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The middle seam is about six feet in thickness; the upper part, for the distance of a foot, or fifteen inches, consists of an impure, slaty cannel. The upper seam, appearing 53 feet above, is nearly four feet thick. The interval between consists of alternations of shale and limestone, with a belt of sandstone twenty feet in thickness. The coal seams dip towards the south-west. The mines are on the right bank of the canal, and adjacent to the Chicago and Rock Island Railroad.

Illinois has as much and perhaps more coal than any other State in the Union. Till within the last few years her mines have been very imperfectly worked, but it is found, that as the deposits are worked at a greater depth, the quality becomes much better, and there is no doubt that after a few years, the people of Illinois will be able to supply their own markets, with fuel equal to the best Pennsylvania or Ohio coal.

Nature, in fact, seems to have anticipated the inconvenience to which the inhabitants of the prairies would be subjected by the scarcity of timber for fuel, and long ago provided for it a compensation, by carefully storing beneath their surface, an almost unlimited supply of excellent mineral, or stone coal. Nearly the entire State is underlaid with it, south of a line running west, from the southern extremity of Lake Michigan. It is found at a little depth below the surface, and crops out upon the banks of most of the streams in that part of

the State.

There is no doubt that this article must ultimately become a great source of wealth to this region of the country, and it already attracts the attention of capitalists.

Mining is largely practised on the line of the Chicago, Burlington, and Quincy Railroads, in the counties of Stark and Knox, by means of shafts sunk in the prairie, immediately on the line of the road. Also on the line of the Chicago, and Rock Island Railroad, in Grundy, La Salle, Bureau, and Rock Island Counties. Extensive works are in operation at the city of Rock Island, where a large amount is mined from the outcrop of the veins in that vicinity.

The mines at Sheffield are owned and worked by a wealthy company, and are yielding a large amount of good coal, which is chiefly

shipped to Chicago. The coal is raised from these mines by a stationary engine.

The La Salle coal basin, in La Salle County, contains the most extensive and valuable deposits of coal on the northern outcrop.

The lower seam of coal crops out in the bluffs of the Illinois, from the eastern boundary of the county, to near La Salle, where a sand-ridge occurs, running in a north-west and south-east direction, thus dividing the Ottawa and La Salle coal-fields.

The La Salle coal basin contains three workable beds of coal, which are of about the following average thicknesses :-The lower bed, two and a half to three feet; the middle bed, five and a half to six feet; the upper bed about four and a half feet. These beds "crop out" in the bluffs of the Little Vermillion River, and adjacent ravines; and all reappear in the bluffs of the Big Vermillion, on the south side of the Illinois River; the lower bed being here four feet thick; some fifteen to eighteen miles up this stream, the middle vein is found eight feet thick, and of good quality. The coal is found all along the Big Vermillion, from its mouth, near La Salle, to the southern boundary of the county. It also extends into the northern part of Livingston County.

The La Salle coal basin embraces an area of country about eighteen miles in length, by ten miles in breadth, being 180 miles square, or, 114,000 acres. A coal bed, one foot thick, contains 1400 tons per acre, and estimating the workable coal to be twelve feet in thickness, the average yield would be 16,800 tons per acre, or to the whole coal basin the quantity of 1,931,920,000 tons.

Although the usual method for working consists in sinking shafts, to reach the coal beds, at various depths, another system of mining has lately been carried on, which is called drifting.

A vertical shaft is run into the coal bed, entering at the "out crop," and this method has been found a very successful one.

At La Salle, all three of the beds are worked by "drifts." There are some twelve to fifteen openings on the bank of the canal, and in the valley of the Little Vermillion, and contiguous ravines. The lower bed of coal is now being worked to some extent, at Marseilles, near the eastern boundary of the county. The bed is largely worked at Buffalo Rock, and near Ottawa, for the supply of that city, the sur

rounding country, and the shipping. The variety of coal principally found here, as well as in the whole State, is the bituminous; but an excellent-article of cannel coal has lately become known. It was taken from a shaft opened a few miles above La Salle, near the Rock Island Road, where a vein about eighteen inches thick has lately been struck, and is likely to increase in thickness as far as progress is made. The coal is of a quality equal to the best Liverpool Cannel Coal that was ever seen; it is equally frangible, susceptible of as fine polish, does not soil the fingers, and leaves but four or five per cent. of ashes.

