524 | GEOLOGY OF OHIO. 
This section is not entirely reliable, as some of the intervals were given 
from memory; but the whole depth of the well was asserted to be cor- 
rect. The depth to which the black shale was penetrated may vary 
somewhat from forty feet. 
In Knox county, where the records of the deep borings were very ac- 
curately kept, this interval is 1,473 feet, a difference of ninety-seven feet. 
All the observations concur in showing that the Waverly rocks increage in 
thickness in passing southward, and this fact fully explains the differ- 
ence in these intervals. 
It will be observed that the red shale is found at approximately the 
same horizon as in Knox, but the log of the well is doubtless inaccu- 
rate, in making it only ten to twelve feet, while in Knox it is sixty 
feet. 
It is evident that at this place, as in Knox county, upon approaching 
the coal basin, the material of the Waverly rocks becomes finer and 
more argillaceous, showing deeper water and weaker currents than ex- 
isted at the time of its deposition a little to the west and north-west. 
As previously stated, the only coal in the county is in a narrow strip 
along the eastern part of the south line of Hanover township. The hill 
rises above it about thirty feet, and this patch of Coal Measure rocks ex- 
tends about two miles into Knox county. A drift has been driven into 
the bill, and a small quantity of coal taken out and carried to Loudon- 
ville. The coal, as far as explored, ranged from one to three feet in 
thickness, and is of very fair quality, comparing favorably with the 
best coals of Holmes county. It is Coal No. 1, or the Briar Hill Seam, 
which no where in this part of the State reaches that high degree of 
excellence which characterizes it in the counties on the northern margin 
of the coal-field. Dr. A. J. Scott, of Loudonville, reports that the black- 
smiths commend this for their uses, and prefer it to the Nashville coal. 
Unfortunately, the area covered by it is quite limited, and its thickness 
variable. It may probably be mined successfully in a small way, but the 
quantity will not justify the construction of first-class appliances for 
mining. 
Directly below the coal, or separated from it by a thin bed of fire-clay 
and shale, are found patches of the Sub-carboniferous Conglomerate, 
which sometimes reaches a thickness of ten feet, and in places is en- 
tirely wanting. On high hills, north of Pine Fork, this Conglomerate is 
largely represented by a silicious iron ore, some of it of great purity, and 
of the same character as that found in Licking county. These knobs 
are covered with adense growth of chestnut, and should be permanently 
appropriated to the growth of this timber. 
