WASHINGTON COUNTY. 487 
thickness of six feet, and the seam is found every where at its proper 
horizon in the hills bordering the creek. The tendency of the coal is 
to grow thinner westward and thicken to the north-east, but there are 
doubtless many local exceptions. The Ohio Coal Company has opened 
a valuable mine in the hills east of Macksburg, where the seam is six 
feet thick: The mine is probably in Enoch township, in Noble county. 
The coal is shipped to Marietta by railroad. ‘The coal is of good quality 
for domestic use and for the generation of steam. It has also been used 
largely and with acceptance in the Marietta rolling-mill. It is a coal of 
good heating power. It is easily mined, and can be furnished in Mari- 
etta at very reasonable rates. The people of Marietta have found the 
great advantage of a regular railroad supply of coal from Duck Creek 
coal field over the precarious supply of the Ohio River. Manufactures 
of all kinds in which cheap fuel is a principal factor can be established. 
Salt.—Besides the abundant coal, an unlimited supply of good brine 
for the manufacture of salt can be obtained in this part of the Duck 
Creek valley. On the flat below Macksburg a coarse sandrock contain- 
ing brine is reported to be struck in the oil wells at ninety feet below the 
surface, but a more copious supply is obtained in another sandrock three 
hundred and eight feet below the surface. Deeper borings should strike 
the Upper Waverly sandrock, from which abundant supplies of brine 
are obtained at Pomeroy and other parts of the State. 
The record of a deep well bored by Mr. Blauvelt, given hereafter, 
shows that the upper Waverly contains brine. It is always difficult to 
determine the strength of brine in any of these wells unless the fresh 
water, which enters almost all wells, be tubed off. If extensive mining 
of the coal should be carried on in Aurelius, the fine, or slack coal, which 
is not merchantable, could be profitably used in boiling salt. At many 
places in the State refuse coal is exclusively used in the salt works. 
Petrolewm—Aurelius township has heretofore furnished large quantities 
of excellent petroleum. One of the earliest wells bored in 1860, on the 
land of James Dutton, HWsq., yielded many thousand barrels of heavy 
lubricating oil. It was only fifty-six feet deep. The daily yield at first 
must have been, from the reports, from one hundred to two hundred bar- 
rels. This well caused no little excitement, and many other wells were 
bored, many of which yielded remunerative returns. The Buell well, 
named from the Hon. B. P. Buell, of Lowell, one of its owners, has pro- 
duced oil steadily for seven or eight years, and yet averages five barrels 
a day. The Mattison well is reported to have yielded an average of 
fifteen barrels a day for eight months. Other wells yielded considerable 
quantities. But most of this oil was produced before the Marietta, Pitts- 
