694 KANSAS CITY REVIEW OF SCIENCE. 



could not find a particle. At present, I feel, from the showing, that the basin is 

 not eroded to great enough depth to catch the coal-seams. On the other hand, 

 there is a possibility, for all that now shows, that on this edge of the coal basin 

 the underlying rocks rose, and only allowed the upper coal measure strata of 

 sandstones and shales to be deposited over the older rocks, and the coal-seams 

 do not exist. 



I note the above from the fact that farther up on the Slate River, this same 

 thing has occurred, from about the entrance to O Be-Joyful basin. The Cretace- 

 ous shales appear by the roadside, and above them is the overflow of granite por- 

 phyry, overlain in turn by the strata of Tertiary rocks, but only having in places 

 the upper veins of coal Nos. i and 2, while the two seams worked by the Colo- 

 rado Coal and Iron Company are entirely wanting. This occurrence is repeated 

 up Coal Creek, a short distance from the Colorado Coal and Iron Company's 

 openings ; a break occurs across the hill between Coal Creek and Baxter's Gulch, 

 which, I believe, will mark the end of the two lower veins of this basin west- 

 ward. 



Such results as are set forth in the above paragraphs show how limited is the 

 real coal area of the Crested Buttes basin, while on the Ohio Creek side, such 

 things do not appear to have occurred, which makes the area of this latter basin 

 very much greater for a possible product of merchantable coal. 



In speaking of the geology of coal sections. Dr. J. S. Newberry says "that 

 many of the coal-seams of Ohio have been worked into, and exposed the follow- 

 ing phenomena to view : 



1. "A fire-clay below each seam, permeated with roots and rootlets of 

 stigmaria. 



2. "A coal-seam having a maximum thickness of six feet in the bottom of 

 the basin, thinning out to feather edges. 



3. "The coal on the margin of the basins is sometimes thirty or forty feet 

 above its place in the bottom. 



4. " An average of two and a half per cent of ash. 



5. " A roof composed of argillaceous shale, of which the lower layers are 

 crowded with impressions of plants." 



The above might be used for a general description of all bituminous coal- 

 fields of the Carboniferous age. 



The field I examined differs from No. i, in that there is no appreciable 

 amount of fire-clay, and argillaceous shales make the floor; from No. 2, in that 

 in one place I found the seam of coal full size, abutting directly against granite 

 porphyry, although, when the field is fully explored, there may be localities thin- 

 ning out to feather edges, the same as in Ohio. 



No. 3 might be found to differ locally in all coal basins. Of No. 4 the same 

 might be said. 



I think these Tertiary coals average more than two and a half per cent of 

 ash. 



