The Red Cloud chief., 1874-08-08

because the State Geologist, Prof
Swallow, assured the citizens from q
boring tha: . thick vein Of coal would
be reached. The boring or test we'll
report showed SO feet coal and slate
which the citizen. interpreted as at
le,s. : feet Of good coal After ex-
pending 800, 90 oJ inche. Of coal
was found. The eos, Of mining at this
depth is greater than the price Of coal,
50 that the foolish expenditure is a
, public loss, from which wiser counsels
might have saved them.
10 the test we'll at Lincoln ey0 feet
was reached, aud . vein Of coal 4 feet
. inches deep was reported at Q depth
of nearly 800 feet. There was no spe-
cial pains taken to save all the chips
or bits OF coal made by the drill no
careful measure taken either on strik-
ing or leaving the vein 81 and no dis
elimination TO ascertain whether the
chips were all coal, or both coal and
slate. The results Of the Lincoln ~
pertinent are therefore vague aud un-
certain, and the citisens have not one
dollars worth Of faith in the reported
coal vein. If they had, 4 shaft would
have been completed before this date.
The boring now going on down at
Beatrice has reached q depth OF nearly
loo feet. At Lincoln the Leaven-
worth vein should have been reached
at a depth Of 100 feet, and At Beat
rice at a depth Of 1900 oil 1900 feet
Judging from the depth Of the several
veins of the coal measure taken in
connection with the topography Of the
country.
Other deep borings have been made
10 the State, and they uniformly point
TO the same conclusion, viz. thin and
non work able veins Of coal a, oil
depths from the surface in eastern
! and southeastern Nebraska.
VI can put down 40 or - more
test wells in this State al a cost Of
$780, 900 ~ i2,D. 900 as has been done
in Iowa and Missouri east Of the river,
and be scarcely more certain than we
now are, that the deep lying veins Of
the upper, middle, and lower coal
measures are worthless.
The only good resulting from these
deep and costly sounding. 10 realised
generally by the %''artful dodger' who
creates the local fever for . ;est-well
and enjoys the profits Of the job, and
when the inevitable failure is an
u0uncej it is easy to appease the sub
scribers to the Sinking fund by say
ing we didn't 20 deep enough or
''the drill broke or stuck fast" or
some other palaver that will serve the
purpose. The proposed expenditure
of so, 600 for a coal shaft in Otoe
county. if . majority OF voters decide
in the affirmative, should be carefully
reviewed in the light of these facts be-
fore the lax is voted or levied for the
purpose of sinking . coal shaft through
these non-paying c~oal-measures. We
submit that the evidence already &C
cumuIated is enough to prevent the
waste Of this money for the expert
ment, from all the snalogies in the
case. is certain to be q failure. The
citizens o. OtOe will find, if they 90
deep enough with their shaft, poverty
and bankruptcy long before they reach
China.
Passing by the I.e1venworth mine
We find a. Kansas City, a deep test A.,
we'll near the city. 1t passes through
the same series of thin veins, n of
them being thicker than the Others, 1
but not workable. {
At Fort Scott, and several points on i
the VI. X. Fort Scott 4 Gulf Railroad. F.,
deep sounding. were also made. AT i
the last named place the boring passed t
through IL veins varying from 1 to - ;
all equally worthless. q
At Lawrence, Topeka, and as far
west rs Junction City, depth. have
been reached from 500 to 900 feet,
with the same cherries returns. viz c
no workable coal at any depth below i
the surface. These facts are much n I
with Prof swallow eloquent {
that "Kan-as il underlaid S
su immense coal vein : fee, in a
and contains one-seventh of
ali the coal 10 the United States"
See Swallows Report, Geology Of =
iSGt.l {
/, is no'iceahle in the deep sound
ngs above described, that the coal q
.trata invariably decrease in thickness
going west from the Missouri river, 1
md we may safely conclude tha. every
of the old coal measures has o
disappeared before We reach
he western boundary of Kansas or
Nebraska.
There is not An out-crop Of the old \
'oal Measure in any Of the territories a
vcst Of these two States nor are they II
exposed anywhere in the rude break. =
y up-casts of the Rocky Mountains. h.
The upper or surface vein Of coal in Il
iebrasks and Kansas has . variable 81
hickness, and occupies . large area 10 in
sch Of the fou, States, viz south ca
asst Nebraska, southwest Iowa, north I,