EXPLORATION FOR COAL. 87 



By reference to the map (PI. XVII) it will be seen that the upper con- 

 glomerates occupy an insular position in the northern part of the basin, in 

 which they have been left by the degradation of the folds in which they lie. 

 So far as has been learned, there are no faults or other local disturbances 

 which should make it improbable that the beds equivalent to the Portsmouth 

 coal-bearing part of the section are found in their due place in the belt of 

 country on the north and east of this conglomerate area. It is to be noted, 

 however, that so far no coal beds have been revealed in this belt by natural 

 exposure or by chance excavations ; but this may be accounted for by the 

 fact that the district is much more deeply covered by the drift mantle than 

 that to the westward and northward. Therefore this section, within say a 

 mile of the margin of the upper conglomerates, may be regarded as next in 

 promise to the sections before mentioned as a field for explorations. It 

 should be observed that the angle of the dip toward the center of the 

 Taunton or Great Meadow Hill syncline (see figs. 8, 9, in Part II of this 

 monograph, pp. 122, 123) makes it probable that at a little distance within 

 the margin of the coarse conglomerates the coal beds which would lie in 

 the strata plane of those at Portsmouth would be greatly below the level 

 where they could be profitably worked. 



As yet no adequate information has been attained which may serve to 

 show the conditions of the basin in the region to the east of the city of 

 Taunton. In that place a boring carried to the depth of 850 feet revealed 

 no good coal; indeed, but little more than carbonaceous matter was found. 

 The beds are presumably the equivalent of those which, in a thickness of 

 2,000 feet or more, overlie the coals of the Portsmouth mines. The churn 

 drill gave, of course, no information as to the attitude of the rocks. It 

 seems likely that there are but slight faults or folds in this part of the field, 

 and that in the main the beds belong to the section which may be expected 

 to contain coals. 



For the reasons before given, which go to show that it is not worth 

 while further to explore for coal around the margins of the basin, there 

 remains only one other portion of its area to consider. This is the field 

 between Aquidneck Island and the western shore of Narragansett Bay. The 

 greater part of this district is covered by water. All that part of it which 

 lies to the south of the northern end of Canonicut Island is evidently so 

 affected by regional metamorphism that any coal which it may contain is 



