JEPFEftSON COtKTY. ^59 



of the Jefferson Iron Company, if correctly reported, render it probable 

 that the old channel is not much, if any, over one hundred feet in 

 depth. The bottom of the Rolling Mill Shaft is about one hundred and 

 twenty feet below low water mark in the Ohio. From this point par- 

 allel galleries eight yards apart have been driven two thousand two hun- 

 dred and seventy feet in an easterly direction. For the first Sixteen 

 hundred feet the dip was found to be easterly, amounting at the bottom 

 of the basin to twenty-two feet; thence the coal rises five or six feet to 

 the end of the galleries. The deepest point in the workings is therefore 

 about one hundred and forty feet below low water in the Ohio. The 

 coal at the eastern end of the workings is four feet six inches thick. 

 The exact position of the end at the galleries, with reference to the sur- 

 face, was not determined, for they are now filled with water ; but Mr. C. 

 R. Thompson, to whose courtesy we owe the information given above, 

 states that it is beyond the water surface of the present river. Should 

 no deeper channel or excavation be met with, it will be easy to work 

 from the Steubenville side the coal lying under the opposite highlands. 

 As it has been proved by borings that the Steubenville shaft coal ex- 

 tends with undiminished thickness to the western border of the county, 

 and as far south as Rush Run with greatly increased dimensions, it may 

 be said to be demonstrated that a very large area, throughout which the 

 shaft coal is continuous, is laid open and made accessible through the 

 line of shafts now open along the Ohio. 



Near the shaft of the Jefferson Iron Company are two others which 

 present essentially the same features. These are the shafts of the Penn- 

 sylvania and Ohio Coal Company (Averick's), and that of the Cincin- 

 nati Coal and Coke Company (Swift's). Averick's shaft is two hun- 

 dred and four feet deep, the coal four feet in thickness. Part of the pro- 

 duct of the mine is coked. The ovens are of the prevailing fashion in 

 this vicinity, are charged with one hundred bushels of coal, and burned 

 seventy- two hours. The coke weighs forty pounds to the bushel. 



Swift's shaft is two hundred and twenty-om feet to the coal, which is 

 three feet nine inches to four feet in thickness, and of the same excellent 

 quality with that in the neighboring mines. There is a parting of one 

 inch of clay one foot from the bottom. The coal is mostly sent to New- 

 port, Kentucky, and some of it is coked here and at Cincinnati. 



At Mingo Junction the shaft is two hundred and thirty-four feet to 

 the top of the coal. In the vicinity of the shaft the coal is twenty-eight 

 inches in thickness, but the extension of the mine north-westward has 

 shown the coal to increase to three feet, and there is little doubt that it 

 will be found, at no great distance, to reach a thickuess of four feet or 



