78 J. J. STEVENSON — 'CARBONIFEROUS OE APPALACHIAN BASIN 



limestone. The Lower Mercer coal bed (number 3 of the Ohio section) 

 is wanting. The Connoquenessing sandstones are present, but the upper 

 one tends to become shaly. The Quakertown and Sharon coal beds are 

 present, and the Sharon sandstone makes its appearance with an extreme 

 thickness of 15 feet ;* but this rock must increase rapidly in the west and 

 northwest, for in Portage county, west from Trumbull and Mahoning, 

 Newberry finds it 175 feet thick in the northeast corner, barely 5 miles 

 from the Trumbull line and not more than 15 miles northwest from Mr 

 Read's locality ; yet the thickness must be less in the westerly part of 

 the county, for the general section gives it as only 100 feet. The rock is 

 a coarse drab sandstone, with portions consisting of quartz pebbles vary- 

 ing in size from a pea to a hen'3 egg. The thickness decreases very 

 quickly southward, for the rock is absent in the southeastern part of the 

 county at not more than 8 miles from northwest Mahoning. Northward 

 beyond Portage the Sharon sandstone extends into Lake and Geauga 

 counties, reaching to within 10 miles of lake Erie, retaining its charac- 

 teristic features and apparently losing neither thickness nor coarseness. 

 The general section of Portage county, as given by Doctor Newbeny, 

 shows that the Putnam Hill or gray limestone is a constant feature. It 

 represents that limestone as from 28 to 54 feet above the blue or Lower 

 Mercer limestone. As no reference is made anywhere to the Upper Mercer 

 limestone, it is possible that it and the Putnam Hill have been confounded 

 at some localities, the more so because the two beds are much alike in 

 all respects at many localities. As in Mahoning county, the Homewood 

 sandstone is no longer well marked, and it is represented ordinarily 

 by shale. Whether or not the Tionesta horizon shows any coal in 

 Portage county can not be said, as no detailed sections are given. The 

 Lower Mercer coal bed is reported as occurring at from 150 to 200 feet 

 above the Sharon coal bed. In the southern part of the county, within 

 3 miles of the northwest corner of Stark county, a thin coal bed, unac- 

 companied by limestone, was seen at 20 feet above the Lower Mercer. 

 The conditions in Stark county lead one to believe that this is the Upper 

 Mercer. The Upper Connoquenessing is sometimes conglomerate, but 

 in many places it is shaly, and as a whole it is less persistent than the 

 Lower Connoquenessing, which is apparently the original Massillon of 

 Newberry, though afterwards that term was applied to both divisions. 

 The Quakertown coal bed is thin, but persistent, though at times replaced 

 by the overlying sandstone. The Sharon coal bed is as irregular as in 

 the other counties, though the little basins in which it was deposited are 

 larger than those in Mahoning county.f 



* M. C Read: Ohio Survey, vol. i, 1873, pp. 496, 498, 500, 502. 

 f J. S. Newberry : Vol. iii, pp. 137, 142, 143, 144, 145, 146. 

 M. C Read : Vol. i, pp. 521, 522, for Geauga county. 



