WILLIAMSON COUNTY. 117 



Ft. 



Fire-c'ay, good 2 to 3 



Sandstone 10 to 15 



Blue clay shale 4 to 6 



Hard brownish gray limestone ; 6 to 9 



Bituminous shale - 2 to 4 



Coal, 2s~o.9 2 



The limestone exposed here I believe to be the same as that at New 

 Haven, on the Wabash, and the equivalent of the Carlinville and Shoal 

 creek bed. The fire-clay above the limestone was only partially exposed, 

 and may be somewhat thicker than above indicated and appeared to be 

 of a suitable quality for pottery or fire brick. 



About a mile and a quarter north of Corinth, a shaft was sunk some 

 years ago in search of silver ore, which passed through this limestone 

 at the depth of about forty-two feet. I am indebted to Mr. Shaw, who 

 sunk this shaft, for the fol'owing data, given from memory, of the beds 

 passed through in this shaft: 



Ft. In. 



Snrface soil and clay 9 



Sandstone - 22 



Clay shale 2 6 



Limestone 9 



Bituminous shale 1 6 



Rotten coal 2 



Fire clay 2 



Hard rock, probably sandstone ? 



A few fossils were observed in the fragments of limestone thrown out 

 of this shaft, but belonging to species common throughout the Coal 

 Measures. An outcrop of the upper sandstone near by showed a bed 

 of ferruginous conglomerate about two feet thick, composed in part of 

 almond-shaped nodules of brown oxyd of iron. 



At Dr. Mitchell's place, on sec. 22, T. 8, E. 4, a bed of hard, brittle 

 limestone occurs in a single layer about a foot in thickness. It contained 

 Naticopsis rentrieosus, Productus longisjnnas, and joints of Crinoidea. I 

 am inclined to regard this limestone and the shales associated with it 

 as the highest beds to be seen in this couuty, and probably the equiva- 

 lent of the ferruginous beds usually found associated with coal No. 11 

 in the Wabash valley. At Mr. Roberts' place, on the north side of the 

 village of Corinth, coal was found in his well about fourteen feet from 

 the surface. It was penetrated, according to the report, about two feet 

 without passing through it. On Elijah Muse's place, near the north- 

 east coiner of the county, an inferior quality of coal said to be two feet 

 thick outcrops in the bed of a small creek. These thin coals probably 

 belong above the limestone at Dr. Smith's place, and may represent the 

 horizon of coals 10 or 11 of the general section, which are seldom found 

 of sufficient thickness to be of any economical value. The foregoing 

 sketch comprises all the coal seams probably occurring in this county, 

 and it only remains now to note some of the most important outcrops 



