REPORT OF F. V. HAYDEN, UNITED STATES GEOL- 

 OGIST. 



Nebraska City, July 1, 1867. 



Sir: I take tlie first opportunity which has presented itself to nie to 

 report to you the progress of my explorations. Daring the mouth of 

 'June I have examined, with considerable care, the counties of Douglas, 

 Sarpy, Cass, Otoe, and Lancaster, and will leave to-morrow to examine 

 the counties of Nemaha and Eichardson, returning northward through 

 Pawnee, Johnson, and Lancaster Counties to the northern part of the 

 State, returning again southward, as far as time will permit, through 

 the third tier of counties. These three tiers of counties will comprise 

 most of the settled portions of the State. 



I have already accumulated much interesting information, although 

 no striking discoveries have been made. There are few, if any, important 

 minerals in the State, but our collections of Carboniferous fossils are 

 very extensive. We shall secure, in the course of the year, most 

 abundant material to illustrate the geology of the State. We have made 

 most earnest search for coal. This question seems to be one w^hich now 

 excites the attention of the people more than any other, and they are 

 earnestly asking for a solution of the problem. 



By my direction Mr. Meek passed across the State of Iowa to Ne- 

 braska City, with Dr. C. A. White, State geologist, and they succeeded 

 in tracing the Coal-Measure rocks from Des Moines to Nebraska City, 

 and the conclusion they arrived at was, that the workable beds of coal 

 in Iowa occur in the Lower Coal-Measures, and that those beds would be 

 found by boring from 300 to 500 feet below the water-level of the Mis- 

 souri at Nebraska City. All the facts that we have so far secured 

 in our subsequent examinations seem to confirm that conclusion. It 

 may so happen that the limestones and clays increase in thickness in 

 their westward extension, and in Nebraska it may be necessary to bore 

 600 or 800 feet before reaching a workable bed of coal. Even at that 

 depth a good bed of coal would be profitable. In England coal has 

 been mined 1,800 feet beneath the surface, and there are numerous pits 

 from 800 to 1,200 feet in depth. 



We shall give this question of coal our earnest attention as we pro- 

 ceed southward. I inclose a section of an artesian boring made at 

 Omaha by the Union Pacific Kailroad Company, near 400 feet ; also a 

 second section made by Mr. Croxton at Nebraska City. The observations 

 made by the parties engaged in the boring were not made with that 

 positive accuracy that I could have desired, still I have put their notes 

 into such a form by means of colors, in accordance with your instruc- 

 tions, that you will readily understand the character of the beds for a 

 great depth beneath the surface of the two localities. 



I shall forward to you all the sections of this kind which I can secure. 

 Mr. J. Sterling Morton has sunk a shaft on his farm 100 feet in depth, 

 without success. I have advised boring hereafter 3 and to save expense, 



