3in 

 6 in 



\K)M:OE COUNTY. 271 



beeu removed, the .stone now presenting' the appearance of a soft 

 porous chert. It contained numerous casts of fossil shells. 



This coal has been struck at numerous points in this neighborhood in 

 sinking wells, the general trend of the outcrop being to the south-east. 

 At Mr. Snyder's place, on the south-east quarter, section 27, township 1 

 south, range west, it outcrops in the bluffs of Prairie du Long creek, 

 and has been worked in a small way for several years. The beds ex- 

 posed here afford the following section : 



Xo. 1. Nodular argillaceous limestone 4 to 6 feet . 



slope with partial outcrops of shale 15 to 20 



X<>. :{. Compact bluish-gray limestone a 



X". 4. Gray shale 1 



Argillaceous limestone 2 



Xo. 6. Bituminous shale 2 



Coal 3 



Shales, partly bituminous 2 



Xo. 9. Argillaceous and sandy shales exposed 15 



The lower shales, Xo. 9 of the above section, probably belong to the 

 Chester group, and these, with some underlaying beds belonging to the 

 same formation, are well exposed for some distance down the creek 

 below the outcrop of the coal. The nodular argillaceous limestone, Xo. 

 1 of the above section, closely resembles the bed usually found under- 

 laying the Belleville coal, in St. Clair and Madison counties, and contains 

 a similar group of fossils, among which the BeUerophon nodocarinatus 

 may be cited as especially characteristic of this horizon. This would 

 seem to identify the coal at this point, and that at Henckler's mines, 

 with the lower seam at the old Pittburg mines in the bluffs east of St. 

 Louis, and if more extensively explored in that vicinity, it might be found 

 to possess the same characteristics which prevail in it on the southern 

 borders if the county. Hitherto this seam has been almost entirely neg- 

 lected, in St. Clair county, for the thicker seam laying immediately above 

 it. but it' it should prove, on further examination, that it retains its pe- 

 culiar block character throughout the county, it would prove a valuable 

 addition to the mineral resources of that county. 



The principal deposit of coal in Monroe county is found in the long, 

 narrow, synclinal basin already referred to, which extends from the 

 river bluffs, just below the St. Clair county line, in a 'course of south 

 I'd deg. east, to a point two and a half or three miles north-west of Wa- 

 terloo, forming a narrow belt of coal lands, varying, as originally de- 

 posited, from one to three miles in width. 



Gall's coal mines, on the north-west quarter of section 3, township 2 

 south, range 10 west, have been more extensively worked than any 

 others in this isolated basin, though others have been opened at va- 

 rious points, and after being worked for a short time have been aban- 



