Muskingum County, Ohio - Chapter 45, 1892 (part 1 of 31)

Chapter 45

USKINGUM COUNTY is bounded on the north by Coshocton county, on the east by Guernsey and Noble counties, on the south by Morgan and Perry counties, and on the west by Perry and Licking counties, and has an area of more than 800 square miles. The northern portion may be regarded as a valley, having the Muskingum river as its lowest line. This river rises and has its source wholly within the limits of this state, taking its rise m a swamp in Richland county about thirty miles in a direct line from Lake Erie. It drains a surface of about two hundred miles from east to west, passing wholly through an uneven, and in most parts hilly, country which abounds in the minerals most useful to man. Its current is gentle, with few rapids. A glance at a map of the county shows the Muskingum entering its borders somewhat eastward of the centre of the northern boundary. It has its course in a general direction south, making its exit about midway of the southern boundary line, thus dividing the county into two portions, of which the eastern is the larger. The western section is nearly equally divided by the Licking river, which flows from Licking county in a southwest direction into the Muskingum river at Zanesville. The Muskingum (lows through or along the boundaries of Madison, Cass, Muskingum, Washington, Falls, Springfield, Wayne, Brush Creek, Harrison and Blue Rock townships ; the Licking through Licking, along the northeast border of Hopewell and through Falls townships. A few dividing ridges are seen in the Muskingum valley, but they are limited in extent, and the streams, after following a more or less tortuous course, flow into the river. The surface of the county is much broken and affords easy drainage. The northwestern section is drained by the Wakatomaka creek, which flows through Jackson and Cass townships into the Muskingum at Dresden. The southwestern is traverseed by Jonathan's creek and Moxhala creek, whose waters flow together prior to entering the Muskingum, and by Brush creek. To the extreme northeast on Wills creek and White Eyes creek, the former, with its many forks and tributaries, drains Monroe and Highland townships entering into Wills creek at the north. Wills creek, uniting with the river a few miles north from Dresden, is fed by numerous small streams from Monroe and Adams townships, and frequent tributaries to the river are seen in Madison, Washington, Muskingum and Cass townships. Symmes creek flows through Madison township into the Muskingum. It has two branches, of which the northern has its source in Adams township and the southern in Salem township. Meigs creek drains the townships of Blue Rock and Meigs on the southeast, and Salt creek, heading in Highland township, flows west of south, through Salem, Perry and Salt creek townships, and flows into the Muskingum at Duncan's Palls. This drainage system is complete, freeing the country from malarial influences and affording a constant supply of water for stock, while innumerable springs yield more than enough for household purposes. The water-power of the county is exceptionally good agd is referred to many times elswhcre in this volume.

above Zanesville, are not constantly to be depended on as commercial outlets. The fall in these streams is slight, and slack water navigation is perfectly feasible. Many years ago a survey of Wills creek was made, with a view to this improvement, and the fall was found to be a little more than ten inches per mile. In former times this creek was subject to very extensive freshets, giving from fourteen to eighteen feet of water, overflowing the country for miles, and, owing to the sluggishness of the stream, lasting for several weeks. During later years such freshets have been of rare occurrence, as, temporarily, at least, the climate has become much dryer than previously. At certain seasons of the year there has usually been sufficient water to admit of floating out rafts of timber. In the Muskingum the supply is more regular, and though now, during the greater part of the year, not sufficient for commercial purposes, a comparatively small outlay would render it navigable most of the time.

The surface of the county east of the river is generally uneven. Parts are quite hilly, although none of the elevations reach the dignity of mountains. The hills are rolling, tillable and seldom rise above the stream over 250 feet. Much of the county west of the Muskingum is comparatively even, and the rest undulatory. The scenery is striking and attractive, and abounds in a variety of views, unsurpassed within any similar area in the state. Flint Ridge, one of the highest elevations in the county, is in Hopewell township, west of Zanesville, and High Hill, in the eastern part of the county, is in great favor with tourists. From its summit the eye ranges from twenty-five to fifty miles and includes an unexcelled landscape of village, farm and wood. The variety of surface is not only picturesque, but affords a wide scope to agriculture.

