26 MINERAL RESOURCES OF ALABAMA. 



coal of the Cahaba field is in general somewhat harder and 

 cleaner than the Warrior coal, and it is exported to Mexico and 

 South America in large quantities. 



THE COOSA COAL FIELD. 



This, the smallest, least known and least productive of the 

 coal fields of Alabama, lies to the east of the other two. Like 

 the Cahaba field, it is long and narrow, being sixty miles in 

 length, with an average width of less than six miles, and an area 

 of over three hundred square miles. The southwestern end, like 

 the southwestern end of the Cahaba field, is separated into* two 

 parts by a narrow faulted anticlinal valley. The northwestern 

 border of the field is a high mountainous escarpment. The 

 eastern border is made by a fault, which brings Silurian strata 

 up to the level of the Coal Measures. The general dip of the 

 field, as in the other two, is towards the southwest, and the field 

 is an unsymmetrical anticlinal, with its axis close to the eastern 

 edge. We find, therefore, the thickest measures along the east- 

 ern edge of the field, and towards its southwestern extremity. 

 It is not easy to determine the thickness of the measures in- 

 cluded in the Coosa field, but it is less than in either of the 

 others. The general dip of the strata above mentioned is inter- 

 rupted at intervals by minor undulations, which have broken the 

 field up into a number of somewhat independent basins. Some 

 seventeen or eighteen seams of coal have been identified in this 

 field, seven or eight of which have in places a thickness of two 

 feet and more. The thickest and most important of these seams 

 occur near the eastern border of the field, and do not underlie 

 very much territory. Mining operations have been carried on 

 mainly at two points, namely, Ragland and Coal City. The out- 

 put of the field for the year 1903 was 121,000 tons. The coal is 

 remarkably pure, free from dirt and pyrite, and whilst not so 

 hard as the Cahaba coal, is excellent for coking. Some of the 

 earliest mining in the state was done at the two points men- 

 tioned. 



Those interested will find in the following Reports, published 

 by the Geological Survey, further details concerning the several 

 coal fields : 



