1264, 265] LIGNITES OK LAFAYETTE — YALLABUSHA — CALHOUN. 161 



thickness of at least three feet, in ravines and in the bed of Hughes' 

 Branch, on the edge of Potlockucy bottom, on S. 8, near Mr. S. 

 Ragland's. Its fracture is dull and earthy, structure laminated, but 

 the mass quite solid ; it burns easily, with a bright flame. 



An air-dried specimen yielded 16.22 per cent, of grayish-white ash ; one dried 

 at the boiling point of water, 22.21) per cent. A. partial analysis of this ash gave 

 the following result : 



ASH OF LIGNITE FROM HUGHES' BRANCH. 



Insoluble Matter (Sand and Silex) 59.24 



Potash trace 



Soda 2.52 



Lime 8 83 



Magnesia 0.73 



Oxide of Iron, and Alumina 25.79 



Chlorine, Carbonic and Sulphuric Acids, and Loss. ..2,89 



100.00 



The lignite at this point could be easily worked. 



Lower down, a bed of good lignite (thickness not ascertained) crops out in the 

 bed of the Yockeney River at Price's old mill, S. — , T. 9, R. 3 W., (see Sec. 20, 

 HT72). Still lower clown, on Mr. Isaac Taylor's and Z. P. Dew's land, S. 9, 

 T. 10, R. 3 W., on a branch of the Yockeney River : thickness and position not 

 known. 



Also, on Dr. J. Taylor's land, S. 30, T. 9, R. 3 W., in the banks of the 

 Yockeney River ; a stratum 2 or 3 feet in thickness, underlaid by blue clay, 

 which forms the bed of the river, and overlaid by blue sand. 



254. In E. Yallabusha, lignite is said to occur in numerous 

 localities, none of which I have as yet examined. A fine bed ig 

 spoken of as existing on Robt. Thompson's place, 10 miles E. S. E. 

 of Coffceville ; and another is mentioned by Prof. Wailes, at Mc- 

 Elroy's mill on Turkey Creek. In N. Calhoun, lignite is very 

 generally struck in wells, at depths from 20 to 40 feet, but I have 

 Keen no specimens of it. Beds of variable thickness have been 

 struck in wells, near Sarepta — at Mr. Stacks 7 , S. 19, T. 11, R. I 

 W. ; at Mr. Hunter's S. 28, T. 11, R. 1 W., and very generally ia 

 the country between Cowpen and Lucknuck Creeks ; in Mr. Ray's 

 neighborhood, T. 12, R. 2 W ; it also crops out in the banks of tm? 

 Loosha Scoona River, just below Old Town. 



At Pittsboro', according to L. Harper, lignite is found in wells at thirty feet, 

 and sometimes as much as thirty feet in thickness ; and a stratum of lignite at 

 !east six feet in thickness, is said by him to crop out about a mile N. W. of town, 

 which, from his description, would appear to be similar in quality to that at 

 Moses Bridges', Choctaw county. 



2(55. In 8. Calhoun generally, lignite appears to be quite abund- 

 ant, according to accounts I have received from inhabitants. The 

 same appears to be the case in N. E. Choctaw, where the formation 

 resembles closely that on the Potlockney and Yockeney ; a bed of 

 lignite has been observed in the neighborhood of Bellefontaine. 

 At Bankston, dark lignitic clay, with a vein of lignite, crops out on 

 a bluff half a mile S. W. of the place : it seems likely that by bor 

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