The following companies, whose shafts are located for the greater part in the neighborhood of the Little Vermillion River, and Swanson Ravine, from one to four miles distant from La Salle, all carry on their coal-mining by "drifting:"

Field & Rounds; Egletson & Parsons; A. J. Hartshorne; La Salle Coal Mining Co.; James Forsyth; Munsell & Heath; J. Robsan & Co.; William Ireland; Sanderson & Co.; Thomas Evans; William Reevely.

It will not be uninteresting to give some information here, in relation to the operations of some of these companies. The first named, Field & Rounds' coal bank, is situated immediately west of the tunnel on the Chicago and Rock Island Railroad, about two miles east of La Salle. They are working the lower bed of coal by three different drifts, the entrances to which are but a few rods from the Illinois and Michigan Canal, and the Rock Island Road. They employ at present about sixty-five miners, with eight laborers, a carpenter, blacksmith, teamsters, &c., and are mining about sixty tons per day. The bed of coal which they are working, averages about three feet in thickness. The quality of coal now being taken out from their drifts, which have been carried in to the extent of about 150 yards-is said to be the best ever taken from the lowest bed. With but little addition to their present working force, they can very easily mine 100 tons per day. At most of their banks coal is worth two dollars and a half per

ton.

The La Salle Coal Mining Co., generally known by the name of the "Kentucky Co.," have been for several months past engaged in sinking a shaft on the west side of Little Vermillion River, near the

line of the Illinois Central Railroad, about one mile north of La Salle. This is the first shaft that has yet been sunk in the La Salle coal basin, west of the Little Vermillion. The first, or upper workable bed of coal was reached at the depth of 198 feet. The company is expecting to be able to mine and hoist not less than 100 tons per day, or 30,000 tons a year. There are at present in the La Salle coal basin, about twenty, or even more, shafts open and being opened. The number of men employed in and about these works, is about 300. The amount of coal taken out is about 600 tons per week, of which about 450 tons are sent off by the Illinois Central Railroad, while the remainder is sold at the banks for home consumption. The price for which the coal is delivered at La Salle is four dollars per ton. The price paid for mining is five cents per bushel, and about 27 bushels make up a ton. Where mining is carried on upon leased land, one cent per bushel, or twenty-five cents per ton, is paid to the land owner, as a bank-rent, or "royalty."

. The price of transportation on the railroad, from La Salle to Mendota, is 75 cents per ton; to Amboy, $1; to Dixon, $1 35; to Polo, $1 65; to Forreston, $1 75; to Freeport, $2; to Eleroy, $2 25; to Lena, $2 25; to Warren, $2 75; to Apple River, $3; to Galena, $3; to Dunleith, $3 50.

As the land owners, who lease lands to practical miners, receive a "royalty" of twenty five cents per ton, for the coal taken out, the revenues thus obtained, alone yield $4,200 to the acre.

The La Salle Basin, being the northern limit of the coal in this State, the market to be supplied must, for centuries to come, continue as great as the supply which can be furnished. Chicago will also afford a constant demand. Erie coal sells in that city at $8 per ton; while La Salle coal, adding the cost of transportation, which by canal would not exceed one dollar per ton, can be sold at $5, and even less. The Peru Coal Mining Company has been organized for some time, and intend to commence the work of sinking their shaft immediately.

The Chicago and Danville Coal Mining Company. The deposit of the said company is at Danville, in Vermillion County. The Great Western Railroad, which passes through Danville, crosses this field from east to west. They have made arrangements for working these mines extensively, with a view to supply the country along the line

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