WHITE COUNTY. 71 



A short distance below the ford the bituminous shale and coal 

 appeared to be wanting, wedging out in a distance of about a hundred 

 yards. The upper bed of sandstone is in part a hard micaceous rock, 

 in even layers of moderate thickness, aud will afford a good quality of 

 building stone, as will also the concretionary bed below. About half 

 way from Grayville to this ford, in crossing a ridge, there is from 20 to 

 30 feet of shales exposed, which probably overlay the sandstones at 

 the ford, though the exact connection between them could not be deter- 

 mined. 



Gossett station, on the Cairo and Yincennes Eailroad, is located on a 

 high ridge something more than a hundred feet above the bed of Bear 

 creek. At the summit the railroad cut shows about ten feet of coarse, 

 soft, brown sandstone, that decomposes easily on exposure. A few feet 

 below this sandstone a thin coal has been found at two or three places 

 in the neighborhood, aud some digging has been done here in the expec- 

 tation of finding it somewhere thick enough to work to advantage, but 

 so far without success. A section of the rocks seen in this vicinity 

 show the following order : 



Ft. In. 



Brown clay, capping the ridge 10 to 15 



Coarse, soft, brown sandstone 10 



Space not seen, probably not more than 10 to 15 



Sandy shale 6 



Thin coal 4 



Sandy shale 6 



Space not seen 15 to 20 



Modular argillaceous limestone, without fossils 1 to 2 



Sandy shale 4 to 6 



Even-bedded micaceous sandstone to 8 



The lowest bed in this section affords sandstone in smooth even 

 layers from an inch to a foot or more in thickness, which is an excellent 

 and durable stone for flagging, foundation walls, etc., and the thickest 

 beds could be easily cut for caps and sills. The rock at this quarry 

 resembles that at McGilly's, a mile west of McLeansboro. ~No outcrop 

 of coal of any value has yet been found in this portion of the county, 

 and the four-inch seam in the above section is not likely to increase in 

 thickness sufficiently to become of any practical value for mining pur- 

 poses. 



The following observations and sections are from Prof. Cox's notes 

 in this county : "At the Grand Chain, one and a half miles below 

 Black's ferry, the Wabash flows over a hard sandstone, that is here a 

 fine-grained gray rock, excellent for building purposes. It forms a low 

 reef across the stream, creating a strong current, and hence the name, 

 ' Grand Chain.' On the Illinois shore the rock is but a few feet above 

 the river bed, and is soon lost under the alluvial bottom. Ou the 

 Indiana side it forms a ledge in the hills bordering the narrow bottom. 

 At Warrick's riffle, six miles above, this sandstone is again seen at the 



