AND COAL-MEASURES OF IOWA. ii 
position of hydraulic limestone. On Section 7, Township 75 north, Range 17 west, 
is a heavy bed of very dark argillaceous limestone, displaying the tutenmergel struc- 
ture in great perfection. It is quite probable that this rock may prove a good 
water limestone. 
Near the mouth of English Creek are thin-bedded limestones, with yellow stains 
and dendritic markings, which are probably subordinate to the strata hitherto 
described in the vicinity. On Section 30, Township 76 north, Range 18 west, 
above Dam No. 22, slabs of a similar limestone are seen associated with sandstone. 
A sudden rise of the waters of the Des Moines covered all but the upper strata, 
which prevented a satisfactory examination into the exact order of succession at 
this and several other localities higher up. 
Near the line between Sections 14 and 23, Township 76 north, Range 19 west, 
a mile and a quarter below the mouth of White Breast River, there is an outcrop 
of coal, known as “ Babet’s Coal-Bank,” which appears to be from four to five feet 
thick; it rests on laminated, argillaceous sandstone, and is covered by shale and 
earth. A ravine intersects the exposure, which marks the place of a slide, so that 
the bed of coal, at the lower part of the exposure, lies much nearer the water than 
beyond the ravine. The section No. 29, D, represents the position of the coal at 
this place. The rubbish which forms the talus hides the lower strata, and may 
conceal also an inferior bed of coal. The blacksmiths in the neighbourhood have 
used some of this coal, and esteem it next in quality to the three-foot seam in 
Jasper County, near Skunk River; it seems tolerably free from iron pyrites, but it 
is slaty in its structure. 
On Section 11, same township and range, one and a half miles below the mouth 
of White Breast River, is another exposure of coal, as well as at many places in 
the banks of streams tributary to the Des Moines. Near the line between Sections 
~10 and 15, on White Breast River, a quarter of a mile from the Des Moines, sand- 
stone rise twenty feet above the water-level. There is supposed to be a seam of 
coal under this sandstone; if so, we have here, in all probability, the same beds as 
seen in the section at Cedar Bluffs. 
Two miles above the mouth of White Breast River, on Section 8, Township 76 
north, Range 19 west, light-coloured limestone is seen in the bed of a run, alter- 
nating with sandstone; and at Elk Bluff, a little higher up, are precipices of solid 
beds of yellowish and reddish-brown sandstone, sixty to eighty feet high, dipping 
towards the west; and only a few hundred yards above, at Dam No. 24, there is a 
repetition of the same limestone and sandstone, seen two miles above White Breast 
River. Here is evidently a considerable fault, perhaps of one hundred and fifty 
feet, by which the limestone is thus suddenly brought to the surface, contrary to 
the general tendency of the dip of the heavy beds of sandstone forming Elk Bluff. 
On Section 35, Township 77 north, Range 20 west, a quarter of a mile above 
Red Rock, is a high cliff of red sandstone, from which the place takes its name. 
The oxide of iron which forms the cement of the upper ledge, is in a high state 
of peroxidation, as if it had been exposed to igneous action in contact with oxygen 
or atmospheric air. The deep red colour penetrates the substance of the rock, 
showing that it is not due to the combustion of the dry herbage of the forest. The 
