248 
STRATIGRAPHICAL GEOLOGY 
At the present time 1500 feet is considered the limit to which the 
coal bed can be profitably worked; but conditions may arise that 
will permit of deeper mining, and in that case there will be a con¬ 
siderably larger tonnage than that given above. 
Since this coal-field lies over 175 miles east of the nearest 
Appalachian coal-fields it is that much nearer to the markets 
of central and eastern North Carolina. Two railroads, the 
Southern and the Norfolk-Southern, cross the field; and the 
Seaboard Air Line Railway is within seven miles of the center 
of the field. 
J. H. Pratt. 
Muscogee Shales of Western Interior Coal-field. In Kansas, 
Missouri and Iowa the nethermost member of the productive 
coal measures is widely known under the designation of the 
Cherokee Shales. The title Cherokee is Haworth and Kirk’s. 
Proposed by these two writers many years ago the name first 
comes into general geologic usage in 1894.^ Without any partic¬ 
ular eflfort towards bibliographic research bearing upon the avail¬ 
ability of the term or determining the validity of such proposal 
the name passes into rather general usage. 
Unfortunately, it now transpires, the Haworth name as a 
formational title proves to have been long since pre-occupied. 
So early as 1869 W. C. Kerr,^ state geologist of North Carolina, 
affixed the same name to certain slates, or shales, in his state. This 
circumstance leaves the Kansas terrane apparently with opportun¬ 
ity for acquiring a brand new name. However, there happens 
to be a title which with some slight shifting and redefinition 
virtually spans the same vertical section and which with unimpor¬ 
tant modification in present signification may be made to take the 
place of the Kansan Cherokee. This is the Oklahoma term 
Muscogee. 
The Muscogee section, as originally defined by Gould,® is al¬ 
most the exact equivalent of the earlier proposed Arkansan 
Series,^ the proposal of which occurred a decade before for this 
very thickening of the coal measures lying south of the Ozark 
1 Kansas Univ. Quart., Vol. II, p. 105, 1894. 
2 North Carolina Geol. Surv., Kept. 1866-7, p. 29, 1869. 
3 Research Bull., Oklahoma State Univ., No. 3, p. 3, 1910. 
4 Proc. Iowa Acad. Sci., Vol. VII, p. 128, 1901. 
