CAHABA COAL FIELD: CAHABA BASIN. 63 
part of the Millstone Grit formation can be seen beneath 
the Brock seam; it has a light bluish tinge. The Brock 
seam is about one and a half feet thick, the coal being of 
inferior quality at this point; after passing over forty feet 
of measures, the Millstone Grit being here of a faint bluish 
tinge, you come to the seven inch seam; passing over this 
you will then arrive at the lower part of the two hundred 
feet of Millstone Grit, you will perceive it here loses its 
bluish tinge and becomes of a white or grey color, though 
weathering white; the white pebbled conglomerate is im- 
bedded in this heavy ledge, and though the pebbles in 
places may not be visible for some distance, they always 
re-appear again. In general, these pebbles are easily 
noticed in the Millstone Grit of nearly all our Alabama 
coal measures. This heavy layer of Millstone Grit forms 
the shield of Shades mountain, which is the highest in the 
basin. Crossing over the mountain, in the valley between 
it and Pine Ridge, you pass over a hundred feet of gritty 
slate, which you will distinguish from the slate around the 
Gould, by its containing a greater abundance of rusty part- 
ing and bedding planes than the Gould slate does; this 
slate is of a dirty greenish color. Above this slate is a 
bluish laminated sandstone. You next arrive at the Mill- 
stone Grit of Pine ridge, which can be seen in the railroad 
cut, locally named the “Teague Cut” in this part of Pine 
ridge; passing through this you come in sight of the high 
trestle that stands over the outcrop of the Gould seam and 
its surrounding slates ; you will notice that the gritty slates _ 
around the Gould seam are lighter in color than those be- 
tween Shades mountain and Pine ridge; over the Gould 
seam is a ledge of yellow and pink sandstone which will 
help you to locate the seam in almost any part of the 
Cahaba Coal Field, and over this sandstone is another im- 
mense bed of gritty slate. Between said gritty slate and 
the Millstone Grit of Chestnut ridge, is a ledge of about 
twenty feet of blue-black slate, quite different from the blue 
laminated sandstone under the Millstona Grit of Pine ridge, 
This slate is another guide in identifying and locating the. 
Gould seam. Overlying the blue-black slate is the Mill- 
stone Grit of Chestnut ridge; this is the upper layer of 
