JEFFERSON COUNTY. 733 
above Moretown a peninsular hill, commanding a detour of the valley, 
is said to be surmounted by an ancient fort, and what is apparently a 
similar monument is visible from the house of Mr. Dorrance. Looking 
up the valley, what seems to be a large artificial mound is set on the 
northern end of a low bend extending from the southern margin. 
IRONDALE. 
The section of the rocks at Irondale is given on another page. It is 
typical of the geology of all the northern part of the county. From this 
it will be seen that the upper half of the hill is composed of the Barren 
Coal Measures, chiefly red and green shales, with a sandstone at the very 
top. Below this is a coal six inches thick, with a thin band of fire-clay, 
under which is the crinoidal limestone and a mere trace of the Harlem 
coal. The “Salineville Strip Vein’”—Coal No. 7—is here from two to 
three feet thick, and is not worked. About fifty feet below it is the “Big 
Vein,” five and a half feet in thickness. This supplies the fuel for the 
rolling-mill. It has the general character and average quality of Coal 
No. 6 of this region. From sixteen to eighteen feet below Coal No. 6 is 
a coal seam two and a half feet in thickness, which is sometimes regarded 
as the “Roger Vein”—No. 5—but it seems probable that a thin coal, 
sixty feet below the “ Big Vein,” should rather be considered Coal No. 5. 
About fifty-five feet below the last mentioned coal is Coal No. 4—the 
“Strip Vein”—two and a half feet thick, and eighteen feet below this 
the “Creek Vein,” three feet three inches in thickness. 
A boring made by Mr. David Morgan, the managing partner of the 
Irondale Iron Works, to the depth of eighty feet below the “Creek Vein” 
passed through shale and sandstone containing a seam of coal about one 
foot thick and terminated in another of equal dimensions. This boring 
did not reach the bottom of the Coal Measures, which should lie from 
fifty to one hundred feet lower; but it is scarcely probable that any 
workable coal would have been found had the hole been carried lower. 
Coal No. 1 is due from one hundred and fifty to two hundred feet below 
the “Creek Vein,” but it has not yet been found in Jefferson county. 
The fuel used in the furnace at Irondale is three-fourths coke and one- 
fourth raw coal, both from Coal No. 4. <A very elaborate coal-washing | 
establishment has been erected here for the purpose of cleansing the Coal 
of No. 6 of its sulphide of iron, with a view to the manufacture of coke 
from it. So far the experiment has been only moderately successful, and 
_ the coke from the washed coal of No. 6 is inferior to that made from No. 4. 
Analyses of Irondale coals will be found in the tables at the end of this 
chapter. 
