HOLMES COUNTY. | 54S 
At James Martin’s bank, north, and in the same township, it is two 
feet thick, hard, bright, compact, a semi-bdlock coal, but containing much 
sulphur, Above it are ten feet of hard, dark, sandy shales. On John 
and Charles Steel’s land, in Hardy township, north of Judge Armor’s, it 
is two feet three znches thick, in three benches, roof massive, bituminous 
shale, coal serai-bituminous, and with much sulphur. When examined, 
it had been opened oniy to the distance of a few feet, and was said to be 
increasing in thickness, and improving in quality. Ne : 
At John Carey’s, west of the Killbuck, and near Millersburg, it is 
also two feet three inches thick, in three benches, separated by sulphur- 
seams, and of no value. ‘The sand-reck rests directly on the coal. 
The outcrop of this seam can be seen in the ravine below the Hardy 
(Coal Company’s banks; on Barney Carpenter’s land, near the east line of — 
Monroe township, and in various other places. Over more than half of 
the county the deep ravines are below its horizon, and it will doubtless 
be found in many other places. It gives promise of affording much coal 
of good quality, and probabiy some of it equal to the best typical block 
— coal. 
The shales above it vary in thickness from a few inches to fifteen feet, 
and in places are entirely wanting, the sandstone resting directly on the 
coal. it is probable they were originally deposited of a nearly uniform 
thickness, and that the agencies which brought in the coarse material of 
the sandstone have cut down and removed the shale, doubtless carrying 
away also, in places, the entire body oi the coal. 
From ten to thirty feet above Coal No. 1 isa local deposit of coal and 
dron, which i have been able to trace over a large part of the county 
west of the Killbuck. The best exposures of it are on Locust Lick Run, 
on Mr. Ellison’s land, in the west part of Monroe township; below 
Mitchart’s bank, a little south and west of this; on Carpenter’s iand, 
west of the Mardy Coal Company’s and Mr. Sanders’s banks; in the ra- 
vines south and west of the Hardy Coal Company’s lower bank; and on 
Shaffer’s land, west of Nashville, in Washington township. It consists 
of from ten to twelve inches of cannel coal. and about the same thickness 
of bituminous coai below it, with a band of massive iron ore between the 
benches. The ore is in places highly bituminous, rerembling a compact 
black band; in other piaces it is caleareous or argillaceous. It is re- 
ported in some localities as four feet thick, but [ have seen it reaching a 
thickness of only eight to ten inches, with scattered patches and nodules 
of ore above and below it. In some places, one or both benches of coal 
disappear, and are separated by layers of carbonaceous shale. Occasion- 
ally the two benches of coal haye a much larger interval between them, 
