CHAPTER XVIII. 
THE COAL SEAMS OF THE LOWER COAL MEASURES 
OF OHIO—ContiInvED. | 
MINES OF Scioto AND LAWRENCE COUNTIES, AND OF THE 
WESTERN Part oF GALLIA CounNTY. 
By Epwarp Orton. 
The general series of coals that we have already followed south- 
ward and westward from the Pennsylvania line can be traced with un- 
mistakable distinctness from Jackson county into Scioto and Gallia, 
and through them into and across Lawrence county to the Ohio river. 
But, for several reasons, the coal seams are less conspicuous in this dis- 
trict than some of the other elements of the series. This is pre- 
eminently a furnace district, the charcoal iron manufacture of the State 
being centered here. Iron ores have therefore been sought for diligently, 
and the capabilities of the Lower Coal Measures to furnish a proper 
supply for the charcoal furnaces have been carefully investigated. The 
ore horizons are widely known and worked, but no similar motive has 
led to a like development of the coal seams. 
In the second place, the coal seams are intrinsically less valuable in 
this district than they are in many of the counties already reported 
upon. In Scioto county, for example, the Jackson and Wellston coals 
are both due, but these two elements, which give such value to Jackson 
county, have no known economic importance here. In like manner the 
Nelsonville coal of the Hocking Valley has shrunk in Lawrence to a 
seam that sometimes holds but 28 inches of good coal, and that never 
exceeds 44 feet. 
The general section of the county has already been given on page 
122, but a few additional statements will be made under this head. 
The Ferriferous limestone is in full force and value in this district 
and is the stratum to which all other elements are referred when repre- 
