HOCKING VALLEY. | 699 
These three sections are nearly on a line commencing at Straitsviille 
and bearing a little north of east. In the first the upper bench is six 
feet ten inches thick; the combined thickness of the two lower benches, 
_ three feet eight inches. In the secon’) the upper bench is reduced to 
three feet with a band of pyritiferous shale, and the lower benches to- 
gether measure two feet ten and one-half inches. In the third the upper 
bench is three feet eleven inches, the combined thickness of the lower 
benches being «icht feet eleven inches. These and the other sections 
given demonstrate the truthfulness of the statement previously made, 
that the thinning down of the coal from the Straiisville region toward 
the Hocking River is due to a loss of a part of the upper bench, and that 
the increased thickness in the valley of Sunday Creek and in the terri- 
tory north of the Hocking is due solely to the increased thickness of the 
lower benches, the thickest coal of all being, in fact, found where the 
upper bench is nearly three feet thinner than at Straitsville and 
Shawnee. This line of greater thickness of the lower benches passes 
southward from near Moxahala through Monroe, Trimble, and Dover 
townships, and after crossing the Hocking, extends westward into York 
township. This line indicates the center of the original basin unless, 
as is more probable, there were three such deep marshes, one in Monroe 
township, bounded on the north by an elevation where the coal is want- 
ing, one south of this “want,” extending through Trimble and Dover 
townships, and one in the territory north of Nelsonville. In the Straiis- 
ville region the coal approaches the maximum thickness solely on 
account of the longer continued deposition after the su»mergence which 
deposited the shale parting below the upper bench. 
When undisturbed, the changes in the thickness of the coal, especially 
of the lower benches, and in its character, are ordinarily very gradual, 
the maximum purity being generally coincident with the maximum 
thickness. The most important of these gradual changes in character 
are two. From Straitsville northward the coal becomes a little more 
melting until crossing the Hocking, when, with an increased thickness, 
it becomes somewhat more dry-burning. In the eastern part of the field 
it is more laminated, contains a greater number of thin bands of mineral 
charcoal, and will prove more open-burning. Careful ‘trials show that a 
very large part of it will swell a very little in burning, and become 
slightly pasty on the outside, and that while a large part of it can be 
used successfully in a raw state in the smelting furnace, better results 
may be anticipated if a moderate admixture of coke is used. Where 
this is really needed, it is believed that the lower bench -of this seam 
will make a coke which will answer the purpose. 
