Columbiana County, Ohio - Chapter 4, 1879

Indian Towns

In 1754, a detachment of English, forty in number, under Lieut. Ward, erected a fortification at the junction of the Alleghany and Monongahela Rivers, known as the " Forks" of the Ohio, now the site of Pittsburgh. The post was captured, in April of that year, by a strong force of French and Indians under Contrecocur, who erected a fortification which he called " Fort Duquesne." On the 28th of May, Col. Washington surprised and captured without resistance a detachment of fifty men, under M. Jumonville, whereupon, anticipating an attack from a larger force, he fell back to the Great Meadows, where he erected a defense afterwards known as " Fort Necessity." The fort was invested by a force of nine hundred French and Indians, July 3, and capitulated after a brave defense. One year afterwards, July 9, 1755, Gen. Braddock was slain and his army routed in a campaign undertaken for the reduction of Fort Duquesne. The scene of the conflict, called " Braddock's Field," was upon the Monongahela, ten miles above its junction with the Ohio. Another army was organized in 1758 for the reduction of the fort, upon whose near approach the French, " having dismantled the works, set fire to the buildings at night, and departed down the Ohio, in a blaze of light, to join the French troops on the Mississippi."

The Indian tribes were not parties to the treaty between England and France made in February, 1763; but continued to menace and assail the settlements, and began the " Pontiac War" in the same year. Having been sorely defeated at " Bushy Run," near Fort Pitt, by Col. Bouquet, August 5, the Indians retreated north of the Ohio, deserted their former towns, all the country between Presque Isle and Sandusky, and all of Eastern Ohio.

Determined to bring the Indians to submission, Gen. Gage planned two expeditions, of whose operations the following is a condensed narrative.§ Delays prevented the advance of the columns until the fall of 1764;

A body of troops under Col. Bradstreet was sent against the Wyandot*, Oltaicas, Chippewa s, and other nations living upon or near the lakes; and another corps, under the command of Colonel Bouquet, should attack the Delawares, Shawanese, Minyoes, Mohicktms, and other nations between the Ohio and the lakes.

Col. Bradstreet was to proceed to Detroit, Michilimaekinae, and other places, return to Sandusky, and there remain to prevent assistance being sent by the Western Indians to their beleagured brethren in Ohio.

Col. Bouquet with his force of regular and provincial troops, amounting to about fifteen hundred men, after many delays, marched from Fort Pitt on the 3d of October.

On October 5 the army reached Logstown, Pa. (situated seventeen miles and a half, fifty-seven perches, by the path from Fort Pitt), a former trading-place of the French and English, which the Shawavese and Delawares had abandoned in the year 1750. On the 6th they came again to the Ohio, about three miles from Logstown, and continuing the march a half-mile farther, passed Big Beaver Creek. About a mile below its confluence with the Ohio stood formerly a large town, on a steep bank, built by the French of square logs, with stone chimneys, for some of the Shawanese, Delaware, and Miuyn tribes, who abandoned it in 1758, when the French deserted Fort Duquesne. Near the fording of Beaver Creek also stood about seven houses, which were deserted and destroyed by the Indians after their defeat at Bushy Run. . . . About two miles before the army came to Beaver Creek, one of the people who had been made prisoner by six Delawares about a week before, near Fort Bedford, having made his escape from them, came and informed the colonel that these Indians had the day before fallen in with the army, but kept themselves concealed, being surprised at our numbers. Two miles beyond Beaver Creek, by two small springs, was seen the skull of a child that had been fixed on a pole by the Indians. The tracks of fifteen Indians were this day discovered. The camp No. 5 is seven miles, one quarter, and fifty-seven perches from Big Beaver Creek; the whole march of this day being about twelve miles.

Sunday, 7th October, passing a high ridge, they had a line prospect of an extensive country to the right, which in general appeared level, with abundance of tall timber. The camp, No. 6, lies at the foot of a steep descent, in a rich valley, on a stony ground, three sides thereof jj Bouquet's Expedition against the Ohio Indians, in 1761, with map, and preface by Francis Parkman. Ohio Valley Historical Series, Cincinnati, 1868.

surrounded by a hollow, and on the fourth side a small hill, which was occupied by a detached guard. This day's march was six miles, six'ty-five perches. Monday, 8th October, the army crossed Little Beaver Creek, and one of its small branches. This creek is eight perches wide, with a good ford, the country about it interspersed with hills, rivulets, and rich valleys, like that described above. Camp No. 7 lies by a small run on the side of a hill, commanding the ground about it, and is distant eleven miles, one quarter, and forty-nine perches from the last encampment.

