HOLMES COUNTY. 555 



but it is in three benches and with many sulphur seams. In other 

 parts of the county it is of a similar character, and generally of less 

 thickness. It is from this coal and the limestone above it, that the 

 farmers of Holmes county are to obtain material for restoring the fertility 

 of their lands and recovering their future productiveness. The coal is 

 usually of sufficient thickness to suffice for burning the limestone which 

 rests upon it, and ranges in thickness from three to six feet. As the coal 

 and limestone can be taken out of the same entry, and both mined with 

 facility, there is no place where quick-lime can be obtained at less ex- 

 pense than here. Properly used, this deposit will add largely to the 

 wealth of the county. This limestone has also been tested as a flux in 

 the smelting furnace, and is well adapted to that purpose. 



The Bennington mine, near Nashville, which I refer to this horizon, 

 but which may probably be No. 6, furnishes an excellent coal, much 

 superior to that from any other opening in the gray limestone seam with 

 which I am acquainted. The seam is generally underlaid by a thick de- 

 posit of fire:clay of good quality, and which has been successfully used 

 in the manufacture of pottery. That from an opening a little east of 

 Millersburg, makes a very strong, smooth ware, and burns to a bright 

 cherry-red. 



Coal No. 5. — From twelve to fifteen feet above No. 4, in a few places in 

 the eastern part of the county, i^ a black limestone from two to three 

 feet thick, with outcrops of this coal below it, and occasionally its hori- 

 zon can be seen where the limestone is wanting. None of the outcrops 

 observed gave promise of valuable coal. 



Coal No. 6. — At a distance ordinarily ranging from forty to fifty feet 

 above the gray limestone, is found Coal No. 6. The interval is some- 

 times very much greater, and in a few places not exceeding twenty feet. 

 It is from this seam that the coals of the county are most widely known, 

 and from which a large part of the coal mined in the county will proba- 

 bly be taken for many years to come. 



At Mr. Saunders's, and the Hardy Coal Company's upper mine, in 

 Hardy township, this coal has been successfully mined for many years. 

 It is here hard, bright, moderately cementing, is an excellent grate and 

 steam coal, and makes a compact coke. It is in three benches, the mid- 

 dle one containing. a much smaller percentage of sulphur than the 

 others, and making a good blacksmith's coal. The peculiar purple color 

 of the ash of the top and middle benches enables one to identify this 

 coal by the debris from the stoves and grates wherever used. At a few 

 place only the ash is light-colored. The seam in this neighborhood, at 

 the Hardy Coal Company's, Mr. Saunders's, Judge Armor's, Johnson's, 



