COAL MEASURES. 1 43 



Drift sand 75 ft. 



Clay 25 " 



Sand rock 7 " 



Shales of various color, partly black, and a 4-foot bed of fire-clay 

 were the rock beds next penetrated to the depth of 200 feet ; at 

 the bottom a dark gray hard rock was found — no coal. 



Another boring in the same town had, at the time the record 

 was given to me, reached a depth of 122 feet, and was still within 

 the drift. Several other borings were made in the vicinity of Rifle 

 River with no better success. 



A natural outcrop of the coal-bearing rock series is seen in the 

 river bed, Town. 19, R. 4, east, Sect. 4, below a dam built across it. 

 Highest is a yellowish, rather soft sand rock, from 10 to 12 feet 

 in thickness, interstratified with some seams of dark bluish shale, and 

 containing ferruginous concretions and vegetable remains (Cala- 

 mites). Lower are from 2 to 3 feet of a shaly, micaceous sand rock, 

 of irregular, discordant stratification, thinly laminated by interven- 

 ing linear coaly seams, and with the strata frequently distorted 

 into serpentine flexions. Next below are 15 inches of a dark blue 

 arenaceous shale with kidney ore, its strata also flexured, or 

 broken into a brecciated mass. The lowest visible beds are a white 

 sand rock inclosing numerous water-worn, ferruginous pebbles and 

 pieces of shale, besides thin, linear seams of coal. About 5 feet of it 

 emerge from the water. Other outcrops are found further down 

 the river. On Mr. Kinney's farm, Town. 19, R. 5, east, Sect. 10, 

 blue arenaceous shales, with some thick ledges of sand rock form- 

 ing the top part, are all that can be seen. Still further down the 

 river, within the village of Omer, the bed and its banks are formed 

 of a white, soft sand rock of discordant stratification, interstrati- 

 fied with some thin shale beds, and containing narrow veins of coal 

 not over an inch in thickness. Toward the mouth of the river 

 the formation disappears under drift deposits. While the explo- 

 rations on Rifle River were going on, some boring experiments had 

 also been made along the line of the Lansing and Saginaw Railroad, 

 near Deep River, and near Standish, which were attended by a 

 somewhat better success than most of the experiments on Rifle 

 River. At Deep River station, Mr. Stephens sunk a drill-hole to a 

 depth of 120 feet, and found, 



