Xl REPORT OF THE STATE GEOLOGIST. 



clarifying sugar. In this, as in all uses of lignite, reference must be 

 had to the particular kind of lignite to be employed. 



Just as bituminous coals vary, and that from one locality proves more 

 suitable for certain purposes than that of another seam at no great dis- 

 tance, so the lignites differ and the characteristics of each must be 

 studied in order to ascertain for which of these many uses it is best 

 adapted. 



With such evidence as this before us — the results of fifty years of 

 experiments and trial ending in successful operation in all these vari- 

 ous uses of lignites — there can remain no shadow of doubt of the adapt- 

 ability of the great lignite fields of Texas, and other parts of America 

 as well, to meet the wants of the people for cheap fuel. 



The ease and cheapness of mining, the small cost of preparation, and 

 its value when prepared, will enable it to compete with wood in the 

 best wooded portions of the State, with coal in close proximity to the 

 coal mine, and it will prove of inestimable value in those localities in 

 which it is the only fuel. 



BITUMINOUS COAL. 



The work of the Survey during the past two years has resulted in 

 fully determining the limits of the Central Coal Fields, in ascertaining 

 the number, thickness, and dips of the workable seams of coal, and in 

 approximately mapping their lines of outcrop. 



The coal measures consist of beds of limestones, sandstones, shales, 

 and clays, having an aggregate thickness of some six thousand feet. 

 The dip of these beds is very gentle, averaging less than forty feet to 

 the mile in seam No. 7, and about sixty-five in seam, No. 1, and is to- 

 ward the northwest or west Very little disturbance has been noted in 

 it beyond a few slight folds and small faults. These two facts — slight 

 dip and undisturbed condition — are of great importance in the mining 

 of the coal. 



Two seams of workable coal were found, Nos. 1 and 7, respectively, 

 of the Texas section. None of the other seven seams observed are of 

 sufficient thickness to be of economic value. 



The Central Coal Field is divided by a strip of Cretaceous south of 

 the line of the Texas and Pacific Eailway. The two divisions thus 

 formed have been named after the principal rivers which cross them — 



