166 Sioux City Academy of Science and Letters. 
(3) A bed 42 inches thick was reported in one of the 
first holes drilled, at a depth of 275 feet, or at —190 feet. 
datum. For a time all efforts were directed toward 
establishing the continuity of this third bed, but it was 
encountered in only one other place, a drill hole 20 rods 
to the south where it was only 6 inches thick. 
In August, 1902, a shaft 7 by 14 feet, that would have 
done credit to a valuable coal mine, was sunk in the 
Goodfellow tract, sec. 22, the N. W. 4 of the S. E. 4, and 
it was the writer’s privilege to be on the scene shortly 
after the second bed of lignite was reached. The section 
passed through in sinking the shaft bore out the neigh- 
boring drill records. The first bed of lignite was but a 
few inches thick and of a soft, charcoal-like material. A 
great deal of water began to enter the shaft at 35 feet, 
and a two-inch pump had to be kept in operation day and 
night to keep the shaft dry enough for work to be carried 
on. 
When the second bed of lignite was reached at about 
82 feet deep and part of it cut through, the work was 
stopped. The roof over the bed would not have remained 
in place without timbering, which circumstance, together 
with the heavy water, and the low value of the fuel, made 
the mining of it at that time impracticable, and the indi- 
cations of a more valuable bed at a greater depth were 
not sufficiently encouraging to warrant sinking the shaft 
deeper. 
A second locality prospected is in the southeast cor- 
ner of Dakota County, about 16 miles southeast of the 
Goodfellow tract. This work was carried on by Sioux 
City capitalists. Three miles southeast of the village of 
Homer, in sec. 20, T. 27 N., R. 9 E., in a ravine about one- 
half mile back from its mouth and at about 50 feet above 
the level of the river flood plain, a bed of lignite was 
found to outcrop. This bed is about 22 inches thick, and 
lies between beds of yellow shaly clay. A fresh sample 
from this vein was analyzed before any prospecting was 
done in that locality. (Table II—No. 5.) Prospecting 
was soon afterward begun in sec. 28, the N. W. 4 of the 
N. W. i, at one side of a long hollow about one-half mile 
up from its mouth, at an elevation of about 1,200 feet. 
Drilling to a depth of 190 feet was done here by the same 
