BROADHEAD — BITUMEN IX MISSOURI. 22!^ 



Between the Marmaton and Marais des Cygnes rivers, in the 

 southeastern part of Bates county, the "Micaceous Sandstone" of 

 the Lower Coal Measures is very bituminous. On Mr. Newton's 

 farm I obser\'ed viscid masses of bitumen, of the consistency of 

 tar, flowing slowly from between the layers of the Black Sand- 

 stone. In the southern part of Vernon and in Barton there are 

 several tar springs alwa3S flowing from Sandstone of the Lower 

 Coal Measures. In some of the wells of the western part of 

 Vernon the water is strongly impregnated, and at one of them I 

 noticed a thick coat of tar on the rope. In drinking from a small 

 spring in the northwest part of Vernon county, flowing from shales 

 limestone, I detected a bituminous taste. 



A few miles southeast of Butler, Bates county, is a bed of Gray 

 Limestone whose outward appearance presents no indication of 

 containing bitumen, but when broken we find the place once oc- 

 cupied by fossils replaced by bitumen. 



The Blue Limestone, so abundant in the western part of Ver- 

 non and near Ft. Scott, and sometimes known as Ft. Scott Mar- 

 ble, is highly bituminous, and very hard and tough. 



Many of the Sandstones of Vernon and nearly all those of Bar- 

 ton county are impregnated with bitumen. It does not seem very 

 abundant in beds of clay shales ; but when dark shales contain 

 black concretions, the latter are generally very bituminous. It is 

 a noticeable fact that the more bitumen in the rock, the harder it 

 is. The Coals of Southwest Missouri are, nearly all, verj^ highlv 

 bituminous. Some of those of Bates and Vernon, all those of 

 Barton, those of Jasper, and some of the Cedar county Coals, on 

 fresh fracture emit a strong bituminous odor. 



The bituminous rocks above named are all of the age of the 

 Coal Measures, and include the Middle and Lower Measures, 

 and, if their various vertical thicknesses were added up, would 

 amount to not less than 600 feet. 



But the bitumen is not entirel}- confined to the Coal Measures. 

 In the eastern part of Barton, and in Jasper, the Lower Carboni- 

 ferous limestones are often quite bituminous ; in fact, all the dark- 

 looking limestones of that part of the State are bituminous. At 

 Minersville, Joplin, and other mining localities, the limestones, 

 ■especially the dolomitic, are much saturated with bitumen, and 



iii — 15 [Sept. I, 1S74.] 



