284 GEOLOGY OF OHIO 



As this great seam is followed across the Ohio river into Ohio, two dis- 

 tinct and important areas of it are brought to our view, the first of them, 

 in eastern Ohio, occupying southern Jefferson, eastern Harrison, Bel- 

 mont and probably the northeastern corner of Monroe county. Its 

 approximate western boundary may be indicated, according to present 

 knowledge, by a line drawn from the southwestern angle of Belmont 

 county, to New Martinsville, West Virginia. The Pittsburgh seam has 

 very little value west of this line as a deposit continued from the east. 

 The second division is found to the south and west of the first. It 

 occupies in valuable condition, all or most of Meigs county, the eastern 

 half of Athens and a very small portion of Morgan county on its southern 

 border, and possibly the southwestern corner of Washington county. 

 The first of these divisions may be called the eastern Ohio field; the sec- 

 ond, the southern Ohio field. Between the two, as now appears, a 

 great "want," or break in the continuity of the seam is found. It 

 shows itself in a progressive reduction of the seam, the roof coal dis- 

 appearing first and the Pittsburg sandstone being let down directly on 

 the coal. The close association of a sandstone with a coal seam shows 

 itself here in the usual way, viz. : the sandstone cuts into the coal, reduc- 

 ing its thickness and lowering its quality. In the center of the want, as 

 for example, in the Duck Creek valley in Noble county, there is nothing 

 but a fire-clay and a black mark to represent the great coal seam. Its 

 absence can be explained either by erosion after its regular formation or 

 by the failure of appropriate conditions for its original growth. Both 

 explanations are doubtless required for different portions of the area in 

 which the Pittsburg coal is due, as far as geological horizon is concerned, 

 but not present. This "want" occupies Muskingum, Guernsey, Morgan, 

 Noble and probably the northeastern half and the southwestern half of 

 Washington and of Monroe counties, respectively. Its axis or central 

 line extends in a southeasternly direction apparently on a line connect- 

 ing Cambridge and St. Mary, West Virginia, or Newport, Ohio. The 

 breath of the area from which the coal is missing, measured at right 

 angles to the axis, is found to be approximately forty miles. For the 

 southwestern boundry of the "want" a line drawn from McConnelville to 

 Parkersburg, West Virginia, can be taken as agreeing best with the facts 

 now known. At least to the east of this boundary, very little coal of the 

 Pittsburg seam is known to exist until the eastern field is again reached. 

 Each of these subdivisions will be briefly characterized. 



(a) The Eastern Ohio Division of the Pittsburgh Coal Seam. The 

 seam enters Ohio from Hancock and Brooke counties, West Vir- 

 ginia. Its most northerly outcrops in this state are found in the 

 highest river hills of Jefferson county, a few miles above Steubenville. As 

 it is followed southwestward, it takes heavier cover and finally extends in 

 unbroken continuity into the adjacent counties of Harrison and Belmont. 

 Its dip is to the south and east, but the exact direction and the amount 