The line of the fortieth parallel of north latitude crosses the county near the center, and was made the base for survey. That portion north of this line was known as the United States military lands, and was primarily surveyed in 1803 by Levi Barker into four-thousand acre tracts. The portion south of the parallel was congressional lands, and was surveyed into sixmile townships in 1798 byZaccheus Briggs, John Mathews and Ebenezer Buckingham. Located in the southeastern part of the state, the county is situated near the middle of the great coal section, which is about 180x80 miles. In form, Muskingum is nearly square, being about twenty-seven miles in extent, from north to south, and twenty-five from east to west. It is divided into twenty-five townships, some of which are quite limited in area, and but few of which correspond in boundary with the townships of the original survey. Of the counties of the state, Muskingum ranks fourth as respects area, having, exclusive of lands in cities, towns and corporations, 417,264 acres, an area in square miles of 656. The municipalities of the county are Zanesville, long regarded as one of Ohio's leading cities, and the incorporated towns and villages of Dresden, fifteen miles above Zanesville, on the Muskingum, and Taylorsville, nine miles below, at Duncan's Falls; New Concord, fifteen miles east, and Frazeysburg, about thirteen miles northwest, and Uniontown, Adamsville and Roseville. Among the unincorporated places of more or less size are Norwich, Otsego, Bloomfield, Chandlersville, Duncan's Falls, Gratiot, Irville, Lytlesburg, Northport, Mount Sterling and Rix Mills.

When Zane and his companions "blazed out" the "trace" which bore his name, the territory of the county was covered by a dense growth of large trees. The field notes of Briggs, Mathews and others taken during their surveys name most varieties of timber common to this latitude. Here grow the various oaks, poplars and walnuts; here were the hickory, ash, maple sugar tree, beech, sycamore, chestnut, buckeye, wild cherry, the common and slippery elms, the common honey and gum locusts and the dogwood, all among the most predominant species. Upon the woodlands of the county the various kinds of timber above named are still found. Among the wild fruits still more or less abundant are the plum, persimon, service-berry, grape and thorn- and crabapple.

The soil of the county is deep alluvial upon the bottoms of the river and lesser streams, and the valleys of the Muskingum and Licking are seldom excelled in productiveness. A leading crop is corn, of which the Muskingum valley has at times produced more than any other valley in the state. Gray limestone is found in the uneven sections, even to the top of the greatest hills. Upon exposure to atmospheric influences, this stone crumbles, and, fertilizing the soil, renders it equally productive with the lower tracts. The county has no waste surface. The clay lands, having an admixture of more or less sand, afford the farmer high remuneration for his labor, and many of the leading cultivators till these alone. The slope of the county is mainly to the southeast and south, and the drainage is toward the Ohio river. Farms in Muskingum county are usually small. Small farms bearing profitable crops tend to careful and scientific cultivation and heavy population. Indeed large farms here are exceptional, and herein it may be claimed lies the secret of the county's agricultural prosperity. Near Zanesville gardening and small farming are practiced. Farther away much land is devoted to clover and timothy and stock farming is followed. Muskingum is scarcely excelled by any of the most extensive sheepgrowing counties. Her Devon and Durham breeds of cattle have taken numerous premiums at the Ohio State and county fairs. During recent years the best of blooded horses for turf and road have been bred, until the horses of Muskingum rank among the finest in the country. The leading grains, aside from corn, are wheat, oats, rye and buckwheat. Both Irish and sweet potatoes grow abundantly. Some tobacco has been grown. Flax, that product of the pioneer days, is no longer raised. The manufacture of butter and cheese is a leading industry. Considerable attention has been given to the cultivation of sorghum and considerable quantities of marketable syrup and sugar have been produced. Much maple sugar and syrup are made yearly for domestic consumption. Muskingum's wool clip is large. Orchards abound. Peaches, pears and apples are generally raised, and there are few farmers who do not have land set out to fruit trees. The size, flavor and appearance of the fruits command high awards of merit. The culture of the grape is successfully pursued. The Concord is the most popular vine, but Delawares, Clintons and other varieties flourish equally well. There are many vineyards, and the agriculturist raises a supply for the family. Gooseberries, raspberries and strawberries of the finest size and flavor are successfully cultivated in quantities not only to supply home demands, but to ship to other localities. In 1872, at one of the finest displays of native fruits ever made in Ohio, at the State Horticultural Fair, the first premium was awarded to Muskingum county.

