266 GEOLOGY OF OHIO. 



erted irregularly, for at Deersville it removed both limestone and shale 

 without touching the coal below ; at Moorefield it spared the lower por- 

 tion of the limestone ; while at Sewellsville and Barnesville it removed 

 every thing above the lower division of Coal No. 8, and trenched that 

 deeply from these points westward to the final outcrop. The second cur- 

 rent did not exist until after the formation of Coal No. 9, and seems to 

 have acted more energetically at the north than at the south. At Barnes- 

 ville it spared the coal and its underlying limestone, while northward 

 both have been removed. The two currents must have been due to sim- 

 ilar causes, as their courses coincide. 



Coal No. 8c is found only in the eastern portion of the county, and is 

 known locally as the Glenco coal, having been worked somewhat exten- 

 sively near Glenco, on the Central Ohio Railroad. Northward from the 

 railroad it diminishes in thickness, but is easily traced to its final disap- 

 pearance in Jefferson county. On the Virginia side it is frequently ex- 

 posedifrom the Bellair bridge northward to Wheeling, beyond which it 

 thins out. In Belmont county it is locally of some importance. 



Coals Nos. 8b and 8a are of no importance, and thin out westward, dis- 

 appearing entirelyat less than fifteen miles west from the Ohio within 

 the county. The limestones between these beds and Coal No. 8 are co- 

 extensive with Coal No. 8c. 



Coal No. 8, the " Pittsburgh," is the important bed of the county. It 

 is opened at many places along the Ohio River;' is exposed and worked 

 for eight miles along the Central Ohio Railroad; is readily accessible for 

 nearly twenty miles along Wheeling Creek, in the runs on each side of 

 the creek, and at many localities west from the divide running through 

 the middle of the county. It is mined in Pultney, Pease, Colerain, Rich- 

 land, Wheeling, Flushing, Kirk wood, and Warren townships. In the 

 greater portion of the county it is overlaid by limestone, and shows the 

 characteristic double bedding. Where 'overlaid by sandstone, in the 

 western townships, only the main or lower division remains. In many 

 openings one may see that the eroding current has torn away not only 

 the upper divisions, but has made deep trenches in the main coal, which 

 are now filled with great "horsebacks " of sandstone, which have a rudely' 

 east of north and west of south trend. Where clay seams and horsebacks 

 occur in the eastern townships the trend is in the same direction. The 

 general anatomy of the main or lower division seems to be the same 

 throughout the county. About ten inches from the top there is a band 

 of pyrites varying from one-half inch to two inches in thickness; in the 

 middle there are two slate partings, pyritous, each about one inch thick, 

 and separated by about three inches of coal, while at a distance of eight 



