MACOUPC? COUXTY. 299 



ion than like Xo. .">. Xo attempts have been made in this vicinity, by 

 boring or shafting, to ascertain the character of the underlaying beds, 

 and assuming this coal to be Xo. 6, the main coal worked in all the shafts 

 in this county should be found at a depth of some thirty -five to forty 

 feet below. The reasons which may be urged to sustain this view are 

 the following : The thickness of the seam is only about one half that of 

 Xo. o, where it has been identified in other portions of the county, and 

 the limestones, both above and below the coal, differ in their litholo- 

 gical characters, as well as in their fossils, from those associated 

 with coal Xo. 5. One of the most abundant fossils in the shale over 

 this coal, at its outcrops north of Scottsville. is the Camarophoria Osa- 

 <. which I have never found abundant with coal Xo. 5, and the 

 latter has a peculiar group of univalve shells associated with Ch(etetes 

 iniUf2"'"'- f ""^ in the nodular argillaceous limestone, below the coal, 

 none of which were found in the limestone underlaying the coal at this 

 point. These reasons have induced the belief that the coal on the 

 branches of Apple creek north of Scottsville is coal Xo. 6, and that 

 Xo. 5 will probably be found below it, at the depth of thirty-five to 

 forty feet. At the outcrop on Hodge's creek, near the Greene county 

 line, Xo. 5 averages about six feet in thickness, and in the central por- 

 tions of the county, where it has been penetrated by various shafts, its 

 thickness ranges from six to eight feet, averaging nearly or quite seven 

 feet. There is probably no point in this county where this seam is 

 more than 400 feet below the surface, and its greatest depth will be in 

 the townships of range 6 wast, the most easterly range of townships in 

 the county. 



From an examination of the sections already given, it will be seen 

 that the lowest beds outcropping in the county are found ou Hodge's 

 creek, its extreme western border, where coals Xos. 4 and .5 are found 

 exposed in the bluffs of this stream ; and one of them has been worked 

 since tae earliest settlement of this portion of the county, to supply the 

 local demand for coal. Going eastward from the west line of the county, 

 the surface level gradually increases in elevation, directing the surface 

 drainage of nearly all the streams to the southwestward, which, with a 

 slight eastwardly dip of the strata, carries the coals outcropping along 

 the western borders of the county from 300 to 400 feet below the surface, 

 in the central and eastern portions, where the Carlinville limestones, and 

 the overlaying limestones and shales forming the uppermost thirty-five 

 to forty feet of the stratified rocks in the Virdeu shaft, are the only beds 

 found exposed on the upper course of the Macoupin and the head waters 

 of Otter creek. 



In the extreme southwestern portion of the county, coals Xos. 5 and 6 

 are found outcropping a mile and a half west of Brighton, just over the 



