THE LOWER COAL MEASURES. 159 
aside from the fact that it is always an open-burning coal. As to amount 
and color of ash, as to percentage of sulphur, as to the structure and 
thickness of the seam, no general statements can be made. Many seams 
of coal seem to have a normal thickness, which is probably related to 
the duration of the period in which their materials were accumulated. 
Wherever the seam has had good fortune, this thickness is attained, but 
there are no such facts apparent in connection with the Lower Mercer 
coal. Its thickness in one locality gives no warrant for opinion as to 
what its thickness will be in another. 
4. THe UprperR MERCER COAL. 
Synonyms.—Coal No. 3a (sometimes Coal No. 4), Coal No. 3, or Bruce coal of Mahoning 
county, Strawbridge Cannel of Holmes county, Bedford Cannel of 
Coshocton county, Newland coal of Vinton county ? 
This seam is scarcely less widely extended than the one last 
described, and is, on the whole, a much more valuable deposit, and yet 
it is nowhere mined on.a large scale at present. There is a single field 
which is ready to furnish the basis of a considerable business whenever 
railroad transportation shall be provided for it. The field referred to 
is the Bedford Cannel district of Coshocton county. In Mahoning 
county, in the vicinity of Canfield, quite a large local supply is furnished 
by the Upper Mercer coal, which is there known as the Bruce or Infelt 
coal. It is quite weak in its development in Stark county, but in Tus- 
carawas and Holmes it is worked ina few neighborhood mines. In 
the last named county it becomes the Strawbridge Cannel seam, which 
was made the basis of a large mining scheme a few years ago, but which 
was never pushed through to a successful issue. The seam acquires its 
largest volume, and perhaps its greatest value in the adjoining county 
of Coshocton, where it is known as the Bedford Cannel coal, to which 
reference has already been made. 
In Muskingum, Perry, and Hocking townships, the seam is univer- 
sally present, but it is generally thin, rarely reaching a thickness of 
2 feet. Its quality is, however, often good, and a little of it has been 
mined at many places. In the central parts of Vinton county, it again 
attains a good volume. It is known in the neighborhood of McArthur 
as the Newland coal. It reaches a thickness of 5 feet for a small area ; 
part of the seam being cannel. To the southward the seam is very 
often a cannel coal. It makes the Milton township Cannel of Jackson 
