HOCKING VALLEY. 695 



There is a large amount of good coal in this valley at such an elevation 

 above drainage as to be mined with facility, entries on the west side run- 

 ning up the dip; but there are localities where the coal is of little value, 

 and the extent of these can be determined only by explorations on the 

 horizon of the coal. Westward and southward- the shales appear in their 

 normal position above the coal. In the neighborhood of Bessemer, the 

 coal is six to ten feet thick, with shale above, and of good quality. In 

 the north-west quarter of section 17, on middle branch of Snow Fork, 

 the coal is five feet ten inches thick, of good quality ; but east of this an 

 outcrop was observed, only one and a half feet thick, of sulphury coal, 

 with heavy sand-rock above. Passing over the hills from this point 

 toward Carbon Hill, the shales come in above the coal, which assumes 

 its normal thickness and character. On the east part of fraction 32 an 

 outcrop shows ten feet of coal, whose thickness below the upper parting 

 is eight and a half feet. 



At a new entry driven near Carbon Hill, the following section is 

 shown : 



FT. IN. 



Coal 3 1 



Shale 2 to 3 



Coal 2 4J 



Shale 1 



Coal 1 10 



Showing an increased thickness of the middle bench, and a thinning 

 down of the upper bench, compared with the Straitsville entries. The 

 coal, in its characteristics, does not difiFer materially from that at Straits- 

 ville. 



On approaching the Hocking River the coal becomes thinner, mainly 

 by a reduction of the upper bench, the coal at W. B. Brooks's bank 

 showing the following section: 



FT. IB. 



Coal 2 



Shale 3td4 



Coal r. 2 4 



Shale 1 



Coal 1 7 



Total 6 4 



And at Peter Hayden's bank the following: 



FT. IN. 



Coal 2 4to5 



Shale 3to4 



Coal 2 5 



Shale lto2 



Coal 1 3 



Total 6 4to7 



