36 GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF THE TERRITORIES. 



important water-course in the county, and its value to the inhabitants 

 cannot be overestimated. The entire county is underlaid by rocks of 

 the age of the Upper Coal-Measures ; hence the geology is comparatively 

 simple. 



There are very few exposures along the Nemaha and its branches, 

 and the high divides on either side present only rolling prairies covered 

 with a luxuriant growth of grass, exhibiting every evidence of remark- 

 able fertility, but having no timber and comparatively little living- 

 water. 



From Beatrice our course was nearly northeast, passing over the divide 

 between the waters of the Big Blue and those of the Nemaha. This 

 divide, as usual, was treeless and nearly waterless for 18 miles; yet, 

 either to the right or to the left of our road, water and small trees 

 could have been found within five or six miles. The grass was excellent, 

 showing a fertile soil, and the surface was monotonously beautiful to 

 the eye, but not an exposure of the underlying rocks could be seen. 



On Yankee Creek, a branch of the Nemaha, the first exhibition of the 

 rocks was observed. A few limestone quarries were opened for obtain- 

 ing building-materials. The beds are thin, not more than from six to 

 twelve inches in thickness, intercalated with beds of clay and sand. 

 The surface is rather rugged, some abrupt hills, but usually clothed 

 with grass down to the water's edge. 



At Tecumseh a thin seam of coal has been opened, and is now worked 

 with some success by Mr. Beatty. The di-ift is very similar to that 

 before described in my report of Pawnee County, and extends into the 

 bank about 100 yards. Mr. Beatty has taken out about 1,000 bushels 

 of coal, which he sells readily at the mine for twenty-five cents per 

 bushel. It is undoubtedly the same bed that is opened on Turner's 

 Branch and at Frieze's mill, in Pawnee County, but it is not quite as 

 thick or as good ; it contains large masses of the sulphuret of iron and 

 other impurities. The coal-seam here varies much in thickness, from 

 ten to fifteen inches. The cap-rock is a bed of limestone not more than 

 two or three feet in thickness. A well was sunk in the village of Tecum- 

 seh sixty feet; a drill was driven down through rock and hard clay a 

 few feet farther, and passed through what the workmen thought to be 

 three feet of good coal. This discovery created much excitement at the 

 time, and increased the demand for the public lands in Johnson Count,y. 

 It afterward turned out to be the same seam of coal worked by Mr. 

 Beatty on the Nemaha, and was only eleven inches in thickness. The 

 prospects, therefore, for workable beds of coal in Johnson County are 

 no better than in the neighboring counties already examined. The 

 evidence against any important bed of coal being found within the limits 

 of Nebraska diminishes in force continually. I have already i)resented 

 a iiortion of the evidence in former reports. The fact that all efibrts in 

 searching for coal in neighboring districts have resulted in failures, 

 renders the prospect very doubtful. All the rocks at Saint Joseph, 

 Missouri, Leavenworth, and Atchison, Kansas, hold a lower position 

 geologically ; yet borings have been made about 500 feet at Atchison 

 and Saint Joseph, and a shaft has been sunk about the same depth at 

 Leavenworth, resulting in the discovery of a bed of very impure coal 

 three feet thick, quite unfit for use. The evidence is quite strong that, , 

 as I have before suggested, Nebraska is unfortunately located on the 

 western rim of the western coal-basin, and that no workable bed will 

 ever be found in the State at a reasonable depth. 



Tecumseh is the county-seat of Johnson County, a small town located 

 on the elevated prairie near Nemaha River. The following sketch will 



