MUSKINGUM COUNTY. DAT 
localities in Washington township a bed of iron ore is seen about fifteen 
feet below this coal. Its area is not extensive. 
Coal No. 5 is local in its development, appearing only in Washington 
township, and exhibiting great variations in thickness. It is most im- 
portant near the Central Ohio Railroad, and thins out rapidly northward, 
disappearing about twelve miles north of Zanesville. 
Coal No. 4 is a persistent coal, though varying greatly in thickness. 
Wherever seen in Monroe, Adams, Cass, Jackson, Muskingum, and Madi- 
son townships it is a cannel, but is of no value, except at one locality in 
Jackson township. It is interesting, especially because of its relations 
to No.6. In Monroe township it may be traced along White Eyes Creek 
from near Otsego to Johnson’s Mill, twenty inches thick, and about forty 
feet below No. 6. It is every where known as the “limestone coal,” but 
the limestone is not persistent along the outcrop. Tracing it down Wills 
Creek, the interval between the coals 1s seen to increase, until, at Frew’s 
Mills, it becomes ninety feet. At the salt works, near the Coshocton 
line, it is the same; near Dresden, one ,hundred feet; on the north 
_ branch of Symmes Creek, eighty feet; and near Morton’s coal works, on 
_ the Muskingum, one hundred and ten feet. In Liberty township, Guern- 
sey county, it becomes twenty feet. These variations afford an excellent 
illustration of the doctrine, long since established, of unequal subsidence. 
The gray limestone overlying this coal is coarse-grained, sometimes 
shaly, but usually compact, having a fracture like sandstone. It con- 
tains great numbers of Spirifer laneatus. 
Coal No. 8 and its associate limestone are duplicated in this portion of 
the county. The coals are thin and of no value. The limestone is vari- 
able, in some places pure and ringing when struck, at others quite earthy. 
The fossils are ordinarily perfect, and are very numerous. With the 
upper limestone is a flint, gray to black in color, and very irregular in 
quantity and mode of deposition. It occasionally replaces the limestone 
and becomes three feet thick. In Jackson township it is associated with 
an important bed of iron ore. It contains numerous remains of mol- 
_lusca, which, for the most part, are badly preserved. 
Coal No. 2 is thin and of no economical value. 
Coal No. 1 was seen only in Licking and Jackson townships. It is 
variable in thickness, but yields a coal of very superior quality, appar- 
ently free from sulphur. Where accessible it is too thin to be of much 
economical value, but in some almost inaccessible localities it expands to 
four feet. 
The strata below this coal were observed only in Jackson township, 
and will be found fully described under that head. 
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