TUSCARAWAS COUNTY. 55 
previously published reports, that this lower seam is very irregular in 
its distribution, and though of preéminent value when present in good 
thickness, even in the districts where it shows its best, comparatively 
little of the territory holds it. It every where lies in limited basins, 
separated by broad intervals of barren ground. Hence the explorations 
which have been carried deep enough to reach it in Tuscarawas county 
can not be said to have decided the question whether or not it should be 
reckoned as one of the possible sources of wealth. Only seven borings 
are known to me that have been sunk deep enough to reach the Lower 
Coal; these are, two at Uhrichsville, four near Dover, and one at Scott’s 
Mill, below Mineral Point. Most of these borings were made for the 
purpose of obtaining petroleum, and such explorations have usually but 
little value for determining the presence or thickness of underlying coal 
seams. The borings made at Uhrichsville and Dover were, however, 
supervised with much more than ordinary care, and the registers of these 
wells seem to afford reliable information with regard to the strata under- 
lying the localities where they were made. If these records are to be 
accepted as correct, 1t must be confessed that they do not give a very en- 
couraging prospect for finding the Massillon coal of workable thickness; 
and yet such is the irregularity of this seam that if only seven wells had 
been sunk in the districts which are now producing such great quantity. 
of this coal—about Massillon and in the Mahoning valley—the probabil- 
ities are that the enormous subterranean wealth of these districts would 
have been to the present time entirely undeveloped. I would suggest, 
therefore, to those who are favorably situated for such enterprises in 
Tuscarawas county, that it may be worth while to make further search 
for Coal No. 1, especially in districts remote from the wells that have 
been already sunk—for example, in the valley of the Conotton, near 
New Cumberland, above and below Deardoff’s Mill, on Sugar Creek, at 
Trenton, and at Port Washington. In all these localities the place of the . 
Massillon coal lies within two hundred feet of the surface, and. where 
machinery is in action for other purposes, a drill may sometimes be at: 
tached and carried down two or three hundred feet at a trivial expense- 
Where this is not practicable, the services of experienced drillers can be 
secured, and a hole bored to a depth of two hundred feet at a cost of 
about three hundred dollars. While not disposed to encourage too confi- 
dent expectations of success in such an enterprise, the probabilities are 
so strong that some portions of Tuscarawas county are underlain by 
basins of this excellent coal, that I feel justified in reeommending that 
those who have the means to do so will do well to pursue their explora- 
tions until this question shall be definitely settled. 
