seen in the banks of the Mississippi river some seventy-five or eighty miles below Keokuk, presenting there the same characteristics that it has in Iowa. The upper silicious portion of this formation is known as the Geode bed. These geodes are more or less spherical masses of silex, usually hollow and lined with crystals of quartz. The Keokuk Limestone formation is of great economic value, as some of its layers furnish a fine quality of building material. The principal quarries of it are along the Mississippi from Keokuk to Nauvoo, a distance of about fifteen miles. The only vertebrated fossils in it are those of fishes, consisting both of teeth and spines. Some of these are of great size, indicating that their owners probably reached a length of twenty-five or thirty feet. Several species of articulates, mollusks and radiates are also found in this formation. Among the radiates the crinoids are very abundant, but are not so conspicuous as in the Burlington Limestone. A small number of Protozoans, a low form of animal life, related to sponges, have also been found in the Keokuk Limestone.

To

The next Formation in the Sub-Carboniferous Group, above the Keokuk Limestone, is what Dr. White calls the St. Louis Limestone, and is synonymous with the Concretionary Limestone of Prof. Owen, and the Warsaw Limestone of Prof. Hall. It is the upper, or highest formation of what Dr. White classifies as the Sub-Carboniferous Group, appearing in Iowa, where the lower coal-measures are usually found resting directly upon it, and where it forms, so to speak, a limestone floor for the coal-bearing formations. this, however, there are some exceptions. It presents a marked contrast with the coal-bearing strata which rest upon it. This formation occupies a small superficial area in Iowa, because it consists of long narrow strips. Its extent, however, within the State is known to be very great, because it is found at points so distant from each other. Commencing at Keokuk, where it is seen resting on the geode division of the Keokuk limestone, and proceeding northward, it is found forming a narrow border along the edge of the coal-field in Lee, Des Moines, Henry, Jefferson, Washington, Keokuk and Mahaska counties. It is then lost sight of beneath the coal-measure strata and overlying drift until we reach Hainilton county, where it is found in the banks of Boone river with the coal-measures resting upon it, as they do in the counties just named. The next seen of the formation is in the banks of the Des Moines river at and near Fort Dodge. These two last named localities are the most northerly ones at which the formation is exposed, and they are widely isolated from the principal portion of the area it occupies in Iowa; between which area, however, and those northerly points, it appears by a small exposure near Ames, in Story county, in the valley of a small tributary of Skunk river. This formation as it appears in Iowa, consists of three quite distinct sub-divisions-magnisian, arenaceous and calcareous, consisting in the order named of the lower, middle and upper subdivisions of the formation. The upper division furnishes excellent material for quicklime, and in places it is quarried to serve a good purpose for ma sonry. The middle division is of little economic value, being usually too soft for practical use. The lower, or magnesian division, furnishes some excellent stone for heavy masonry, and has proved to be very durable. This formation has some well marked fossil characteristics, but they do not stand ont with such prominence as some of those in the two preceding formations. The vertibrates, articulates, mollusks, and radiates, are all more or less represented in it. Some slight vegetable remains have also been detected in it. The Coal-measure Group.-The formations of this group are divided

into the Lower, Middle, and Upper Coal-measures. Omitting particular reference to the other strata of the Lower Coal-measure, we refer only to the coal which this formation contains. Far the greater part of that indispensible element of material prosperity is contained in the strata of the Lower Coal-measures. Beds are now being mined in this formation that reach to the thickness of seven feet of solid coal. Natural exposures of this formation are few, but coal strata are being mined in a number of localities.

The area occupied by the Middle Coal-measure is smaller than that of either of the others, and constitutes a narrow region between them. The passage of the strata of the Lower with the Middle Coal-measure is not inarked by any well defined line of division.

The area occupied by the Upper Coal-measure formation in Iowa is very great, comprising thirteen whole counties in the southwestern part of the State, together with parts of seven or eight others adjoining. It adjoins by its northern and eastern boundary the area occupied by the Middle Coal-measures. The western and southern limits in Iowa of the Upper Coal-measures are the western and southern boundaries of the State, but the formation extends without interruption far into the States of Missouri, Nebraska and Kansas. It contains but a single bed of true coal, and that very thin. Its principal economic value is confined to its limestone. Wherever this stone is exposed it furnishes good material for masonry, and also for lime. The prevailing color of the limestone is light gray, with usually a tinge of blue. The sandstones of this formation are usually shaly, and quite worthless.

