COLUMBIANA COUNTY. 93 



ing a less important development than over the greater part of the 

 county area. 



The general succession of the strata exposed in Columbiana county 

 will be best seen by referring to the engraved sections on Charts Nos. 1 

 and 3 of the series published with Vol. II. 



Fuller details and descriptioas of the local changes which they exhibit 

 will be given in the notices of the different districts, topographical and 

 economic, into which the county may be divided. 



Valley of Yellow Creefc.— No other part of Columbiana county, rich as it 

 is, rivals in mineral resources the valley of Yellow Creek; and, indeed, it 

 is doubtful whether any di^rict in the State of equal extent can boast 

 of a more abundant supply of coal, or that which is more readily accessi- 

 ble. For this reason, and because the structure of the valley has been 

 much misunderstood, I shall venture to give a somewhat detailed de- 

 scription of it, and of the coal seams which constitute its special objects 

 of interest. 



The misapprehension which has existed in regard to the order and 

 equivalence of the strata in the valley of Yellow Creek, has arisen in 

 part from a radical misconception of the system which prevails in our 

 coal jB.eld, and in part from the fact that the extensive mining operations 

 carried on in the valley have been located at several somewhat widely 

 separated points, between which intervals have remained where the con- 

 nection of the strata has not been distinctly traced. 



Coming into the valley of Yellow Creek from that of the Ohio, we find 

 it bounded at its mouth by hills rising to the height of five hundred to 

 six hundred feet, which contain five workable seams of coal. 



Beside these there are several thinner ones, one of which, with a 

 thickness of about one foot, lies near the level of the Ohio, and two 

 others, a few inches in thickness, occur high up in the Barren Measures. 

 Of the larger seams, the lowest is called the Creek Vein, because it lies 

 near the level of Yellow Creek, from Linton up as far as Irondale. This 

 is a caking bituminous coal of moderately good quality, but rather soft, 

 and containing considerable sulphur. From eighteen to thirty feet above 

 this, lies what is called the Stri-p Vein, from the fact that it was formerly 

 worked by stripping ofi' the soil and earth which covered its outcrops. 

 This seam has an average thickness of two and a half feet, and is of great 

 excellence wherever it is opened in the valley. The interval between 

 this coal and the Creek Vein is mainly occupied by black shale, which 

 contains a notable quantity of nodular iron ore; it also contains, in 

 places — as at Linton and New Salisbury — a stratum of limestone three 

 to four feet in thickness. At Yellow Creek Station the Strip Vein is 



