758 GEOLOGf OP OHIO. 



This indicates a quality superior to that of the Connellsville coke, in 

 which there is usually 1 per cent, of sulphur, and 10 to 14 per cent, of 

 ash. 



Eight or ten inches above the top of the coal, in this mine, is a band 

 of impure coal six inches thick, containing roots of stigmaria. At a dis- 

 tance of twelve hundred feet from the shaft it joins the main seam, but 

 separates from it again thirty feet further on. 



At the Jefiferson Iron Works (Spaulding, Woodward & Co.), the shaft 

 is said by Mr. C. R. Thomson, superintendent of the mine, to be one hun- 

 dred and eighty-seven feet seven inches to the coal. The coal is three 

 feet eight inches in thickness, with a parting eight to nine inches from 

 the bottom. At the time the examination was made, ninety-five hands, 

 miners and putters, were employed inside the mine. Most of the coal 

 raised was consumed in the extensive iron works of the proprietors. 

 The fuel used in the furnaces is coke, one hundred and twenty ovens 

 being in operation to produce it. These are circulars ten and a half feet 

 in diameter, with thirty-six-inch spring of arch above wall, five and a 

 half feet deep in clear under the ring. Charge : seventy-five bushels of 

 coal, drawn after forty-eight hours burning, and yielding ninety-five 

 bushels of coke. In the furnaces ninety bushels of coke are consumed 

 to manufacture a ton of iron. 



In the mine of the Jefferson Iron Company an e£fort has been made to 

 drive galleries under the Ohio to reach coal lands on the other side. 

 This has not been fully accomplished, but, in the judgment of the pro- 

 prietors, all difficulties have been overcome, and no obstacles oppose the 

 extension of their works as far eastward as may be deemed advisable. 

 It should be said, however, that until the low lands on the east side of 

 the river shall have been passed, it will not be demonstrated that no 

 old channel exists deep enough to cut out the coal. It has been sup- 

 posed that the old channel was here not less than one hundred and fifty 

 feet deep, since the channels of some of the tributaries of the Ohio at 

 points above Steubenville have been found cut to about that depth below 

 the present streams ; but the surface where these deep channels are 

 known to occur is very much higher than at Steubenville, and conse- 

 quently free drainage would be afforded to the tributaries above, even if 

 the buried channel of the Ohio was not more than one hundred feet 

 deep. At and below Cincinnati, borings have shown that the old chan- 

 nel is at least one hundred feet deep. This, taken in connection with 

 the borings made on the Upper Allegheny and Beaver, have led to the 

 inference that the old channel was from one hundred to one hundred 

 and fifty feet deep at Steubenville, but the facts presented by the mine 