CRETACEOUS SYSTEM.

The Nishnabotany Sandstone.-This formation is well exposed in the valley of the East Nishnabotany river, from which circumstance Dr. White has so named it. It is found as far east as the southeastern part of Guthrie county, and as far south as the southern part of Montgomery county. To Το the northwestward it passes beneath the Woodbury sandstones and shales, the latter in turn passing beneath the Inoceramus, or chalky beds. It reaches a maximum thickness in Iowa, so far as known, of about 100 feet, but the exposures usually show a much less thickness. It is a soft sandstone, and, with few exceptions, almost valueless for economic purposes. The most valuable quarries in the strata of this formation, so far as known, are at Lewis, Cass county, and in the northeastern part of Mills county. Several buildings have been constructed of it at Lewis, but with some the color is objectionable, being of a dark brown color. A few fossils have been found in it, being leaves too fragmentary for identification.

The Woodbury Sandstones and Shales.-These are composed of alternat ing sandstones and shales, as the name implies, and rest upon the Nishinabotany sandstone. They have not been observed outside of the limits of Woodbury county, but they are found there to reach a maximum of about 150 feet. Some layers are firm and compact, but the larger part is impure and shaly. The best of it is suitable for only common masonry, but it furnishes the only material of that kind in that part of the State. Some slight fossil remains have been found in this formation.

The Inoceramus Beds.-These beds constitute the upper formation of the Cretaceous System in Iowa, and have a maximum thickness of about 50 feet. They rest directly upon the Woodbury sandstones and shales. They are

observed nowhere in Iowa except along the bluffs of the Big Sioux river, in Woodbury and Plymouth counties. They are composed of calcareous matcrial, but are not a true, compact limestone. The material of the upper por

tion is used for lime, the quality of which is equal to that of common limestone. No good building material is obtained from these beds. fossil fish have been found in them.

Some

Above all the formations above-mentioned rests the Post-Tertiary, or Drift deposit, which is more fully mentioned in connection with the Soils of Iowa.

ECONOMIC GEOLOGY.

Coal-Peat-Building Stone-Lime-Lead-Gypsum-Spring and Well Water-ClaysMineral Paint.

COAL.

Every year is adding to our knowledge of, and attesting the importance and value of our vast coal deposits. In some unknown age of the past, long before the history of our race began, Nature by some wise process, made a bountiful provision for the time when, in the order of things, it should become necessary for civilized man to take possession of these broad rich prairies. As an equivalent for the lack of trees, she quietly stored away beneath the soil those wonderful carboniferous treasures for the use and comfort of man at the proper time. The increased demand for coal has in many portions of the State led to improved methods of mining, so that in many counties the business is becoming a lucrative and important one, especially where railroads furnish the means of transportation. The coal field of the State embraces an area of at least 20,000 square miles, and coal is successfully mined in about thirty counties, embracing a territory larger than the State of Massachusetts. Among the most important coal producing counties may be mentioned Appanoose, Boone, Davis, Jefferson, Mahaska, Marion, Monroe, Polk, Van Buren, Wapello, and Webster. Within

the last few years many discoveries of new deposits have been made, and counties not previously numbered among the coal counties of the State are now yielding rich returns to the miner. Among these may be mentioned the counties of Boone, Dallas, Hamilton, Hardin, and Webster. A vein of coal of excellent quality, seven feet in thickness, has been opened, and is now being successfully worked, about five miles southeast of Fort Dodge, in Webster county. Large quantities of coal are shipped from that point to Dubuque and the towns along the line of the Dubuque and Sioux City Railroad. A few years ago it was barely known that some coal existed in Boone county, as indicated by exposures along the Des Moines river, and it is only within the last few years that the coal mines of Moingona have furnished the vast supplies shipped along the Chicago and Northwestern Railroad, both east and west. The great productive coal field of Iowa is embraced chiefly within the valley of the Des Moines river and its tributaries, extending up the valley from Lee county nearly to the north line of Webster county. Within the coal field embraced by this valley deep mining is nowhere necessary. The Des Moines and its larger tributaries have generally cut their channels down through the coal ineasure strata.

The coal of Iowa is of the class known as bituminous, and is equal in quality and value to coal of the same class in other parts of the world. The veins which have so far been worked are from three to eight feet in

thickness, but we do not have to dig from one thousand to two thousand feet to reach the coal, as miners are obliged to do in some countries. little coal has in this State been raised from a depth greater than one hundred feet.

