768 ABSTRACTS 



Mineral resources. — These consist of coal, iron ore, limestone, 

 building and road stone, and clays. The Coal Measures occupy an 

 area within the district of about 500 square miles. Not all of this 

 area, however, contains coal beds of workable thickness, while some 

 portions contain two or three workable beds. The . lower beds 

 occurring in the Lookout sandstone, are variable in horizontal position, 

 thickness, and extent, so that they cannot profitably be worked on a 

 large scale ; but they have been opened at many points, and supply 

 an excellent fuel for local use. The Sewanee seam, which is found in 

 the Walden sandstone, from 50 to 70 feet above its base, is the most 

 important seam in the district. It has an average thickness of four to 

 five feet over at least 80 square miles in the higher portions of the 

 plateau, and is extensively mined for coking at Tracy and Whitwell. 

 The iron ore of chief importance is the red fossil or "Clinton" ore, 

 which occurs as a regularly stratified bed in the Rockwood shale. At 

 Inman, in the Sequatchie Valley, it attains a thickness of 5.5 feet and 

 is extensively mined. 



