HOCKING VALLEY COAL, FIELD. 923 
the lower benches of the normal seam. It:is always open-burning and 
low in sulphur, but it inclines to excess of ash. It mines large, and has 
great strength to bear transportation and handling. 
There are numerous irregular partings in this top coal when it 
becomes thick, only one of which is widely extended and .measurably 
regular. A four-inch black slate, known as the third slate, and charged 
with sigillaria impressions, is found 8 to 9 feet above the bottom of the 
Great Vein, everywhere throughout Monroe township, in the Sunday 
Creek Valley. As it now appears, it is the same horizon at which a 
constant layer of cannel or horn coal is found throughout the western 
portions of the Great Vein. The coal above the slate becomes a rider 
seam. It runs too high in ash in most of the field where it occurs to be 
fairly marketable. It reaches a maximum thickness of 4 feet, but most 
of it is left in the mines. 
Character and Composition of the Hocking Valley Coal. 
The character of the coal throughout the field is fairly uniform. 
Taken as whole, it is an open-burning coal of pronounced character, 
but the lower bench, burned by itself, is somewhat cementing. It is 
distinctly laminated and holds a moderate proportion of mineral char- 
coal. It ignites easily, swells slightly in burning, and leaves a white 
or gray ash. It is well approved for steam generation, and also for 
rolling mill fuel. To household use it is admirably adapted, rivaling 
in this line of service the block coals of the Mahoning and Tuscarawas 
Valleys. The most important single use to which it is put is iron- 
making. The successful experience of the blast furnaces that have 
been built in the valley within the last ten or 12 years, and that have 
made the Hocking Valley coal their chief and often their sole reliance 
for fuel, leaves no open questions in regard to its adaptations to this 
important service. Asa furnace coal, it is not surpassed in the State, 
and scarcely by any known bituminous coal. It is also used to a 
small extent in gas-making. 
In chemical composition, the average of 10 mines, including several 
of the best of the field, the mines being located at Shawnee, and from 
there westward as far as Nelsonville, is as follows: 
