Geology of the MusMngum Valley. 29 



per cent of the muriate of soda, and is in strength and freedom from 

 other ingredients rather superior to any other water yet brought into 

 use in the valley. 



Salt water is found in the vicinity of the Muskingum river, up 

 to Coshocton, and probably further up, and, also on some of 

 the larger creeks. Manufactures are in operation on Moxahala 

 creek, where the bed of the stream is lime rock ; also on Will's 

 creek, where the whole country abounds in limestone. Coal and 

 sandstone continue to accompany the muriatiferous deposits, and are 

 found at very considerable depths below the surface. In excava- 

 ting a shaft, on Salt creek, ten miles S. E. of Zanesville, a bed of 

 fine coal, seven feet in thickness, was found lying under a thick de- 

 posit of slate, very compact and free from fissures. The rock per- 

 forated in this portion of the shaft, was one hundred and fifty feet in 

 depth ; it was dry and impervious to water, which caused great 

 trouble in the sandstone strata above ; the coal being found in the 

 bottom of the shaft. The same fact was observed, in sinking a shaft 

 near Portsmouth, Ohio, in slate, the whole distance, one hundred 

 and fifty feet being very dry, and entirely free from water. 



On all the eastern branches of the Muskingum, coal is found in 

 extensive deposits, but becomes more scarce, and is found in thin- 

 ner beds as we approach the table lands between Lake Erie and 

 the river ; this region being the northern and western verge of the 

 great coal basin. Near the borders of the coal region, iron ore be- 

 comes much more abundant, and is found in extensive beds of re- 

 cent argillaceous or bog ores, and also in kidney shaped masses, im- 

 bedded in clay, and often under coal deposits. Ores of this variety 

 are extensively worked in Stark and several of the adjacent coun- 

 ties. The lime rocks here abound in fossil marine shells of the ge- 

 nera, Productus, Terebratula and Spirifera. with ammonites and 

 chambered shells ; indicating that some of the coal deposits have 

 been deeply submerged under salt water since their formation ; or 

 that the vegetable materials, composing the coal had once floated in 

 an ocean, and were precipitated by an accumulation of calcareous, 

 argillaceous and sedimentary materials, collected on and about them 

 while floating. 



Marine fossils are found both .above and below the coal, and 

 sometimes deposits containing fresh water shells are intermixed, al- 

 though they are not so common, as they are nearer to the Ohio riv- 

 er. Some of these fresh water fossils bear a striking resemblance to 



