133 GEOLOGY OF OHIO. 
records from various parts of the coal field, but so far the testimony is 
all in one direction. Claims are sometimes made of discoveries of the 
lower coal within the limits of these upper seams, but none have yet 
been substantiated. The 3-feet coal in the New Lisbon well, which 
has been by some supposed to belong to the Sharon horizon, cannot be 
below the Lower Mercer horizon. The heavy deposit reported from 
the Post Boy borings, south of New Comerstown, seems too impure to 
be taken as a representative of the Block coal, nor is the depth of the 
deposit what should be expected for this seam. 
No argument is made against the possibility of such overlap. The 
possibility is freely conceded, but the record of every new drilling in- 
creases the improbability of these desirable discoveries. The Sharon 
coal seems to have a heavier cover in Stark county than elsewhere, if 
the records of borings reported from there prove trustworthy. It under- 
lies the Putnam Hill limestone, according to Newberry, in the north- 
eastern part of the county. 
The Freeport coals have already been placed in a different group 
from the seams below them as to origin, and the fact of their wider 
horizontal distribution has been pointed out. It is the Lower Freeport 
coal that is found in the same vertical section with the Pittsburgh coal 
in the Steubenville region, and it seems probable tiat it is one of these 
Freeport seams that has been struck in the Pomeroy Salt Wells. Steven- 
son reports the Upper Freeport coal as the only Lower Measure seam 
to be found in the oilbreak of West Virginia. i 
Furthermore, a coal seam can often be traced toward the interior 
of the field along some open valley, or by means of a series of test 
borings. In numerous instances such seams are found to suffer gradual 
reduction, or frequent interruption, or to completely disappear. The 
Kittanning coals furnish examples of these facts in the valleys of the 
Connotton, of Wills Creek, and of the Muskingum. They are traced 
in all of these cases until they seem verging toward extinction. 
THE Dip or INCLINATION OF THE CoAL MEASURES. 
The dip of the Lower Coal Measures has already been referred to, 
and the general fact that it is light has been stated, but a few additional 
facts as to this subject will here find appropriate place. 
As to the direction of the dip, the facts can be easily stated. In 
the easternmost counties of the Ohio coal field, it is nearly or in some 
