COAL. 361 



area it is generally found too narrow to open, prospects nowhere showing 

 a thickness greater than 3 feet 6 inches. The character of the seam is 

 given in several of the sections of Pis. XIX and XX. It often carries a 

 parting of variable width, which may, however, entirely disappear over 

 extended areas — particularly the case in the Lafayette mines. 



seams nos. 3 and 4 . — These will he considered together on account of 

 their union over certain parts of the Goal Creek svncline. The general 

 character of each is shown in sections on Pis. XIX and XX. No 3 is that 

 usually developed to a workable thickness, No. 4 being only occasionally 

 so, except in the central portions of the svncline — in the Lafayette and a 

 part of the Louisville fields — where it is united with No. 3 to the complete 

 exclusion of the parting, the two forming a single bed of an average 

 thickness of 14 feet. The approach and divergence of the seams to each 

 other are distinctly shown in the Lafayette held. Along the axis of the 

 svncline in the Simpson mine, and in the northern entries of the Cannon 

 and the southern of the Excelsior, the two beds are united in a solid mass 

 of coal; north and south of this, however, a parting of interbedded sand 

 and clay appears, rapidly increasing, particularly to the north. In this 

 direction the first appearance of the parting is at a point 223 feet north of 

 the Excelsior shaft. From here the line of separation has an east-southeast 

 trend — east of the shaft — the more southern the entry the farther the point 

 from the main entry at which the appearance of the parting is encountered. 



In the Gladstone shaft, 500 feet north-northeast of the Excelsior, the 

 parting has increased to 10 feet and shows evidence of a continued gain 

 until its normal thickness of 25 feet is attained. In this direction both 

 seams, 3 and 4, hold to a clean condition, only occasional thin and nonper- 

 sistent partings showing in either. South of the axis the only opportunity 

 of observation at the time of examination was in the south entries of the 

 Cannon mine, where the parting had increased to 4 feet, and where, 

 moreover, the lower seam, 3, had become so split with slate partings as to 

 render it unprofitable for mining. This thickness of the main parting and 

 the slate in the lower seam may increase or diminish to the south. 



In the Louisville district there is neither the regularity in occurrence 

 nor the freedom from partings in seams 3 and 4 and their resultant 



