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 RocJc Strata at the Falls of the Cuyahoga. Order 



descending. 



1. Yellowish 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 shale, 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 lake 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- 

 ved the rock strata around these solitary remnants.— 4 feet. 



