94 GEOLOGY OF OHIO. 



well exposed in the cut of the Cleveland and Pittsburgh Railroad, lying 

 for some distance just in the grade. 



About fifty or sixty feet above the Strip Vein, at this point, occurs 

 another seam, which is here thin, but higher up in the valley it attains 

 a thickness of from three to three and a half feet, and is known as the 

 Roger Vein. 



At a variable distance above the Roger Vein — near Yellow Creek 

 Station it is said to vary from sixteen to forty feet — occurs what is known 

 as the Big Vein, in dimensions the most important seam in the valley. 

 At Linton this is from sei^en to seven and a half feet in thickness, the 

 lower four or five inches being cannel, and containing great numbers of 

 fossil fishes and amphibians. The Big Vein is here, as higher up the 

 creek, a typical caking coal, of which the value is somewhat impaired 

 by the quantity of sulphur it contains. 



About sixty feet above the Big Vein — the interval being filled with 

 black and gray shale, sandstone, and a bed of limestone — occurs a coal 

 seam, known here as the Graff Vein, from four to five feet in thickness, of 

 very good quality. Above the GrofF Vein is a great mass of red, gray, 

 and green shales, with some red sandstone, two small seams of coal, and 

 one or more irregular beds of limestone — a characteristic mass of the 

 Barren Measures. 



The coal seams enumerated in the above sketch are supposed to be 

 Nos. 3 (Creek), 4 (Strip), 5 (Roger), 6 (Big), and 7 (Groff) of our lower 

 group of coals. 



Borings made in the valley of the Ohio, below the mouth of Yellow 

 Creek, all seemed to indicate the presence of a thick seam of coal at a 

 distance of eighty or one hundred and forty feet below No. 3; but the re- 

 sult of recent explorations has proved that it consists largely of black 

 shale, and is practically worthless. Whether it represents Coal No. 1 of 

 our series is not yet fully determined, but this seems probable from the 

 fact that no coal has been found below it. 



In passing up the Yellow Creek Valley, the coal seams I have enumera- 

 ted are all opened, and well known at CoUinwood, Hammondsville, Iron- 

 dale, and New Salisbury, and no one of the many miners in the valley 

 questions their identity and connection. To the latter point the dip of 

 the strata nearly coincides with the fall of the stream, the coal beds are 

 all exposed, and with the exception that some diversity is visible in the 

 intervals which separate them, the structure of the valley is uniform 

 and regular. Above New Salisbury, however, the stream rises more rap- 

 idly than the coal seams, and there is here a slight arch in the strata, 

 This carries Coals Nos. 3, 4, and 5 beneath the bottom of the valley, just 



