 to a blue clay shale with bands of iron ore. The coal is hard and bright, 

 and is not much interrupted by "horsebacks," and is underlaid by a foot 

 or more of gray fire clay passing downward into a clay shale with bands 

 of limestone. This mine, like all the others in this part of the county, 

 is worked with a horizontal tunnel driven into the base of the hiE on 

 the line of outcrop. 



The following section, compiled from the exposures of the strata seen 

 in this vicinity, will, by comparison with those heretofore given, show 

 how uniformly these two coals and the strata associated with them are 

 developed in this part of the county : 



Xo. 1. Light-gray limestone 2 to 3 feet. 



Xo. -2. Bituminous shale 1 to 2 



Xo. 3. Coal, (Xo. 6) 3 to 5 



Xi>. 1. Clay shale or fire clay and nodular limestone 3 to 6 



Xo. 5. Sandy shales 25 to 30 



Xo. 6. Massive micaceous and ferruginous sandstone 20 



Xo. 7. Blue shale with iron bauds 6 to 8 



Xo. 8. Bituminous shale 1 to 3 



Xo. 9. Coal. (Xo. 4) 4 



Xo. 1 0. Fire clay 3 



Xo. 11. Shale with thin bands of limestone 15 



Coal Xo. 5, if developed here, would be found near the bottom of the 

 sandy shales Xo. 5 of the above section, but we found no indications of 



irs presence at any of the localities visited by us in this county. 



