COAL. 213 



where it is buried beneath the Cretaceous, it will in all probability be found 

 in the northeast corner of the county south of Brownwood; but there is no 

 certainty that it will be found even here in workable beds. 



The Waldrip coal series is the main coal-bearing band of the Carbonifer- 

 ous. Its approximate boundaries have already been given above. From 

 Waldrip to the Silver Moon mine, on the Jim Ned Creek, near Brown County 

 line, the band of coal-bearing strata is continuous, and everywhere along 

 this line where prospecting has been done, coal in workable thickness has 

 been found, except in one or two instances, where its absence might readily 

 be accounted for by some very local cause. Some of the places where 

 coal has been found in this belt are, at Waldrip; near the mouth of Bull 

 Creek; Dunson and Kingsbury's pasture, on Home Creek; Homes' pasture, 

 near the Gulf, Colorado and Santa Fe Railroad, four miles east of Santa 

 Anna; several places on Mud Creek, on Mr. W. M. Terrel's place, and else- 

 where; and at the Silver Moon mine, on Jim Ned Creek. This bed also 

 extends to the Pecan Bayou, and farther, but I have not traced it beyond 

 the Jim Ned. More than twenty-five prospecting holes have been sunk in 

 this belt, and almost everywhere a seam of coal varying from 18 to 30 inches 

 has been found, with an average thickness of two feet. It is impossible to 

 say whether these various prospecting holes have struck one and the same 

 coal seam or not, but there is no reason to suspect that this not the case. At 

 all points the coal seam occupies the same position relative to the permanent 

 beds above and below. Local variations occur in the distribution of some 

 of the beds, as might be expected. The coal itself undoubtedly varies much 

 in thickness and composition, as it also does in exact position; but there is 

 every reason to suspect that there is a continuous bed of coal extending at 

 least from Waldrip to the Jim Ned. This bed may disappear entirely in 

 isolated patches, or it may in places be replaced by carbonaceous shale. 

 There may be thin beds of coal above and below, but nothing has been found 

 to prove that there is any better bed than this one that has already been 

 found in so many places. 



The linear extent of the outcrop, as far as traced, can not be less than forty 

 miles northeast and southwest. Almost uniformly within a mile, and gen- 

 erally within a half mile west of the coal outcrop, there is a bluff of from 

 thirty to seventy feet in height, capped by limestone and sandstone, the low- 

 est strata of the Coleman Beds. From the base of this bluff to a variable 

 distance northwest, generally not more than three miles, there is probably 

 coal within four hundred feet of the surface. Where the natural elevation 

 of the country to the northwest is rapid, as is often the case, the belt in which 

 coal would probably be found in a 400-foot boring is frequently narrowed 

 down to two miles. The dip being very gentle, the coal at any point may 



