b Facts relating to certain parts of the state of Ohio. 
The rock in which these wells are sunk is of various den- 
sity and composition. In some places for one or two feet, 
the workmen can gain only an inch, or perhaps half an inch, 
in a day, and then they have their driils to sharpen every few 
minutes; the rock is so much harder than the hardest steel, 
that it is very difficult to get a dr.li to stand it at ali. 
At other places in the rock, they penetrate from one to 
three feet ina day. In this course of drilling they often pass 
through as many as three or four layers of fossil coal, at va- 
rious depths in the rock ; and it is generally the fact, that im- 
mediately before the salt water appears, they pass a stratum 
of stone coal of considerable thickness—perhaps six or eight 
inches. oe 
Petrifactions are common, but not so frequently found as 
in many other parts of the state, particularly in the neigh- 
bourhood of Zanesville. The greatest collections are found 
intermixed with the gravel, on the elevated plains, I have be- 
fore mentioned. I have seen several which were full of 
cells, and resembled bits of honey-comb, or wasps’ nests, 
turned to stone—others appear to be shells of various forms 
and sizes, but different from any 1 have seen in our rivers. 
Vegetable productions are also found in a petrified state ; 
some resembling bits of corn-stalks. J have in my posses- 
sion a petrifaction, which appears once to have been a large 
Poke-root (Phytolacca Decandra). It is the best preserved 
of any I have seen; it retains the internal structure of the 
root, as perfect, and distinct, as if just pulled from the earth ; 
and those fine lines, and circular impressions on the cortical 
part, are as plain and as easily distinguished as they are on 
the fresh root It appears to be silicious, as it affords fire 
readily, with the steel. I have disco:er d, at iwo different 
places within a few miles of Marietta, some very curious im- 
pressions of vegetables, in a loose slaty stone. and ina red 
ochreous earth, that was in a anddl: state between ochre and 
slate. ‘The impressions in the first resembled the leaves of 
white clover, and were very perfect; th-y appeared to be 
distributed through the whole mass of stone, which easily 
separated into thin layers. and, between the contiguous lay- 
ers, was to be seen the perfect impression of clover | aves. 
Those in he ochreous be, were the perfect impressions of 
fern leaves; they were to be found in almost every piece 
that | examined, and wiat is a little curious, the impressions 
were all of the same kind of leaf, and as perfect, and fair, as 
