106 CARBONIFEROUS LIMESTONES 



its chemical composition is a favourable indication that it will withstand atmospheric 

 vicissitudes. Gonjonia reteformis seems to be its principal organic contents. Thin, 

 and thick-bedded argillaceous and siliceous sandstones are interposed between this 

 rock and a fine-textured, brittle, fragmentary limestone (d') , which forms the upper 

 part of the section, and contains ninety per cent, of carbonate of lime. 



The most southern coal-bed which I was able to discover lies on the southeast 

 quarter of Section 23, Township 66 north, Range 7 west, of the 5th Principal 

 Meridian, in the valley of a small creek. Near the water, the concretionary and 

 fragmentary limestone ( /') , as shown on Section No. 5, D, is seen underneath slaty 

 clay and shale, with impressions of Calamites. On this rests the coal-bed, which is 

 only one foot thick, and of inferior quality, being slaty in its structure, and much 

 impregnated with pyrites. 



The strata at this locality must have suffered considerable disturbance, since, only 

 a few hundred j^ards down the stream, on the north side, the limestone rises to the 

 height of thirty feet, having a considerable southeasterly dip. A little lower down, 

 a rock, similar in appearance to the building-stone in the St. Francisville quarry, 

 rises to the surface. 



Near Dam No. 2, on Section 11 (?), Township 66 north, Range 7 west, of the 5th 

 Principal Meridian, the magnesian quarry rock is at an elevation of twenty-five 

 feet above the bed of the river, as shown on Section No. 6, D. At the northwest 

 end of the quarry a partial bed of shelly limestone is interposed, in a wedge-shaped 

 manner, in the midst of the thick-bedded limestones ; the former is full of Gorgonia 

 reteformis; the latter is partly a brown and buff-coloured, cellular, magnesian 

 limestone, and partly a banded and more argillaceous rock. 



A few miles above Dam No. 2, at a place called Sweet Home, the residence of 

 Mr. Harlem, is a hill composed chiefly of close-textured limestone (d'), with thin 

 beds of marly clay between the layers. Masses of Lithostrotion, a specimen of which 

 was presented to me by Mr. Harlem, are found in the bed of Cedar Creek, which 

 washes the base of these limestones. Just above the mouth of that creek, in the bed 

 of the Des Moines River, is a gray limestone, containing Productus semireticulatus, and 

 Spirtfer striatus (?) . The upper portion of this section shows the irregular, fragmen- 

 tary, and concretionary limestone, with beds of argillaceous, marly limestone beneath, 

 at an elevation of thirty-five feet above the channel of the creek. 



On Tremble Creek, northwest quarter of Section 8, Township 66 north, Range 7 

 west, a poor seam of coal has been discovered; also on Section 16, Township 66 

 north, Range 8 west, two miles south of Peevler's Branch, and at other localities 

 along the same water-course. A bed of better quality, supposed to be three feet 

 thick, has been observed in the high prairie, on the east half of the northeast 

 quarter of Section 36, Township 67 north, Range 8 west, two miles from the Des 

 Moines River. On the head of the Chariton River there is said to be coal of good 

 quality. 



One mile above Farmington, on Section 24, Township 68, and Range 8 west, 

 five seams of coal succeed one another, with shales, clays, and sandstones interposed, 

 in the following descending order : 



