484 
The Ohio Naturalist. 
[Vol. IX, No. 6, 
area of West Virginia show a heavy sandstone known as the 
Connelsville, 9 with a base about lit) feet below the Pittsburg 
coal. It is possible that the sandstone under discussion belongs 
to this horizon. This rock is very conspicuous along the Hocking 
River Valley east from Athens, where an unusual thickening 
brings it up close to the base of the Pittsburg coal. 
Below the sandstone is a coal blossom underlain by a few 
inches of nodular limestone. This horizon was frequently 
crossed in five different counties, but workable coal was found at 
only one place near the head of Shade River, in Athens Countv. 
The succeeding portion down to the Ames limestone is 
rather variable, consisting of variegated shales with occasional 
thinbedded sandstones. A short distance above the Ames, 
however, there is often a red clay which thickens much in some 
localities. It is known to oil drillers as the “Big Red.” When 
weathered, there results a sticky red gumbo which lends a ruddy 
aspect to the country roads of Gallia, Meigs and other counties. 
The Ames limestone receives its name from a village in Ames 
Township, Athens County, where the rock is well exposed in 
numerous outcrops. The interval between the Ames and the 
Pittsburg coal is about 150 feet, although it may run as low as 130 
or as high as 175 feet. The limestone is seldom over 30 inches 
thick. From place to place, a great variation in composition 
and appearance is noticed. In Rutland Township, Meigs 
County, the Ames horizon is represented by 10 to 15 feet of 
calcareous shale with imbedded fossiliferous limestone nodules. 
In the same township the bed changes to a calcareous, fossilifer¬ 
ous, sandstone overlain by a ferruginous chert. Careful search 
across Mason and Windsor Townships in Lawrence County failed 
to reveal any trace of the Ames, but it was found outcropping in 
its proper place at Burlington, Union Township, in the southern 
part of the County. 
Beneath the Ames there is often a coal blossom. This is 
wanting in many places and is not known to be of workable 
thickness anywhere. 
Some ten feet below the Ames occur variegated green, bluish 
and red shales with zones of hematite ore and nodular limestone. 
These shales are found everywhere by the oil driller and are 
known as the “Pittsburg Reds.” 
The next persistent horizon is the Patriot lying about half¬ 
way between the Ames and Cambridge. It consists of a thin, 
nodular, fossiliferous limestone underlain by coal. 
Lovejoy 10 has given the name “Patriot” to the coal. If the 
practice of applying the same name to more than one member of 
9. W. Va. Geol. Surv., County Rep’ts and Maps, Ohio, Brooke and Hancock Counties, 
1906, p. 113. 
10. Geol. Surv. Ohio, Vol. VI, p. 631. 
