COAL FIELDS. 289 



sylvania series. Its place in the series is seventy-five to one hundred 

 feet above the Pittsburgh coal and about 250 to 300 feet above the Crinoi- 

 dal limestone. The outcrops of this seam have been traced in Musk- 

 ingum, Morgan, Guernsey and Noble counties, and are represented in 

 Map No. 9. A few outliers occur in Washington and Monroe counties, 

 which were not reached in our work, but these deficiencies are not 

 important. 



A good account of the Meigs Creek coal in Ohio was prepared by 

 Prof. C. N. Brown for Volume V, of which volume it constitutes Chap- 

 terXI. 



In its best condition, in Muskingum and Morgan counties, the seam 

 shows a thickness of four and a half feet of coal fit for the market. It 

 is, however, split by more or less clay and shale partings. From its 

 maximum thickness it falls to four, three and two feet in the surround- 

 ing territory, as indicated in the report above referred to. 



Its composition as averaged from a sufficient number of samples, is 

 as follows: 



Fixed carbon 44.50 



Volatile matter 40.50 



Ash 11.00 



Sulphur 5.00 



Moisture 3.00 



These figures indicate a coal of comparatively low grade, but it is a 

 welcome fuel, all the same, throughout a large district that is more con- 

 veniently supplied by it than by any other seam. 



The identification made in Volume V, of the coal formerly mined in 

 the large way at Macksburg, Noble county, with the Meigs Creek, or 

 Sewickley seam, has been called in question by some geologists, who are 

 disposed to place the Macksburg coal higher in the series and to count it 

 the probable equivalent of the Waynesburgh coal of Pennsylvania. But 

 a review of all the available facts made by Professor Brown with refer- 

 ence to the present report, leaves him confident, that his original refer- 

 ence is the correct one. The facts of its occurrence and composition are 

 in harmony with this reference. 



In the higher strata of Belmont and Monroe counties, there are oc- 

 casionally found coal seams thick enough to justify mining in the small 

 way. It is probable that if full knowledge of the stratigraphical facts 

 were in hand, all these cases would fall under one or another of the 

 seams already named in our general list. But in default of such knowl- 

 edge, no exact reference is possible. 



* At a little hamlet called Mechanicsburg, twelve miles south of Woods- 

 field, Monroe county, a four-foot seam of coal has long been known and 

 worked in the deep valley of one of the tributaries of the Little Musk- 

 ingum. The seam has not been followed in any direction outside of the 

 valley in which its outcrops occur. Some of the facts of its occurrence 

 give it a decidedly sporadic look. But, on the other hand, it may prove 

 19 O O. 



