GEOLOGY OF OHIO. 845. 
In Bedford and Jefferson townships, the limestone is fonnd over- 
lying a bed of cannel coal from 1 to 6 ft. thick, accompanied by from 
1 to 4 ft. of bitumineus coal. This is without doubt the finest proved 
deposit of cannel coal in the State, both as to area and thickness; as to 
-quality, there are small bodies of cannel elsewhere, which are as good as 
this, though none excel it and none are so easily accessible, when railroad 
facilities are secured. The limestone of this horizon is found in a large 
part of the county with tolerable regularity ; in some districts it does 
not appear at all. Inall its showings, it is a blue, hard limerock, from 
3 to 6 ft. thick, divided into a lower layer of homogeneous rock, and 
an upper layer of either solid flint or interlacing nodules of flint im- 
bedded in a limerock matrix. As it is worn away by the atmospheric 
agencies, the upper or resisting layers overhang the more easily soluble 
ones beneath. This distinguishes it from the Lower Mercer, which is 
always a pure, uniform layer of blue limestone. 
The Bedford Cannel Coal. 
The importance of the Upper Mercer horizon is confined to the 
single field already mentioned, which is best known as the Bedford 
cannel coal field. ‘The area covered by this deposit was made the sub- 
ject of careful investigation, and forms the subject of the accompanying 
map. The boundaries of the ground covered by the formation itself, 
are included between the Walhonding river, on the north; Jackson 
township, on the east; Tunnel Hill, or the Coshocton and Bedford 
road, on the south, and Newcastle, on the west. The square area in- 
cluded between these limits is about 16,000 acres, but the curved out- 
lines of the formation do not include over 12,000 or 13,000 acres. 
Occasional outlines of the main body are found, but are of no 
value; two miles north of the Walhonding river, in Jefferson township, 
the cannel has degenerated into 7 ft. of a rich black shale, and in the 
eastern edge of Newcastle township an opening shows only 3% ft. of an 
impure bone coal on this horizon. To the eastward, as far as Roscoe, 
reports are current as to the presence of this coal, but they are too 
indefinite to be depended on. At Roscoe there is a small local develop- 
ment of cannel on the horizon, but it is altogether improbable that it 
has any connection with the body of the coal 10 miles to the westward. 
Inside the approximate boundary which fixes the feather-edges of 
the formation itself, are secondary lines which mark the areas of 
