MILES    CITY    COAL   FIELD,   MONTANA.  47 
3  feet  thick  or  containing  more  than  20  per  cent  of  ash  are  regarded 
as  workable.  Coal  beds  known  to  be  locally  workable  occur  at  three 
rather  definite  horizons,  which  have  been  mapped  and  for  convenience 
of  reference  have  been  given  names.  The  lowest  of  these,  marked 
A  on  the  map,  is  called  the  Kircher  bed,  from  a  mine  near  Miles  City. 
The  second  important  bed,  marked  C  on  the  map  and  called  the 
Laney  bed,  is  about  200  feet  above  the  Kircher  bed  and  250  feet 
above  Yellowstone  River.  The  Weaver  bed  (D)  occurs  100  feet 
above  the  Laney  bed  and  has  been  mined  locally  in  the  badlands 
near  Signal  Butte.  A  fourth  horizon,  at  which  there  is  some  work- 
able coal,  occurs  60  feet  above  the  Kircher  bed,  but  it  is  so  small  in 
extent  that  its  outcrop  has  not  been  mapped  except  in  one  locality, 
which  is  marked  B  on  PL  III. 
KIRCHER    COAL. 
The  position  of  the  Kircher  coal  bed  in  the  section  and  its  line  of 
outcrop  are  indicated  on  the  map  by  the  letter  A.  As  it  is  situated 
near  drainage  levels,  its  croppings  are  usually  covered  by  river  gravel 
or  wash  from  the  hills,  and  it  has  been  examined  in  only  a  few  places. 
There  are,  however,  sufficient  exposures  to  indicate  that  the  bed  is 
exceedingly  variable  and  workable  only  in  small  areas.  This  bed  is 
well  exposed  in  railroad  cuts  along  the  south  bank  of  Yellowstone 
River,  in  the  western  part  of  the  Fort  Keogh  Military  Reservation, 
and  between  the  boundary  of  the  reservation  and  the  western  limit 
of  the  area  examined.  Some  of  these  exposures  show  coal  of  work- 
able thickness.  The  bed  marked  B  on  the  map,  60  feet  above  the 
Kircher  horizon,  also  attains  workable  thickness  locally  in  the  NW.  \ 
sec.  25  and  the  SW.  \  sec.  27,  T.  7  N.,  R.  45  E.,  where  it  measures 
3  feet  and  3  feet  9  inches,  respectively,  without  partings.  Its  line 
of  outcrop  so  nearly  coincides  with  that  of  the  Kircher  bed  that  it 
has  not  been  mapped.  The  Kircher  coal  is  workable  for  a  few  miles 
along  its  outcrop  in  T.  7  N.,  R.  45  E.,  where  the  following  section 
was  observed,  but  it  is  thin  and  unworkable  on  Moon  Creek  and  for 
a  mile  east  and  west  of  its  mouth: 
Section  of  Kircher  coal  bed  in  railway  cut  in  the  SE.  \  sec.  33,  T.  7  N.,  R.  45  E. 
Ft.    in. 
Coal 1     6 
Clay 2 
Coal 1    8 
3     4 
The  same  bed  is  thick  enough  to  work  in  the  banks  of  Lignite 
Creek  and  for  several  miles  east  of  its  mouth,  on  the  Fort  Keogh  Mili- 
tary Reservation.  It  was  formerly  mined  by  the  Northern  Pacific 
Company  at  the  head  of  Keogh  Flat,  but  only  one  of  the  old  openings 
