THE LOWER COAL MEASURES. 189 
The shales above No. 1 of the section are abundantly charged with 
kidneys of iron-ore. The horizon is almost everywhere ore-bearing. 
This is the most important single source of the ore that is found in the 
alluvial deposits of the Middle Fork Valley, and which has been mined 
on a large scale at and near New Lisbon. The Black slate, No. 2, is 
an almost constant accompaniment of the coal, sometimes rising to 15 
or 20 feet in thickness. No. 3 often furnishes continuous seams or 
plates of ore, which sometimes become a Blackband ore. 
The coal is found in two benches, as indicated in the figure, the 
lower of which is much the purer. The upper bench often becomes 
slaty and cannel-like, and must then be rejected. The bottom coal, 
which is also called the smith coal, is a cementing coal of pronounced 
character, but the upper bench never has this quality. The coke 
manufactured from the Leetonia seam holds a high place among Ohio 
cokes, both as to strength and purity. It has long been manufactured 
in the large way for the use of the furnaces of the Cherry Valley and 
the Grafton Iron Works that are located here, only the lower bench 
being mined for this purpose. The bottom coal is also an exceptionally 
good fuel for rolling-mill use. It burns with a bright blaze, and gives 
out its heat quickly. No coal in the State is more highly approved as 
a milling coal. 
For domestic use the seam is not quite as well adapted, but asa 
steam coal it again takes high rank. The top coal is mined with the 
bottom for railroad use, the character of the product being notably im- 
proved thereby. The principal drawback to the seam for domestic fuel 
is the fact that it mines small. The coal is rather weak in texture, and, 
though mined without powder, nearly one-third that comes from the 
bank-cars passes through a screen, the bars of which are § of an inch 
apart. Where only the bottom bench is worked, a still larger propor- 
tion is small coal. Where coke-ovens are connected with the mine, 
these facts constitute no drawback, but they bear directly upon the 
shipping banks. 
The oldest and largest mines at this point are the two connected 
- with the Cherry Valley Iron Works, one of them being located at the 
furnace, and the other at Washingtonville. These mines have been 
managed with great skill and success, and furnish a lesson of great 
value to the State in showing that low coals can, even under present 
