HOCKING VALLEY COAL FIELD. 973 
W. B. Brooks & Sons’ Voal, Section 19, Ward Township (Lord). 
1. Bottom bench. 3. Top bench. 
2. Middle bench. 4. Average of the three. 
1 2 3. 4 
IWPOIS TUNE Re seen tee tars Savek tesneeseame doses cessabenseveccinss ss 7.24 6.77 5.83 6.61 
Volatile combustible matter ................sceccssesseee 34.78 37.31 37.12 36.40. 
HPC URCAT OOM eats esse crc ancsehadactelsevoserenesteuess 56.09 54.18 52.25 54.17 
INE) jodi SoH OBOCIGOBE NS BAD AE SGA CE OL DAC EO REE CEROCE EE CERCHOLT 1.89 1.74 4.80 2.81 
MOLAR saccades aaicsteteceWsas acess csseiecs bite. caeat 100.00 | 100.00 | 100.00 99.99 
SUP ewes ercn estes cecsiestas caeareusestiocsecersdedsaetece 0.54 0.51 0.50 0.52 
These are remarkable results for Ohio coals. In particular, the 
middle bench of the seam shows here its highest quality, but even the top 
coal, which is the poorest of this seam, as usual, is better than the 
best coal of many well approved fields. The results are somewhat more 
favorable than would be obtained from an impartial sampling of the 
coal from the railroad cars, as more or less slate finds its way into the 
product, none of which is taken in sampling the seam in the mine. 
These statements show with sufficient details the general character 
of the coal and the methods of mining employed in the Nelsonville 
field. The seam is seen to be a 3-bench coal, measuring, with its slates, 
fully 6 feet in. thickness, and sometimes yielding 6 feet of clean coal. 
Tt now appears probable that this seam, as worked in the Nelson- 
ville field is, in reality, the original or normal Middle Kittanning seam, 
here scoring its highest mark, both as to volume and quality. The 
Hocking Valley supplement, according to this interpretation, lends no 
value whatever to the field, except in the minor point of giving a good 
rouf to the lower coal. 
The coal has been extensively worked at Nelsonville, and in its 
vicinity, for 30 years. For the last ten years the product of the mines 
has been large. The front hills are already exhausted, as has been 
already stated. The mine just described, though shipping its coal by 
the main line of the Hocking Valley Railroad, belongs, in reality, to 
the Monday Creek side, the coal being brought through the hill. 
The next mine, on the east side of the river, is the Nelsonville 
Coal Company’s mine. It lies almost in the center of the corporation 
of Nelsonville. The present owners are Lama and Doane. Its output 
is comparatively small, 6 to 8 cars being about what it can easily and 
