COAL MINES OF GALLIA COUNTY. 1051 
In Section 7, Walnut township, on the farm of J. S. Eakins, the 
Middle Kittanning seam lies in the bed of Symmes Creek. The Lower 
Freeport coal also appears in the same section. The Cambridge limestone 
is here found,.242 feet above it, as at Evans’s mill. This has now become 
the normal measure. The coal is 38 inches thick, and very promising 
in appearance. 
At Armstrong’s bridge, in Section 12, Walnut, the coal is again 
found, 30 feet above Symmes Creek. The Upper Freeport coal is about 
120 feet above it in this vicinity. 
These sections and measurements, taken somewhat at random, will - 
lend some light to future explorers, but this whole district needs that 
more time and labor be spent upon it before a full account of its 
resources can be given. There is no peculiar complexity in its stratifica- 
tion, but the openings of its coal seams are infrequent, and the intervals 
between its several elements are somewhat changed from those found 
on the margins of the field. 
Returning to Lawrence county, a few additional statements as to 
the Middle Kittanning coal, No. 6, are needed to complete the cursory 
account here undertaken. The seam is generally found in its proper 
place in the section wherever its horizon is exposed, but it has suffered 
a good deal from the erosion of the Lower Freeport sandstone, which 
is steady throughout the county, and very massive. It often comes 
close down upon the coal, cutting away its roof shales and deteriorating 
its quality. Not infrequently it intrudes into the coal, reducing it 
below mineable proportions. 
In the river hills, near Ironton, this last condition prevails. ‘The 
coal is seldom found thick enough here to warrant mining, and the lower 
seam, as has been already stated, is the universal reliance. Above 
Ironton, however, the seam shows a better condition, and the only 
extensive mines of the county in this coal have been opened here. 
They are located at Sheridan, about 6 miles above Ironton. The coal 
lies low in the hills, and is not found again above the river after leaving 
this immediate neighborhood. The Sheridan mines were opened about 
1863, and for a number of years maintained a large output. They were 
equipped for delivering coal upon the river, at good advantage. The 
quality of the coal has always been approved. . In thickness, the seam 
does not often fall below 3 feet in the areas that have been worked, and 
it sometimes rises to 4 feet. The average of the Sheridan mines will 
