208 COAL FIELDS OF THE COLORADO RIVER. 



most of which are very soft and easily washed away, the position of the beds 

 is usually indicated by a valley of considerable width, bordered on the north- 

 west by a bluff capped by the hard overlying limestone and sandstone. The 

 Waldrip beds are first plainly seen on the Colorado at Waldrip, but their 

 exact southward extension is very obscure, owing to a thick soil derived from 

 the decay of the Cretaceous rocks of the Brady Mountains. Traced to the 

 northeast, in Coleman County they occupy the southern portion of the valley 

 of Bull Creek, then curve, first east then north, around the base of a bluff into 

 the valley of Camp Creek ; then in a similar way from Camp Creek to Home 

 Creek, the valley of which it follows northward to the east branch of Hay 

 Creek, north of the old Trickham and Paint Rock roads. From this point 

 it follows up the valley of this branch in a northeasterly direction to the 

 headwaters of that creek. The new Santa Anna and Brady road crosses it 

 just north of the old Brownwood and Paint Rock road crossing. Still con- 

 tinuing northeast, the series of beds crosses the railroad in the valley of the 

 Mukewater, about four miles east of Santa Anna. Beyond this the beds 

 strike across the divide between the Mukewater and Mud creeks, and follow 

 down Mud Creek to the Jim Ned. The further northeast extension of this 

 series has not yet been traced. 



The nature of the strata in this division, while similar at all points in so 

 far as the general features are concerned, is very different in detail. A 

 general section cannot be made that will apply in detail for all parts. At 

 Waldrip, even in an area of a few miles, great variation in the order and 

 thickness of beds is noticeable. So great is this variation that many are led 

 to believe that there are several beds of coal, a conclusion that is not war- 

 ranted by the observed facts in the field nor by numerous borings. Others 

 explain the anomaly by supposing faults in the form of actual dislocation, 

 but such an explanation will not account for the observed facts. Local dif- 

 ferences in the amount of sediment deposited and possibly contemporaneous 

 erosion of beds already deposited will undoubtedly explain most of the ob- 

 served irregularities. It is possible also that some of the strata of soft clay 

 may have been squeezed out at places and accumulated in others by the 

 pressure of the superincumbent beds. 



At Waldrip, in the shaft which has been used for working the Finks coal 

 mine, after going through a very hard and compact limestone, 23 feet of clays 

 and clay shales and 18 feet of slate were passed through before reaching the 

 coal. One and three-quarter miles east of this shaft the coal outcrops ; but at 

 this place it lies directly beneath the limestone, with no intermediate clays. 

 There is little doubt that this is the same limestone as that encountered in 

 the Waldrip shaft, as it is the only compact limestone which could be ex- 

 pected to outcrop at this place. Thus 41 feet of clays disappear in less than 