In her mineral resources Muskingum county ranks pre-eminent. The developments which have been made, and which are daily being made, demonstrates that it is among the richest in the world in coal, iron ore and other valuable minerals. The proximity of these minerals to each other, and the facility with which they can be mined, must have the effect in due time to concentrate in the county a large number of furnaces, iron mills, foundries and other iron manufactures.

12,000 square miles (generally stated at 10,000 square miles), more than one-fourth of the area of the state being underlaid by productive coal measures. The western margin of the Ohio portion of the Appalachian field was through the counties of Trumbull. Geauga, Portage, Summit, Medina, Wayne, Holmes, Knox, Licking, Perry, Hocking, Vinton, Jackson, Pike and Scioto, including Muskingum, and the coal measures are spread over all the territory lying east of this line of outcrop to the State line at the Ohio river. All the beds of coal at present worked are located in the Upper and Lower Coal Measures, the Barren -Measures, as the name indicates, containing little coal of sufficient thickness for the immediate purposes of the miner.

Muskingum county is situated upon the western margin of the great Alleghany coal fields, and consequently borders the vast coalless district which extends over two-thirds of Ohio and large portions of Indiana, Illinois, Wisconsin, Michigan and Western Canada. All of this region is largely dependent upon this and adjoining counties for their supply of coal, and the central position of Muskingum county in this coal region, and the advantages it possesses in the way of railroad transportation, must enable it to command the market of a very wide range of country. There is not a township in the county in which workable beds of coal are not found. Within the county are seven separate and distinct coal strata, each varying from three to seven feet in thickness, besides ten or twelve additional seams, portions of which only are valuable for working at the present time. It is estimated that there is an average aggregate thickness of over forty feet of available coal seams covering the entire county, and in it is found a representative of nearly every important seam in the coal measures of southeastern Ohio. Professor Mather, a former state geologist, says: "There is sufficient coal in Muskingum county alone to supply the entire population of our State with fuel for two hundred and fifty years." While the coal area of the county is greater than any other county in the State, this coal, lying in accessible seams in the hillsides, is readily drained and easily and cheaply mined. Shafting will for long years to come be here unknown. The coal is of the finest quality of bituminous and cannel, being for the most part of a very dry quality - almost entirely free from slate, sulphur, or other impurities - and consequently is fitted for all purposes, whether it be the manufacture o*f iron or for the ordinary uses.

geology of this county, indebtedness is acknowledged to John J. Stevenson and Prof. Edward Orton, from whose reports, published by state authority, it is freely derived:

The consolidated rocks of the county all belong to the carboniferous age, and, for the most part, to the coal measures. The following is an approximate section.

The designation of different coal measures by numbers will be understood by those prac tically conversant with coal mining interests. Others are referred for specific information to the Ohio Geological reports which treat this subject at length.

The dip is somewhat irregular. In the northwestern portion of the county, especially in Jackson township, it is quite sharp to the northeast, but before reaching the Muskingum river it changes to southeast. Along a line running southwest from near Johnson's mills, in Monroe township, to near Sonora, in Perry township, the dip is reversed, and is northwestward until a line is reached passing east of north and south of west through a point about one-half mile cast of Norwich, in Union township. There it again becomes southeastward, and so continues until another line is reached passing just east of New Concord in a northeast and southwest direction, where the dip is once more reversed, and so continues almost to Cambridge, in Guernsey county. The anticlinal passing east of Norwich is regarded as a spur of the main anticlinal passing through Guernsey county, and described in the report on that county. The Norwich anticlinal is somewhat interesting, in that its eastern slope is much more abrupt than its western, the dip per mile being almost three times as great.

