Rock Strata of the Cuyahoga. 47 
over Mr. Newberry’s coal mines, to the bed of the Cuyahoga River, 
about midway of the length of the falls: below this point I did not 
examine the geology, it being sufficient to elucidate and confirm the 
object of my visit, viz., the equivalent formations of the opposite 
side of the coal measures. 
Section of Rock Strata at the Falls of the Cuyahoga. Order 
descending. 
1. Fallowich colored, sandy, argillaceous earth, containing large 
quantities of argillaceous brown oxide of iron, in concentric, kidney- 
shaped masses. It has been dug and used in the adjacent furnaces. 
The surface is covered at this elevation with granite bowlders. The 
forest trees are principally chestnut and yellow oak.—10 feet. 
2. Slaty sandstone, light gray color; argillaceous and breaking 
into small angular fragments, when exposed to frost and rain. —30 
feet. 
3. Bituminous sinlls on which the sandstone reposes and forms 
the roof of the coal beds, after the shale is removed. The shale is 
filled with casts and impressions of fossil plants of various species : 
amongst them are numerous trunks of arborescent ferns, more than a 
foot in diameter, which, extending across the roof of the drift, a 
distance of eight feet, are lost in the adjacent shale. The orna- 
mented surface of the tree is beautifully figured or impressed on the 
rock, coated with a thin layer of coal, like a natural epidermis. I 
was unable to remove any of them without injuring the roof, but 
from Mr. Newberry, the owner of the mine, received a few fine spe- 
cimens, collected by the workmen. A drawing of one of the species 
is given at Fig. 12.—2 feet. 
_ 4. Bituminous coal. The quality of this coal is inferior to that 
nearer the centre of the coal fields. It contains considerable sulphur, 
and often slate: at some of the beds which I visited, it is coated with 
or discolored by iron rust. It is an interesting fact that no coal is — 
found north of this spot; and the Cuyahoga is the only-Jake stream 
that passes through the coal deposits. In this instance, it is owing to 
the wide southerly sweep this stream makes into the northern bor- 
der of the great coal basin. It is here found in only a few isolated, 
elevated spots, and is evidently the remnant of the deposit, left un- 
disturbed by that overwhelming catastrophe, which strewed this re- 
gion with granite bowlders, sand and gravel, and tore up and remo- 
be ana around these solitary remnants.—4 feet. 
