336
The last products which come over were lubricating oil and paraffine. In the Camden Mine 3700 grains of lignite gave:
Grains
Per Cent
Coke 1400
37.83
Water solution containing sulphurour acid, organic
acids and ammonia
1270
34.32
Crude Oil 450
12.16
Gas and Loss 580
15.69
_______
________
3700
100.00
From this analysis 2000 pounds of lignite would yield 35.40 gallons of crude oil (4).
An analysis of the lignite of Union Coal Company showed, according to a chemist in New Orleans, that it gave 29 gallons to the ton, but Mr. Brittan, the superintendent, thought it would average no more than 20 gallons to the ton. (5). These were both in Ouachita County had north of Camden.
Union County had lignite also. At Henry Bailey's there was a bed 30 inches thick and six inches below the surface. An impure earthy lignite was found in several wells near the line between Townships 18 and 19 South, Range 13 West. By 1860 some had been found at Wilmington. Lignite had been seen at Rucker's five miles from Moro. It was exposed and was too impure to be of least value. Three miles from Moro Ferry at Mr. Markham's, an impure lignite three feet thick was passed through in sinking a well. The whole country around the forks of the Ouachita and Saline rivers was found to be underlaid with lignite. It showed between high and low water mark in the bank of the Ouachita between Moro and Pigeon Hill (6).
David Dale Owen, state geologist in 1860, wrote in his second report of geological observation in Arkansas, that where lignite was exposed it became too impure to be of the least value (7).
