SAMJAMON COrNTY. 317 



Economical Geology. 



Coal From what appears on the foregoing pages, it will be seen 

 that coal is by far the most important mineral resource of this county, 

 and is destined hereafter to exert a very important influence upon the 

 industrial interests of its inhabitants. The general development of the 

 industrial interests of a people is more dependant upon its fuel re- 

 sources than upon any other to be found beneath the soil, and in all 

 calculations upon the probable future wealth and prosperity of a com- 

 munity, an abundant and cheap supply of coal must form one of the 

 ntial elements to be taken into account. More especially is that 

 the case in this Western country, where a comparatively level surface, 

 and consequently sluggish streams, furnish no water power of any value 

 for manufacturing purposes. The value of the coal deposits of this 

 State can hardly be estimated in dollars and cents, and the mighty 

 influence they are destined to exert upon the future wealth and pros- 

 perity of its inhabitants can scarcely be overestimated. We have 

 a soil of unsurpassed fertility, producing annually large crops of all the 

 cereals grown in a temperate climate ; wonderfully productive in the 

 gras>es most conducive to the growth of stock and the production of 

 wool : and beneath the surface we find stored away inexhaustible sup- 

 plies of fuel, for manufacturing cheaply all the products of our own 

 soil, and also for smelting the iron and other metallic products of ad- 

 joining and less favored Star 



The coal seam now worked in the shafts in this county will furnish 

 at least five millions of tons of coal to every square mile, or section of 

 land in the county, and that is probably less than one half the full 

 resources <>t' the county in fossil fuel. There are certainly four seams 

 in other portions of the State, which underlay the main coal worked in 

 this county, having an aggregate thickness of about twelve feet of solid 

 coal, and there can be no reasonable doubt but some of them will be 

 found here thick enough to work when the one now mined is exhausted. 

 With such fuel resources at command, there is no reason why Central 

 Illinois should not become a great center of iron manufacturing inter- 

 ests, for it seems to be a well settled proposition that it is cheaper to 

 transport the ores to the fuel, than the fuel to the ores. We have the 

 fuel in almost inexhaustible quantities, and by the improved methods 

 of smelting, our coals are equal in value to the block coals of Indiana, 

 and no good reason can be assigned why this portion of the State 

 should not soon become as noted for the production of iron and steel as 

 it now is for beef and corn. Located, as it were, midway between the 

 great iron ore deposits of Michigan and Wisconsin on the north, and 

 those nf Missouri on the south, they must eventually become tributary 



