24 GEOLOGY OF OHIO. 
the submergence that resulted in the formation ef the Carboniferous 
limestone to have been progressive from the south and west, and the 
Waverly group of Ohio to be in a large part the shore equivalents of the 
open-sea limestone sediments of Kentucky, Indiana, and Illinois. 
The limestone of southern Ohio was called the Maxville limestone by 
Prof. Andrews, from one of the localities where it-is exposed. Its occur- 
rence there and at Newtonville, Muskingum county, within the area of 
the Coal Measures, created considerable surprise, and caused its identifi- 
cation with the Carboniferous limestone of Kentucky to be questioned, 
but the long list of fossils collected from it seem to leave no room for 
doubt on this subject. 
Prof. Edward Orton, who has been engaged during the past summer in 
a careful review of the geology of the Hocking valley region, has brought 
out some new facts in regard to the Maxville limestone which will give 
it fresh interest to geologists, while at the same time they explain in an 
unexpected way all the mysteries that have hung around it. These 
facts are briefly as follows: 1. That the Maxville limestone can be 
followed by numerous outcrops—as a distinct geological horizon, from 
Perry county to the Ohio River, and that it does not lie in patches alter- 
nating with others of Conglomerate as has been represented. 2. That 
one, sometimes two, limestones or flints are found within a hundred feet 
below it which share in a degree its lithological character and fossils. 
3. That the Wellston and Jackson coals, well known and important 
seams in southern Ohio, are both beneath the Maxville limestone. 
A recent visit to the Hocking valley, in company with Prof. Orton, 
has resulted in the verification of all his observations, and the collection 
of fossils from the Maxville limestone and Waverly shales, which prove 
beyond question that the lower coals—two or three in number—of South- 
ern Ohio are of Lower Carboniferous age. ; 
Another important result of the recent observations of Prof. Orton is 
to demonstrate that all the conglomerate of Southern Ohio lies below the 
Maxville limestone, and is, therefore, distinct from, and older than, the 
conglomerate of Northern Ohio. The latter conclusion, which will, per- 
haps, be questioned, is established by the facts that the conglomerate of 
Southern Ohio is overlain by shales, which contain the fossils character- 
istic of the Upper Waverly in Holmes, Summit, Mahoning, etc. ; while 
the conglomerate of Northern Ohic—which, apparently, extends no fur- 
ther south than Licking county, and thence thickens greatly northward 
—lies upon the Upper Waverly, and has no Waverly fossils in or above 
it; also, that it contains, in Holmes county, numerous imperfectly 
rounded fragments of cherty limestone, of which the lithological char- 
