WAYNE COUNTY. 83 



rock in many places in the southern part of the county. The undula- 

 tions of the surface often take the form of loug ridges from thirty to 

 forty feet in bight, with a direction nearly parallel with the courses of 

 the streams. These ridges usually have a nucleus of sandstone or 

 shale, but their sides are so gently sloping and the drift clays cover 

 them so evenly, that the bed rock is seldom exposed to view. The 

 streams are sluggish and meander through wide, flat valleys, seldom 

 showing any outcrop of the bed rock along their courses. This renders 

 the construction of continuous sections very difficult, and the determin- 

 ation of the true sequence of the strata can only be made in a general 

 way, by the examination of isolated outcrops. 



Coal Measures. 



At the iron bridge on the Little Wabash, on the stage road from 

 Fairfield to Albion, the following section is, to be seen on the east bank 

 of the stream : 



Feet- 



Sandstone, partly in regular beds, and partly massive 25 



Pebbly conglomerate, with fragments of coal and mineral charcoal 2 to 4 



Black laminated shale, with concretions of bituminous limestone 3 



Dove-colored clay shale, with fossil ferns 2 to 3 



Shaly sandstone, appearing some distance below 3 to 4 



No fossils were found here that would enable me- to fix the horizon 

 of these beds, but they presented nearly the same lithological charac- 

 ters as the outcrop at Hamicker's old mill on the Bonpass, in Edwards 

 county. At Beech Bluff, three or four miles above the bridge, the sand- 

 stone is more massive, and extends to the river level, showing no out- 

 crop of the underlaying beds. 



At Massillon, on the west bank of the Little Wabash, on the N. W. 

 qr. of sec. 15, T. 1 S., E. 9 E., the bluff is composed mainly of sand- 

 stone and sandy shale, with a few feet of argillaceous shales near the 

 river level containing several bands of clay iron ore. This outcrop 

 seems to be identical with that at the old ford three miles above in 

 Edwards county, and it is quite probable the thin coal found there is 

 here a little below the river bed. A thin coal is found here in the 

 sandstone soi e twenty feet or more above the river level ; but it is 

 probably only a local deposit or " pocket," such as may be frequently 

 met with in the sandstones of the Coal Measures. 



Mill Shoals is situated on the Skillet Fork, just over the line in White 

 county, but the section made in this vicinity is partly in Wayne, and i -s 

 as follows : 



Feet. 



Sandstone in tbin beds — partial exposure of about 6 



Bituminous shale, with streak of impure coal near the top 2£ to 3 



Sandstone and sandy shale 40 to 50 