Tuesday, October 9th. In this day's march the path divided into two branches, that to the southwest leading to the lower towns upon the Muskingham. In the forks of the path stand several trees painted by the Indians in a hieroglyphic manner, denoting the number of wars in which they have been engaged, and the particulars of their success in prisoners and scalps. The camp, No. 8, lies on a run and level piece of ground, with Yellow Creek close on the left, and a rising ground near the rear of the right face. The path after the army left the forks was so brushy and entangled that they were obliged to cut all the way before them, and also to lay several bridges, in order to make it passable for the horses, so that this day they proceeded only five miles, three quarters, and seventy perches.

Wednesday, ltlth, marched one mile with Yellow Creek on the left at a small distance all the way, and crossed it at a good ford fifty feet wide; proceeding, [passed] an alternate succession of small hills and rich vales, finely watered with rivulets, to camp No. 9, seven miles and sixty perches in the whole.

On the 1 1 th the army crossed a branch of the Muskingham, and on the 18th the Nemenshehelas, - a little above where it empties into that branch of the Muskingham, - and another tributary of that branch, and passed on to the main branch of the Muskingham, where they encamped, a short distance from Tuscarawas.

Two messengers who had been dispatched from Fort Pitt with letters to Col. Bradstreet were made prisoners by the Delawares , but were released when the arrival of the army became known, and ordered by their captors to inform Col. Bouquet " that the head men of the Delawares and Shawanese were coming as soon as possible to treat of peace with him."

Col. Bouquet, trusting nothing to their protestations, made safe arrangements for a meeting with the Indians at some distance from the camp on the following day, October 15th. Several large bodies of Indians were within a few miles of the camp, who were represented at the meeting by Kiyashuta, chief of the Senecas, and fifteen warriors ; Custaloga, chief of the Wolf tribe, and Beaver, chief of the Turkey tribe of the Delawares, and twenty warriors; Keissinautchtha, a chief of the Shuwanese, and six warriors.

The firmness of Col. Bouquet, backed as he was by a strong force, and, what was quite as influential, the prestige of victory achieved at Bushy Run, brought the' Indians to accord all that he demanded. " I give you," said he, " twelve days from this date to deliver into my hands at Wakatamake all the prisoners in your possession, without any exception, - Englishmen, Frenchmen, women, and children, whether adopted into your tribes, married, or living amongst you under any denomination and pretense whatsoever, - together with all negroes. And you are to furnish said prisoners with clothing and provisions, and horses to carry them to Fort Pitt. When you have fully complied with these conditions, you shall then know on what terms you may obtain the peace you sue for."

The Indians acceded to the terms, and by the 9th of November most of the prisoners had arrived, two hundred and six in number. Of these were - Pennsylvanians, fortynine males and sixty-seven females and children ; Virginians, thirty-two males and fifty-eight females and children. The scene which followed the arrival of the prisoners has few equals in the world's history, and is described in the subjoined account:

" In the camp were to be seen fathers and mothers recognizing and clasping their once-lost babes, husbands hanging around the necks of their newly-recovered wives, sisters and brothers unexpectedly meeting together after long separation, scarce able to speak the same language, or for some time to be sure that they were children of the same parents ! In all these interviews joy and rapture inexpressible were seen, while feelings of very different nature were painted in the looks of others, - flying from place to place in eager inquiries after relatives not found ; trembling to receive an answer to their questions; distracted with doubts, hopes, and fears on obtaining no account of those they sought for, or stiffened into living monuments of horror and woe on learning their unhappy fate !

" The Indians too, as if wholly forgetting their usual savageness, bore a capital part in heightening this most affecting scene. They delivered up their beloved captives with the utmost reluctance, shed torrents of tears over them, recommending them to the care and protection of the commanding officer. Their regard to them continued all the time they remained in camp. They visited them from day to day, and brought them what corn, skins, horses, and other matters they had bestowed on them while in their families, accompanied with other presents and all the marks of the most sincere and tender affection. Nay, they did not stop here, but, when the army marched, some of the Indians solicited and obtained leave to accompany their former captives all the way to Fort Pitt, and employed themselves in hunting and bringing provisions for them on the road. A young Mingo carried this still further, and gave an instance of love which would make a figure even in romance. A young woman of Virginia was among the captives, for whom he had formed so strong an attachment as to call her his wife. Against all remonstrances and warnings of the imminent danger to which he exposed himself by approaching the frontiers, he persisted in following her at the risk of being killed by the surviving relations of many unfortunate persons who had been captured or scalped by those of his nation." *

Colonial Grants

The conflicting claims of European nations to lands in America were succeeded by those of rival companies, to whom grants had been issued by one or other of the rival powers.

