RED  LODGE   COAL  FIELD,    MONTANA.  103 
the  S.  J  sees.  31  and  32,  T.  7  S.,  R.  21  E.  The  mine,  which  is  on 
bed  No.  5,  has  one  main  gangway,  with  numerous  side  entries.  The 
room-and-pillar  system  of  mining  is  commonly  used;  the  long-wall 
method  was  tried  and  proved  unsuccessful,  because  of  the  bad  char- 
acter of  the  roof.  The  coal  is  mined  by  bearing  in  at  a  small  parting 
8  inches  above  the  floor  and  by  prying  down  the  columns,  which  are 
formed  by  two  sets  of  intersecting  joints.  This  structure  is  so  well 
developed  that  when  the  beds  are  worked  along  the  cleat  only  a 
small  amount  of  powder  is  necessary  in  mining.  A  tipple  is  located 
on  a  spur  of  the  Yellowstone  Park  Railroad  about  1,000  feet  from 
the  mine  entrance.  An  incline,  on  which  the  mine  cars  are  operated 
by  gravity,  leads  from  the  mine  to  the  tipple.  The  total  production 
is  about  15,000  tons,  most  of  which  has  been  the  result  of  develop- 
ment work.     The  company  employs  50  miners  and  10  outside  men. 
Foster  Gulch  p-os^d.— Preliminary  development  is  now  in  progress 
in  Foster  Gulch,  which  lies  southwest  of  Bear  Creek.  Two  main 
entries  have  been  opened  on  bed  No.  3,  a  railroad  spur  has  been  con- 
structed, and  preparations  have  been  made  for  a  larger  plant. 
Nelson  mine. — The  Nelson  mine  is  a  small  opening  on  bed  No.  2, 
in  Taggart  Gulch,  3^  miles  south  of  Bear  Creek.  This  mine  is  worked 
by  hand  to  supply  coal  to  neighboring  ranches.  About  600  tons  a 
year  are  sold  at  $3  per  ton. 
CHARACTER  OF  THE  COAL. 
PHYSICAL    PROPERTIES. 
The  coals  in  this  field  have  a  black  color,  pitchy  luster,  and  well- 
developed  though  irregular  joints.  They  are  medium  in  hardness 
and  relatively  free  from  injurious  impurities.  They  are  about  as 
bright  in  appearance  as  some  of  the  bituminous  coals  of  Pennsyl- 
vania, and,  unlike  some  of  the  subbituminous  coals,  do  not  lose 
their  luster  when  exposed  to  the  air  for  a  short  time. 
The  coal  breaks  along  smooth  joint  faces  with  no  pronounced  con- 
choidal  fracture.  There  is  an  exception,  however,  in  the  coal  from 
bed  No.  2,  which  breaks  with  an  irregular  surface,  giving  a  granular 
appearance  to  fresh  fractures  very  similar  to  that  of  some  of  the  coals 
of  West  Virginia.  In  mining  the  coal  breaks  into  small  blocks  or 
columns.  In  certain  beds,  as  No.  2  in  the  mine  of  the  Bear  Creek 
Coal  Company,  the  columnar  structure  is  highly  developed.  In  that 
minethe  columns,  which  are  irregular  inbasal  outline,  range  from  1  inch 
to  24  inches  in  diameter  and  extend  across  the  bench.  When  taken 
from  the  mine  they  can  be  piled  up  like  sticks  of  wood.  In  general 
the  coal  is  so  well  jointed  that  it  can  be  broken  into   marketahlo 
