HOCKING VALLEY. 649 



For purposes of comparison, the territory may be divided into four 

 separate districts. 



STEAITSVILLE DISTEICT. 



Tiiis comprises the greater part of Salt Lick township, Perry county, 

 embracing the mining villages of Straitsville, New Straitsville and 

 Shawnee, and the territory north and west of them. In these directions 

 from Shawnee, the Great Vein Coal is at first found near the tops of the 

 hills, and at an elevation of about 150 feet above the valleys. Commene- 

 iag at these points, with a varying thickness of from five to seven feet, 

 it becomes thicker to the southwest, and is found lower in the hills, so 

 that in the neighborhood of Shawnee and Straitsville it is from 30 to 50 

 feet above the valleys, and averages about eleven feet in thickness. 



The following section of the coal at Straitsville gives the general char- 

 acter of the seam in this neighborhood : 



Blae shale at top. 



Coal 6 feet 10 inches. 



Shale parti Dg 3ito4 inches. 



Coal 1 foot 8 inches. 



Shale parting 2 to 3 inches. 



Coal 2 feet. 



Fire clay. 



There is but slight variation in the thickness of the difierent benches 

 in the openings around Shawnee and New Straitsville, except where a 

 part of the upper bench is cut away by the sand- rock ab8ve, in the east- 

 ern part of the Shawnee district. A small part of this territory is here 

 afiected by the ancient valley of erosion, which passes down by the little 

 village of Hemlock, and traveling eastward separates the Upper Sunday 

 Creek or Moxahala region, from that of the Lower Sunday Creek, and 

 which will be subsequently described. Near Shawnee, on the east, the 

 erosion sufiiced to cut away the shale overlying the coal acd remove a 

 part of the upper bench of the coal itself, leaving it with an irregular 

 undulating surface, covered by a sandstone roof. When the coal has thus 

 been disturbed it is generally somewhat deteriorated, and contains a 

 larger percentage of sulphur. The roof, also, is not ordinarily evenly 

 bedded, and more care is required in mining. The area of the coal here 

 damaged by this disturbance is quite small, and in all other places it is 

 of great excellence. The two lower benches furnish coal of the greatest 

 purity, compact and homogeneous, containing a small amount of ash and 

 a large amount of fixed carbon. The upper bench is more laminated, has 

 generally a large percentage of ash, and occasional thin bands of ''bone 

 coal." The partings vary in thickness from one to four inches, and ate 