Some of the early patents issued by Great Britain were, by reason of carelessness or favoritism, made to " overlap," giving rise to controversies which lasted until the year 178G.

The earliest grant for lands on this continent was probably that in 1603 to Henry De Monts - or Dumont - by Henry IV., King of France, covering all the territory from sea to sea, lying between the parallels of 40° and 46° north latitude. Little claim seems to have been made under this patent.

The first English patent was issued by James I., in 1606, to the London and Plymouth Companies, the former receiving a grant for " South Virginia, extending from the thirty-fourth to the fortieth degree of north latitude, and from the Atlantic on the east to the South Sea on the west," and the latter receiving " North Virginia or New England."

The Plymouth Company was incorporated Nov. 3, 1620, as " The Great Council of Plymouth," and received a "rant covering all of New England in America lying between the fortieth and forty-eighth parallels, north latitude, and extending from sea to sea, excepting lands "actually possessed or inhabited by any other Christian prince or state." Of this grant the Massachusetts Colony purchased, in 1628, a part whose southern boundary was afterwards settled to be the forty-second parallel of north latitude.

to William Penn, his heirs and assigns, all that tract of land in America bounded " on the east by the Delaware River, on the north by the beginning of the forty-third degree of northerly latitude, on the south by a circle drawn twelve miles distant from New Castle town, northward and westward to the beginning of the fortieth degree of north latitude ; thence by the beginning of the said fortieth degree of northerly latitude to extend westward through five degrees of longitude, to be reckoned from the said easterly bounds." This grant covered a part of the previous grant to the Virginia colony on the south, and caused protracted lawsuits, aud surveys which finally ended in compromise. It also trespassed upon the territory previously granted to Connecticut, - to the extent of one degree in width throughout the length of the present State of Pennsylvania, - and the conflicting grants of two colonies caused agitations, not unmixed with riot and bloodshed, lasting for more than a century.

In 1754 a congress composed of deputies from the British colonies north of Virginia, held at Albany by direction of the Lords of Trade and Plantations of England, declared " the ancient colonies of Massachusetts Bay and Connecticut were by their respective charters made to extend to the South Sea."*

The territory lying north and west of the Ohio was claimed partly by the States of Massachusetts, Connecticut, New York, and Virginia. The claims were based on the indefinite royal charters, with the additional claim, on the part of Virginia, of title by conquest. For the purpose of adjusting amicably the several claims, the four States named, with others of the old colonies, ceded their interests in the territory to the Federal government. Two reservations were made. One was made by Connecticut to compensate for lands lost under the charter to Pennsylvania, and embraced " that region of the present State of Ohio lying north of latitude 41°, and west of the Pennsylvania line. It was bounded on the north by Lake Erie, and was about one hundred and twenty miles iu length from east to west, and its greatest breadth from north to south was about sixty-eight miles. The area comprised, by estimate, three millions of acres, and was known as the ' Connecticut Reserve.' "f

Virginia reserved the lands lying between the Scioto and Little Miami, to be appropriated to the liquidation of the claims of her Revolutionary soldiers. This reservation was known as the " Virginia Military District." In addition, Congress reserved or appropriated lands on the east side of the Scioto, known as the " United States Military District," for the payment of claims of Revolutionary soldiers upon the Federal government.

Commissioners from New York and Massachusetts met in convention at Hartford in December, 1786, and awarded to Massachusetts six million acres in the western part of New York, the latter retaining the jurisdiction. Thus the claims of the individual States to lands north of the Ohio were fully extinguished, other claims adjusted, and the way prepared for the erectiou of the " Northwestern Territory."

Indian Treaties

The first line established between the Indian and English lands, termed the " line of property," was agreed upon at Fort Stanwix, on the Mohawk River, in IT 08. This agreement was made by Sir William Johnson, superintendent of Indian affairs in America, with the Iroquois on behalf of themselves and their dependent nations, the Shauxmese, Delawares , Mingoes of Ohio, and other tribes.

