70 GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF ALABAMA. 
this burns to an ash along with the other without fail. The 
coal of this seam ranks high as a domestic coal, but it is 
now used by the Eureka Company for the purpose of coke- 
making at their ovens on their branch railroad; said ovens 
are between the Birmingham Mineral Blocton branch and 
the Eureka Company’s Branch Railroad about a quarter of 
a mile from Tacoa Station, on the South and North Ala- 
bama Railroad. The Eureka Company apply the coke to 
iron smelting at their Oxmoor furnaces, six miles south ot 
Birmingham. 
The Eureka Company’s Branch Railroad extends from 
Tacoa depot, on the South and North Alabama Railroad, to 
their No. 2 slope, in the Eureka basin, a distance of about 
two miles. The coke ovens and the houses of the miners 
are on this branch railroad, between the Louisville and 
Nashville Company’s main line and slope No. 2. 
The rate of dip of the measures of the Eureka basin is 
mostly from 28° to 42°; the exceptions are, the very steep 
dips on the southeast side of the basin, approaching to the 
vertical, and the measures of the synclinal which flatten up 
to a rate of dip as low as 2° or 3°. 
The seams of this basin are mostly of good quality; the 
Wadsworth, a seam of three feet to three and a half feet, 
yields a very good coking coal, is easily mined, has a good 
roof, and in the Bee Hive oven makes a first-class coke. 
The Buck is a seam averaging about four feet, is a good 
coal, and will also coke. The Blackshale, a seam of three 
to three and a half feet, is a very pure, clean seam, makes a 
good domestic and steam coal, and has a good, hard, safe 
roof. The Little Pittsburg, a seam of two and a half to 
three feet, holds an excellent quality of coal for domestic 
use, but I do not know whether it will make a good coke or 
not—it is a good steam coal. The Conglomerate seam is 
also a good coal of from three to five feet in thickness, but 
liable to layers of smut in the interior of it, so closely re— 
sembling coal that none but an expert can well detect it. 
The Helena is a very good seam of about four feet in thick- 
ness, and is also used largely for coking purposes. 
The following is a section of the Wadsworth seam in this 
basin : 
