8 GEOLOGICAL SUKVEY OF ALABAMA. 



An exhaustive report cannot be predicated on an untested 

 coal field. Mining at different points, on the different seams, 

 sufficiently extensive, can alone expose their qualities and 

 geological characteristics. This only source of positive 

 knowledge has been, and is yet, almost wholly wanting in 

 this coal field. When the geological examination of this 

 region was made no mining was being done ; the seams which 

 had been opened in former years, were abandoned, and the 

 openings filled up, or caved in. Some of these were re- 

 opened, but others, and probably the most important, could 

 not be, with the limited means at the disposal of the survey. 

 Many new openings were made, and several seams of coal 

 exposed, the existence of which had not been previously 

 known. All of these will be referred to in their proper 

 places in the details, and general description of the field. 



GENERAL OUTLINES AND STRUCTURE. 



This coal field extends from the S. E. corner of T. 14, E. 

 1 west in a north-easterly direction a distance of about forty 

 miles, to the east side of T. 10, E. 5 east. From thence it 

 gradually merges into "The Plateau Region' already de- 

 scribed by Prof. McCalley In width it varies considerably, 

 starting in with a breadth less than three miles at the south- 

 western end, gradually widening out on the south east side 

 till it attains a width of eight miles. At its widest part 

 nearly opposite the town of Springville in St. Clair county, 

 its southeastern edge is about three or three and a half miles 

 from the northeastern end of the Call aba Coal Field. It 

 maintains its width of seven to eight miles to the middle of 

 T. 13 of E. 3 east at- Aughtery's Gap. From thence it grad- 

 ually narrows around the edge of Greasy Cove. Opposite 

 the middle of the Cove is its narrowest portion, scarcely 

 three miles wide. From the township line between town- 

 ships 11 and 12, E. 4 east, 'it widens perceptibly towards 

 the northeast till it becomes 4 to 5 miles broad, which 

 breadth it maintains to the upper , or northeast end of the 

 field. On its northwest side its margin is nearly a uniform 