This line began where the Cherokee or Hogohee River, then so called, emptied into the Ohio* River, and "running thence upwards along the south side of the said river to Kittaning, which is above Fort Pitt; from thence by a direct line to the nearest fork of the west branch of the Susquehanna; thence through the Alleghany Mountains, along the south side of the west branch until it comes opposite the mouth of a creek called Tiadaghton ; thence across the west branch along the south side of that creek and along the north side of Burnett's Hills to a creek called Awandaejf thence down the same to the east branch of the Susquehanna, and across the same and up the east side of that river to Oswegy from thence east to Delawar River, and up that river to opposite where Tianaderha falls into Susquehanna ; thence to Tianaderha, and up the west side of the west branch to the head thereof ; and thence by a direct line to Canada Creek, where it empties into the Wood Creek at the west of the carrying-place beyond Fort Stanwix. "§ In thisagreement the lands east of thedescribed boundary were recognized as the property of the whites ; all west thereof as the exclusive property of the Indians.

The boundary described was repudiated by the Chickasas and Cherokees south of the Ohio, in the present State of Kentucky, who denied the authority of the " Six Nations" to make the cession. Their protest was respected, and subsequent treaties made to confirm the English titles.

By the treaty of Fort Stanwix, in New York, concluded Oct. 22, 1784, the Indians ceded a large part of their possessions in the western part of that State, and on the 21st day of the following January the Treaty of Fort Mc- Intosh, in the western part of Pennsylvania (where is now the town of Beaver), was concluded and signed. The treaty was effected by George Rogers Clark, Richard Butler, and Arthur Lee, commissioners on the part of the United States, and was subscribed by the Wyandots, Delaloares, Ottawas, and Chippewas , who then occupied the country near Lake Erie, west of the Cuyahoga River. By the terms of the treaty the Indians relinquished all the territory in the present State of Ohio lying east of an irregular line, extending from Lake Erie to the Ohio River, which afterwards, became the western boundary of the county of Washington. 1 1

The Indians of New York were dissatisfied with the last treaty of Fort Stanwix, and the Northwestern Indians no less with that of Fort McIntosh. England had reluctantly surrendered the country between the lakes and the Ohio, and through her agents and traders continually urged the Indians to claim to that river as the rightful limit of their lands, fixed by the treaty with Sir William Johnson, in 1768.^} Thus pressed to renewed negotiations, Arthur St. Clair, governor of the Northwestern Territory, as commissioner, secured a treaty at Fort Harmar, signed Jan. 9, 1789, by which all the " Six Nations," except the Mohawks, reaffirmed the treaty of Fort Stanwix, and the six Northwestern tribes, Wyandots, Delawares, Ottawas, Chippewas, Pottawatamies, and Saules, recognized both treaties, and the boundaries established by them respectively.

The Shawanese had made, Jan. 31, 1786, a treaty, confirming a prior treaty of Jan. 1-1, 1784, and reserving as their hunting-grounds " the territory lying west of the Great Miami, and north of a line drawn due west from the mouth of Mad River to River de la Panse, and down that stream to the Wabash."** They, and other Indians upon the head-waters of the Wabash and Maumee, refused to join in the treaty of Fort Harmar. Owing to this, and to adverse British influence, the treaty of Fort Harmar proved valueless.

It was not until after the campaign of Gen. Wayne against the tribes of the Northwest, resulting in the decisive battle of Maumee Rapids, Aug. 20, 1794, that a treaty was made effectually alienating the Indian title to the territory now constituting the State of Ohio. Such a treaty was made by Gen. Wayne, commissioner on the part of the United States, with the twelve tribes, called Wyandots, Delawares , Shawanese , Ottawas, Chippewas, Pottawatamies, Miami's, Eel Rivers, Weas, Kichapoos , Pianlceshas, and Kaskaskias.

Government Grants

There were no extensive tracts of land purchased within the present limits of Columbiana County by organizations such as the " Ohio Company," through whose instrumentality the first settlement in the Northwest Territory was made, in 1788, at Marietta.'}"}' Grants were made by the

"It is evident that the British Cabinet, in retaining the Northwestern posts, had not abandoned the hope that circumstances might yet compel the United States to recognize the Ohio River as their Northwestern boundary." - A lunette's Valley of the Mississippi, vol. ii. p. 225.

ff In June, 1783, the officers of the army, to the number of 283, petitioned Congress that the lands to which they were entitled might be located in " that tract of country bounded north on Lake Erie, east on Pennsylvania, southeast and south on the river Ohio, west on a line beginning at that part of the Ohio which lies twenty-four miles west of the mouth of the river Scioto, thence running north on a meridian line till it intersects the river Miami, which falls into Lake Erie, and thence down the middle of the river to the lake." They speak of this tract as "of sufficient extent, the land of such quality and situation as may induce Congress to assign and mark it out as a tract or territory suitable to form a distinct government (or colony of the United States), in time to be admitted one of the Confederated States of America;" and also as " a tract of country not claimed as the property of, or within the jurisdiction of, any particular State of the Union."

