HockJiocking Valley. 47 



bringing it from any distance. Wliile on the subject of mounds, 1 

 would remark, that I have not seen any in this part of the west 

 which were thrown up by currents of water, as suggested by Prof. 

 Hitchcock ; but they were all indisputably erected by human hands. 

 The rock strata in the hills are chiefly sandstone, with beds of 

 limestone near the hill tops, and in the beds of the runs. The 

 great siliceous deposit crosses this valley a little below the main 

 falls, passing over on to the waters of Raccoon creek. Where it 

 traverses this valley, the silex was precipitated in a fine white 

 powder, in beds several feet in thickness. Portions of it are tinged 

 of a deep yellow with oxide of iron, running in broad veins through the 

 stone. It has been considerably worked into hones and stones for 

 sharpening carpenters' and tanners' tools. Some portions of it are 

 well adapted to these uses, and are considered nearly equal to the 

 imported hones. In the central portion of the valley, bituminous 

 coal is found in abundance. In the southern and northern extremi- 

 ties it is more rare. In the southern it is buried under the other 

 rock strata, and in the northern, which approach the great tertiary 

 deposits, coal has not been formed. It is found in three principal 

 beds, pursuing the same order as in many other portions of the great 

 basin. One is near the base of the hills, and in the beds of runs, which 

 is usually the purest and best coal. Another is found about fifty feet 

 above, and a third near the tops of the hills, which here, as has be- 

 fore been remarked in speaking of the great valley generally, have 

 been formed by the degradation and wearing away of the surface by 

 the action of water and other agents. A stratum found in one hill, 

 is seen in another, at the distance of a quarter or half mile, across a 

 valley or ravine, at the same elevation ; the intermediate rocks which 

 once connected the hills, having been removed in the course of ages. 

 In the vicinity of the salt deposits, or muriatiferous beds, on Sunday 

 creek and the Hockhocking west of this" creek, the deposits of coal 

 are from five to ten feet in thickness, evincing apparent design in 

 " Him who laid the foundations of the Earth," in the greater abun- 

 dance of coal in those places where it would be most useful ; or 

 otherwise the laws which governed the deposits of the muriatiferous 

 rocks, and the coal, were most active and vigorous while these strata 

 were forming. It may be that the soil over the saliferous rocks had 

 some property congenial to the growth of such plants as formed the 

 coal beds and not found in other soils, provided these bituminous depo- 

 sits were formed of plants that grew on or near the spot, of which 



