186 GEOLOGY OF OHIO. 
and the Middle Fork. Its chief economic development is in the latter 
valley. It has long been mined at New Lisbon, and for several miles 
above the town, where it is known as the Creek Vein. It is Newberry’s 
No. 3 in this region. It is reached in the Salem shaft at a distance of 
44 feet below the Lower Kittanning coal, and was mined here for a 
number of years. It has also been mined at Walters’s Shatt at Wash- 
ingtonville, and it is struck of good thickness in all of the drill-holes 
at Leetonia. Its place is well marked in the main valley, and also in 
the Hast Fork, but the coal has no value here. 
Practically, throughont most of the county, the Totver Kittanning 
or Clay Vein coal constitutes the base of the coal series. That the 
Clay Vein coal of the Ohio Valley is the Lower Kittanning of the 
Pennsylvania series does not admit of question. It is a demonstrated 
geological fact. 
Many deep borings have been made for oil and gas in the Ohio 
Valley, but very little coal has been reported below this seam. It is 
the second in importance among the coal seams of the county, ranking 
below the Upper Freeport coal only. In quality it shows a wide range, 
furnishing fuel of unusual purity in the northern portion of the county, 
but becoming very sulphurous in the southern part. 
The Middle Kittanning coal is less valuable, relatively and abso- 
lutely, in Columbiana county than in any other county of the State in 
which it occupies as wide an area. It is less than 1 foot in thickness 
wherever seen through the northern and central portions of the county, 
and is nowhere opened here. In the Ohio Valley it is known as the 
Block Vein, and as the Hammondsville Strip Vein, and about 
East Liverpool as the Dry Run coal. Its quality is here so good that 
it is extensively worked in small mines, although its thickness ranges 
between 20 and 32 inches, rarely reaching the latter figure. 
The Lower Freeport seam makes an important contribution to the 
coal supply of the county. As usual, however, it is unsteady and un- 
certain. A very valuable basin of it was found near New Lisbon a 
number of years ago, which was known as the Whan coal. This basin 
is now exhausted. The seam is frequently worked in the southern part 
of the county in a small way. It is here known as the Roger Vein. 
The Upper Freeport coal is by far the most important seam of the 
series. Its horizon is reached in every township of the county, and the 
coal is mined in all but three of the townships. The two great mining 
