FBANEXm COUNTY. 125 



thin coal associated with it outcrops on a small branch where coal has 

 been dug by stripping off the overlaying clay. The coal dips to the 

 westward a little more than the fall of the small branch that runs in 

 the same direction. The coal on the outcrop of the seam is not more 

 than six inches thick, but near by it was said to have been found from 

 a foot to eighteen inches thick. It is overlaid by a ferruginous sand- 

 stone, one layer of which is a conglomerate of iron pebbles. 



Two miles north of Benton on a small branch emptying into Big 

 Muddy there is an outcrop of sandstone interstratified with shale 

 presenting an exposure of fifty to sixty feet of strata. Following down 

 the branch for about three quarters of a mile we found the following 



succession of beds : 



Ft. 



iiicaceoas sandstone interstratified with shale 10 to 15 



Slicaceous shale 20 to 23 



Sandstone 12 to 15 



ilicaceous shale 6 to 8 



Sandstone in creek bed 



This locality furnishes all the building stone used in Benton and the 

 surrounding neighborhood, and the quarries here furnish an excellent 

 freestone for foundation walls and for dressed stone, as it cuts freely 

 and has proved to be a reliable building stone. The beds appear to dip 

 gently to the north-eastward, and probably overlay the thin coal and 

 sandstone seen at Dr. Hickman's place, south-west of the town. 



At the ford on the Big Muddy, at the crossing of the road from 

 Benton to Mulkeytown, there is an outcrop of about six to eight feet of 

 brown sandy shale overlaid by about twenty feet of brown and yellow 

 gravelly drift clay, containing numerous small bowlders from an inch to 

 a foot in diameter. South of this for about three miles no outcrop was 

 found on the east side of the Big Muddy, the bluffs forming low sloping 

 hills that appeared to be composed entirely of drift material. Further 

 to the southward, where the Frankfort and DuQnoin road crosses, a 

 thin coal is said to outcrop, but I did not visit the locality. This may 

 be coal ~So. 8 of the general section. 



A boring was made just on the western borders of the town of Benton 

 which was suspended on reaching a hard gray limestone at the depth of 

 one hundred and sixty-two feet. The record was carried away by the 

 person in charge of the work, and so no details could be obtained of the 

 several beds passed through. The limestone found at the bottom of this 

 bore was probably the same as that met with two miles east of Frank- 

 fort. This rock was mistaken for the Lower Carboniferous formation 

 and the work consequently abandoned, when in fact it was really the 

 bed which separates the upper and lower Coal Measures, and is at least 

 six hundred feet above the base of the lower measures. Two or three 

 thin seams of coal were reported in this bore, but none thick enough to 

 be of any value. 



