GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF THE TERRITORIES. 626 



them. The pine woods there available have already been greatly thinned, 

 and the question of the future supply of fuel would be a serious one but 

 for the supplies promised by these mines below the mountains. 



The range of the coal-belt to the north side of Clear Creek was traced 

 by the writer, in October last, and a j>oint selected for trial shafts on the 

 hills half a mile from the creek. The line of these vertical beds is but 

 poorly indicated on the surface, and may be easily missed. Faint 

 streaks of coal-smut or blossom were in this instance followed to the 

 depth of seventy feet in fire-clay before they led to solid coal. The bed 

 was here found about ten feet thick. From this side of the creek the 

 railroad will be most conveniently supplied. 



The outcrop of coal has been detected at intervals between Golden 

 City and Ealston Creek, five miles to the north, and the formation evi- 

 dently continues through, but no mines are worked in the intervening 

 tracts. 



Ralston Creek. — Two large coal beds are opened in the banks of this 

 stream, five miles north from Golden City, and about two miles below 

 the foot of the mountain range. They lie in a vertical position, about 

 twenty-five feet apart. The upper or western one has been followed 

 under the south bank some thirty feet, and was found to be about nine 

 feet thick of good coal. Bat the other bed, proving to be quite as good 

 as to quality of the coal, and affording in actual working full fourteen 

 feet free from slate and all foreign matters, it has been worked in pref- 

 erence. Other small beds have been met with farther up the stream ; 

 but these two are probably all of importance. The large bed is worked 

 on both sides of the creek, and on the north side a large shaft was sunk 

 the last season sixty feel deep in the coal, from the bottom of which 

 levels are to be run north and south. The price paid for mining was 

 $1 50 per ton — the coal run out by the miners, who found their own 

 tools, powder, and lights. The timber required for stulls, &c, was pro- 

 vided by the owner from the mountains. Not so much of this is re- 

 quired in working a vertical bed as is needed in one inclined. But, on 

 the other hand, the trouble, danger, and expense of working the former 

 are essentially greater, and the amount of coal available over large 

 areas materially less. In this case, estimating with allowance for waste, 

 that the production should average twelve feet of coal, and that a cubic 

 yard of this weighs two thousand pounds, the mine should afford, if 

 worked to the depth of two hundred yards and a mile in length, about 

 one million and fifty thousand tons. The quantity obtained, however, 

 will depend very much upon the skill with which the work is conducted, 

 and the freedom from accidents, especially fire, the danger of which 

 has already been experienced. The coal appears very well, being of 

 deep-black color with brilliant luster. It soon crumbles, however, on 

 exposure, and the waste from fine coal in the mine has been so great 

 that, if continued, a larger deduction would have to be made than that 

 allowed in the above estimate. The coal has met with a ready sale at 

 the mine at $4 per ton, and $10 at Denver, fourteen miles distant. The 

 construction of the railroad to Golden City must so reduce the cost of 

 transportation that Denver will hereafter be supplied at lower rates. 



Half a mile south from Ralston Creek, towards Golden, coal was dis- 

 covered some time ago directly on the range of the bed worked, of which 

 it is no doubt the continuation. The exploration thus made developed 

 a large bed with a gentle dip toward the mountains. Whenever this 

 is opened again it will be a matter of interest to trace out the extent of 

 this change of dip. 



Leideii's. — The next opening in the coal-bed to the north is in a gap 



