by an average width of three and three tenths (3 3-10) miles, 
and contains a surface area of thirteen and eighty-six hund - 
redths (13 86-100 square miles. 
The amount of workable coal it contains in seams of two 
feet and upward in thickness, is 300,000,000 of tons (of 
2,000 pounds,) without any allowance being made for loss in 
pillars or waste in mining. 
The lowest workable seam outcropping in this basin is 
the Montevallo seam; it is also the highest outcropping 
workable seam in the basin. There are six other seams out- 
cropping in this basin besides the Montevallo seam, two 
below and four above the Montevallo, but all six are either 
too thin or too impure to be workable. My examinutions 
and tests of the most of these thin seams were made twenty- 
eight years ago; I have tested the others at various times 
since. My tests in the two below the Montevallo were made 
on Walker’s Camp Branch; the Air Shaft seam was tested 
near the Baker mine; the Black Fireclay seam test is on 
the headwaters of Jesse’s Creek; my tests on the Stine seam 
and the Luke seam were made on Davis’ Creek; the only 
workable seam discovered yet, outcropping in the Monte- 
vallo basin is the Montevallo seam; this seam was dis- 
covered and mined three or four years before the beginning 
of the war. 
The writer mined this seam on a lease from the Alabama 
Coal Mining Company and Montevallo Coal Company in 
1859, shipping by what is now known as the East Tennes- 
see, Virginia and Georgia Railroad to Talladega and Selma, 
thence by Alabama river to Montgomery and Mobile. It 
was then considered the best domestic coal mined in the 
State. In fact, up to January, 1860, it was the only coal in 
the State that was shipped to market by railroad. The 
average thickness of this seam is from two and a half feet 
to two feet nine inches. The following is a section of it: 
