156 _ GEOLOGY OF OHIO. 
GENERAL CHARACTERISTICS OF THE SEVERAL COAL 
SEAMS. 
1. THe SHARON COAL. 
Synonyms.—Coal No. 1, Block coal of Mahoning Valley, Brier Hill coal, Massillon 
coal, Wadsworth coal, etc., Jackson Shaft coal ? 
This seam as it occurs in Northeastern Ohio has been quite fully 
described by Newberry, and all of its chief peculiarities have received 
mention. (Rept. of Progress, 1870, pp. 26-27-28. Geol. of Ohio, vol. 
II, pp. 182-133-134; vol. IL], pp. 139, 140, 157 et al.) 
Tt is the lowest of the workable coal seams of the State. Where 
the Sharon Conglomerate occurs in the same section with it, the coal 
lies but few feet above the conglomerate, and where the latter is want- 
ing, the coal rests directly upon the Waverly group. Its normal cover 
is the Massillon or Lower Connoquenessing sandstone, the second sand- 
stone of the Conglomerate series. From this it is generally separated 
by 10 to 20 feet of ore-bearing shales, the Sharon shales of Pennsyl- 
vania. 
It always lies upon an uneven floor, in basins of comparatively 
small extent. The area of but few of these basins reaches 200 acres of 
unbroken coal, but in a few instances larger bodies have been found. 
Where the seam has had good fortune, its thickness ranges from 4 to 
6 feet. It occasionally gains a foot upon these measurements, but it 
does not hold the increase long. It is everywhere a seam of “swamps” 
and “hills,” the latter rising 20, 30, or even 40 feet above the lower 
and more productive portions of the seam. In ascending these hills, 
the coal rapidly loses height as a rule, and frequently entirely dis- 
appears. | 
The seam, at its best, is of high quality. It is, in fact, the standard 
of quality among the open-burning coals of the northern Appalachian 
field, and it commands a higher price in all the markets that it reaches 
than any other coals of the same class. But there are not only distinct 
varieties of it in the several divisions of the field, as for instance, the 
Youngstown, Massillon, and Jackson districts, but even in any one 
