88 J. J. STEVENSON CARBONIFEROUS OF APPALACHIAN BASIN 



and of excellent quality, at 60 feet above the Logan or 110 to 120 feet 

 below the limestone. This is the Sharon coal bed, and the lower bed is at 

 a new horizon, unknown as coal bearing thus far in our tracing through 

 Pennsylvania, outside of the Anthracite strip, and Ohio; southward it 

 becomes important, though the coal is not always present, having been 

 replaced by the sandstone at many places.* 



According to Professor Orton, the Lower Mercer coal bed is more im- 

 portant in Vinton than elsewhere in Ohio except in Holmes county. 

 Professor Andrews finds a variable coal bed at 4 feet above the Lower 

 Mercer limestone in Elk and Richland townships which probably repre- 

 sents the Upper Mercer horizon. It does not appear in any others of his 

 sections unless that at 18 in Clinton and that at 25 feet in Brown are the 

 same bed. His sections show a fairly persistent bed at 34 to 37 feet 

 above that limestone in Elk and Clinton, and Professor Orton refers to it 

 as occurring in Madison. This is the Newland coal bed which Professor 

 Orton is inclined to assign to the Tionesta horizon, where it certainly 

 belongs, for the Brookville coal bed (of Orton) is present above it. The 

 Lower Mercer limestone persists and at times is 10 feet thick even on the 

 western outcrop.* 



In western Vinton, one approaches once more the western margin of 

 the Upper Carboniferous, for the coarse conglomerate reappears in Rich- 

 land township, where Andrews found the Sharon coal bed at 60 feet 

 above the Logan sandstone. Followed southwestwardly,the conglomer- 

 ate increases rapidly, becoming 130 feet in the northwest corner of Jack- 

 son at a mile or two south from the Vinton line. Thence to the southern 

 border of the county the outcrop trends southwardly and the thickness 

 decreases, becoming only 80 feet in the other western townships. This 

 conglomerate is often ver}^ coarse, with pebbles mostly of white quartz 

 and as large as hens' eggs. The mass changes very quickly toward the 

 east, being replaced in great part by sandstone and shale, and at the 

 same time it becomes thinner. 



The rapidity of this change is shown at one locality, where on one side 

 of a narrow valley the conglomerate is 80 feet thick, whereas on the op- 

 posite side the upper 50 feet is replaced by shales and sandstones with a 

 coal bed at the bottom or at 31 feet above the base of the conglomerate. 

 Professor Orton has shown that in the northwest corner of the count} 7 

 this conglomerate contains coal beds. 



The relation of this conglomerate to the other beds was a source of 



* E. B. Andrews : Report for 1870, pp 96, 97, 99, 100, 101, 102, 105. 



f The reader, who may consult the reports of Professor Andrews for 1809 and 1870, should remem- 

 ber that in those reports the Blue limestone (Lower Mercer) is identified with the Putnam Hill 

 limestone. This error was corrected by Professor Andrews in his later reports published in vol. i of 

 the final volumes. 



