A N D CO A L - MEASURES 0 F I O W A. 



107 



THICKNESS OF BLlt. 



Vent. Inched. 



1 . White, brown, and yellow sandstone, ... 12 



2. Shale and imperfect coal, ..... 1 



3. Argillaceoous bed (fire-clay ?), ..... 16 



4. Coal, . 8 



5. Sandstone, . . . ... . . 5 



6. Fire-clay, ....... 16 



7. Main coal seam, . . . . 2i to 3 



8. Fire-clay, ....... 3 



9. Coal, ........ 18 



10. Slaty clay, ....... 5 



11. Coal, not yet penetrated, .....(?) 



The two upper seams in the above are too thin to be productive. Whether the 

 lowest be worth working has not yet been ascertained. 



At the above locality, two drifts have been run into the hillside to the distance 

 of sixty yards, and a good deal of coal removed from beds Nos. 7 and 9, for the use 

 of the neighbouring town of Farmington. Bed No. 7 is of tolerable quality, fur- 

 nishing a slaty, bituminous coal, of a mottled dull and bright fracture on the hori- 

 zontal surface ; the dull portion displaying distinctly the ligneous fibre, and present- 

 ing the aspect of charcoal. This latter character is common to most of the coal- 

 beds in the Des Moines country. 



In the eastern drift there is a fault, having a hade of about 45° ; the walls of 

 which present the semi-polished surface, popularly known among miners as " slick- 

 ensides." 



About half a mile to the south of the coal mines, where several wells have been 

 sunk for the use of a brickyard, there is additional evidence of small, local depres- 

 sions, and uplifts, such as appear to have taken place along the whole course of the 

 Des Moines River, at short intervals, as far as the coal formation has been traced, 

 bringing certain members at one time to the surface, and again depressing them 

 beneath the water-courses. At the depth of eighteen to twenty feet, in three of the 

 wells, a bed of coal was struck, supposed to correspond to 4 of the section, while in 

 two other wells, situated from one hundred to one hundred and fifty yards to the 

 east, black slate was struck at the depth of eleven feet, with a nine inch-seam of 

 coal under it, composed largely of absolute charcoal, with the ligneous fibre even 

 more distinctly shown than in the White River coal of Indiana. 



On the opposite side of the Des Moines, near Indian Creek, on Section 34, same 

 township and range as the preceding locality, coal has also been struck, just under 

 the surface-soil and drift, pitching east of north ; though the strata on the other 

 side of the ravine dip in a contrary direction. Mr. Babcock, the owner of the 

 land, has laid open the bed to the depth of four or five feet. 



Two feet beneath where the coal was first struck, there is a bed of fire-clay, of 

 about ten inches in thickness ; and beneath this again, a twenty inch-seam of fair 

 coal. The parting of fire-clay, and the quality and thickness of coal above and 



