COAL-FIELDS OF OHIO. 



321 



same order as in nmny other portions of the great 

 basin. One is near the base of the hills, and in the 

 beds of creeks, which is usually the best coal. An- 

 other is found about 50 feet above, and a third near 

 the tops of the hills. A stratum found in one hill 

 is seen in another, at the distance of a quarter or 

 half a mile, across a valley or ravine at the same 

 elevation, the intermediate rocks having evidently 

 been removed in the course of ages. The first 

 coal-bed averages about four, and the latter from six 

 to ten feet thick, and is of an excellent quahty. An- 

 other bed exists still above this. Thus, in sinking 

 a salt- well on Sunday Creek, four miles above the 

 mouth, a stratum of coal was passed nine feet thick 

 at a depth of 80 feet. Near the mouth of the 

 creek, at another well, it was passed at the depth 

 of 94 feet, and was six feet thick ; and at Athens, 

 four miles below, a bed of coal was passed, at the 

 depth of 185 feet, six feet thick ; and half a mile far- 

 ther, the same bed is penetrated at 300 feet below 

 the surface, where it is eight feet thick, showing the 

 coal-bed dips 220 feet or three degrees in less than 

 five miles, which brings it cropping out on the sur- 

 face six miles up the stream. 



Coal-fields of Jackson, Scioto, and Lawrence counties. 

 — In these counties, which occupy the southeast 

 corner of the states are also three workable beds 

 of coal, doubtless equivalent to those of the Hock- 

 ing Valley. The western outcrop of the lowest 

 seam may be indicated by a line drawn from the 

 Ohio River, near the Franklin Furnace in Scioto 

 county, northward to Richland in Jackson county ; 

 but, as this outcrop is irregular, coal may be found 

 west of this line on high elevations, and be deficient 

 in those east of it. This coal contains distinct tra- 

 ces of vegetable fibre, burns with a brilliant yellow- 

 ish flame, and, being free from sulphuret of iron, is 

 highly esteemed for fuel and smith's purposes, and 

 may doubtless be used to advantage in the smelt- 

 B B 



