CAKBONIFEKOUS SYSTEM. 261 



consequent limited demand for coal in that part of the State, 

 compared with what it is capable of sustaining, and will 

 some day possess, the high rate of interest and great 

 demand for capital which now prevails, will doubtless 

 cause some years to elapse before such enterprises will be 

 undertaken in the immediate vicinity of the Missouri river, 

 at least, with such vigor as to insure a thorough trial. Pru- 

 dent men will also hesitate to commence the first of such 

 enterprises in the vicinity named, both because of the 

 certainty that the coal, if it exists there at all, lies at a 

 greater depth than it does farther to the eastward ; and 

 because more or less distrust will naturally be felt as to 

 the actual continuation of the beds of coal beneath the 

 surface so far from their outcrop in the more central portions 

 of the State, even although no doubt may be entertained that 

 the formation itself extends so far. 



The best and least hazardous plan upon which to proceed 

 in these experimental enterprises, would no doubt be to com- 

 mence them only a short distance westward from those 

 points where good beds of coal are already known. If such 

 trials prove successful, so much experience will have been 

 gained for other similar trials still farther westward. Thus, 

 for example, let shafts be sunk in the valley of Chariton 

 river in Appanoose county, with the view of proving whether 

 those beds of coal now known to exist at and near the surface 

 in Davis county, and the parts adjoining, extend beneath 

 that valley, and consequently beneath the bed already 

 worked near Centreville. If successful in this, go next to 

 the valleys of Medicine and Grand rivers in Wayne and 

 Decatur counties. Commence in the valleys rather than upon 

 the uplands, because a depth of digging will thus be saved 

 equal to the depth of the valley below the general level of 

 the uplands. 



Again, along the lower courses of North, Middle, South, 

 and White Breast rivers, the heavy beds of coal of the Lower 

 coal-measures are known to exist. As one passes up the 

 valleys of these streams, he comes upon higher and higher 



