JEFFERSON COUNTY. 729 



much of the fuel used in the manufacture of salt, which was carried on 

 there many years since. 



Beneath Coal No. 3 is a heavy bed of fire-clay, which is used for tht> 

 manufacture of fire-brick, pottery, terracotta, etc., at many places along 

 the Ohio, in the counties of Columbiana and Jefferson. From its associa- 

 tion with this important bed of clay, No. 3 is sometimes called the "Clay 

 Coal." 



As has been mentioned on a preceding page, thin seams of coal occur 

 below Coal No. 3, in the northern part of Jefierson county. These have 

 been reached by borings in many places, and according to the reports of 

 the drillers, a bed of coal of workable thickness was reported to exist 

 below the bed of the Ohio at McCoy's, Sloan's Station, and New Cumber- 

 land. Shafts were sunk to reach this at the latter two localities, when 

 it was found to consist largely of black shale and to be practically worth- 

 less. Whether this is the representative of Coal No. 1— the Massillon 

 seam — is not known, but if so, it has in this part of the State so degen- 

 erated in character as to have no value. 



From the Pennsylvania line to Brown's station Coals No. 3 and 4 are 

 found nearly at the same .relative levels, and lying so near together and 

 to the railroad, they constitute a marked horizon which may be followed 

 without much difficulty. Their identification is also rendered more 

 easy by the heavy beds of clay under Coal No. 3, and the black shales, 

 with iron ore, which are associated with them. Neither seam is abso- 

 lutely continuous throughout this interval, for one or the other is want- 

 ing in several localities, but the group of strata of which they form part 

 can be recognized at all intermediate points, and found a convenient and 

 reliable base from which the local sections can be studied. South of 

 Brown's Station these coals go under the river, and have not been cer- 



inly identified further south. We may, infer, however, that the low- 

 est coal met with in the McElroy and Yocum wells, at the mouth of 

 Will's creek, at ninety-five and ninety-two feet below the "shaft coal," 

 is one of these, probably No. 4. The coal found in the borings at Mingo, 

 one hundred and thirty feet below the "shaft coal," and in the oil well 

 one mile below Mingo, at one hundred and forty-seven feet below the 

 "shaft coal," may be supposed to be Coal No. 3. In a boring made on 

 Cross Creek, West Virginia, this same coal was struck at one hundred 

 and twenty-nine feet below the Steubenville coal. In all these, and 

 many other borings made in the central part of the county, no lower 

 workable coal is found. 



LOCAL GEOLOGY. 



On the preceding pages a brief review has been given of the surface 

 features, and the general geological structure of Jefierson county. The 



