82 J. r. STEVENSON CARBONIFEROUS OF APPALACHIAN BASIN 



the Lower Mercer coal bed varies from 80 to 100 feet, whereas in Stark 

 and Mahoning it is from 130 to 160 feet. The coal bed resting on the 

 Upper Connoquenessing (Massillon) sandstone is not present at all ex- 

 posures, but the Quakertown, though always very thin, is rarely absent. 

 The Connoquenessing (Massillon) sandstones are variable, and a thin 

 coal bed was seen occasionally in the shales of the lower sandstone. 

 The limestones and coals of the Mercer group appear in almost all of 

 the sections, and the lower coal bed is almost as important commer- 

 cially as is the Sharon. It yields a semi-cannel or block coal of good 

 quality. The Upper Mercer is the Strawbridge cannel of Holmes county, 

 with thickness of from 2 to 9 feet. The Tionesta coal bed is of workable 

 thickness only near the Wayne county line, where it is from 3 to 4 feet 

 thick. The Homewood, Tionesta of the later Ohio reports, is largely 

 sandstone at many localities within this county. The whole thickness 

 of Pottsville in the northern part of Holmes county is but 166 feet.* 



A small area of Pottsville remains in Ashland county, west from 

 Holmes, where the Sharon sandstone is represented by 20 feet of shale 

 containing locally 10 feet of conglomerate. In the isolated patches 

 crowning several hills in southeast Richland, just west from the Ashland 

 line, Mr Read discovered the same kind of chert fragments as in the 

 Sharon of Holmes county .f 



Coshocton county is south from Holmes and west from Tuscarawas. 

 Mr Hodge found the Sharon sandstone in the northern part of the 

 county, where it is 2 to 3 feet thick and contains fragments of chert, from 

 one of which he obtained a fine crystal of galenite. The Sharon coal bed 

 is as in the counties already described. Professor Edward Orton, Jr., 

 obtained the following section on the western edge of the county : 



Feet 



1. Putnam Hill limestone and coal bed 



2. Interval 17 



3. Upper Mercer coal bed 



4. Interval 15 



5. Lower Mercer limestone 



6. Lower Mercer coal bed . . 



7. Shales and shaly sandstone 48 



8. Sandstone 50 



to the place of the Sharon coal bed, thus giving for the formation, with 

 all of the members recognizable, only 130 feet. A section obtained in the 

 same township by Mr Hodge gives the interval from the Sharon coal bed 



*M. C. Read : Vol. iii, p. 546. 

 A. A. Wright : Vol. v, pp. 818, 823, 837, 838, .841. 

 t M. C. Read : Vol. iii, pp. 316, 317, 523. 



