166 GEOLOGY. 



struck after that. An artesian boring has also recently been made 

 near the west end of the Union Pacific Railroad bridge at Omaha, 

 to a depth of seven hundred and fifty feet. This point, which is the 

 lowest yet reached along the river in Nebraska, by borings, was 

 struck without encountering any beds of coal. For this depth 

 therefore these upper measures, at least at this place are barren. 

 At Lincoln, on the public square, the artesian boring was put down 

 to the depth of a trifle over a thousand feet. A little before this 

 point was reached the contractor, Mr. Eaton, reported going 

 through a thirty inch bed of coal. As Lincoln is at least one hun- 

 dred and eight feet above the level of Omaha, it is clear that the 

 boring of the Union Pacific well at that place did not reach the 

 horizon of the coal bed reported by Mr. Eaton. This bed of coal 

 is probably in the lower coal measures and is the geological equi- 

 valent of the Des Moines beds. These Des Moines coal beds or 

 their equivalent would therefore be struck at Plattsmouth some- 

 where between eight hundred and one thousand feet below the 

 surface. According to my own calculations made in traversing the 

 space between Des Moines and the Missouri, it would be about 

 nine hundred feet. Prof. Meek believed that Omaha, where the 

 upper coal measures are exposed at a lower horizon, borings would 

 strike the geological equivalent of the Des Moines beds under one 

 thousand feet, and at still greater depth further down the river. 

 Owing to the facts developed by the artesian boring at Lincoln, it 

 is probable that all these estimates were too high and that these 

 Des Moines coal beds or their equivalents would be reached 

 between Plattsmouth and Omaha at a depth of between eight and 

 nine hundred feet. 



The question then returns whether there are or can be no good 

 workable beds of coal anywhere in these Upper Measures. The 

 old Nuckolls coal bed, worked near Rulo, in Pawnee County, in 

 Otoe County, and at several places in Cass and Johnson counties, 

 ranges from eight to eighteen inches in thickness, and in places is a 

 fair article of coal. The bed at Aspinwall, which is from twenty- 

 two to twenty-four inches thick, is not certainly its geological equiv- 

 alent. The same remark applies to a comparatively pure bed of 

 light coal, from eighteen inches to two feet in thickness, on the In- 

 dian Reservation south of Rulo, near the State line. But no beds 

 thicker than these have yet been found in these Upper coal measures, 

 and as we have seen, the probabilities are against their existence. 



