882 GEOLOGY OF OHIO. 



est. In the great future struggle these ores will be the blackband ores* 

 and the usual Coal Measure llmonites, as factors in the competition. 

 Fortunately Ohio is well supplied with both classes of ore, and it is be- 

 lieved that mineral fuel now known to exist, or yet to be found, will 

 make it poa-'ble for Ohio to supply the West wiih all the foundry iron 

 it will need. If to this statement we add what appears to me to be 

 among the certainties of the future, that to the cheap and abundant 

 coal of Ohio no inconsiderable part of the rich ores for steel making will 

 be brought to be smelted, the State may well be congratulated on its 

 vast mineral resources, and the great industries of which they will form 

 the basis. 



Drift. — The Drift formation is found abundantly in all the regions 

 drained by the upper waters of the Hocking River, in Perry and Fairfield 

 counties. In the valleys wells have revealed the blue bowlder clay, in 

 which buried wood is often found. Gravel and bowlders are everywhere 

 to be seen, even on the highest lands. Most of the bowlders are granites, 

 quartzites, etc., but sometimes fossiliferous limestones aie met with. Mr. 

 Hyde, of Rushville, has obtained many interesting paleeozoic fossils from 

 the Drift in that neighborhood. Recently, Mr. Silas Courtright has 

 shown me, in the northwestern part of Fairfield county, striated rock 

 surfaces in the Waverly sandstone, where the striag are very distinct. 

 The more usual direction of the strise is S. 62^° E. 



* Since flie foregoiDg was written, I have pnblished a private report to the Preaident 

 of the Cleveland, Canton, Coshocton & Slraitsville R. R. Co , in which I have authen- 

 ticated very large deposits of blackband ore over Coal No. 5, situated on the upper 

 waters of Sugar Creek (south branch), in Tuscarawas and Holmes counties. This ore 

 is directly on the line of the railroad from Cleveland to the Upper Sunday Creek Valley, 

 and mubt in the future be smelted by the fine fuel from that valley. 



