MAHONING COUNTY. 797 



no economic value. Further south it increases in thickness, and is locally 

 worked. Whether this coal is identical with Coal No. 5 of the Yellow 

 Creek Valley and the more western counties, remains to be determined, 

 but it holds about the same position, and it seems probable that we have 

 in southern Mahoning the extreme edge of a coal seam of which the 

 basin lies chiefly south and west. 



THE WHITE LIMESTONE. 



A few feet above Coal No. 5 occurs a thick bed of limestone, which only 

 caps the higher points in the southern part of Mahoning county, but 

 which in Columbiana becomes a continuous sheet, and is a marked fea- 

 ture in the geology. It is from six to eight feet in thickness, generally 

 quite light in color, though sometimes weathering brown, and so deserv- 

 ing the name given it in Stark county of the huff limestone. In local- 

 ities where it has this character it contains an unusual quantity of iron. 

 It is generally destitute of fossils, but where purest, as in many part3 of 

 Columbiana county, forms a nearly white line when burnt, and is largely 

 used and much esteemed for building purposes. In going southward 

 through Mahoning county this limestone is first seen capping the hill 

 between Green Village and Canfield, on the land of Nicholas Goodman. 

 It is seen again about a mile and. one-half east of Franklin Square, and 

 on the highlands, east of Washingtonville, large detailed blocks of it 

 are visible. In Beaver township we have not yet found this upper lime- 

 stone, but on the farms of Andrew Sidner and George Rock, in the south- 

 ern part of Springfield, are outcrops of what seems to be the same bed. 

 On the farms of Messrs. Miller and HofFmeister, in the southern part of 

 Poland, and at the head of the gorge above Lowell, a thick limestone is 

 found which has been generally supposed to be identical with the upper 

 limestone of Green township. It is fully exposed near Lowell, having 

 been largely quarried here for use as a flux in the furnaces of the valley. 

 The fnll thickness of the bed at Lowell is fourteen feet, but only the 

 upper half is worked. The same stratum crops out on the north side of 

 the river, above Lowell, and is there twelve feet thick. 



The identification of the Lowell Limestone with that of Gree-n town- 

 ship, and hence with the White Limestone of Columbiana county, has 

 been questioned by the Pennsylvania Geologists, who claim that the 

 Lowell Limestone is the continuation of the Ferriferous Limestone of 

 Western Pennsylvania, and that the White Limestone of Columbiana 

 county is the Upper Freeport Limestone of Rogers, which lies one hun- 

 dred feet higher. Without more thorough investigation than we have 

 felt justified in giving to this question, it 'cannot be asserted that the 



