COAL-FIELDS OF OHIO. 
321 
same order as in many 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 quality. 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 state, 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- 
