WABASH AND EDWARDS COUNTIES. 61 



ties as indicated in the sections given on the preceding pages. The 

 best is probably that from the even bedded brown sandstone above No. 

 11 coal, that is found in the northern and north-western portions of 

 Wabash, and the central and northern portions of Edwards. Quarries 

 have been opened in this sandstone in the vicinity of Oriole, in Wabash 

 county, where a good evenly bedded rock is obtained, the thin layers 

 affording a good flag stone, and the thicker beds material suitable for 

 foundation walls, etc. This sandstone probably underlays all the ridges 

 and highlands in the north-west part of tho county and will be found 

 accessible at many points as the demand for building stone increases. 

 The sandstone in the river bed at Rochester has also been quarried to a 

 limited extent, and quarries have been opened at Walden's place, 

 between this point and Mt. Carmel, where a fair quality 7 of sandstone 

 has been obtained from a bed that is seemingly the equivalent of the 

 sandstone in the Mt. Carmel bluff. 



In the vicinity of Albion sandstone of a fair quality is obtained at 

 several points, some of which is concretionary and very hard, yielding 

 a very durable stone. This concretionary character is not persistent 

 however, but the rock passes locally into a thin bedded sandstone or 

 sandy shale. No limestone was seen in either county that could be 

 recommended as a building stone, although that found at Rochester 

 mills and at Mr. Reel's place north of Mt. Carmel has been used to 

 some extent in the neighborhood of these outcrops. The rock is argil- 

 laceous and locally highly bituminous, and is liable to split into fragments 

 by long exposure. 



Coal. — The upper coal seam in the Coffee creek section was the only 

 outcrop we were able to find in either of these counties that promised 

 to be of any value for practical coal mining. The coal in this seam 

 ranges from thirty inches to three feet in thickness, and appears to 

 underlay a considerable area in the south part of Wabash and the 

 south-western part of Edwards. Several shafts have been sunk to this 

 coal about three miles south-west of Mt. Carmel, where the coal is found 

 from thirty to thirty -five feet below the surface. This seam affords a 

 hard splinty or semi-block coal of fair quality, and with judicious man 

 agement it might be worked to advantage, either by a shaft or perhaps 

 better by an inclined tunnel. The roof seems to be good, and if the 

 thickness of the coal is at all uniform, I see no reason why it may not 

 be made to yield a fair return for the labor and capital required to put 

 a mine in successful operation where the coal lays so near the surface. 

 This is probably the same coal worked at Mr. Nailor's place in the 

 south-sast part of Edwards several years since, for the supply of Albion 

 and the adjacent region. No attempt has as yet been made to reach 

 the lower seams in either of these counties except at Mt. Carmel, where 