Coal No. i of section was observed only in Union township, between New Concord and Norwich. The limestone underlying it is more or less fossiliferous. The coal is of no value. The Crinoidal limestone, in Muskingum, is shaly and course-grained, wanting the compactness and flintiness characteristic of it in Guernsey, Harrison, and Carrol. It is well exposed in Highland, Monroe, Adams, and Salem townships, and runs out in the hills of Madison, about three miles east of the river. The only species found here, aside from those common to this part of the state, is Ctcnoptycliius scmicircularis , of which a single specimen was obtained in Salem township. Coal No. *]b is seen at a distance of from one to thirty-five feet below the limestone. It appears to be of economical importance only in the vicinity of Norwich, in Union township, where it is thirtyfour inches thick. Toward the north it becomes thinner, and averages only ten inches through Salem, Adams, Monroe, and the greater part of Highland. Where of available thickness, it appears to be a very good coal. The "Norwich" coal is quite circumscribed in area. Both it and the underlying limestone disappear northward. It is worked in Highland and Union townships to a slight extent. The limestone under it is blue, weathering buff, very tough, and contains many fossils, among them Productus costatus ( ? ), P. punctatus , P. longispimis , P. Prattenanus , Atliyris subtilita , and Chonctcs gramdifera. Coal No. 7 is as variable here as in the adjoining county of Guernsey. South of the Central Ohio railroad it attains great importance, but thins out abruptly northward, being seldom more than one foot thick, and usually a cannel of poor quality. At one or two points it suddenly expands to nearly six feet, but yields an inferior coal. It was seen in Monroe, Adams, Madison, Washington, and

Muskingum townships. Coal No. 6 is the important bed of the county. It is the upper coal at Coaldale, near Zanesville, and is mined extensively in Monroe, Adams, Madison, Washington, and Muskingum. The thickness varies from three to four feet. The upper part of the bed usually consists of hard, slaty coal, four to six inches thick, burning well, making a hot fire, but leaving much ash. Six to ten inches from the bottom is a very persistent clay parting about two inches thick. Other partings are sometimes seen, but they are not persistent. Ordinarily the coal is of excellent quality, containing little sulphur and yielding a very superior coke. In some localities in Washington township a bed of iron ore is seen about fifteen feet below this coal. Its area is not extensive. Coal No. 5 is local in its development, appearing only in Washington township, and exhibit ing great variations in thickness. It is most important near the Central Ohio railroad, and thins out rapidly northward, disappearing about twelve miles north of Zanesville. Coal No. 4 is a persistent coal, though varying greatly in thickness. Wherever seen in Monroe, Adams, Cass, Jackson, Muskingum, and Madison townships it is a cannel, but is of no value, except at one locality in Jackson township. It is interesting, especially because of its relations to No. 6. In Monroe township it may be traced along White Eyes creek from near Otsego to Johnson's mill, twenty inches thick, and about forty feet below No. 6. It is everywhere known as the "limestone coal,'' but the limestone is not persistent along the outcrop. Tracing it down Wills creek, the interval between the coals is seen to increase, until, at Frew's mills, it becomes ninety feet. At the salt works, near the Coshocton line, it is the same; near Dresden, one hundred feet; on the north branch of Symmes Creek, eighty feet; and near Morton's coal work's, on the Muskingum, one hundred and ten feet. In Liberty township, Guernsey county, it becomes twenty feet. These variations afford an excellent illustration of the doctrine, long since established, of unequal subsidence. The gray limestone overlying this coal is coarse-grained, sometimes shaly, but usually compact, having a fracture like sandstone. It contains great numbers of Spirifcr line atm. Coal No. 3 and its associate limestone arc duplicated in this portion of the county. The coals are thin and of no value. The limestone is variable, in some places pure and ringing when struck, at others quite earthy. The fossils are ordinarily perfect, and arc very numerous. With the upper limestone is a (lint, gray to black in color, and very irregular in quantity and mode of deposition. It occasionally replaces the limestone and becomes three feet thick. In Jackson township it is associated with an important bed of iron ore. It contains numerous remains of mollusca, which, for the most part, are badly preserved. Coal No. 2 is thin and of no economical value. Coal No. 1 was seen only in Licking and Jackson townships. It is variable in thickness, but yields a coal of very superior quality, apparently free from sulphur. Where accessible it is too thin to be of much economical valve, but in some almost inaccessible localities it expands to four feet. The strata below this coal were observed only in Jackson township, and will be found fully described under that head.

