;;K;  CONTRIBUTIONS    TO    ECONOMIC    GEOLOGY,   1903,  [bull.  225. 
are   on    the   pay    roll  engaged  in  driving   headings   and   on   outside 
construction. 
The  Buffalo,  Rochester  and  Pittsburg  Railway  is  being  extended 
from  Creekside,  Indiana  County,  to  Iselin.  A  large  part  of  the  road 
bed  is  graded,  and  it  is  hoped  that  it  will  be  hauling  coal  early  in  1904. 
The  company  expects  to  be  able  to  ship  400  to  500  tons  of  coal  daily 
as  soon  as  the  railroad  is  completed,  and  to  be  producing  from  5,000 
to  7,000  tons  daily  by  January,  1906. 
THICKNESS    OF    THE    COAL. 
The  Pittsburg  coal  bed  in  the  Elders  Ridge  field  is  slaty  and  much 
parted  in  some  places;  in  others  it  is  clean  and  almost  unbroken.  It 
varies  in  thickness,  including  its  partings  and  roof  coal,  from  7  to  10 
feet.  Generally  the  roof  coal  is  not  taken,  being  so  much  parted 
by  thin  bands  of  shale  that  it  has  little  value.  Moreover  the  shales 
over  the  roof  coal  are  so  soft  and  friable  that  the  coal  has  to  be  left  to 
support  them.  The  bed  has  been  opened  at  a  great  many  places  in 
this  basin,  but  there  are  hardly  more  than  twenty  localities  where 
accurate  measurements  of  the  seam  can  easily  be  made.  A  few  meas- 
urements are  given  in  detail  to  show  the  character  of  the  seam. 
Northern  block. — That  portion  of  the  Elders  Ridge  field  which  lies 
east  of  Whiskey  Run  is  the  smallest  of  the  three  blocks  into  which  the 
field  is  divided.  The  small  outliers  of  a  few  acres  in  extent  which  are 
seen  near  West  Lebanon  are  the  most  northern  remnants  of  the  great 
Pittsburg  coal  bed.  Beyond  this  point  the  bed  would  be  carried 
above  the  present  surface  by  the  rising  axis  of  the  Elders  Ridge 
syncline,  if  projected  beyond  the  outcrop. 
Holsten  Bros,  own  a  coal  bank  (No.  1)  about  two-thirds  of  a  mile 
north  of  West  Lebanon,  which  was  opened  many  years  ago  but  has 
been  worked  activety  only  during  the  past  two  years.  The  coal  dips 
southeast  and  is  practically  free  from  partings  and  horsebacks.  The 
section  is  as  follows: 
Section  at  Holsten  Bros,  coal  bank. 
Ft.  In. 
Coal 2  2 
Shale  and  coal 0  4 
Coal 2  5 
Shale 0  I 
Coal •_ 2  2 
Total 7    H 
Wilson  Blakley  owns  a  bank  (No.  4)  in  a  small  outlier  of  the  coal,  a 
short  distance  east  of  West  Lebanon,  which  is  being  worked  by  H.  L. 
Dillinger.     The  coal  in  this  bank  shows  the  following  thickness: 
