MACOUPE* COUNTY. 291 



tweeu Carlinville aud Cuinmington, and extending from the first named 

 point south-eastwardly to Bunker Hill and Staunton. On the road 

 between the two points last named, on the head- waters of Cahokia 

 creek, two miles and a half north-west of Stannton, this limestone is 

 partially exposed, and is here overlaid by about fifteen feet of greenish 

 shale, with a band of impure earthy iron ore intercalated in it about 

 two feet above the limestone. This band of iron ore closely resembles 

 th<- fossil ii'erous ore bed on the north fork of Saline river in Gallatin 

 county, twelve miles north of Equality, and contains several of the 

 same species of fossils obtained there. If these ferruginous beds are 

 identical, as seems highly probable, it fixes the geological position of a 

 group of fossils that have hitherto been considered as more decidedly 

 Permian in their aspect than any others occurring in our Coal Measures, 

 aud establishes their stratigraphical position at least three or four hun- 

 dred feet below the uppermost beds of the Coal Measures in this State. 

 The limestone underlaying this fossiliferous iron ore is about 210 feet 

 above coal Xo. 5 in this county, and probably from, four hundred to four 

 hundred and fifty feet above the base of the Coal Measures, and there- 

 fore this iron ore band is not far above the middle of the Coal Measures. 

 The Carlinville limestone outcrops on Macoupin creek, from the vicinity 

 of Corr's mill, north-east of Carlinville, down to the bridge on the Hills- 

 borough and Carliuville road, forming the bed of the creek for several 

 miles by the meanderings of the stream. At the first outcrop below 

 the mill the limestone forms the bed of the creek and only the upper 

 portion of it can be seen. It forms a riffle here across the creek, and 

 the pebbly character of the upper portion gives it the appearance of a 

 bed of coarse gravel rather than an outcrop of limestone. Below these 

 pebbly layers the rock becomes quite evenly bedded in layers from four 

 inches to a foot or more in thickness, and has been quarried for local 

 use as a building stone. In the debris of an old quarry I obtained a few 

 of the most characteristic fossils of this limestone, among which were 

 the following species : Oamaropkoria . Osagensis, Retzla punctulifera, 

 TI rcbrntula bov'ulem. Spirifer plano-siilcata, S. cameratux, S. Kentucken- 

 .\thyri* tsubtilita, Productus longi-spinus, Platyostoma, and Platyceras, 

 of undetermined species, Pleurotomaria turbiniformis, Nautilus Tcheff- 

 /.//// / Ph!lU]>xia -ycj7M/j'.s, and Campophyllinn torquium. At most locali- 

 ties where this limestone is exposed fossils were exceedingly scarce, and 

 difficult to obtain when found, from the very hard and splintery char- 

 acter of the rock in which they were imbedded. 



At the coal shaft one mile west of Staunton this limestone is six feet 

 thick, and lies in regular beds, and is quarried for foundation walls and 

 other purposes. The coal at this point lies 210 feet below this limestone, 

 and the seam averages about six feet in thickness. At the coal shaft 