This petition was forwarded by Gen. Rufus Putnam to Gen. Washington, in a letter urging his co-operation. Gen. Putnam suggested the formation of townships six miles square, with reservations for the ministry and schools.

United States direct to individual settlers. The greater portion of the following grant constitutes more than a quarter of the present corporation of Salem, in the northeast part thereof, and is introduced as an illustration.

"To ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, GREETING: KNOW ye, That Samuel Davis, assignee of Samuel Smith, having deposited in the Treasury a certificate of the Register of the Land-office at Steubenville, whereby it appears that full payment has been made for the Lot or Section of Land number Thirty-one of Township number Sixteen, in Range number Three, of the Lands directed to be sold at Steubenville by the act of Congress entitled ' An act providing for the sale of the Lands of the United States in the Territory northwest of the Ohio, and above the mouth of Kentucky River,' and of the acts amendatory of the same, There is Granted by the United States unto the said Samuel Davis the lot or section of land above described. To Have and to Hold the said lot or section of land, with the appurtenances, unto the said Samuel Davis, his heirs and assigns forever.

Given under my Hand at the City of W ashington, the Ninth day of August, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and six', and of the Independence of the United States of America the thirtyfirst.

Chapter Yi Geology

Practical investigations, having in view the development of deposits of coal and limestone, have supplied the principal information so far obtained concerning the geology of Columbiana County. The groups which underlie the coal series are perhaps most definitely and accurately described by Col. Charles Whittlesey, in a recent paper upon the "General Geology of the Counties of Columbiana, Stark, and Tuscarawas."* He says, - the "Ohio Company of Associates was organized, whose object was to raise a fund in Continental certificates, for the sole purpose of buying lauds in the Western Territory, and making a settlement." The price of the land was one dollar per acre. The tract was bounded on tlie east by the seventli range of townships, south by the Ohio, west by the west boundary of the seventeenth range, extending so far north that an east and west line would embrace the number of acres, besides the reservations. These were, "section 10 for schools; 29 for the support of religion ; 8, 11, and 20 to be disposed of by Congress; and two townships for a university." The company paid down onehalf of the purchase-money, hut were unable to fulfill the original contract, whose terms were subsequently modified. Patents were issued May 10, 1792, for one-half of the original tract, 750,000 acres; for one-seventh, 211,285 acres; and for 100,000, to be conveyed in tracts of 100 acres each, as a bounty to each male person of eighteen years of age, being an actual settler.

The patents were issued to Rufus Putnam, Manasseh Cutler, Robert Oliver, and Gridin Greene, in trust for the Ohio Company of Associates. They were signed by George Washington, President, and Thomas Jefferson, Secretary of State. With the exception of one to the State of Pennsylvania, March 8, 1792, these are the first land patents issued by our government, and are deposited, together with the original contract of Oet. 2, 1787, in the library of Marietta College. See pamphlet address, by Israel Ward Andrews, D.D., president of Marietta College, 187G.

" Until it is definitely settled what is Portage and Chemung^ in Pennsylvania, to the Ohio line, those terms cannot be used with much certainty in this State.

"First. - Beneath the coal a ' conglomerate group ,' embracing the flags and shales below the Berea grit, to the black or Huron shale. This is characterized by sandstone layers of a finer grain, a greenish-yellow color, and occasional pebbles, rapidly passing into olive or light-green shales, with thin plates of iron ore and ferruginous sandstone. The local subdivisions of these two groups, from the Lake to the Ohio River, yet remain to be worked up.

" Taking the lowest places in these basins, representing the sumps and swamps of the mines over large spaces, the elevations of such points show an inclination quite regular as to direction, but differing materially as to the amount or rate of inclination. Whenever we fix the elevation of three such points, we have a plane of dip for the space represented. Until this is done, there is ample room for mistakes in the identification of strata. Any survey where these data are neglected will soon require rectification. It is much easier to arrange them conjecturally, but quite unsafe. It would be reasonable to conclude that the upheavals of the Alleghany mountain chains, which occurred after the carboniferous epoch, would produce undulations, folds, or disturbances in the Ohio coal strata, but a close examination does not sustain such an hypothesis. The irregularities visible in these beds appear to be due to currents of deposition which swept about in channels and eddies, producing ridges and hollows on the ancient bottom, as the ocean waters do now.

