TUSCARAWAS COUNTY. 55 



previously published reports, that this lower seam is very irregular in 

 its distribution, and though of preeminent value when present in good 

 thickness, even in the districts where it shows its best, comparatively 

 little of the territory holds it. It every where lies in limited basins, 

 separated by broad intervals of barren ground. Hence the explorations 

 which have been carried deep enough to reach it in Tuscarawas county 

 can not be said to have decided the question whether or not it should be 

 reckoned as one of the possible sources of wealth. Only seven borings 

 are known to me that have been sunk deep enough to reach the Lower 

 Coal; these are, two at Uhrichsville, four near Dover, and one at Scott's 

 Mill, below Mineral Point. Most of these borings were made for the 

 purpose of obtaining petroleum, and such explorations have usually but 

 little value for determining the presence or thickness of underlying coal 

 seams. The borings made at Uhrichsville and Dover were, however, 

 supervised with much more than ordinary care, and the registers of these 

 wells seem to afibrd reliable information wit!i regard to the strata under- 

 lying the localities where they were made. If these records are to be 

 accepted as correct, it must be confessed thai they do not give a very en- 

 couraging prospect for finding the Massillon coal of workable thickness ; 

 and yet such is the irregularity of this seam that if only seven wells had 

 been sunk in the districts which are now producing such great quantity 

 of this coal — about Massillon and in the Mahoning valley — the probabil- 

 ities are that the enormous subterranean wealth of these districts would 

 have been to the present time entirely undeveloped. I would suggest, 

 therefore, to those who are favorably situated for such enterprises in 

 Tuscarawas county, that it may be worth while to make further search 

 for Coal No. 1, especially in districts remote from the wells that have 

 been already sunk — for example, in the valley of the Conotton, near 

 New Cumberland, above and below ©eardoff 's Mill, on Sugar Creek, at 

 Trenton, and at Port Washington. In all these localities the place of the 

 Massillon coal lies within two hundred feet of the surface, and where 

 machinery is in action for other purposes, a drill may sometimes be at' 

 tached and carried down two or three hundred feet at a trivial expense- 

 Where this is not practicable, the services of experienced drillers can 

 secured, and a hole bored to a depth of two hundred feet at a cost of 

 about three hundred dollars. While not disposed to encourage too confi- 

 dent expectations of success in such an enterprise, the probabilities are 

 so strong that some portions of Tuscarawas county are underlain by 

 basins of this excellent coal, that I feel justified in recommending that 

 those who have the means to do so will do well to pursue their explora- 

 tions until this question shall be definitely settled. 



