BELMONT COUNTY. 285 



foot thick, is always somewhat inferior, and generally contains a thin 

 band of pyrites, together with many nodules of the same. 



Near where the old plank road leading from Wheeling to Mt. Pleasant 

 crosses Little Short Creek, we find exposures above Coal No. 8 which are 

 of some interest. We find there Coals Nos. 8a and 8c, but Coals Nos. 8b 

 and 9 have disappeared, though their associated rocks are all present. 



Pultney Toivnship.— The openings in Coal No. 8 are quite numerous in 

 this township, but for the most part those in operation lie south from the 

 railroad. Near Neff's Siding we find Kidd's mines, where much coal is 

 extracted. Here the bed is slightly faulted in two places — in one, eighteen 

 inches, and in the other, three feet. At three hundred feet from the en- 

 trance it is crossed east and west by a "clay vein " six feet thick, which 

 is struck again in a breasting three hundred and twenty-five feet from 

 the main entrj'. The coal is from five to eight feet thick, and roofed by 

 badly slickensided fire-clay, which is apt to fall. The roof-coal is thin. 

 At the bottom there is a layer of cannel four inches thick, crowded with 

 crushed specimens of Pleurophorus. 



The coal is dry and quite clean, containing little s^ulphur. It is a good 

 gas coal, burns freely, but does not yield a good coke, and in portions is 

 apt to clinker. An analysis of this coal shows it to consist of — 



Free carbon 61.525 



Volatile comljuslible matter 37.280 



Aslies 1.655 



Coke 65.180 



I 



At Franklin the same coal is worked at the Stewart, Ball & Meehan 

 mine. Here the average thickness is five feet ten inches. On top is a 

 three-inch layer of cannel, which is not persistent. The coal is very good, 

 and finds a ready market at from five to six cents per bushel. 



SUMMARY. 



Coal. — In this countj'- there are three seams of coal of economical im- 

 portance. Coal No. 10 is a^ thick bed, finely exposed in Warren, Goshen, 

 Union, and Flushing townships. Coal No. 8c is of value along the Cen- 

 tral Ohio Railroad, from the river to where it disappears under the hill, 

 about eleven miles along the railroad, while Coal Nd. 8 is available in 

 nearly every township within the northern portion of the county. The 

 amount of coal thus exposed is almost incredible. 



Along Wheeling Creek, for nineteen miles from the river, the Pitts- 

 burgh (No 8) coal lies above wa,ter-level, and its average thickness is 

 more than five feet. Throughout this distance it is readily accessible on 

 both sides of the creek for a mile or more, and the ravines, except in the 



