Tocography of the Coal Strata. 7 



which wood, the jiroduct of the earth at a subsequent period, has 

 been found to be so excellently adapted by man. Their remains, it 

 must also be remarked, are now found in conjunction with that sub- 

 stance which nature has in all probability formed from them, and 

 which by the pecuhar economical modification of its combustibility, 

 is rendered an invaluable article of fuel. If this be admitted to be 

 the origin of coal, a satisfactory cause will appear for the vast abun- 

 dance of vegetable matter with which in its early ages, the earth 

 must have been stored. This vast, and in any other view, useless 

 creation, will thus be ascertained to have been a beneficent arrange- 

 ment by Providence for man, the being of a creation of a later pe- 

 riod." 



General Topography of the Valley in relation to the Coal 

 Measures. 



Sandstone, in all its varieties, being the prevailing rock in the 

 coal deposits, the general surface of the region presents great simi- 

 larity in its features, especially in those portions that lie within' fifty 

 or sixty miles of the Ohio river ; these regions exhibit long sloping ridg- 

 es, running parallel with the river, and are often faced with mural pre- 

 cipices of sandstone to the height of one hundred feet above the base 

 of the hills. In other places, there are cone-shaped, isolated hills, 

 especially where creeks make their debouchure, having in the course 

 of ages worn down the sides of the hill, both above and below into 

 beautiful slopes. This is frequently seen in the heads of creeks, 

 that take their rise in a loose rich loamy soil. The tops are then 

 crowned with sandstone, covered with trees, while the sides are 

 clothed with the richest productions of the forest, growing in a loose 

 black soil, formed of decomposed leaves and the remains of the 

 rocks which have wasted slowly away before the wintry frosts and 

 the summer rains. In any part of this region the view from the 

 highest hills, presents one vast plain filled with hollows, and afford- 

 ing no spot much, if any more elevated, than the one on which the 

 spectator stands, — bringing forcibly to the mind, the reflection, that 

 this now hilly and broken region was once, at some remote period, a 

 level, and nearly horizontal plain. Scattered through this hilly and 

 broken region, tracts of tolerably level land, are found embracing 

 many miles of square surface. In sinking wells in such places, it 

 is not uncommon to find, at the depth of thirty or forty feet, frao-- 

 ments of the trunks and branches of trees, with water worn pebbles, 



