t678 GEOLOGY OF OHIO. 



FIRE-CLAYS. 



The coals and ores here, as in other parts of the field, ordinarily rest 

 iupon fire-clays of varying thickness and quality. At Moxahala, above 

 the Norris coal, is a bed of compact, non-plastic fire-clay about six feet 

 thick, the lower four feet of which appears to be of good quality. It is 

 reported to have been tested in the fire-brick works at Columbus with 

 ■gjood results. 



LOWEK SUNDAY CREEK REGION. 



This division embraces that part of the territory east of Snow Fork, 

 dnd north of the Hocking River, separated from the Moxahala region by 

 (that old channel of excavation or upheaval on the north line of Perry 

 •county. The proprietors of these lands have made systematic explora- 

 tions by boring, and it has been mainly at their expense that the out- 

 line of the want at the north has been located, and the character and 

 position of the Great Vein in this region determined. The valley of 

 :Snow Fork exposes the coal in its normal position, but to the eastward 

 the dip carries it beneath the surface of the lowest valleys, and without 

 these explorations its presence in the greater part of Trimble and Dover 

 townships would be an inference only, rendered very probable by the 

 known facts, but far from a certainty. 



The relations of the rock strata in this territory, so far as they are ex- 

 plored, are indicated by the general section here pictured. The strata 

 below the Great Vein are given only to the depth of recent borings, as 

 the logs of the old salt wells are not accurately preserved, and it is evi- 

 <ient the section does not reach the bottom of the Coal Measures. It 

 covers 537 feet of the Coal Measure rocks, from the top of the hills in 

 the east part of Trimble township, to the bottom of the deepest well 

 drilled for coal. Authentic records of the wells drilled for salt would 

 add four to five hundred feet to the base of the section. 



Commencing at the base of the section, as given, there is a coal two 

 and one-half feet thick at the point explored, which appeared to be a 

 dry, burning coal, of fair quality, but of no present value. It is doubt- 

 less the equivalent of the lower Moxahala seam, which, at the north 

 Teaches a thickness of five feet, and is there a valuable coal. 



