The Portland daily press., 1891-08-15
ABOUT TWO FEET OF COAL,
The Result Of Much Boring In tho
Small Point Rocks.
1t May Give Promise of a Valuable
Deposit There.

1t May Give Promise of a Valuable
Deposit There.
For twenty years Capt Lincoln w. Tlb
Detts, president of the Maine Roofing and
Aspna.t Company, has been impressed with
the belief that coal mine existed at Cape
small Point A hundred years ago, so
tradition runs. large vessel, loaded with
pltuminous coal, was wrecked near that
place. From time to time during the CEN
fury, large pieces of coal have been washed
up on the beach, and they have borne all the
characteristics of the best English camel
COAL So much coal came ashore that people
In the vicinity supplied themselves with
their winters supply.
About three years ago Capt. Tibbetts
organized company, and the company
went to work, near the sea at Small Point
and in May they went more vigorously to
work than ever. Yesterdays PRESS an
nounced their success after several vexatlous
mishaps. IN striking coal at DEF tn of S74
feet, with vein % inches thick.
A representative of the PRES yestr rday
had conversation with Capt. w. E. Tobie,
an old experienced Colorado miner, to whose
skill and knowledge in the past few days
the company's success has been due Capt
Tobie said the point at which the drill was
located was some $50 to 200 feet from the sea.
Capt. Tobie took tie matter from the
boring and, after careful pan washing, dis
covered quantity of valuable btumnous
coal-some quite stable pieces we're also
brought up. about the size of, walnut, that
were evidently broken off by the drill.
Capt. Tobie's idea Is that these bits of
coal are groupings, as they are called in
Colorado. Coal mines were formed by
the upheavals of nature, which caused sur
roundiDgs parts of the earth to sink The
tremendous friction brought to bear ON the
forests and other vegetation that sunk pro-
duced the carbon. These depressions made
grea; basins in the earth on land, or near
the sea. The groupings are found at the
edges Of the basins, or near the surface, and
as the coal there is very much exposed to
the oxygen eff the air, it deteriorates rapidly
and becomes poor. But if the veins where
these cropping are found are followed our,
and down, into the earth, then the coal is
discovered in large masses. Capt. Tobie
thinks If this vein shall be followed out
distance under the sea, the large masses of
coal will be found there, at great depths,
from whence the action of the waves has
BROUGHT to the surface, again and again, for
so many years such handsome specimens
Of the camel coal But Capt. Tobie is
satisfied that in the grayish matter that has
been taken from the drill hole, good white
ash coal will also be found. He has several
specimens picked from the beach, and these
he subjected to the blow pipe and crucible.
They sustained tremendous heat and when
fine steel was placed in the fame it was not
disc0lored showing the purity and value of
the coal. He thinks the drill passed through
vein of white ash coal before It'll struck the
vein of camel COAL.
Capt. Tubie will return to Small Point to-
day and by process of assaying the
material taken from the hole that has been
drilled. and which has been carefully placed
bucket full on bucket full, exactly as taken
from the ground, is confident he can rlace
accurately the exact location of each vein
and kind Of coal thus far drilled into.
An engineer who has seen and examined
the boriDgs says:
The test borings now being made have
brought to light a quality of coal equal to
the camel, burning tree and emitting scarce
~ asulphurous SMELL This vein proved to
be about twenty inches in thickness, lying
ten feet below another of six inches, in
boring $40 feet below the surface. The con-
ndence OF those in charge has been
strengthened, and orders to continue to
greater depth been given. An expert
present at these tests, gave it as his opinion
that the borlngs then made were close to,
and everything the main vein. The results are
looked forward to with great interest, as
there is now no reason to believe, but that
our own state.
The hole in the ground from which the
specimens have been procured is in reality
an aItesian welh 1t is six inches in diameter
and extends down through the solid rock for
distance of $40 feet. the rock having been
encountered only few feet below the sur
face of the ground. At the mouth of this
drilling is small house containing the
engine which operates the drill. The drill
itself is of steel. 1t is operated by big
hawser to which it is attached. This
hawser passes out OF the mouth of the well,
up over pulley and then down to a rocking
bar. This bar is geared to the steam engine
and moves rapidly up and down, lifting and
dropping the drill way down in the rock.
And each time that the steel drops, 1t
pounds up little of the rock, so that it gets
about three feet farther from the surface
every day it is operated. The pulverIzed
rock and sediment is removed from the
we'll by keg, a vessel fitted to the we'll
which is lowered down after the drill has
been removed and is SO constructed that 1t
collects the loose material in the water at
the bottom. A matter of some Importance
in relation to future work, If paying vein
of coal should be encountered, is that the
water In the we'll has been found not to be
sea water. 1t is fresh water, although
strongly impregnated with alum. II sea
water was found in the well, it would show
that in sinking shaft, it would be necessary
to locate it farther from the shore, where
the salt water would not reach it. After
such shaft had been sunk, and it is a work
which would be expensive, the coal would
be followed and the mine, as it was ex-
tended, might reach far out under the sur
face of the ocean. Such mines are those at
Lands End on the English coast where the
miners are busily at work day and night re-
moving the black diamonds while the
waves are laundering on the rocks far over
their heads. There is in this country a
mine which extends out under the sea but it
is under the Pacific. the mine being on the
California coast. However, it is still a
question as to the future of the Small Point
coal fields and the drill humping away at
the bottom of the hole in the rock may have
to dig down a long way yet before it is as
certained whether the coal. which is GER
tainly there, is of quantity and kind to
make mining it paying venture.