48 Muriatiferous Rock. 



indeed there can be no reasonable doubt. There is a harmony in 

 their mutual and uniform appearance, which the most careless obser- 

 ver cannot fail to notice. The same dip to the south east, so appa- 

 rent in the coal and saliferous strata on the Muskingum, is also found 

 to prevail on the Hockhocking. In sinking a salt well on Sunday- 

 creek, four miles above the mouth, a stratum of coal was passed, 

 nine feet in thickness, at the depth of eighty feet. Near the mouth 

 of the creek, at another well, it was passed at the depth of ninety 

 four feet, and was six feet in thickness. At Athens, four miles be- 

 low, on the Hockhocking, a bed of coal was passed at the depth of 

 one hundred and eighty-five feet, six feet in thickness. At the 

 mouth of Stroud's run, four and a half miles below Athens, a bed of 

 coal is found at three hundred feet below the surface, which is eight 

 feet in thickness, being twelve miles below the spot where this coal 

 bed was first reached, on Sunday creek, making a dip of two hundred 

 and twenty feet, or about 3°. At this angle the coal would come to 

 the surface at a point five or six miles higher up the stream, which 

 is without doubt the fact, as a thick stratum of coal is found in the 

 bed of the Hockhocking a few miles north west of the upper salt 

 well, and passes along under the base of the adjacent hills. 



Main Muriatiferous Rock. 



At the wells on Sunday creek, this rock is reached at the depth 

 of about five hundred and fifty feet. It has that same clear, white, 

 saccharine appearance which characterizes this remarkable deposit at 

 nearly all the other salines. In approaching it, similar strata are 

 passed, to those found at the Muskingum salt works, which lie about 

 twenty five miles N. E. from this, and with them that notorious 

 " Flint rock," so much dreaded by all salt-well borers. On Sunday 

 creek it is found at about one hundred and forty five feet below the 

 surface. At Athens, eight miles below the upper well, it lies at two 

 hundred and fifty feet, and is so hard as to require on an average, 

 eight or ten thousand strokes of an augur weighing several hundred 

 pounds, to penetrate one inch. Four and a half miles below this, 

 the salt rock is reached at eight hundred feet; and allowing the 

 flint rock to proceed at the same angle, it would lie at three hun- 

 dred and sixty five feet below the surface, or four hundred and thir- 

 ty five above the salt rock ; the two rocks lying a little nearer to 

 each other than they do at the Muskingum salines. The brine pro- 

 cured on Sunday creek is very strong and pure, averaging at least 



