372 fs GEOLOGY OF OHIO. 
township. At the Center a succession of some thirty feet of strata can 
be seen. The lowest bed is rather hard; with this exception, and that 
of a layer eight inches thick of fine-grained shaly sandstone, some fifteen 
feet above the river bed, the rock is of a uniform dark grey color, and 
quite soft. Fucoids in great abundance cover the under surface of the 
layer of sandstone. Spirophyton is abundant in a shsly sand ‘tone which 
is exposed in the river bed at a place one mile south of the Center. Fos- 
sils in great variety—crinoids, bryozoans, brachiopods, orthoceratites, 
and trilobites—are to be found in a water-washed bluff, where the bridge 
crosses the river one mile below Abbeville. About one hundred and 
fifty species were obtained here. Most of them were found in the len- 
ticular concretions of lime and iron; those in the soft shale were all 
unfit for preservation. Scarcely one per cent. of the concretions are fos- 
siliferous, but those which are so are very rich in well-marked forms. 
This bluff is on the east side of the river, and extends as an abrupt wall 
for some eighty rods, the height being generally thirty feet. Thin con- 
tinuous layers of sandy shale can be traced along the cliff. Concretions 
are very abundant from the base of the exposure to the summit, and are, 
as is usual, arranged in continuous layers; the average thickness of the 
concretions is one inch, and the maximum thickness four inches. These 
concretionary beds can be seen in their connection with those above 
them, in York township, a quarter of a mile north of the Abbeville 
bridge. 
Nine wells, which were bored for etrolewm in Liverpool, yielded a small 
amount of oil; two others failed to afford any. Some wells which were 
sunk only one hundred feet “struck oil.’ Mr. John Jordan put one well 
down fourteen huncred and fifty feet. The location of this well is over 
‘half a mile north of the Center. No satisfactory section of this and 
other wells can be obtained, but only general statements, which are too 
indefinite to be of real value. Five wells were put down over five hun- 
dred feet. The Gardner well was nearly one hundred and fifty feet to 
the sand-rock. The well at the grist mill was put down to the sand-rock, 
one hundred and forty-five feet. The deepest well, Mr. Jordan’s, was put 
through the sandstone (Berea Grit), the red and black shale (Bedford, 
Cleveland, Hrie, and Huron shales), some flinty layers (Hamilton), and 
then five hundred feet into limestone (Corniferous, Water-lime, and 
Niagara). One hundred and fifty barrels of oil were taken from one 
well; others yielded from thirty to forty barrels each. None of these 
can be profitably worked for their oil at present prices. Gas comes con- 
tinually from several of these wells. | 
