STAEK COUNTY. 167 



trial, it has proved to be one of the most serviceable coals found in the 

 State. In Stark county it is somewhat more bituminous than the coal 

 of the same seam in the Mahoning Valley, but it is more like it in com- 

 position than its appearance would indicate. The Massillon coal is 

 well adapted to a great variety of uses. It is successfully employed in 

 the smelting of iron in blast furnaces, and is there used in the raw state. 

 It is also a good rolling-mill coal, serves an excellent purpose for the 

 generation of steam, would do well for the manufacture of gas, and is 

 the most highly esteemed household fuel in all the districts where it is 

 used. This combination of excellences makes it a special favorite in the 

 markets of the lake ports, and maintains for it an active demand. 



The Massillon coal seam, being generally cut by the valley of the Tus- 

 carawas, forms a great number of outcrops in the western part of the 

 county, and in that region more than a hundred mines are opened into 

 it. As the dip of all the rocks in the county is south-east, it passes out 

 of sight east of the Tuscarawas Valley, and along the eastern margin of 

 the county it is at least two hundred feet below the surface. It will thus 

 be seen that it ought to underlie nearly all the county, but it unfortu- 

 nately happens that here, as in Summit and Mahoning, this coal lies in 

 limited basins, and is absent from a larger part of the territory where it 

 belongs. It is, therefore, of much less practical value than it was sup- 

 posed to be before the irregularity of its distribution was ascertained. 

 Nevertheless, the most important question connected with the geol- 

 ogy of Stark county is that of the presence or absence of the Massil- 

 lon coal in the townships east of those in which it is mined. Unfortu- 

 nately, but little light has been thrown upon this subject by any explo- 

 rations yet made, and from the peculiar character of this coal seam it is 

 quite impossible to predict with any certainty what will be the result of 

 a systematic search for it where it lies deeply buried. 



Between the valley of the Tuscarawas and the western margin of the 

 coal area in Wayne county numerous outcrops of the Massillon coal have 

 been found, a number of important basins have been opened, and now 

 many thousand tons are annually mined in this district. It is true, 

 however, that even here, where this coal appears to be most uniform in 

 its distribution, more than half of the territory which should contain it 

 is barren, and a very large number of borings made for it have been un- 

 successful. 



East of the Tuscarawas Valley the geological structure is obscured, as 

 I have mentioned, by heavy masses of drift, and Coal No. 1 has not been 

 mined or found to any extent on that side of the river. Near Millport, 

 however, and still further north, and east around Mud Brook church, im- 



