206 GEOLOGY OF OHIO. 



though followed for more than one hundred feet into the hill. Two miles 

 west from Deersville it is seen near the road leading through Brownsville, 

 and is there barely sixteen inches. In the immediate vicinity of Deers- 

 ville openings have been made by Mr. Irwin and others, but in each case 

 the coal was of poor quality and barely twenty inches thick. The same 

 diflBculty is experienced elsewhere in the township, so that the McMillen 

 coal, notwithstanding its inferior quality, has a high reputation, and is 

 carried even to Tippecanoe, where Coal No. 7 is well developed. 



In Stock township this bed was frequently seen along the Stone Fork 

 of Stillwater. Occasional openings are seen, but the coal is so poor as to 

 discourage all attempts to develop it. Mr. H. B. Lacey, of Laceyville, 

 has run in about one hundred feet without finding any thing but a com- 

 pact, richly bituminous shale, known in the neighborhood as cannel coal. 

 The bed here is badly cut up by horsebacks, and varies from three to six 

 feet in thickness. 



In Monroe township, near Bowerston, an old opening is seen fifty feet 

 above Coal No. 7. This was worked many years ago, but is now deserted, 

 and no observation could be made. The coal is said to be four feet thick. 

 The bed can be traced without difficulty into North township along the 

 roads, and shows a thickness varying from three to eighteen inches. 



The shales above this coal are usually dark colored, and contain iron 

 ore, either as blackband or as nodules. In the south-western townships 

 the ore is disseminated throughout the shale, and deposits of blackband 

 are likely to be found there. In Franklin township the ore is in nodules. 

 At McMillen's bank these are quite numerous, but in hardly sufficient 

 quantity to be of any economical value. In North and Monroe town- 

 ships the ore resting on the coal is well marked, but variable in quality 

 as well as in quantity. At some points it is a rich limonite, at others a 

 blackband, while, again, it is simply nodular ore. It varies in thickness 

 from one to two feet and one-half, and may be reached without difficulty 

 at many points by stripping. The indications are that this will prove 

 to be a valuable deposit, and it is well worthy of extended exploration. 

 Exposures maj-^ be found at several points along the road from New Mar- 

 ket to Bowerston. 



Coal No. 76 is quite as variable as No. 7a, but differs from it in that 

 it is rarely of any value. Near Deersville, in Franklin township, it has 

 been opened by Mr. Cornelius Vickers. It is two feet six inches thick, 

 and without partings of any kind. It is a low-grade cannel, burning 

 with a beautiful flame, giving a strong fire, but leaving so great a bulk of 

 ashes that it is no longer used. In Rumley township it was opened on 

 Mr. T. Lewis's property, near the village of Rumley, and was found only 