Coal No. 4 is here of economical thickness, and in the neighborhood of Frazeysburg is worked at several openings. At Mr. Samuel McCann's bank the section is:

At the end of the entry the thickness is only eighteen inches. The coal is cannel, containing many thin seams of bitumen, and near the top, one of bituminous coal, two and one-half inches thick. It burns beautifully, but leaves a very bulky ash. , A specimen forwarded for analysis gives the following result:

This bed runs out in the hills to the north and west of Frazcysburg. Towards the northeast it rapidly thins out, and along Irish ridge can be traced only as a black streak under the limestone. Coal No. 3 is nowhere of any value, and is seldom more than ten inches thick. Coal No. 2 shows itself near Mr. William Morgan's house, on the West Carlisle road. An opening was made here and pushed for some distance into the hill without finding good coal. The bed was found thirty inches thick. Atanother opening by the road-side the thickness is only eighteen inches. Coal No. 1 has been worked at various points along Wakatomaka creek, in the northwestern portion of the township. It is the thickest on Mr. Joseph Willey's property, in Section 8, where the following section was

The coal from Nos. 3 and 7 is said to be of most excellent quality. Mr. L. W. Doane, who superintended an oil-boring near by, asserts that it is entirely free from sulphur, and is the best blacksmiths' coal he ever saw. The cannel is very poor and little better than bituminous shale. It abounds in vegetable remains, some of which are exceedingly fine. Mr. Doane has obtained slabs of Lepidodendro)i and Sigilldria two to three feet square. The dip eastward here is quite sharp, being five feet in one hundred yards. At none of the other openings in this neighborhood does the coal exceed two and one-half feet in thickness, and sometimes is less than two feet. The ore beds of importance here are two. The lower rests almost directly upon the conglomerate, while the upper is always more or less intimately connected with the flint above Coal No. 3. Between these, and about twenty-five feet below Coal No. 2, is a thick bed which may prove to be of some value. The upper bed has been worked to some extent near Frazeysburg. It lies near the surface, and is obtained by stripping from three to twelve feet of superficial deposits. It varies in thickness from eighteen inches to three feet, but is much injured by its association with the flint, which, though usually very thin, sometimes replaces the ore entirely. This ore occurs in plates, and is obtained with considerable ease, each digger averaging about two tons a day. It frequently contains wellpreserved casts of Productus and Spirifcr. Specimens of this ore yield the following on analysis :

This bed is not persistent to the northeast of Frazeysburg. On the West Carlisle road the flint is found of a beautiful bluish-black color, and containing many fossils. Upon it rests a thin seam of iron ore, capped by a grayish limestone. Three miles from Frazeysburg, both flint and ore have disappeared, and the limestone has become double, with three feet of coarse sandstone between the layers. The lower ore bed was worked many years ago on Mr. Jackson Blissard's property, but the workings have fallen in, and so concealed all exposures. The revival of mining called attention to this bed, and some of it was hauled to Frazeysburg. It is found at many localities along Wakatomaka creek, and is doubtless persistent along the whole course of that stream above the point where the conglomerate first shows itself. It is somewhat interesting to observe that this horizon is an ore-bearing one in West Virginia and Pennsylvania. Just below the conglomerate is found a bed of calcareous ore yielding eighteen per cent, of iron. Though too poor to be worked alone, it has proved useful as a flux. Underlying it is a bed of nodular ore in sandstone, the nodules containing casts of the shells which served as nuclei. Though the amount of available ore here is considerable, the inducements to mine are very slight. There is no reason, however, why this ore should not be a source of great profit to the community. The furnace to work it should be erected at Frazeysburg. Situated on a railroad and the canal, the furnace could be easily supplied with richer ores, and good coke, at low rates, could be obtained by the canal from some of the numerous openings into Coal No. 6, along the Muskingum river. Under such circumstances, a furnace at Frazeysburg could not fail to be successful. Some years ago a number of gentlemen residing in Toledo, and represented here by Mr. L. W. Doane, bored 764 feet in search of oil. Their property lies in section 8, about two and one-half miles north-west from Frazeysburg, and is divided by Wakatomaka creek. The boring was begun eighteen feet below the top of the conglomerate, and on the bank of the creek. Mr. Doane gives the following section :

The gravel, of course, is detritus brought down by the stream. The interval represented by it is partly filled by exposures up the stream, as follows:

