COLES COUNTY. m 



include two or three of the upper coals, hut the extent to which they 

 are developed here can only be determined with the drill. It is not 

 probable that any heavy bed of coal will be found short of six to eigbt 

 hundred feet from the surface, though one of the upper seams, two or 

 three feet thick, might be found at a moderate depth. 



The drift clays are similar to those described in the counties of 

 Edgar, Coles and iloultrie, but only the upper part of this deposit is to 

 be seen in the natural outcrops iu the bluffs of the streams. The soil 

 is mainly a deep, black, vegetable mould, characteristic of the prairie 

 lands throughout the central portions of the State, and is very pro- 

 ductive, yielding annually heavy crops of all the cereals grown iu this 

 latitude. 



