742 GEOLOGY OF OHIO. 



FT. Df. 



11. Iron ore 6 



12. Soft blue shale 7 



13. Coal 5 6 



14. " Conglomerate rook " followed by alternations of shale aud sandstone to bot- 

 tom. 



A shaft was subsequently sunk to the lower coal and it was found to 

 be largely composed of slate and worthless. This stratum has been 

 found in wells bored at McCoy's Station, and it was supposed to be Coal 

 No. 1.^ Whether it is really the representative of the Massillon coal can- 

 not be determined, although this seems probable from the fact that it 

 holds about the proper position for that seam, and no coal whatever was 

 found below it. If, as reported by the drillers, the well passed through 

 a conglomerate immediately below the coal, this would lend additional 

 probability to this theory. The nearest point to New Cumberland, 

 where the Briar Hill coal has been struck, is at Limaville, forty-five 

 miles north-west. The difference in level between the lower coals of the 

 two localities is about 400 feet ; the coal at Limaville being 409 feet 

 above Lake Erie, while that at New Cumberland is just about the lake 

 level. 



The limestone found beneath the " clay coal," at New Cumberland, is 

 apparently identical with that which holds nearly the same position at 

 Wellsville. It has not been met with in other sections in this region, 

 and would seem to be a local deposit like several of those higher up in 

 the series in difierent parts of Jefferson county. By Professor I. A. 

 White, of the Pennsylvania Geological Survey, this is thought to be 

 identical with the " Ferriferous Limestone " of Rogers. If this is true, 

 there is a great thickening of ;the Lower Coal Measures toward the east, 

 for here this limestone is only about 125 feet above the lowest trace of 

 coal found, and what is, for this region, the base of the series, whereas 

 the Ferriferous Limestone is in Pennsylvania some 300 feet above the 

 Conglomerate. There is very little doubt that the " Creek " and " Strip " 

 veins of southern Columbiana county — which may be traced along the 

 Ohio continuously from Liverpool to Sloan's Station — are identical with 

 Coals Nos. 3 and 4 of the vicinity of New Lisbon, the first two workable 

 coals above the Block coal — (No. 1) at Limaville and vicinity, and with 

 the furnace coal and the next seam below it at Leetonia. That they are 

 identical with Coals Nos. 3 and 4, of the Tuscarawas Valley, cannot be 

 demonstrated, as they have not been, and cannot be traced through the 

 divide, but they hold the same relative position to the Barren Measures, 

 and Coals Nos. 6 and 7 above, and to the base of the Coal Measures below. 



The flow of gas from the New Cumberland well has always been large, 



