206 GEOLOGY OF THE ifAEEAGANSETT BASIK 



7. In Cumberland J Rhode Island. — This is called the Eoger Williams mine, which 

 was opened many years ago; but the works were burnt, and the explorations aban- 

 doned, but they have been resumed within a few years under the superintendence of 

 Oapt Thomas Martin. A shaft has been sunk 300 feet perpendicularly, into which I 

 descended with Captain Martin. The old bed, whose strike was nearly IsTE. and SW., 

 has been abandoned, and by carrying a horizontal shaft 260 feet a new bed was 

 struck, which, at the place, runs nearly K and 8. and dips west about 45o. The 

 average width was stated to be 15 feet, and in some places 23 feet. If this be not a 

 mere protuberant mass, occasioned by lateral pressure, it indicates a larger amount of 

 coal than I have seen in any other mines in this coal field. 



8. The Valley Falls mine. — This is scarcely more than a mile south from the 

 Eoger Williams mine, yet the strike of the beds will not allow us to suppose them 

 connected. The operations here are carried on by the Blackstone Coal Company. A 

 shaft is carried down, which follows a bed of coal, with a dip near the surface of 30^ to 

 450. This bed, which I examined several years ago, to a depth of about 50 feet, exposed 

 a thickness of coal from 6 to 9 feet, and the direction was N. 50"^ to 60^* B. Since that 

 time the ^* incline,'^ as the miners call it, has been pushed downward 500 feet, or 

 about 375 feet of perpendicular depth, and, as already mentioned, the strata have 

 been found to curve very much, and not less than fiive beds of coal have been crossed, 

 the best having a width of 6 feet. One nest of coal was found 30 feet square. 



9. In Seelconh — I am informed by J. N. Bolles, esq., of Providence, that the out- 

 crop of a bed of coal was found in digging a well in this place, only 15 feet from the 

 surface. Its quality was similar to that found at Valley Falls. In the same region 

 occur very fine specimens of coal plants, especially calamites. 



10. In Providence, — The same gentleman, in boring for water in the north part 

 of Providence, at the depth of 60 feet, struck a bed of coal dipping NE. 45°, which 

 is 10 feet thick, and of the same general character as that at Valley Falls, which is 

 known to burn well. 



IL In Cranston, Rhode Island* — This town is on the west side of IJ^Tarragansett 

 Bay, along which the coal rocks extend as far as Wickford. In Cranston, according 

 to Dr. C. T. Jackson, "slate, graphite, and impure anthracite'^ are found in an excava- 

 tion 7 or 8 feet deep. Coal plants are very abundant on Warwick Neck, but no coal 

 has been found. 



1^. In Bristol, Rhode Island.— The coal bed in this place is in the west part of the 

 town, and the spot where it crops out is only a few feet above the harbor. It was 

 discovered in sinking a large well. Although I descended into it, I could not ascertain 

 the thickness of the bed, nor with accuracy its strike and dip. Approximately it runs 

 IsT. a t^Bw degrees B., and dips westerly about 48^. The coal did not appear to me to 

 be as much crushed as in some mines, and seems of an excellent quality. 



13. Portsmouth mine, or Case's mine, in Rhode Island.'— Thm mine, situated in the 

 northeast part of the island of Ehode Island, was opened in 1808, which was earlier 

 than the Pennsylvania mines were explored. At that time the mode of burning 

 anthracite was not known, and the coal was not sought after, and the work was 