Leaving twenty feet, not seen, necessary to make the section in the oil well complete. There is no reason to doubt that Nos. 2, 3, 4 and 5 of this section, as well as No. 2 of the oil well section, belong to the Waverly series, which, therefore, includes all down to No. 8, the Huron shales. The carboniferous conglomerate is here quite coarse, and contains many pebbles two-thirds of an inch in diameter. The sandstone, No. 4 of the second section, is fine grained, without pebbles, and works nicely under the chisel. No. 5 is scarcely inferior to it. At the depth of 671 feet salt water was found in large quantity, and is said by Mr. Doane to average nine or ten per cent, of salt. Under such circumstances, there can be no doubt that, were there suitable means of transportation, the manufacture could be carried on here to profit.

and to yield a coal of fair quality. Coal No. 1 undoubtedly exists west from Nashport, but is probably very thin, as no openings, or even exposures, were observed. The outcrop of Coal No. 4 was seen at several localities, but it is very thin. Near the Muskingum line the flint ore bed has been worked by stripping. Coal is not mined to any extent here, as it can be brought more cheaply by canal from Coshocton county. In the western portion of the township the conglomerate and the Waverly series are exposed.

In Cass township, about one mile west from Dresden, a number of deserted openings upon Coal No. 6 mark its western outcrop. On the road from these banks to Dresden the following section was obtained.

No measurement of the coals was attempted, owing to the character of the exposures. The interval between Nos. 4 and 6 includes the gray limestone, slabs of which were seen about ten feet above No. 4, On Wakatomaka Creek Coal No. 4 was formerly worked. It is there a cannel two feet thick, as measured at the outcrop, the opening having fallen in. The section there is:

The concealed portion includes the flint and blue limestone which are seen in the road a mile further up the creek. At its base is a thin coal four inches thick, not satisfactorily shown in the section, but well exposed at two points farther down the creek. This is Coal No. 2. Coal No. 3 was nowhere observed. Coal No. 6 is worked near Adams' Mills, in the northeastern portion of the township, and is there four feet thick.

In Muskingum township Coals Nos. 4 and 6 are exposed at many localities, but openings are few and for the most part confined to the eastern portion of the township. Near the

No. i is really a bituminous shale. It will burn, but it is not equal to the poorest cannel. Below No. 6 the coal is very bad and contains much pyrites in nodules, while above the same parting there are numerous streaks of the same. The coal here is by no means equal to that obtained east of the Muskingum river. The same coal has been worked by Mr. C. Mattingly and by Mr. Lane, at whose banks it is said to be four feet thick. A specimen from Mr. Bland's bank gives the following: worked on the old Blunt farm, near the line between Cass and Muskingum. It was found impossible to determine accurately whether it is No. 4 or No. 3 a, as there is no satisfactory exposure of the accompanying strata. The thickness is variable, ranging from four to seven feet. It was mined to a considerable extent by a Newark company for distillation. The discovery of petroleum rendered the manufacture unprofitable, and the works have fallen into decay. The limestones here are three in number, each with a coal bed under it. The ore bed can be traced into this township, but has never been worked, and there are no means of determining its thickness or value, as the exposures are very bad.

At Mr. J. Closen's salt works, in the northern portion^ of Madison township, Coal No. 6 is worked. It is about four feet thick, and yields a good coal throughout, though the upper portion is the better. Near the works Coal No. 4 is seen by its smut, accompanied by the gray limestone above. The salt well is 408 feet deep, beginning about 120 feet below Coal No. 6. No record of the boring could be found. The brine contains from five to six per cent, of salt, and the average weekly manufacture is about fifty barrels. A specimen of Coal No. 6,

At Mr. Geo. King's, due south of the salt works about four miles, Coal No. 6 is worked, and shows a thickness of three and one-half feet. Seventy-five feet below it, and directly under the gray limestone, Coal No. 4 has been worked, but is not now exposed. Ten feet lower Coal No. 3 is found in the run under its limestone, which is here of a very light blue color and full of flattened specimens of Spirifer lineatus. The coal is said to be three feet thick. A specimen is given as follows:

Coal No. 6 is worked on this Creek by Messrs. J. M. Garrett and Townsend Gore, at whose banks it is four feet thick. At Mr. Slack's bank it shows the following section:

The coal is of excellent quality and makes a good coke, as it does at Mr. Closen's bank, and also at Mr. Alex. Copland's, nearer the river. The limestones of the section are strikingly alike in color and other features. They are grey in color, and weather into large and regular slabs about four feet square and one foot thick. They are fossiliferous, but the number of species is small and the specimens are badly preserved. The clay under the flint has been manufactured into earthen-ware by Mr. Minner, on Symmes Creek, and appears to be a good article, as the ware found a ready sale, not only in the immediate neighborhood, but also in Dresden. The ore bed is the same as that already referred to in Jackson township, and deserves to be carefully tested. The sandstone over Coal No. 6 is coarse, and sometimes conglomerate. A heavy conglomerate appears, near Mr. George King's, one hundred feet above Coal No. 6.

