GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF THE TEERITORIES. 17 



malia County ; that abont 16 feet above the water-level of the Missouri 

 a bed of coal 22 to 24 inches in thickness was observed cropping out 

 , from the bluff, and a few feet above this, in the same range of hills, was 

 a second seam six inches in thickness. These beds do not appear again 

 for considerable distance down the river, until we come to Rulo, except 

 at one or two localities near Saint Stephen's. At Arago I saw no out- 

 croppiugs of coal at all, and could not hear that any had been observed, 

 but there are some good quarries of limestone, beds of clay, sands, &c. The 

 next marked exhibition of coal is at Eulo and its neighborhood, about 

 two miles above Eulo, on land belonging to Mr. S. F. i^uckolls, of ISTe- 

 braska City. At this locality Mr. N. has drifted into the bank 100 feet 

 or more and taken thence over 200 bushels of coal, which has been used 

 by blacksmiths with success. The outcrop was about 5 inches in thick- 

 ness, but increased as the drift was extended in the bank to 11 inches, 

 and again suddenly diminished to 1 inch of good coal, the remainder 

 being composed of impurities or "muddy coal," as the miner called it. 

 The coal which has been thus far taken from this mine sells readily for 

 35 to 40 cents per bushel. The abrupt termination of the coal-seam, or 

 "fault," is undoubtedly due to the sliding down toward the river of the 

 superincumbent beds, a phenomenon which is very common everywhere 

 along the Missouri. Still the irregularity of the thickness of this coal- 

 seam is everywhere apparent, vibrating between 4 and 20 inches, thus 

 alternating, exalting, and depressing the hopes and prospects of the 

 miner. On the farm belonging to Mr. St. Louis, about 1^ miles below 

 Eulo, the same bed of coal has been worked with some success by drift- 

 ing, and a considerable quantity of coal taken out. Mr. St. Louis un- 

 wisely sunk a shaft at a higher point on the hill, thinking to cut the 

 coal-seam at a more favorable point, the expense attending it exhaust- 

 ing his means at 45 feet. He sunk a drill, however, into the bed of coal 

 and found it 12 feet below the position at the outcrop, showing an ex- 

 tensive inclination of the beds from the river, or toward the west. 



This dip may be readily accounted for by the extensive erosion of the 

 rock prior to the deposition of the yellow marl and drift deposits, which 

 erosion has given rise to many perplexing local inclinations of strata. 

 These local dips will not interfere with the miner so much further in the 

 interior of the county. The thickness of the coal-bed at this locality is 

 10 to 12 inches, increasing in one instance to 17 inches. On the Iowa 

 .reserve, along the Great Nemaha Eiver, the same bed again crops out 

 in the ravines or banks of little streams, and has been wrought with 

 some success, several hundred bushels of the coal having been taken out 

 from time to time for several years past. The country along the iSTemaha 

 is quite rugged, or " rough," as it is termed by the settlers, owing to the 

 several beds of sandstone, and the overlying or cap-rock of the coal-bed, 

 which prevents the water from forming gentle slopes, as in the case of 

 the more yielding clays or marl-beds. This bed of coal is probably the 

 equivalent of the 2- foot bed seen at Aspinwall, while the upper 6-incli 

 bed is not exposed at all. The rocks in contact with the coal are as 

 follows : 



1st. Underlying the coal a bed of light-gray fire-clay, full of fragments 

 of plants, as fern-leaves, stems of rushes, calamites, &c., the same as 

 occur in the underlying clays in Ohio and Illinois coal-fields. Above 

 the coal there is about 4 feet of very hard laminated or shaly clay, vary- 

 ing from black to dark ash color, all of which must be removed with 

 great labor before the bed of limestone, or cap-rock, as it is called, can 

 afford suitable protection to the miner as he drifts into the bank. Thus 

 the small amount of coal is obtained with great labor, and it is only the 

 2 H 



