The Rugbeian. (Rugby, Morgan Co., Tenn.) 1881-1882, 1881-03-01


bers of this bed gives rise to the numerous waterfalls
and rock houses" which are so prominent
feature of the scenery of the table land The sand
stone contains small proportion of calcareous mat
ter, which collects in minute crystalizations in
assures; and another Of its saline constuents-salt-
petre-was formerly extracted from it in some quantity
by process of crushing and teaching the rock
Several OF the old watts can still be seen in the rock
houses of Fortress County. The congomerate is in
places stained by the dark brown appropriations of
iron and the black of manganese; and local masses
OF coal lie IN it, whose extent is yet unexpored-
drift islands, perhaps, of vegetation stranded on the
beach of the old carboniferous sea-
The conglomerate forms the surface rock for a
belt OF ten or twelve miles in width along the western
edge of the table-land, and then come in over it
long fingers or promontories of the Middle measures,
consisting of shales and soft sandsones thickening
as they pass eastward. Their extent is marked by
the abrupt change in the contours of the ground from
the long rolling of the sandstone to the shorter
and sharper ridges and gulleys; change in the
timber also marks the line, the yellow pine keep
ing mostly to the sandstone oak to the upper shales
The middle measures have tendency to form
benches or minor plateaus, the result of the hard
sandstone beds which underle the softer shales.
Rugby stands about the middle of the first bench
from the westward, which is six or eight miles in
width, and has long extension literally into the
" fiat woods" The road to Sedgemoor crosses two
or three narrow benches, which carry an abrupt face
to the west, long gentle slope to the east
No workable Goals have so far been proved in the
middle measures, though one or two thin seams are
known, and these may locally assume workable
thickness 1t is to be hoped in the interests of Rugby
that this may turn oat to be the case.
East of the Cincinnati Southern Railroad comes in
a great thickness-two thousand feet or more-of
upper Coalmeasures, of whose coal contents little
is definitely known. The lowest of the seams has been
explored at various points between Huntsville and
Wartburg, and is being developed on large scale by
Messrs. Crook and Middleton at Glen Mary 1t is
there bright and singuary pure cubic coal, between
three and four feet in thickness.
Other developments are in contemplation or pro-
gress and this coal will soon make itself practically
known to consumers.
The high ridges of the Upper measures-rising ff-
teen or sixteen hundred feet above the general surface
of the tableland on which they rest-give grand
views over the flat woods to the west we'll repay
ing the steep climb from the railroad level to their
SUBMITS They clothed with heavy timber, and
carry on the northern slopes rich dark soil which
could not be easily matched elsewhere on the table
land Singulary enough, the richest soil IA fine black
vegetable mould) lies on the highest points of the
mountains. Probably the greater altitude, involving
greater average amount Of dampness, has dimn-
ished the liability of these high slopes to be swept by
the annual nreS OF the improvement mOuntalneer,
and the accumulated leaf mould is index of what
might have been had over the whole surface of the
plateau.
The upper measures form broad "synclinal, y or
basin, dipping in from the western, or Glen Mary
side, at about sixty feet to the mile, and from Coal
Creek on the east at similar slope. The same SYM
clinal structure has been established by the Ken
lucky geological survey for the corresponding ridges
of the North Cumberland river.
OF the other mineral products, beside coal and
clays; the list is necessarily small one Clay iron
stones are common enough but what proportion of
the whole can be proftably worked in competition
with the red and brown hematites of the Tennessee
valley, time will be required to show.
The Indian stories of silver and lead mines are of
the wildcat class, which aA1icts the confding
explorer before he to his bearings and decides
to consult in the future his eyesight only The clay
ironstones and pyritous shales carry commonly a
small percentage Of zinc, not unfrequently alleged
with antmony and shots of this metal have fire.
quently been obtained by fusion in smiths forge
Oil rocks-the sicious beds of the lower car
boniferous- the whole area, and boring
at Rugby, of 100 feet SO below river level would
strike them. But the outcrop of these rocks, below