56 GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF ALABAMA. 
Thompson and the Underwood, but in the southern portion 
of the coal field it is much larger, and in better condition 
than it is in this basin, for description of which see the 
chapters on the Blocton basin and the Daily Creek basin. 
In the north end of this basin also, it is thicker and in bet- 
ter condition than it is on the South and North Alabama 
Railroad. 
Leaving the Conglomerate seam and continuing south- 
east, passing over eighty-four feet of measures, the first 
twenty feet of which are mostly coarse sandstones, the next 
fifty feet being a dense conglomerate, some of the pebbles 
being large enough to make it a puddingstone, and the re- 
maining fourteen feet a hard, coarse sandstone, you come to 
a thin seam of fifteen inches. This thin seam outcrops in 
the valley between the Conglomerate ridge and the Helena 
seam, and the ledge of conglomerate, or the ridge it forms, 
is an excellent guide and characteristic rock in the identi- 
fying and locating of all the other seams in this basin. 
The first settlers in this neighborhood gave the ridge the 
name of Gold Ridge. It may be possible that they pre- 
sumed that there was gold in it, on account of its contain- 
ing some quartz pebbles. It is much the highest and most 
prominent ridge in the basin, and is easily known by the 
large number of quartz pebbles scattered over it. Leaving 
the aforesaid fifteen inch seam, and continuing southeast- 
ward, you will pass over fifty-two feet of measures, mostly 
yellow sandstone. This brings you to the Helena seam. 
That portion of the sandstone immediately under the 
Helena seam, is fossiliferous, and part of it laminated. The 
outcrop of the Helena seam is under the railroad trestle 
between bridge 72 and the Conglomerate ridge. The aver- 
age thickness in this basin is four to five feet, but in the 
neighborhood of the South and North Railroad and Buck 
Creek, a test drift one hundred feet in length close to the 
creek, demonstrates that its average thickness at this point 
is not over six inches for the whole length of the drift. The 
great boundary fault being only about one hundred yards 
southeast of said drift, sufficiently accounts for the irregu- 
larity of the seam at this point. While this seam in the 
Eureka basin, immediately south of this, has a solid four to 
