HAMILTON COUNTY. 77 



This coal seam is probably nowhere more than twelve to fifteen inches 

 thick in this part of the county, and the coal is rather soft and slaty, 

 but quite free from pyrite, and is a very fair blacksmith's coal. The 

 limestone is a hard fine grained grayish rock, weathering to a yellowish- 

 drab, and when thoroughly burned is said to yield a strong dark colored 

 lime. 



To the westward of Hog prairie sandstone and sandy shales outcrop 

 at intervals in the small branches and in the hill sides to the Jefferson 

 county line, just bej~ond which the following beds were seen, and as 

 they probably underlay the north-west part of Hamilton county from 

 the prevailing north-easterly dip of the strata, I deem it proper to 

 give a description of them in this place. 



At Dr. Wllkey's place on sec. 36, T. 4 S., R. 4 E., the following section 

 was seen : 



Ft. 



Shales. sandy at the top bat passing into bine clay shales below 18 to 20 



Calcareo-bituniinous shale with fossils, the upper part passing locally into shaly bituminous 



limestone 4 to 6 



Coal H to 3 



Shaly fire-clay 3 



Shaly micaceous sandstone with fragments of plants 8 to 10 



Among the fossils found here I recognize the following species : 

 Orthoceras Rushensis, Bellerophon earbonarius, B. Montfortlanus, Euom- 

 phalus subrugosus, Nucula ventricosa, Astartella vera, Leda Oweni, Macro- 

 don carbonaria, Spirifer plano-conve.vus, Chonetes Flemingii, Synocladia 

 biserialis, Lophophyllum proliferum, and plates and spines of Eupacliy- 

 erinus. 



About a mile north of Dr. Wilkey's on Mr. Jines' place another coal 

 seam is found where the coal is about eighteen inches thick, and over- 

 laid by a few inches of bituminous shale without fossils, passing upward 

 into a chocolate-colored shale, of which about two feet in thickness is 

 exposed on the branch in stripping the coal. This seam is opened on a 

 small branch running north-eastward into a tributary of Skillet fork, 

 and the coal dips in the same direction about with the fall of the creek, 

 while the outcrop at Dr. Wilkey's is on one of the branches of the 

 Middle fork of Big Muddy, which runs to the south and south- west- 

 ward. The coal at Mr. Jines' mine seemed to be harder than that at 

 Dr. Wilkey's, aud while at the latter locality the coal was quite varia- 

 ble in thickness, ranging from eighteen inches to nearly or quite three 

 feet; at the former it varies but little from eighteen inches. I have no 

 doubt but these outcrops are on two distinct seams, probably the equiva- 

 lents of Nos. 10 and 11 of the general section. In the vicinity of 

 McLeansboro the strata seem to be nearly horizontal, no continuous 

 dip in any direction being perceptible, but to the westward between 

 Hog prairie and the county line there appeared to be a decided dip to 



