The narrow gauge road from Seattle now comes to the Franklin mines, and by continuing it a few miles to connect with the Northern Pacific there would be railroad connection to Seattle as well as to Tacoma. The river here cuts through the Coal Measures, leaving the less valuable part of the field on the south side. The area of this field is roughly estimated at fifty square miles. It contains all, or nearly all, the grades of coal from lignite to bituminous; the variety of coal depending upon the degree of local disturbance. As a rule, so long as the coal is not crushed, the more pitched and flexed the rocks, the better the coal; which fact indemnifies the miner for extra expense in mining. Here, the tendency is for the seams to become steeper and more broken from west to east; _i.e._, as they approach the foot-hills of the Cascade Mountains. The strata in Lizard Mountain on the south side, however, form an exception. Here the strata are nearly horizontal. [Sidenote: Franklin and Black Diamond mines.] The Franklin mines are on the north bank of Green River and at the south edge of what has been known as the McKay basin, and the Black Diamond mines are on, or near, the north edge of the same small, oval synclinal basin. From this basin the dips become steeper toward the mountain, where Kirke's beds stand at a high angle. On the west edge of the Green River basin, say a mile west of Franklin, there is an outcrop of lignite. The coal of the Franklin and Black Diamond mines is bituminous lignite. The Kirke coal, or at least part of it, as judged by the eye, may be called bituminous coal, though not so much deoxidized as the Wilkeson. The coals mined in this basin are firm, black and shiny; they burn freely, and make but little dust. They have not, however, so far as tested, the heating power or coking qualities of the Wilkeson coal. Two seams are worked at Franklin, and three at Black Diamond. All of the seams worked are above four feet. A number of volcanic dikes and flows are found in and around this basin. [Sidenote: The Kirke or Moss Bay Company (English) mines.] The Kirke or Moss Bay Company mines are six miles east of Franklin, and within a mile of Green River. They lie against the mountain. The strike of the mountain is northwest. The coal beds dip toward the mountain at a high angle. There are five seams of from five to fifteen feet in thickness; one of them (No. 2) may be said to be over forty-seven feet in thickness, though not all good coal, as the details given below will show. The top of the outcrops above sea-level are as follows: FEET. No. 1 970 No. 2 1,160 No. 3 1,350 No. 4 1,461 No. 5 1,513