HOCKING VALLEY. 663 



ing the time of the deposit of the coal at the west, in which no coal 

 plants could grow, and into which this ancient water course emptied. 



The territory covered by these borings is a good illustration of the un- 

 certainty of all inferences as to the existence of coal in any territory 

 where its horizon is below the surface of the valleys. This Great Vein, 

 as has been already stated, is remarkably persistent, changing very grad- 

 ually both its character and thickness. North, and west, and south of 

 this territory it was known to be a regular deposit from eleven to thirteen 

 feet in thickness, the line of maximum development passed north and 

 south through the western part of Monroe and Trimble townships cut- 

 ting this territory in the center. Before any of the borings were made, 

 in company with others I made a careful exploration of this territory. 

 All the strata exposed above the lines of drainage were evenly bedded, 

 in their normal relations, the abundance of argillaceous shales denoting 

 a deposition in quiet waters. 'None of us could discover any indication 

 whatever of the deep seated erosion which has rendered a part of this 

 very promising territory quite worthless. 



All the surface indications and the results of the borings point to ero- 

 sion after the coal was deposited as the cause of the absence of the coal. 

 But Mr. Nichols' admirable charts, compiled from a system of levelings 

 carried through the territory, disclose the fact that the coal was never 

 here deposited in its normal thickness. The subsidence immediately 

 preceding the deposition of this coal, left a long ridge protruding into 

 the center of the coal marsh of too great elevation to support a large 

 growth of carbonaceous vegetation, and some of it, perhaps, at all times 

 above the level of the swamp, so that along this channel the coal was 

 originally quite thin, and in places may have been wanting altogether. 

 But the undulating roof of the coal oij the margin where it approaches 

 its normal thickness, and the coarse materials of the sands.tone roof, are 

 BufEcient evidence of the existence of this ancient channel which swept 

 away the most of the thin coal deposited in the shallow parts of the marsh. 



This territory thus isolated from the rest of the Great Vein region, 

 furnishes exposures of nearly all the Lower Coal Measure rocks. The 

 lower coals crop out in the ravines north and west of New Lexington, 

 and passing thence southward the outcrops of the higher strata may be 

 observed up to the shales of the Barren Coal Measures in the tops of the 

 hills south of Moxahala. 



Near New Lexington the Great Vein coal is comparatively thin. It 

 has been mined for some time at Cluny station, wherei it is from four feet 

 to four feet nine inches thick — a good steam and mill coal but not as well 

 adapted to smelting purposes as that found further south. It here takes 



