COAL: WARRIOR FIELD. 23 



have been cut to the depth of 600 to 800 feet. The altitude of 

 these uplands varies from 1200 to 1800 feet above tide water 

 in the northeastern part, to 700 or 900 feet in the vicinity of 

 the L. & N. railroad. The Coal Measures which take part in 

 the formation of these uplands are the strata between the 

 Black Creek Coal Seam and the base of the Coal Measures, 

 embracing about 1800 feet thickness. This full thickness of 

 the plateau measures, including 15 or more seams of coal, oc- 

 curs along the southern limits of the Plateau region where it 

 merges into the Basin, while near the northern edge adjoining 

 Georgia and Tennessee, there are only about 200 feet of coal 

 strata including one or two coal seams. It will thus be seen 

 that the strata dip towards the southwest at a more rapid rate 

 than does the surface of the country, and the coal measures 

 thicken proportionally in the same direction. The coal seams 

 in the Plateau region are very variable in thickness occurring 

 in bulges and squeezes. Where the strata are thick enough to 

 carry them only about four of the coal seams appear to be al- 

 ways present, only about six of them ever to be of workable 

 thickness, and only two of them of workable thickness in most 

 of their outcrops. In general these plateau coal seams are 

 thickest and most reliable in the northeastern part of this re- 

 gion near the Georgia and Tennessee lines. The coal is usu- 

 ally good, hard, and solid, though sometimes carrying consid- 

 erable pyrites. Mines have been opened on these seams at a 

 number of places, but the want of uniformity in thickness has 

 prevented any extended operations. In 1903 the production 

 from this region .was only about 17,500 tons. These lower 

 seams have furnished all the coal mined in Tennessee and 

 Georgia. 



The Warrior Basin includes the larger, southeastern part of 

 the field extending in general from the line of the L. & N. Rail- 

 road -lov*n to where the coal measures pass finally below the 

 Cretaceous formations and appear no more at the surface. As 

 has already been said, the' strata dip more rapidly towards the 

 southwestern end of the field than the surface of the country 

 falls away, and the greatest thickness of the measures in conse- 

 quence is to -be found in the southwestern part of the area, in 

 Tuscaloosa county. 



The Coal Measures of this region include the strata from 

 the Black Creek coal group to the top of the measures, about 2,- 



