I 



550 GEOLOGY OF NORTHWESTERN TEXAS. 



In the bank of the creek four hundred feet east of the shaft the coal out- 

 crops eight feet above the bed of the stream. There the lower stratum of 

 coal is twenty inches thick and the upper stratum eight inches thick, with 

 two inches of slate between them. Again, about three-fourths of a mile up 

 the creek, about northeast, the coal outcrops on the west side of the hill, 

 showing about the same condition. There are several outcrops on the east- 

 ern side of the creek, and some prospecting has been done on the seam, but 

 none of the shafts could be entered at the time of my visit. In the vicinity 

 of Gibson shaft, near the mouth of Bull Creek and three miles northeast of 

 the town of Waldrip, I made the following section. Beginning at the top: 



1. Limestone 3 feet. 



2. Sandstone 10 feet. 



3. Clay 40 feet. 



4. Sandstone 3 feet. 



5. Shaly limestone 2 feet. 



6. Clay 



1. Coal 



8. Slate 



9. Coal 



10. Fireclay 



11. Sandstone 



Total 12 feet. 



There has. been some prospecting for coal done on the south side of the 

 river near the town of Waldrip, mention 'of which will be given in this con- 

 nection, as it is not intended to give a detailed description of McCulloch 

 County in this Report. About one-half mile west of Waldrip is the Fink 

 mine. The shaft is eighty-four feet deep. The coal is twenty-eight inches 

 thick, with two partings of slate. The owners of the mine took the trouble 

 at the time of my visit to clean out the shaft, as the work had been aban- 

 doned for some time, so that I could make a personal inspection of the work- 

 ings. An entry has been driven into the seam in an easterly direction for a 

 distance of fifty feet and the coal taken out for several feet on each side of 

 the entry. The coal is of fair quality, but other prospecting will have to be 

 done before the question of the quantity of coal in the vicinity can be de- 

 termined. The trouble about the seam in this part of the State is that it is 

 not persistent in thickness. It sometimes changes very rapidly in short dis- 

 tances. The Williamson shaft is about one mile northeast of Waldrip. A 

 few years ago a company at heavy expense put down this shaft, eight by 

 eight feet, and timbered it from top to bottom with pine lumber two inches 

 thich, hauled a long distance, and when they finally reached the coal, at a 

 depth of one hundred and sixty feet, it was only one foot thick, and the work 

 was abandoned at once. No one should go to such heavy expense in the way 



6 feet. 







10 inches. 





2 inches. 



2 feet. 





2 feet. 





3 feet. 





