NOBLE COUNTY. 515 



frequent, and the discharge of petroleum is about a barrel a week." 

 During the oil excitement from 1860 to 1865, the history of this well was 

 often quoted in proof of the great value of this district as oil territory. 

 No good wells have as yet been obtained in the neighborhood. 



At South Olive is a small salt furnace, where a small quantity of salt 

 is made from brine obtained from a well three hundred and twenty feet 

 deep. A sample of the brine was obtained and taken to Columbus for 

 analysis, but before the analysis 'could be made the brine had been 

 changed by evaporation and other causes so as to make any exact deter- 

 mination of the original impossible. An analysis of the salt from the 

 Olive works will be found in another part of the report, with other sim- 

 ilar analyses. 



NOBLE TOWNSHIP. 



This township lies east of Brookfield and north of Olive. It is drained 

 by the head-waters of the West Fork of Duck Creek. The fossil iferous 

 limestone, with a thin coal below it, seen in the neighborhood of Cald- 

 well, can be traced along the valley through this township. Near Mr. 

 Jennings's store the following section was taken : 



Ft. In. 



1. Yellow clay shale 15 



2. Dark blue clay shale, with nodules of iron ore 12 



3. Dark blue sandy fossiliferous limestone 4 



4. Coal 1 



5. Clay and clay shale 15 



In the hills west a fossiliferous limestone was seen, which, by barom- 

 eter, is about ninety feet above the coal in the above section. As the 

 Cumberland seam of coal is something more than three hundred feet 

 above the lower limestone, there are probably few hills in the township 

 high enough to contaifl the coal. There may, however, be some ; but no 

 search was made for them. The lower coal is in some places thicker 

 than at Mr. Jennings's, and it has been mined a little for local use. On 

 a branch of Duck Creek, in the western part of the township, there is a 

 local thickening of the seam, reaching, as reported, from four to five feet. 

 Near the Hiramsburg Station, on the land of Mr. Gorby, we find the same 

 fossiliferous limestone seen further south, with a thin coal above it, and 

 some earthy iron ore. The section taken in a cut of the railroad, just 

 above the station, is as follows : 



' Ft. In. 



1. Shales (not measured). 



2. Earthy siderite ore, fossiliferous, from 6 inches to 3 feet. 



3. Clay shale, fossiliferous ° 6 



4. Coal x 4 



5. Clay and shale, not well seen 10 



6. Limestone, fossiliferous and ferruginous 1 6 



(Map XII., No. 26.) 



