BICHLAND COUNTY. 49 



Coal. — There are two coal seams cropping out in this county that 

 promise to be of some value in supplying the local demand for fuel, and 

 the upper one, if its thickness at the outcrop should be found persistent 

 over any considerable area, will furnish all needed supplies for the 

 county for many years to come. The lower seam, which outcrops on the 

 head waters of the Bonpass in the south-eastern portion of the county, 

 and has been referred to No. 12 of the general section, ranges from six- 

 teen to twenty inches in thickness, and has only been worked by strip . 

 ping in the creek valleys where it outcrops. It affords a coal of good 

 quality, but unfortunately is generally too thin to be mined profitably iu 

 a systematic way The other seam, five miles north-west of Olney, is 

 about three feet in thickness, and an inclined tunnel has been carried 

 down to it, and preparations made for working it systematically for the 

 supply of the Olney market. This is probably the Shelby ville seam, 

 No. 15 of the general section, which is the thickest seam in the upper 

 Coal Measures, and usually quite persistent in its development. Iu 

 Shelby county this seam affords a semi-block coal of fair quality, hard 

 enough to be handled without much waste, and tolerably free from sul- 

 phuret of iron, but showing thin partings of selenite on transverse 

 cleavage. The thickness of the sandstoues, shales, etc., intervening 

 between coals 12 and 15 in the valley of the Okaw is about 235 feet, but in 

 this county it is probably somewhat less, though this point could only 

 be determined approximately from the lack of continuous outcrops of 

 the intervening strata. The main coals of the lower Coal Measures are 

 probably from six hundred to a thousand feet below the surface at Olney, 

 and it would require an expenditure of capital to open and work them 

 that the present demand for coal would not justify. If the seam north- 

 east of Olney should be found to retain an average thickness of three 

 feet over any considerable area, it will furnish an abundant supply for 

 all the present demands for coal in this county. 



Lime. — No limestone was seen in this county that seemed well adapted 

 for use in the lime kilu, though some attempts have been made to use 

 the rock overlying coal No. 12 on the Bonpass for that purpose. It is 

 usually too argillaceous to slack freely when burned, and at best would 

 only produce a very inferior quality of lime. 



Soil and Agriculture. — The agricultural facilities in this county are 

 similar to those of the counties adjoiuing, and do not require any 

 extended notice in this place. The [surface is generally rolling and 

 pretty equally divided into timber and prairie land. The prairies are 

 usually small, and possess a rich, productive clay-loam soil, that will 

 never require manuring if properly cultivated with a judicious system 

 of rotation of crops. The soil on the timbered lands is less uniform iu 

 quality than on the prairies, and its character is generally well indicated 



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