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Show 0PHIR DISTRICT, UTAH. The Coal Beds of Eist Canon and Rush Valley. SCIENTIFIC REPORT. The formation or country rock of this district, along tho mouth of Dry ciiion, East canon, Silverado and south of Silverado is limestone. This limestone appears everywhere, forming form-ing strata and overlying the lower silurian. The formation is a series of strata one above the other, the plane of which dips with the slope of the hills westward to the valley. The course of these strata is many times iuterruptedand broken through tho great upheaval. Through this series of strata breaks Dry cation, East canon and Silverado, as three large channels formed through the great water courses, upheavals and curvatures curva-tures leaving the broken parts on either side of the channel facing each other to show clearly the relative position which they once occupied. Everyone is immediately clearly convinced con-vinced of the great upheaval which tore asunder tho facing parts, for if the same thine aD Dears on both upr of every canon the stala boldly cropping crop-ping out directly opposite each other, and on the same place we see that if these nills were pressed back in then-former then-former position to a level with the valley, that all these broken and dislocated dis-located lines would join exactly together. to-gether. It will then appear clearly that prior to the mighty upheaval the country as a horizontal plane was covered by a mass of over 1,500 feet of limestone, and when the fierce and terrible subterranean powers worked upwards they broke and upheaved the whole mass of limestone and formed mountains, hills, hollows and canons, like they appear at present. The limestone which appears on the east side ot Rush Valley, along the mouths of Dry canon, East canon and Silverado, is materially diflerenti from the limestone which appears more at the head of the canon or more eastward; it is a more compact homogenous, grey limestone, crossed all over with calcspath veins, and changes gradually to marl. I. found in this limestone a few Ltrilobites and a productas loogispinus. This limestone lime-stone is positively ibnued by marine influence. Under this limestone appears ap-pears the slatey schist; 80-100 feet below the slatey schist the new red sandstone, below this the areillacenua sanusione, Deiow tuis tne argillaceous shale, then a thin streak of fire-clay, and below this is the coal-bed. This coal-bed belongs to the liguitia formation. It is my belief that this coal will be found good anthracite. TIih anthracite anth-racite character has been imparted to the liguite by dykes of plutonic ma-ertial, ma-ertial, many of which occur east of the coal croppings. Tne first dyke occurs about 200 teet east of the coal croppings. The coal is only opened on one place by an incline about eighty feet long, and by a shatt ninety feet deep. This coal bed was first discoverad by a "Mormon" farmer, eight years ago. Some ignorant miners made him believe it was worthless and by all the evidence he had by using this coal with several other farmers for blacksimthing and heating heat-ing he believed these miners more than his senses. Through exposure ex-posure to the weather lor eight years, the coal has of course deteriated in its effects. It is very probable that the eruptive rocks have overflowed and broken through the sanuatone and that large tracts probably prob-ably underlay and being anthracite. The coal has a specific gravity ol 1.45 or l.S0;in burning it gives a short blue flame under intense heat. The outcrops out-crops are very much broken and the coal is for a length inside of over fifty feet greatly mixed with clay and shale. The bed has a thickness of over twenty feet. No other developments develop-ments of any material value have been made in this coal field, which field contains several thousand acres, beyond proving the existence of coal in a north and south line of four miles. As the formation on the west side of Rush valley is the same as on the east side with that difference that the strata dips eastward. It is my opinion opin-ion that we have here a coal basin which deepest point is near or in the centre of Rush valley. Tho strata dips iu an angle of from 26 to 35 degrees. Underlaying the coal is old red sandstone, sand-stone, siliciuus shale and dark argillaceous argil-laceous shale alternating with gray sandstone. I found several species of calamites from the sandstone. The sandstone is bard, coarse grained and heavy bedded. They form in places a well-defined well-defined ridgo running in an almost direct northeast and southwest line. The great upheaval has brought to the surlaco east of the coal crops, Silurian Si-lurian rock which belong fully 4,000 feet below, BO that the vertical displacement dis-placement must bo over 6,000 feet. The silurian rock is limestone metamorphosed. meta-morphosed. East of the coal cropB the ridge is not well defined as the conglomeratic pebbles and red clay form here" greatly the surface. The slopes of the hills in which the coal crops appear are thickly covered with yellow and red pino and cedar timber. All places are of easy access by wagon roads, and the Utah West ern railroad is rapid ly approacmng completion. The soil is light and not suitable for agricultural purposes, except here and there a very limited patch in the creek bottoms. The climate is exceedingly healthy at every season, the snow falls in the winter very light. The mines at the head of the eaiiono are shipping ore throughout the year, day and day. Salt Lake City, April loth, 185. W. B. |