NORTHERN AND WESTERN OUTCROP IN OHIO 89 



perplexity and the conclusions to which the several observers arrived 

 were not wholly in accord. The condition beginning in southern 

 Vinton and becoming so marked in Jackson is of such interest, in view 

 of the further development of this portion of the section in more south- 

 ern localities, that it is necessary to examine it with a degree of detail 

 which may appear extreme. 



Professor Andrews has shown that the Lower Mercer limestone is 

 persistent, and Professor Orton has shown in addition that the Upper 

 Mercer horizon may be followed easily by means of its ore bed (the 

 Franklin or Dunkel Block) even where the limestone is absent. 



Professor Andrews says that in the southwest portion of Washington 

 township, within 2 miles of the Pike county line, a coal bed 3 feet 2 

 inches thick is present at 120 to 125 feet below the Blue or Lower 

 Mercer limestone, with the intervening rocks concealed, but at a little 

 way south a coal bed was seen at 70 feet below the limestone. These 

 are the Sharon and Quakertown beds of Vinton. The lower bed, the 

 Sharon, is known as the Wellston coal. At 3 miles from the last 

 locality he finds a third bed at 36 feet below the Wellston, the three 

 beds being exposed in the hillside. The interval between the Wellston 

 (Sharon) and the lower coal bed is filled in great part by coarse sand- 

 stone and conglomerate. This lowest bed is composed of laminated 

 coal like that obtained from the shaft bed at Jackson, and rests on the 

 irregular surface of a heavy white pebbly sandstone at 97 feet below the 

 highest coal bed, and therefore at about 167 feet below the Lower 

 Mercer limestone. In this (Lick) township, the middle coal bed, 

 Sharon-Wellston, is exposed at 125 feet below the Blue limestone, 

 while near by an exposure shows coals at 45 to SOjfeet below the nearest 

 exposure of the limestone; and at a little way south the bottom coal 

 bed is seen again, resting on a massive white sandstone at least 40 feet 

 thick. The least interval between the Blue (Lower Mercer) limestone 

 and the Wellston coal is in the northeast part of the county, where it is 

 113 feet. 



At Jackson, 8 miles south from the Vinton line and at an equal dis- 

 tance east from the Pike line, the lowest coal bed is reached by a shaft 

 and is known as the " Jackson Shaft coal bed." Its floor is very undu- 

 lating ; in one part of the mine it dips 30 feet within a few rods. Pro- 

 fessor Orton finds this shaft bed at 142 feet below the Lower Mercer 

 limestone in a boring about a mile east of Jackson.* 



The facts observed in Vinton and Jackson counties leave no room for 



*E. B. Andrews : Report for 1870, pp. 127, 132, 145, 148. 

 E. Orton : Vol. iii, p. 912 ; vol. v, pp. 1009, 1010, 1032. 



