40 White Lias Limestone. 



there is a bed of limestone six or eight feet thick at some distance 

 above the coal. Sandstone, clay slate, and common bituminous 

 coal are found in the neighborhood. The soil is a yellow clay. I 

 was also informed that the same kind of coal had been found in 

 digging a well, about one mile and a half S. W. of the place before 

 mentioned, of about the same thickness, and at about the same level. 

 1 could not ascertain the order of superposition of the strata, no sec- 

 tion of the hills having been cut for roads, or by the runs of water. 



The limestone rock of this vicinity abounds in fine fossil shells, 

 and other relics of a former age ; many interesting remains being 

 discovered in breaking the rocks to construct the national road. 

 Amongst these, were some beautiful large ammonites and overgrown 

 gryphea, or nautilites, with a shell which resembles a lyilmea. 

 Drawings of an ammonite and an ampullaria are given at figures 24 

 (page 1 of the wood cuts) and 14 (page 2) taken from the limestone 

 in this vicinity, with descriptions below. Many of these fossils al- 

 though imbedded in lime, are replaced by silex. 



White Lias Limestone.* 



About twenty miles S. E. from Cambridge, on the head-waters of 

 Will's creek. Little Muskingum, and Duck creek, in an elevated hilly 

 country, is found a very interesting deposit of fine white limestone, 

 of a quality similar to the lithographic variety. It lies in stratified 

 beds of eight and ten feet in thickness, and leaves a space of eight 

 or ten miles square, in the heads of these streams^ lying chiefly on 

 the southern side of the anticlinal line, between the waters of Will's 

 creek and the other two streams. It is seen cropping out on the 

 sides of hills, and in the beds of runs at various points through the 

 neighborhood. It is the only deposit of this stone, of any extent, 

 at present known in this part of Ohio. I visited that region last 

 spring and took sections of the rock strata ; two of which will be 

 given, including two interesting deposits ; and so far as I know both 

 are peculiar to this district of country. One of them is white, the 

 other a brecciated or fragmentary limestone, found a few miles north 

 of the other. The hills at this spot are one hundred and eighty or 

 two hundred feet in height, but in the dividing ridge, and on the 

 waters of Duck creek a few miles west, rise to more than three hun- 

 dred feet. This spot is distinctly marked on the map. 



* We have not seen any specimens of this rock from Ohio. — EA. 



