MORROW COUNTY. 271 



and gas for which it is noted both in Ohio and Virginia, as well as in 

 Pennsylvania. There are no productive oil or gas wells in Morrow 

 county, but there is much reason to suppose the formation which supplies 

 them in other places is equally charged with these mineral products in 

 this county. Many copious gas jets have been struck in the area of the 

 slate in digging common wells. In one case, near West Liberty, the dis- 

 charge was so sudden and so great that the laborers were greatly in 

 danger of suffocation. An associate who descended thoughtlessly to aid 

 those overpowered lost his life. A passing stranger being summoned, he 

 in like manner was overcome, and died before he could be rescued. 

 Those who were in the well in the first place were finally raised and 

 resuscitated. Other similar gas streams have been encountered in other 

 parts of the slate area. Sometimes the water in wells shows a constant 

 slow escape through it of gas in the form of bubbles, indicating a con- 

 tinuous discharge of this substance from the black slate throughout the 

 Drift. This subject has been fully discussed by Dr. Newberry in the first 

 volume of the final report. 



The chief material resource of Morrow county lies in the rich and 

 varied soil with which it is furnished. It is necessarily an agricultural 

 county, rather than a mining or manufacturing county. It partakes 

 largely of the prominent features that are common to the most of north- 

 western and northern Ohio, yet it has not that flatness of surface and 

 sameness of agricultural capacity witnessed in the counties included in 

 the "lacustrine area," or even in those of the extensive tract in north- 

 western Ohio known as the Black Swamp. It is just south of the great 

 watershed, or rather lies on its broad summit, just far enough south to 

 have a slow drainage into the Ohio river. Its soil depends almost en- 

 tirely on the northern Drift, and not on the character of the underlying 

 rock. 



