STAEK COUNTY. 167 



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of a thin seara of coal above the massive Massillon sandstone, and it is 

 sometimes referred to by the drillers as the "Fifteen-inch seam," but is 

 oftener from six to twelve inches. Though persistent over a large area, 

 it has rarely any economic value, and deserves notice in the report on 

 the geology of Stark county simply as a tolerably constant feature in the 

 section, and one that is liable to be mistaken for the lower coal. The 

 distance which separates it from the Massillon seam is quite inconstant, 

 and varies from sixty to one hundred feet. In another county this seam 

 becomes of workable thickness, and it has therefore been named in our 

 enumeration of the coal seams as Coal No. 2. 



Another thin coal seam is also sometimes found immediately beneath 

 the Massillon sandstone, but this is very frequently cut away by the 

 forces which deposited this rock. It may be seen, however, at several of 

 the quarries in the vicinity of Massillon. At Warthorst & Co.'s quarry 

 the lower surface of the sandstone is very irregular, owing to the erosion 

 of the underlying shale. At the north end of the quarry the junction 

 of the sandstone and shale is well shown, and for a limited distance a 

 thin coal seam is interposed between them. On either side of this ex- 

 posure, however,4he sandstone cuts out the coal and fills deep excava- 

 tions in the shale. In the mine of the German Coal Company, north of 

 the quarries of Warthorst & Co., the sandstone has been found cutting 

 down to and through the coal and forming a "horseback," which has 

 proved a serious impediment to the miners. As explained elsewhere, 

 such "horsebacks" are produced by currents of water which have cut 

 away the soft shale and coal, and have deposited sand — now sandstone — 

 in their places. In the clilf above the Bridgeport mine the thin coal re- 

 ferred to above is exposed, lying between the shale and the Massillon 

 sandstone, and it is generally met with, from one to two feet in thick- 

 ness, in the borings made west of the river. 



Coals Nos. 3 and 4. 



At a distance of from one hundred and fifty to two hundred feet above 

 Coal No. 1 occurs the lowest of the two limestone seams which traverse 

 this, as they do many other of our coal-bearing counties. In Stark county 

 Coal No. 3 is sometimes absent, sometimes has a thickness of a few inches, 

 and rarely becomes of any economic importance. From twenty five to 

 fifty feet above it occurs the second limestone coal. This is well developed 

 in Stark county, and in some cases has considerable value. 



In the subterranean rocky ridge which lies between the valley of the 

 Tuscarawas and the old channel west of Canton, both the limestones re- 

 ferred to, and sometimes both the limestone coals, may be seen, the upper 



