PIKE COUNTY. 625 



the facts stated above, there was not good geological ground for expect- 

 ing success. 



A well sunk to the same horizon in the village of Buchanan, or Peepee, 

 for the purpose of supplying the engine of a saw-mill with water, yielded, 

 when first opened, a barrel of oil, but the supply did not prove perma- 

 nent. 



The formation extends almost to the western edge of the county, its 

 extreme outcrop being found at the summits of Shepherd's Mountain, 

 Perry township, and of Renoe's Mountain, Mifflin township; while in 

 Jackson township its easternmost exposures are within three or four 

 miles of the eastern line of the county. It is found at the level of the 

 river, on Joseph Foster's farm, opposite Sharonville, where it contains, 

 abundant and very interesting remains of fossil fishes. The Waverly 

 black slate furnishes an admirable guide to the geology of the county, 

 contrasting sharply, as it does, in lithological characteristics, with the 

 beds above and below, and admitting of easy and certain recognition. 

 It makes a plane of division in the Waverly series that has been turned 

 to account in the determination of the total thickness of the series. On 

 the western side of the river numerous sections furnish every facility for 

 measuring the interval between the Huron shales and the Waverly black 

 slate, and at the point last named, viz., the farm of Joseph Foster' Esq., 

 opposite Sharonville, it lies at the level of the river, and within three or 

 four miles the westernmost coal seam is reached. The whole interval is 

 exposed to view in numberless sections, some of them in perpendicular 

 walls of seventy-five to one hundred feet. 



The extreme elevation of the base of the Waverly slate above the 

 summit of the great black slate is, as will be seen by a combination of 

 measurements already given, one hundred and twenty-two feet ; but for 

 the greater number of instances this maximum must be reduced by five 

 or ten feet. The coal seam of Jackson township has an absolute eleva- 

 tion of three hundred and eighty-five to four hundred feet above the 

 black slate of the Waverly. The element of dip, however, supervenes, 

 and a full discussion of the thickness of the Waverly series in Pike 

 county will be reserved until the constitution of the series has been 

 more extensively described. 



The geological interest of this stratum lies largely in the clear proof 

 that it furnishes of a sudden and considerable subsidence of the sea bot- 

 tom after the Waverly quarry courses had been deposited. These latter 

 beds were formed in shallow water, as is attested by the numerous indi- 

 cations to which attention has been already called; but the finely divided 

 and uniform materials that compose the slate contain an abundance of 

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