48 F a . REPORT OF PROORE8S. E. W. CLAYPOLE. 



chiefly in roadside cuttings in the western part of the county, 

 where the edges of the beds alone are exposed and the chance 

 of tinding fossils is much diminished 



The Block Ore and Iron Sandstone. 



A remarkable bed of very hard red sandstone occurs along 

 the whole Clinton outcrop in Perry county. It is never mas- 

 sive, seldom measuring more than 10-20 feet, and composed 

 of thin slabs two to three inches thick, but its power of re- 

 sisting the weather is remarkable. Years of exposure seem 

 to have no other effect than that of rounding off the corners 

 and dissolving or removing any soft or decomposable ma- 

 terial that it may contain. A consequence of this dura- 

 bility is that, though only in most places a thin bed, its 

 slabs cover large areas on the hillsides, and seriously inter- 

 fere with agriculture on what is otherwise good soil. 



Five or ten feet thick in the northeast of the county, it 

 increases to the southwest, and in Madison township meas- 

 ures at least 20 feet. Further south I have had no oppor- 

 tunity of obtaining its exact thickness ; but in the Blue 

 mountain near Landisburg it probably exceeds 20 feet. 



The lower portion of the Iron sandstone is the hard, fossil 

 block ore of the northeast of Perry county. It is about 21 

 feet thick and of good quality, but is nowhere worked at 

 present, nor exposed, so far as I am aware except near Mil- 

 lerstown. It does not extend over the county. I have found 

 no trace of it in the southwest where the Iron sandstone is 

 best displayed. 



The Clinton Upper Shale. 



This shale, like that below it, is only well exposed in the 

 west of the county, where it contains more limestone than 

 in the east, but the ore is absent. A good section through 

 these beds is shown where the road crosses the Little Illi- 

 nois valley and Brown's run ; of this section, an account will 

 be found in (he report on Toboyne township. It proves the 

 absence of the ore beds very conclusively. 



The fossil ore of this shale, like that below it, lies under a 

 thin bed of lion sandstone. It is about out 1 foot thick and 

 has been opened near Millerstown, but to very small extent. 



