Arizona weekly citizen. [volume] (Tucson, Ariz) 1880-1901, 1893-12-09
THE NEW COAL FEEDS.
DR.. Comst elk Gives Intsres ting
Data Thereon.

|
Pennsylvania and other portions of the
east, cover a considerable portion of the
territory Of Arizona. At points here
and there they crop out in the noun
tains, and it has long been the belief of
geologists familiar with the country
that valuable DEPOSITS of workable
coal will be fould in some OF the ex-
posures besides those which are
Already known.
Owing to the greatly folded cond. ton
of the sti alta and 10 the complications
induced by ths dikes AID outfaws of
volcanic material. it has hitherto been
very difficult TO trace the connection
across The couLtry from mountain to
mountain. Dr.. Comsctock has done
considerable work in different localities,
but the funds at his disposal are in
sufficient for making anything like a
coup etc survey, or even q connected
preliminary investigation. He has for
some me known from his own obser
vatlons that the rocks Of carboniferous
age are we'll exposed upon the W, stern
slope of the Santa Rita noun taius and
across eastward, with more or less of
Interruption, to the Milestone, Dragon
and Chiricshua mountains. In diff
fereDt outcrops over this stretch OF
country he has encountered ind cations
that coal has one time existed in that
region, but in previous examinations he
has usually found that the beds are so
broken as to be OF little value com
mercially, or else the coal has bsen so
much altered by heat hs to be converted
into impure graphite, and thus has be-
come valueless as fuel.
| While he was, therefore, rather SAN
guine of eventually discovering some
| thIng OF importance in this line, basing
his hope largely also upon the known
| deposits on the San Carlos reservation
| and in portions of :Sonora, and aided by
| the investigations of hi1 friend and
fellow geologist, DR.. John +. Blandy, he
was still not wholly encouraged by the
impure specimens cent in from time to
time TO the school of mines. Had he been
supplied with an appropriation for the
purpose, he would ere this have gone
over the whole area carefully, tracing
out the different b DIS and determining
| the position of the best coal. But he
has been obliged to rely largely upon
such Information as he could gain from
material which has been SER b IN for
two years past, supplemented by oc-
| casional excursions slipped i'll between
periods of other work of an eDgroSsing
nature.
At the time of his visit to Deming,
representing the Southwestern Mining
| Engineers' association at the irrigation
| convert CD, DIR. Comstock was inform
ed::that bed of coal of promising charac-
ter had been discovered west of Fort
| Bowie in the Chircahna mountains.
At the first opportunity, which &C.
Cured last week, he visited the locality,
| with results which were outlined ID
yesterdays issue of tie CITIZEN. A
| large sample of the coal was obtained,
and specimens are now on exhibition at
| the university, where analyses are being
made in the school of Mines labora-
| tory.
The rocks in the immediate vicinity
OF the coal outcrop arc very much
broken by volcanic outdows, and fine
| assure veizs carrying much free gold,
with others yielding good deposits of
| galena and lead carbonate, abound in
the neighborng hills. This structure
produces q kind of break in the car boni-
ferrous rocks, and has pushed up the
states including the coal from beneath
heavy masses of limestone with The
char cteristic fossils of carboniferous
agr. One Of the canyons opening
north east ward has been formed, in a
portion of its upper course, by the
wearing away of the shales and the
coal more rapidly than the limestones,
which are thick-bedded and highly
siliceous. The coal is usually covered
TO the depth of several feet with gravel,
and some work will be necessary to
follow it along the outcrop for any
great distance. 1t has been worked by
Messrs. Bridger & Claire in branch of
Wood canyon, fifteen miles southwest of
San Simon station, near the north
eastern corner of Arizona line. These
gentlemen have, of course located all
that is now known of the deposit, but it
is at least probable that it will be found
to extend very generally through that
region, and other exposures situated
favorably for working may perhaps. be
discovered by those who understand
how to Interpret the conditions as they
are.
The coal is much compressed and
crumpled, and the surface portions are, |
as usual, somewhat weathered, but the |
quality, as judged from appearances
and from the email amount of foreign |
substances, is of excellent quality. 1t |
burns with blue flame, like anthracite, |
which it resembles in physical features. |
but it is softer and show little of the |
yellow bituminous fame when it is first |
igniied.
This deposit has been opened in two |
places but neither has exposed the |
seam much beyond the influence of |
weatheripg agencies. However, there
is but little iron oxide, gypsum or other
impurity where the greatest oxidation
has taken PLACE. Asst is somewhat IN
certain how much slipping or crowd
ing has occurred, the thickness o. the
deposit cannot be determined fully.
There is 10 doubt of the extent be
tween the two slate walls, measured
across their line of dip. This measure
ment is fully six feet, in the workings,
and probably this is the true thickness;
bat It will be necessary to develop tie
seam 10 make out the structure of tie
\ b lie series adjoining the coal. At d
po'nt on the main Wood canyon much
lower than these workings, a slaty
formation occurs ia connection with the
same limestones, and here wal err flows
freely from the contact. At another
poiat on a side canyon similar rocks
lie in tilted position almost identical
with that where the coal occurs, but 70
work has been dope at that place. In
one creek, the water is charged with
alum, which may Indicate the existence
OF the coal bed in at direction, which
with the course of the up-
lift, as determined by DR.. Comstock on
the ground.
The field and boratory work on this
subject being performed as a public
matter, the results will lie pu blished
freely. AS soon as the analysis can be
made they will be announced for the {
benefit Of all. and bulletin Of the {
school OF N mes may be issued later, ,
reviewing the knowledge of our coal
fields which has already been acquired
Dy the director.