CHAPTER LV. 
REPORT ON THE GHOLOGY OF MONROE COUNTY. 
This county les east of Noble and south of Belmont. It has the Ohio 
River for its eastern boundary. The river margin is about twenty-nine 
miles in length. In this distance, according to report of W. Milner 
Roberts, United States Civil Engineer, the river falls 20.557 feet, or about 
_ twenty feet six and a half inches; making an average fall of 0.708 inches 
per mile. Most of the fall, however, pertains to the ripples, which, in 
the aggregate, fall 18.28 feet, while the descent in the pools is 2.277 feet. 
There are 8.56 miles of ripples and 20.44 miles of pools. The average 
fall in the ripples is 2 feet 1.6 inches, and that of the pools is 1.114 
inches. 
Nearly all of the southern half of the county, except a narrow strip 
along the Ohio, is drained by the Little Muskingum River and its 
branches. The extreme north-western portion finds its drainage by 
Wills Creek. Sunfish Creek drains the larger part of the northern por- 
tion. Thus there are three distinct systems of drainage, or, more prop- 
erly, drainage slopes, viz., south-western, north-western, and eastern. 
The soil of the county is generally good. In many sections there is 
considerable limestone of much fertilizing value. The character of the 
tillage of the soil is superior to that in many of the counties in the Sec- 
ond Geological District. In the survey of the county I have been much 
indebted to Hon. James O. Amos, of Woodsfield, now Adjutant-General 
of Ohio, for valuable information and assistance. He accompanied me 
through many townships. The county lies not only wholly within the 
Coal Measures, but nearer the summit of the series than any other 
county in the district. The highest seam of coal found in the district is 
on a very high hill near Baresville, Ohio township. 
The determination of the relation of the coals in this county to those 
of Noble and Belmont is attended with unusual difficulties. The Pitts- 
burgh, or Pomeroy, seam of coal, if continuous, is every where below 
the level of the valleys, and the Cumberland, or upper Bellair, seam is 
generally thin and unimportant. There are no coal seams, well-marked 
and of ready identification, and no fossiliferous limestones, like the 
Ames or Cambridge limestones of other counties. Indeed, there is noth- 
