PEORIA COUNTY. 249 



developed it is quite as thick as Xo. 4. but the miner who commences 

 drifting; into this coal ou a promising outcrop from four to five feet in 

 thickness, will frequently, in the distance of a hundred yards or less. 

 find the coal gradually thinning out to one-half or less its original thick- 

 ness, and he becomes discouraged at the prospect and abandons the 

 mine. But with a good slate and limestone roof, this seam may be pro- 

 fitably worked with an average thickness of no more than two and a 

 half to three feet of coal, especially where it can be done by tunneling 

 into the hill sides along its line of outcrop. 



Xo.4 is also more or less subject to the interruptions commonly known 

 horsebacks." but they are seldom of any considerable extent ,and 

 offer no serious impediment to the miner. Outcropping just above the 

 level of the T., P. and W. Railroad, and also the Peoria branch N of the 

 C.. B. and Q. Railroad, in the valley of the Kickapoo. it offers the best 

 facilities possible for obtaining a fair quality and an abundant supply 

 of coal at the lowest cost to those roads, for the supply of the less 

 favored regions on the western borders of the State; and the amount of 

 coal now annually transported from these mines is very large, and is 

 constantly increasing. At the Orchard, Kingston, Lancaster and Liver- 

 pool mines, located in the western bluff of the Illinois river, large quan- 

 tities of coal are annually taken out for the supply of steamers, and for 

 transportation by the river to points below. 



In the northern portion of the county. Xo. 7 is the principal coal out- 

 cropping above the valleys of the streams, and the lower seams can 

 only be reached by shafts, or by an inclined tunnel carried down to 

 their level. This seam ranges from two and a half to three feet in thick- 

 ness in this part of the county, and its outcrop may be found on most 

 of the small streams. It is very regular in its development, and affords 

 a coal of fair quality where it is mined beyond the influence of atmos- 

 pheric agencies. 



Buildii > >.iiidstone of good quality may be obtained from the 

 bed overlaying coal Xo. 4. which at some points on the Kickapoo is 

 fully twenty feet in thickness, and it outcrops at many points under very 

 favorable conditions for quarrying. The rock is a brown micaceous, and 

 partly ferruginous sandstone, in massive beds, some of which are two 

 feet or more in thickness. It presents a bold escarpment at many points 

 where it outcrops, indicating a capacity for withstanding well the ordi- 

 nary influences of the atmosphere. The ferruginous layers harden very 

 much ou exposure, and would form the best material for bridge abut- 

 ments, and for all other purposes where a rock was required to with- 

 stand well the influences of frost and moisture. 



On Aikeu and Griswold's land, on the south side of the Kickapoo, on 

 section 24. this sandstone has been somewhat extensively quarried, and 



