116 REPORT OP THE 



track shows this rock to be strikingly marked by lines of 

 oblique lamination, which generally dip toward the south. The 

 rock has a pale buff color, unequally distributed, and is but 

 moderately coherent, rather friable, and towards the top is 

 wholly disintegrated. ° 



The shales are compact, fine, black and highly bituminous. 

 In traversing the drifts or chambers leading from the shaft, the 

 shaly roof is seen to be somewhat undulating and to present 

 many evidences of slight disturbance since solidification. It is 

 intersected by numerous fractures, and in many instances the 

 movements of the opposing faces against each other have pol- 

 ished them most perfectly. The blackness and solidity of the 

 shale give specimens the appearance of polished jet. The shale 

 contains a Lingula probably unknown to science. 



The coal is bituminous, solid, generally free from foreign 

 matters, but is intersected by a thin belt of iron pyrites which 

 is also slightly disseminated through the contiguous portions 

 of the coal. The coal furnishes a glistening coke, samples of 

 which were much admired at the State Pair. 



It is uncertain whether this outcrop is connected with the 

 main basin or is only another outlier. Numerous explorations 

 for coal have been made in vain on the N. E. \ sec. 36, Sand- 

 stone, and extending over the line into the N. W. \ of the sec- 

 tion. At one point a boring was carried to the depth of 219 

 feet. The coal measures seem to be mainly denuded along the 

 interval between Woodville and Barry. At the deep boring, 

 the Parma Sandstone was found 24 feet thick ; a series of 

 calcareo-arenaceous strata holding the place of the carboniferous 

 limestone, 22 feet; a series of argillo-arenaceous strata occu- 

 pying the place of the gypseous, or Michigan Salt Group, 49 

 feet ; the Napoleon Group, including 20 feet of separating shale 

 at bottom, 114 feet. The boring extended 56 feet into the Mar- 

 shall Group. With such an interpretation of the results of this 

 experiment, it would be obviously inconsistent to encourage 

 further expenditures in the exploration of rocks below the 

 shales of the coal measures. 



