AND COAL-MEASURES 



OF 10 W A. 



117 



position of hydraulic limestone. On Section 7, Township 75 north, Range 17 west, 

 is a heavy bed of very dark argillaceous limestone, displaying the tutenmergel struc- 

 ture in great perfection. It is quite probable that this rock may prove a good 

 water limestone. 



Near the mouth of English Creek are thin-bedded limestones, with yellow stains 

 and dendritic markings, which are probably subordinate to the strata hitherto 

 described in the vicinity. On Section 30, Township 70 north, Range 18 west, 

 above Dam No. 22, slabs of a similar limestone are seen associated with sandstone. 

 A sudden rise of the waters of the Des Moines covered all but the upper strata, 

 which prevented a satisfactory examination into the exact order of succession at 

 this and several other localities higher up. 



Near the line between Sections 14 and 23, Township 70 north, Range 19 west, 

 a mile and a quarter below the mouth of White Breast River, there is an outcrop 

 of coal, known as " Babet's Coal-Bank," which appears to be from four to five feet 

 thick ; it rests on laminated, argillaceous sandstone, and is covered by shale and 

 earth. A ravine intersects the exposure, which marks the place of a slide, so that 

 the bed of coal, at the lower part of the exposure, lies much nearer the water than 

 beyond the ravine. The section No. 29, D, represents the position of the coal at 

 this place. The rubbish which forms the talus hides the lower strata, and may 

 conceal also an inferior bed of coal. The blacksmiths in the neighbourhood have 

 used some of this coal, and esteem it next in quality to the three-foot seam in 

 Jasper County, near Skunk River ; it seems tolerably free from iron pyrites, but it 

 is slaty in its structure. 



On Section 11, same township and range, one and a half miles below the mouth 

 of White Breast River, is another exposure of coal, as well as at many places in 

 the banks of streams tributary to the Des Moines. Near the line between Sections 

 10 and 15, on White Breast River, a quarter of a mile from the Des Moines, sand- 

 stone rise twenty feet above the water-level. There is supposed to be a seam of 

 coal under this sandstone ; if so, we have here, in all probability, the same beds as 

 seen in the section at Cedar Bluffs. 



Two miles above the mouth of White Breast River, on Section 8, Township 70 

 north, Range 19 west, light-coloured limestone is seen in the bed of a run, alter- 

 nating with sandstone ; and at Elk Bluff, a little higher up, are precipices of solid 

 beds of yellowish and reddish-brown sandstone, sixty to eighty feet high, dipping 

 towards the west ; and only a few hundred yards above, at Dam No. 24, there is a 

 repetition of the same limestone and sandstone, seen two miles above White Breast 

 River. Here is evidently a considerable fault, perhaps of one hundred and fifty 

 feet, by which the limestone is thus suddenly brought to the surface, contrary to 

 the general tendency of the dip of the heavy beds of sandstone forming Elk Bluff. 



On Section 35, Township 77 north, Range 20 west, a quarter of a mile above 

 Red Rock, is a high cliff of red sandstone, from which the place takes its name. 

 The oxide of iron which forms the cement of the upper ledge, is in a high state 

 of peroxidation, as if it had been exposed to igneous action in contact with oxygen 

 or atmospheric air. The deep red colour penetrates the substance of the rock, 

 showing that it is not due to the combustion of the dry herbage of the forest. The 



