324 | GEOLOGY OF OHIO. 
individual has attempted or practiced a fraud. This is the province of » 
the courts, upon a proper case being presented to them. It is enough to 
say here that there is some mistake in regard to these pretended discoy- 
eries. Thin seams of carbonaceous matter or thick beds of bituminous 
shale may be reached by boring in this vicinity, but no coal seams will 
ever be found beneath the city of Mansfield or the adjacent country, and 
all pretended discoveries of them may at once be set down as either 
frauds or mistakes. The only place where coal can possibly be found in 
the county is near the tops of the hills of the north-eastern part. In 
none of the hills examined were Coal Measure rocks found, and the 
highest are capped with the Carboniferous Conglomerate, which is below 
the coal; so that the probabilities are that no coal will be found in any 
of the hills. Explorations in Holmes county have shown that hills 
of Waverly rock in places rose above the margin of the old coal swamps, 
and that coal is now found near them ata lower level. It is therefore 
barely possible that some outlying deposit may exist in this part of the 
county, and that these have not been discovered in making the Survey. 
It may be positively asserted, however, that no extensive and valuable 
deposits of coal will ever be found west of the Holmes county line in 
Richland. 
