Lyell on Alabama Coal-fields. 421 



to the carboniferous series, also contains still lower down a limestone 

 charged with iron ; and an enormous mass of brown hematite 

 appears to constitute a regular bed, and not a vein, and to be des- 

 tined one day, like the coal, to be a source of great mineral wealth to 

 Alabama. 



It would have been impossible for me, during my short visit, to 

 form more than a conjectural opinion respecting the structure of this 

 coal-field, still less to determine its geographical area, had not these 

 subjects been previously studied with great care and scientific ability 

 by Mr. Brumby. Of the extent of the coal in Alabama he published 

 a brief account in 1838 in Barnard's Almanac, and communicated the 

 same to Dr. Silliman ; and from the observations which we have 

 lately made together, and from his notes and information, it may be 

 inferred that a section from the north-west to the south-east, passing 

 through the basins of the Warrior and Cahawba Rivers, would present 

 an anticlinal axis along the line of the water-shed between the 

 two rivers, in the middle of which the beds are highly inclined and 

 often vertical, while on both sides the productive coal-measures 

 occur in separate basins, the strata having a slight dip, and being in 

 many places nearly horizontal. These views will best be explained by 

 the annexed section. 



Section across the Alabama Coal-fields. 

 N.W. S.E. 



Black Warrior R. Rooks Valley. Cahawba R. 



\7Z, 



Coal. Grit. Limestone. Grit. Coal. 



Length of section 50 miles. 



In regard to the most western of the two coal-fields, or that on 

 the Warrior River (the principal tributary of the Tombecbee), it 

 has been found by Professor Brumby to be no less then ninety miles 

 long from north-east to south-west, with a breadth of from ten 

 to thirty miles, extending through the counties of Tuscaloosa, 

 Walker, Jefferson and Blount, on both sides of the Warrior River 

 several branches. Throughout all this area, seams of bituminous 

 coal crop out ; but the number and thickness of these it has 