Prof. Gustavus Hinrich, of the State University, who also officiated as State Chemist in the prosecution of the recent Geological Survey, gives an analysis showing the comparative value of Iowa coal with that of other countries. The following is from a table prepared by him- 100 representing the combustible:

In this table the excess of the equivalent above 100, expresses the amount of impurities (ashes and moisture) in the coal. The analysis shows that the average Iowa coals contains only ten parts of impurities for one hundred parts combustible (carbon and bitumen), being the purest of all the samples analyzed, except the Anthracite from Pennsylvania.

PEAT.

Extensive deposits of peat in several of the northern counties of Iowa have attracted considerable attention. In 1866, Dr. White, the State Geologist, made careful observations in some of those counties, including Franklin, Wright, Cerro Gordo, Hancock, Winnebago, Worth, and Kossuth. It is estimated that the counties above named contain an average of at least four thousand acres each of good peat lands. The depth of the beds are from four to ten feet, and the quality is but little, if any, inferior to that of Ireland. As yet, but little use has been made of it as a fuel, but when it is considered that it lies wholly beyond the coal-field, in a sparsely timbered region of the State, its prospective value is regarded as very great. Dr. White estimates that 160 acres of peat, four feet deep, will supply two hundred and thirteen families with fuel for upward of twenty-five years. It must not be inferred that the presence of these peat beds in that part of the State is in any degree prejudicial to health, for such is not the case. The dry, rolling prairie land usually comes up to the very border of the peat marsh, and the winds, or breezes, which prevail through the summer season, do not allow water to become stagnant. Nature seems to have designed these peat deposits to supply the deficiency of other material for fuel. The penetration of this portion of the State by railroads, and the rapid growth of timber may leave a resort to peat for fuel as a matter of choice, and not of necessity. It there fore remains to be seen of what economic value in the future the peat bed of Iowa may be. Peat has also been found in Muscatine, Linn, Clinton, and other eastern and southern counties of the State, but the fertile region of

Northern Iowa, least favored with other kinds of fuel, is peculiarly the peat region of the State.

BUILDING STONE.

Thore is no scarcity of good building stone to be found along nearly all the streams east of the Des Moines river, and along that stream from its mouth up to the north line of Humboldt county. Some of the counties west of the Des Moines, as Cass and Madison, as well as most of the southern counties of the State, are supplied with good building stone. Building stone of peculiarly fine quality is quarried at and near the following places: Keosauqua, Van Buren county; Mt. Pleasant, Henry county; Fairfield, Jefferson county; Ottumwa, Wapello county; Winterset, Madison county; Ft. Dodge, Webster county; Springvale and Dakota, Humboldt county; Marshalltown, Marshall county; Orford, Tama county; Vinton, Benton county; Charles City, Floyd county; Mason City, Cerro Gordo county; Mitchell and Osage, Mitchell county; Anamosa, Jones county; Iowa Falls, Hardin county; Hampton, Franklin county; and at nearly all points along the Mississippi river. In some places, as in Marshall and Tama counties, several species of marble are found, which are susceptible of the finest finish, and are very beautiful.

LIME.

Good material for the manufacture of quick-lime is found in abundance in nearly all parts of the State. Even in the northwestern counties, where there are but few exposures of rock "in place," limestone is found among the boulders scattered over the prairies and about the lakes. So abundant is limestone suitable for the manufacture of quick-lime, that it is needless to mention any particular locality as possessing superior advantages in furnish. ing this useful building material. At the following points parties have been engaged somewhat extensively in the manufacture of lime, to-wit: Ft. Dodge, Webster county; Springvale, Humboldt county; Orford and Indiantown, Tama county; Iowa Falls, Hardin county; Mitchell, Mitchell county; and at nearly all the towns along the streams northeast of Cedar river.

LEAD.

Long before the permanent settlement of Iowa by the whites lead was mined at Dubuque by Julien Dubuque and others, and the business is still carried on successfully. From four to six million pounds of ore have been smelted annually at the Dubuque mines, yielding from 68 to 70 per cent of lead. So far as known, the lead deposits of Iowa that may be profitably worked, are confined to a belt four or five miles in width along the Mississippi above and below the city of Dubuque.

One of the finest and purest at Fort Dodge in this State. miles on both sides of the Des five to thirty feet in thickness,

GYPSUM.

deposits of gypsum known in the world exists It is confined to an area of about six by three Moines river, and is found to be from twenty

The main deposit is of uniform gray color,