106 GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF ALABAMA. 
Cooney p : Ee we 
The lowest workable seam outcropping in this basin is 
the seam known asthe “Big Vein.” This seam is the 
Wadsworth of the South and North Alabama railroad. 
Near Boothtown it runs into the vertical measures of the 
“Interior Fault.” Its thickness in the south end of the 
basin is eight feet in the aggregate; a part of this, though, 
is impure and shaly, but probably four feet of good coal can 
be gotten out of it. 
The most workable seam is the “‘Clean Coal Seam,” which 
is only two and a half feet in thickness. The next work- 
able seam above this is the “Beech Tree seam,” of taree 
feet in thickness of good coal; the “Half Yard coal’ comes 
in between the two last mentioned seams. A short distance 
above the Beech Tree seam is a thin seam of six inches ; 
this, with the “Clean Coal,” “Half Yard” and “Beech Tree,” 
forming a group of four seams between the Big Vein and 
Coke seam. Between this group and the Coke seam, is a 
thin seam that becomes sixteen inches thick in places. 
Then above this is the Coke seam. This seam near Dailey 
Creek, ranges from three to three and a half feet in thick- 
ness, and is a good coal, making an excellent coke. There 
are two thin seams a few inches thick above the Coke seam, 
but the next workable seam is the Clark seam, which, when 
discovered thirty years ago, was named the “Spring vein.” 
The Clark varies in size from two and a half to four feet in 
thickness, and is of very good quality. Above the Clark, a 
varying distance of from ten to a hundred feet is the Ghol- 
son seam ; this is a remarkably good seam of solid coal, 
varying from four to five feet in thickness with a good sand- 
stone roof. From my remembrance of measurements made 
in the old Gholson mine twenty-five years ago, when the 
mine was still open, the average thickness of the seam 
through the mine was five feet. When the Gurnee workings 
have advanced to flat part of the basin, the Excelsior 
company will have an excellent seam, with a good roof and 
an immense area of flat or level measures to work in. The 
following are measured sections of the Clark and Gholson 
seams : 
