108 F\ REPORT OF PROGRESS. E. W. CLAYPOLE. 



ferior quality, absolutely worthless as a coal bed. It 

 pitched, moreover, almost vertically down into the ground, 

 so that to follow it would be difficult and expensive. These 

 shales lie far below all the other rocks of the county ; 

 about four miles deep in the Cove. 



The next rock in age in the county is the gray shale-slate, 

 also found in the Horse valley ; and following this comes 

 the heavy sandstones of the Tuscarora and other mountain 

 ranges. In neither of these lias any sign of coal been 

 seen in Perry connty, so far as I am aware. The same is 

 true of the great red shales of the western part of the county 

 and of the limestone and sandstone which overlie them and 

 form the summit of Limestone and other ridges in the 

 county. 



This brings us in the series of formations up to the Oris- 

 Jcany sandstone No. VII ; on top of which lie the Mack 

 Marcellus slate beds; and the dark color of these has in 

 many cases led sanguine land owners and "practical miners" 

 to dig at great expense in search of coal ; near Laurel Grove, 

 for example. 



However some beds of these shales may resemble coal, 

 even to the extent of being " burnable," they are not 

 coal, and have never yielded coal in any places where the 

 search has been made, either in Perry county or outside of 

 it. And as they have been thoroughly examined, the in- 

 ference is justifiable that they never will yield any. 



Upon the black Marcellus shale rests a great mass of olive 

 (•( >lored shales and sandstones, about a mile and a half thick, 

 in Middle ridge, Buffalo hills, and many other places. At 

 several levels in this mass of rocks beds may be found, occa- 

 sionally several inches thick, containing combustible ma- 

 teria] fairly entitled to the name of coal. But it is usually of 

 a crumbling nature. Several of these thin coal seams may be 

 traced across the Juniata river and crop out in its banks. 



As in tli«' <-asrs already mentioned, this has led to various 

 attempts t<> open mines of coal, all of which have ended 

 in loss and disappointment, not only in Perry county, but 

 elsewhere. Pot this reason geologists infer that the search 

 for coal in these Lower and Middle Devonian shales and 