" Beds of sandstone and shale are the most irregular of the series. Those of limestone, iron ore, and coal are more persistent, because their deposit is due not only to mechanical sediments, but to chemical attraction and segregation. The shales and sandstones are almost without chemical affinities, and were deposited by the currents, with a variable force, acting without system. The mineral substances with which the carboniferous seas were charged sank in comparatively quiet and muddy waters, and therefore with more regularity than the earthy matters ; but in neither case with perfect uniformity. Theoretically, the thin mineral strata should be, and in fact are, about equally persistent; but it is not safe to assume that any of them are identical with other beds of the same mineralogical character, until the connection is made out by close examination in the field.

f The Portage and Chemung groups are extensively developed in Central and Western New York, disappearing under the coal measures near the Pennsylvania line. They are well exposed at the head of Lakes Seneca and Cayuga ami along tho Chomung River. - Editor.

many years to come relating to the physical geology of Ohio. Whoever looks through the reports on economical geology in the coal-producing counties of the northeastern district will be unable to reach satisfactory conclusions."

Economical Geology

Whether the several strata of coal and limestone known to exist in the county are continuous to any considerable extent, and what are their relations to similar formations in the counties west and south, are questions not fully answerable by geologists. The persistence of none of these strata can be said to be fully established, save, perhaps, that of the " Pittsburgh, Wheeling, and Pomeroy bed, above the so-called barren measures." Granting the permanence of this, and " using it as the only well-fixed horizon, there are below it, . . . in Columbiana and Jefferson Counties, ten (10) seams of coal and six (6) of limestone; in the Conotton Valley, according to Prof. Read, there are seven (7) beds of limestone and seven (7) of coal; in Muskingum County eight (8) seams of coal and twelve (12) of limestone. Farther south, in Hocking and Athens Counties, different observers do not agree as to the number of limestone, iron ore, and coal strata. There are profiles showing eleven (11) beds of limestone and seven (7) seams of coal. In Gallia and Lawrence Counties, on the Ohio River, Messrs. Andrews and Gilbert give, in the same vertical space, seven (7) beds of limestone and ten (10) of coal." *

A survey and map made in 1854 by Professor Forrest Shepherd, of New Haven, for the " Ohio Diamond Coal Company," - whose property was situated in Jefferson County, on the left bank of Yellow Creek near its junction with the Ohio, - gives a vertical section of the various strata at that point. The lowest stratum, at the level of the river, was iron ore, which was succeeded by coal, three to five feet; a "great bed of fire-clay; coal; iron ore; slate; sandstone ; white clay ; very rich calcareous ore ; fossiliferous limestone; coal; sandstone; coal, eight feet ; sandstone; slaty limestone ; coal; slate, thick bed; coal; iron ore; heavy bed of limestone; sandstone, good for building; coal, five feet. The total thickness of coal in the seven veins was about thirty feet, of which twenty-one feet were workable."

Iron Ores

Concerning the four considerable deposits of iron ore, the report of Professors B. Silliman, Jr., and J. A. Porter, of Yale College, as published in May, 1855, was as follows: " These all belong to the class of calcareous ores or car- bonate of iron, with various proportions of carbonates of lime and magnesia, alumina, etc. There are four seams of iron ore, . . . one below the lowest visible coal seams, one immediately over the Shepherd coal, one of very valuable calcareous ore not far below the ' Ray vein,' and above which occurs a stratum of fossiliferous limestone. The hist bed of iron ore rests upon the uppermost coal seam save one. . . . Two of them which we have examined at several points are abundantly stocked with nodular iron, in masses from the size of a kidney to those which will weigh from one hundred to two hundred pounds.

" The band, or stratum, which yields the so-called calcareous ore, appears to us peculiarly valuable, since the ore, as far as we are able to judge, contains sufficient lime to flux itself.

" We broke very many of the nodules, with a view of determining the presence of other metals or of sulphur, but we did not find a trace of anything but iron."

The sandstone strata furnish good stone for buildings and other structures, and have been to a considerable extent utilized. Fossils are found in the rocks in some localities.