HOLMES COUNTY. 557 
coal is well opened, of good thickness and quality. The following is a 
section at this place: 
Sandstone. 
IBIS SIMS coaG aS ahhh esoRen eons Bone BRS ae Le Naat arctan iaves 4 to 5 feet. 
Wanmolico aliens ve sa) sere ial iatelevei aeieiciseeiate cielo ae weitees Se eee 1 foot. 
Blackeshalewss asses REEVE Noretiev tara soe oi avaisi arise islet ciieraeieserere Sat ead 6 inches. 
Impure sulphury coal....-...--.- SeonnHooena 6oscsossos 8) ise IO Ta@nes, 
Coal, good (sulphur seam at bohien 2 ‘neihon) SA Acid HORA eee 3 feet. 
SON (thea, Wale WO CRs Gkos C6 bY e Sb See scocouaseuccsmasansor 15 to 20 feet. 
An excellent entry has been driven into the hill, and extensive prepa- 
rations made for mining. The entry is two hundred and eighty-five feet 
above the railroad in the valley below, and bad engineering to overcome 
this rise, together with poor management, involved the company in seri- 
ous embarrassments before any large amount of coal was taken out, so 
that the most of the money invested in the enterprise was lost. The 
debris at the mouth of the mine discredits the coal with the very large 
amount of sulphur shown in it, but from an examination of the face of 
the coal, it is evident that with proper care it can be sent to the market 
with no large amount of this impurity. 
Coal No. '7.—The sandstone above Coal No. 6 is senerally massive, and 
reaches a thickness varying from thirty to ninety feet. It constitutes 
one of the most prominent features of the geology of the county, fre- 
qently forming precipitous bluffs, with clean rock exposures, and in 
places its debris, in large masses, so covers the slopes of the hills as to 
entirely unfit them for cultivation. Large blocks of this sandstone are 
found in most of the valleys of recent erosion, and from these detached 
pieces the greater part of the rock quarried in the county for bridge and 
building stone has been obtained. It marks accurately the horizon of 
Coal No. 6 below it, and of No. 7 above, except that in places it has aj 
parently cut away, removing the lower of these coals. 
No. 7 is generally an excellent coal, containing a small percentage of 
ash and little sulphur. At Taylor’s Bank, in Knox township, it is from 
four to six feet thick, with a shale roof and fine clay below. No better 
coal than this is found in the county, but it is so near the surface that 
it is soft, rusty, and uninviting in appearance, and the area covered by 
it is not large. On Mr. KH. Glascoe’s land it is so near the surface as to 
be quite worthless, and throughout most of the county it is either want- 
ing, or so near the tops of the hills, as to be of little value. Its outcrop 
may be traced in the hills in the neighborhood of the Taylor and of the 
Holmes County Company’s Mine, in Mechanic township, and in all the 
high hills in the neighborhood of Saltillo. Under Berlin village it is 
