coal. 437 



The outcrop of Coal Seam No. 1 is first seen on the north, near the town 

 of Bridgeport, in "Wise County, and passes thence through the western edge 

 of Parker County, between Millsap and Mineral Wells, and through Palo 

 Pinto County, passing G-ordon, and into Erath County, passing Thurber, to a 

 point about ten miles south of Strawn, where it passes beneath the newer 

 strata and does not appear again anywhere to the southward. This gives a 

 line of outcrop about eighty miles long; and if the same calculation is made 

 as in the case of the other seam it would give an area of eight hundred 

 square miles of available coal lands of this seam, making the whole area of 

 available coal lands in this part of the State twenty-seven hundred square 

 miles. 



AMOUNT OF COAL IN A GIVEN AEEA. 



The usual mining estimate of the productive capacity of a coal seam one 

 foot thick is about one million tons of coal to the square mile. The coal 

 seams of Texas will average two and a half feet thick, which would give two 

 million five hundred thousand tons per square mile, or per section of land, in 

 the coal area. It would take a plant producing six hundred tons per day, 

 with two hundred working days in a year, over twenty years to take out the 

 coal on a single square mile. The lands under which the coal seams are sit- 

 uated have no greater intrinsic value at the present than other lands in the 

 vicinity, for the reason that most of them are distantly situated from lines of 

 transportation, and a further fact that it requires a large investment of capi- 

 tal to carry on mining operations. Coal will not bear rehandling before 

 reaching the lines of transportation because of the increased expense attached, 

 but when our at present undeveloped industries are well established they will 

 create a demand for fuel, and then the means of transportation will be pro- 

 vided and lands become more valuable. 



SELECTION OP COAL LANDS. 



The selection of coal land should always be made by an expert ; one who is 

 not only a judge of coal, but one who can also judge from the surrounding 

 strata whether the country belongs to the true Coal Measures, and whether 

 the seam is likely to be of uniform thickness. 



I have endeavored to trace the only two seams in the State that are likely 

 to furnish coal in paying quantities, which are No. 1 and No. 7, so that any- 

 one can tell whether any coal outcrop he may find, or that may be found in 

 sinking wells, belongs to either of these seams. By reference to the map 

 showing the outcrop of coal in the State anyone can tell where profitable 

 prospecting for coal may be done. Each of these seams has some peculiar 



characteristic by which it can be recognized at different localities. 

 36— geol. 



