butts.]  WARRIOR   COAL   BASIN,   ALABAMA.  381 
and  Belle  Sumpter  on  the  Blue  Creek  seam  in  the  Little  basin. 
These  extensive  and  important  mines  are  owned  by  the  Tennessee 
Coal,  Iron  and  Railroad  Company.  They  are  on  the  northwestern 
side  of  the  Little  basin.  There  was  once  a  mine  in  the  Blue  Creek 
seam  in  the  Little  basin  at  Shannon,  but  it  was  closed  probably 
fifteen  years  ago.  A  mine  probably  on  the  Blue  Creek  seam  was 
opened  in  1887  at  Connellsville  in  the  Big  basin.  It  was  located  on 
the  southeastern  margin  of  the  zone  of  vertical  rocks,  and  the  slope 
followed  the  seam  down  at  an  angle  of  60°  to  70°.  The  mine  was 
abandoned  several  years  ago. 
In  1890  the  Alabama  Consolidated  Coal  and  Iron  Company  began 
operations  at  Brook  wood  and  Milldale.  At  Brookwood  several  mines 
have  been  opened,  some  of  which  have  been  worked  out  and  aban- 
doned. The  Brookwood,  Milldale,  and  Carter  seams  are  worked. 
New  mines  have  been  opened  in  the  Brookwood  and  Carter  seams 
within  the  last  year.  At  Milldale  the  Milldale  seam  was  mined. 
The  mine  was  a  slope  and  was  abandoned  in  1903. 
About  1890  a  mine  was  opened  in  the  Milldale  seam  at  Coaling. 
It  is  reported  not  to  have  been  a  success  and  was  abandoned  in  1900. 
In  1892  a  shaft  was  sunk  at  Clements  to  a  coal  that  is  identified  as 
the  Clements  seam  at  the  bottom  of  the  BrookAvood  group  of  coals. 
This  operation  Avas  abandoned  in  1902. 
In  1897  the  Tidewater  mine  and  Blair  mine  were  opened  on  the 
Black  Warrior  Eiver  by  the  Warrior  Coal  Company  and  the  Blair 
Coal  Company,  respectively.  Both  mines  are  small.  The  Tidewater 
[is  on  the  south  side  of  the  river,  nearly  opposite  the  mouth  of  Yellow 
Creek,  and  the  Blair  mine  is  on  the  north  side  of  the  river  at  the 
mouth  of  Yellow  Creek.  They  are  drifts  in  a  seam  which  is  regarded 
las  the  Brookwood  by  other  investigators,  but  which  the  writer  has 
reasons  to  believe  is  a  lower  seam.  At  Searles  are  three  large  mines 
fn  the  Brookwood  seam.  They  belong  to  the  Alabama  Consolidated 
Coal  and  Iron  Company,  which  began  mining  at  that  place  in  1900. 
pi  1900  a  slope  in  the  Blue  Creek  seam  was  opened  by  the  Jenifer 
Furnace  Company  at  Weller,  southwest  of  Connellsville;  in  1901  the 
vYbernant  slope  in  the  Jagger  seam  was  opened  at  Abernant  by  the 
JAbernant  Coal  Company ;  and  in  1902  the  Davis  Creek  mine,  a  slope, 
Was  opened  by  the  Davis  Creek  Coal  Company  in  the  same  seam  on  a 
branch  of  Davis  Creek,  about  2  miles  southeast  of  Milldale.  In  that 
[year  the  Alabama  Consolidated  Coal  and  Iron  Company  opened  a 
slope  on  the  Carter  seam  at  Hewett,  between  Milldale  and  Brook- 
wood, and  the  Alabama  Steel  and  Wire  Company  opened  the  Vir- 
ginia mine  on  Black  Branch  of  Valley  Creek.  It  is  a  slope  in  the 
■Nickel  Plate  seam.  In  December  of  1901  a  mine  was  opened  in  the 
Jagger  seam  at  Yolande  by  the  Crowe  Coal  and  Iron  Company. 
