COAL MINES OF VINTON COUNTY. 1003 
to repay working in a large part of the territory, but it has the present 
disadvantage of being obliged to compete with the Wellston coal in 
market, a test of value that but few coals of the State can meet success- 
fully. It is no wonder, therefore, that the present use of the limestone 
coal is mainly limited to the home supply of farmers and to locomotive 
use, but the area of the coal is large, the seam is of good thickness, its 
fire-clay gives promise of great value in some places, and, all things 
taken into account, it can safely be asserted that this seam will prove a 
large and lasting source of wealth to Vinton county. Its development 
will be delayed until the choicer coals, that are now available at no 
greater expense for mining, begin to grow scarce. 
The Lower Kittanning Coal (No. 5). 
This seam is almost everywhere present in its own place in the field, 
but its thickness generally falls below 2 feet, and no single instance is 
now recalled in which it is worked in Vinton county, even in the 
smallest way. It is found in many of the heavier benchings of the 
limestone ore, its place ranging from 10 to 20 feet above the Ferriferous 
limestone. 
The Middle Kittanning Coal (No. 6). 
Though lacking the importance that it possesses in the Hocking 
Valley, this wide-spread coal seam displays the same characteristics in 
Vinton county that give to it its value elsewhere, viz., steadiness and 
good quality. It enters Vinton county from Waterloo township under 
the name of the Carbondale or Mineral City coal. It has been largely 
mined at King’s Switch and at Ingham’s, on the county line, and also 
at Moonville. It is still worked at these points, but the front hills have 
been mainly mined out along the railroad. The main body of the coal 
that is tributary to this outlet is untouched, but the hand-to-mouth 
policy which these small mines have always been obliged to adopt hus 
placed future working at some disadvantage. 
‘The seam can be followed with unmistakable distinctness and 
indisputable identity from Mineral City, where it is found at the level 
of the railroad, slowly rising to the westward and southward, until it 
reaches the tops of the hills for its final outcrop in the north-east corner 
of Elk township. At Mineral City, as already stated, it is level with 
the railroad, or, in places, 8 to 10 feet above; at the tunnel, it is 17 
feet above; at King’s, 19 feet; at Ingham’s, 52 feet; at Moonville, 73 
