BELMONT COUNTY. 



265 



double, being divided midway by a clay parting six inches thick. The 

 only locality at which it appears to be altogether absent is near Sewells- 

 ville, where an exoding current has removed the coal and the whole of 

 the limpstone between it and the Pittsburgh below, replacing them with 

 sandstone. 



The removal of these rocks presents some interesting features. In the 

 greater part of the county the interval between Coal No. 9 and the coal 

 next below is occupied by a massive limestone, varjdng in thickness 

 from forty to seventy feet within Belmont county. West from a line 

 beginning in Harrison county, and reaching Belmont at section 12 of 

 Flushing township, thence passing south of west to section 23 of Kirk- 

 wood township, thence southerly to the National Road, thence irregu- 

 larly southward to the Central Ohio Railroad, passing between Barnes- 

 ville and the Hendrysburg pike, we find the limestone removed, and 

 replaced by sandstone. The following sections illustrate the conditions : 

 No. 1, from Barnesville, Belmont county ; No. 2, from Sewellsville, Bel- 

 mont county ; No. 3, from Moorefield, Harrison county ; No. 4, from Deers- 

 ville, Harrison county ; No. 5, from New Egypt, Belmont county, to show 

 the normal condition. 



A comparison of these sections shows that the limestone of section 5 

 has been removed to be replaced by sandstone. That the entire removal 

 shown in No. 2 was not the work of a single current is shown by No. 1. 

 The first or earlier current exerted its force before the close of the lime- 

 stone-making time, and before the deposition of Coal No. 9. The lime- 

 stone of No. 1 yields a hydraulic cement equal to any manufactured in 

 our country. The upper layer of the limestone in No. 5 possesses hydrau- 

 lic properties where exposed in the eastern townships, as well as in Har- 

 rison county, so that we can not doubt that it is synchronous with that 

 at Barnesville. The force of this earlier current must have been ex- 



