58 GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF ALABAMA. 



This coal is of very fine quality, and the seam is evidently 

 one of great value. Though the seani where opened is be- 

 low the water level, except in very dry weather, yet there is 

 fall enough that could be used, without heavy expense, to 

 make a large portion of this seam self-draining. 



An average sample of this coal analyzed by Dr. J. M. 

 Pickel gave the following results : 



ANALYSIS OF COAL BAINE BED. 



Moisture 1.18 



Volatile combustible matter 32.35 



Fixed carbon 64. 18 



Ash . 2.29 



100.00 



Coke 66.47 



Sulphur 0.92 



This is a very remarkable seam of coal practically it car- 

 ries no sulphur. It will be largely utilized in the future for 

 smelting iron and furnace work. That this opening and 

 that of the Phillips bed are both on the same seam was very 

 satisfactorily settled by their relative dips, their equal dis- 

 tance above the slate beds, and their environment by the 

 same peculiar class of rocks. All these points of agreement 

 left no room to doubt their identity. The Baine opening 

 shows two inches more coal, and of better quality than the 

 Phillips bed, but these differences probably arise from its 

 better protection; and at neither place is the seam well 

 enough protected to have preserved its full normal thick- 

 ness, or its best coal. 



This seam, lying as it does at 1 he base of the quartzitic 

 group, is necessarily more extensive than those above it. 

 And though it has not been opened at any other place, yet 

 this is probably due altogether to the fact that its position 

 has not heretofore been recognized, and the seam searched 

 for. Lying as it does near the base of the ridges, with its 



