32 GEOLOGY OF ILLINOIS. 



belong to the heavy shale deposit passed iu the boring at Greenup, and 

 belong between coals Nos. 14 and 16 of the general section. The 

 highest outcrops will be found in the north-west corner of the county, 

 where the Fusulma limestone that outcrops at Churchill's place, near 

 the county line iu Cumberland county, may be seen. 



At the crossing of North Fork, on the old Palestine and Vandalia 

 road, a blue, saudy shale has been penetrated by a shaft to the depth 

 of about thirty feet iu search of coal, but -without success. The upper 

 part of this shale bed outcrops in the bank of the stream at an old mill 

 just below the bridge. About a mile further down the creek, a bed of 

 brown, calcareous sandstone is found from IS to 20 inches thick, which 

 contains Pinnaper-acuta, Sjoirifer plano-cowvexus, Productus Prattenianus, 

 Orthoceras, Hyalina, etc. 



In the bank of the Embarras, at St. Marie's, a thin bedded micaceous 

 sandstone is quarried at low water, but it splits into thin layers on 

 exposure, and is of but little value as a building stone. A well was 

 sunk here at the steam mill, to the depth of ninety feet, through 

 saudy shales and sandstone, without finding either coal or limstone. 



Newton, the county seat of this county, is located on the bluff of the 

 Embarras, and the outcropping beds that form the lower portion of the 

 bluff consist of 25 to 30 feet of soft micaceous shales and sandstones 

 extending below the river bed. About two miles south-east of the town, 

 on Brush creek, a sandstone is found that furnishes most of the build- 

 ing stone used in this vicinity. The quarry rock is from eight to ten feet 

 thick, in layers varying from six to twelve inches or more in thickness. 

 The stone is rather soft when first quarried, but becomes harder oil 

 exposure and makes a very durable rock for ordinary use. Locally it 

 has a coarsely concretionary structure, the concretions being harder 

 than the surrounding rock, a character frequently observed in the heavy 

 bedded sandstones of the Coal Measures. Below the sandstone there 

 is a variable thickness of shale that becomes bituminous towards the 

 bottom and forms the roof of a coal seam that has been opened and 

 worked to some extent at this locality. The seam was covered up by 

 the falling in of the roof, so that I could not see the quality of the coal 

 or measure its exact thickness, but it is said to be from 2J to 3 feet 

 thick, and has a shale parting like the seam at the old Eaton mines 

 north-west of Bobinson. This is probably coal No. 14 or 15 of the 

 general sectiou. This coal probably underlays the town of Newton at 

 a depth of eight or ten feet below the bed of the Embarras river, and 

 might be easily mined anywhere along the bluff', by driving an inclined 

 tunnel into the base of the hill above high-water mark down to the 

 level of the coal. A mine could be. cheaply opened here in this way, 

 and if the quality of the coal should prove to be good, it would no 



