Some places on the outcrop rise much higher. The base of the mountain is about five hundred feet above sea-level. No shipping has been done from here. A gang of miners was at work opening the beds, with the special view of testing their coking qualities in order to be used, if practicable, by the Moss Bay Company for smelting the steel ores of the Cascade Mountains.
The only seam well opened when I was there (Nov. 17th and 18th) was No. 3, which is a large bed and shows an excellent quality of bituminous coal. The bed shows the side and end (or "tooth") structure. The coal is very black and moderately lustrous, and breaks readily into small rectangles of less than an inch. Its coking qualities have not been tested. Nos. 4 and 5 are said to be softer and more powdery, and may possibly be better for coke than No. 3. They have an available thickness of about ten feet each. The details of No. 3 are as follows:
| Roof, Black Shale. | FT. | INS. | |
| Coal | 0 | 9 | |
| Bone | 1 | 6 | |
| Coal | 0 | 7 | |
| Hard Slate | 2 | 0 | |
| Coal | 0 | 8 | |
| Bone | 0 | 2 | |
| Coal | 0 | 5 | |
| Bone | 0 | 1 | |
| Coal | 1 | 2 | |
| Soft Parting | 0 | ½ | |
| Coal | 1 | 0 | |
| Bone and Coal | 0 | 7 | |
| Coal | 1 | 0 | |
| Bone | 0 | 1 | |
| Coal | 1 | 3 | |
| Bone | 0 | ¼ | |
| Coal | 0 | 5 | |
| Bone | 0 | ½ | |
| Coal | 0 | 7 | |
| Bone and Coal | 1 | 8 | |
| Coal | 0 | 4½ | |
| Bone | 0 | 1 | |
| Coal | 0 | 7 | |
| Sandstone bottom. | ————— | ||
| Total | 15 ft. ¾ ins. | ||
There is a natural exposure of No. 2, the "Big Seam," which I saw on the mountain-side above the miners' camp, and took the following details:
| No. 2, Big Seam, descending. | FT. | INS. | |
| Coal | 1 | 2 | |
| Bone | 0 | 2½ | |
| Coal | 0 | 5 | |
| Bone | 0 | 4 | |
| Coal | 1 | 4 | |
| Bone | 0 | 1½ | |
| Coal | 1 | 0 | |
| Bone | 0 | ¼ | |
| Coal | 0 | 8 | |
| Bone | 0 | 1½ | |
| Coal | 0 | 7 | |
| Bone | 0 | 1 | |
| Nigger-head and Coal | 0 | 6 | |
| Bone | 0 | 1½ | |
| Coal | 1 | 8 | |
| Bone | 0 | ¼ | |
| Coal | 2 | 0 | |
| Bone | 0 | 4 | |
| Coal | 1 | 10 | |
| Bone | 0 | 1 | |
| Coal | 0 | 7 | |
| Bone | 0 | 1½ | |
| Coal | 1 | 0 | |
| Bone | 0 | ¼ | |
| Coal | 1 | 2 | |
| Bone | 0 | 2½ | |
| Coal | 0 | 6 | |
| Bone | 0 | 1½ | |
| Coal | 0 | 3 | |
| Bone | 0 | ¼ | |
| Coal | 1 | 3 | |
| Bone | 0 | ¼ | |
| Coal | 1 | 8 | |
| Shale | 0 | 1½ | |
| Coal | 0 | 6 | |
| Bone | 0 | 4 | |
| Impure Bituminous Matter | 21 | 5¾ | |
| Coal, clean and good | 5 | 6 | |
| Total | 47 ft. 6 ins. | ||
The Kirke mines are sixteen miles from Salal Prairie, and two miles from the Northern Pacific Railroad at the Common Point. The route has been surveyed by the Northern Pacific Railroad.
Adjoining the Kirke, or Moss Bay Company property, is a section of coal land (No. 34) on Sugar Loaf Mountain, owned by parties in Seattle, who offer it at $50,000. There are a number of seams on the property, but I could examine only one which had been opened near the foot of the mountain. It is a good seam of bituminous coal, of the same character with the Kirke coal. I took the following details:
c. The Cedar River Group.—This group consists of the Cedar River mines, nineteen miles from Seattle by rail, the Renton and Talbot mines, ten miles, and the Newcastle, eighteen miles. These coals are in the same river basin, and are all high grade lignites.Cedar River mines.
The first shipment made from the Cedar River mines was in July, 1884. There are two good seams here, one of which measures eleven feet. The outcrop curves from a south to a southwest strike. The dip is 20° toward the east.