In Washington township, at Wharton's coal works, and at Coal Dale, about two and onehalf miles from Zanesville, the following section is exposed:

Coal No. 6 only is mined here, as No. 5 yields a coal of too poor a quality to be marketable. Near this locality a canned coal, probably Coal No. 4, is seen in the bed of the creek, and is eighteen inches thick. The two beds, 6 and 5, are seen on the property of Moses Robinson, and on that of Messrs. Fisher and Mangold, near the Adamsvillc road. They are each three and one-half feet thick, but the upper one alone is now worked. No. 5 was formerly mined by stripping, on Mr. Moses Robinson's property, near the school-house.

The coal above the parting is very pure and makes an excellent coke, very compact and handsome. Two coking ovens were in use at the time of examination, and two more were being built. Below the parting the coal is very poor, and often two-thirds of it is pyrites. Streaks of pyrites occur occasionally in the coal above, but are very thin and not extensive. A specimen of Mr. Matthews's coal yields the following:

Mr. Mencfee claims that the bed is entirely free from pyrites, and that neither streaks nor nodules have ever been seen. The entry has been driven only forty feet and has hardly reached sound coal, so that it would be injudicious to speak positively in this connection. The coal is quite pure, shows little tendency to break up on exposure, and exhibits no incrustation of copperas on the outcrop. Fifteen feet below the coal is a bed of iron ore three feet thick, containing about eighteen inches of what has been pronounced a most excellent ore. The deposit is evidently extensive, as it was traced from this point east and north through the township to the opening in Coal No. 6, belonging to Mr. White, on the road to Adamsvi lie. The horizon is one at which ore is found at numerous localities throughout the coal field in the state, and the deposit here merits careful investigation. This is the most northerly point at which Coal No. 5 has been seen in the county, nor, indeed, has it been seen east or west of this township. Though identifying this bed with Coal No. 5 of the state section, Mr. Stevenson doubts the propriety of so doing, especially as there is no associated rock by which to prove its identity. It would seem more probable that' it is an intercalated bed, if one may judge from its sudden origin and expansion. It is absent over the greater part of Muskingum and Guernsey counties in localities where both Nos. 6 and 4 can be recognized without doubt. Coal No. 4 is of no importance, and was observed at no other locality. Here it consists of cannel, three inches, bituminous coal, four inches. Coal No. 3 a, though here only twenty-two inches thick, becomes thirty inches at another point about a mile east from Mr. Menefee's, where it is worked. It is highly esteemed by some, as it makes a cheerful fire. A layer of bituminous coal, three inches thick, is found at the bottom. The limestones are all bluish. The gray limestone is apt to be shaly, is less tough, and more granular than those below. It has been used successfully as a flux. The middle limestone is cherty, with the flint irregularly distributed through it Near Mr. Matthews's coal works the limestone.is absent, being replaced by the flint. The ore, so well marked in Madison, Jackson, Licking, and Muskingum, is absent here, or rather is traceable only by means of a few scattered nodules accompanying the chert. The ore resting upon the gray limestone is of no value, being imbedded in sandstone. The sandstones of the section along the river, between Nos. 4 and 6, are compact, and would doubtless be excellent for building purposes.

Coal No. 7 was seen only at one point. It is seventy-five feet above No. 6, and is not more than nine inches thick. South of the railroad it is mined extensively, and is four to five feet thick.

The greater portion of Adams township lies at such an elevation as to place it far above any available coal. The higher coals, which are worked at Norwich, Union township, thin out northward and become worthless. On Symmes creek and Wills creek Coal No. 6 is exposed. A section of the township is as follows:

Coal No. 6 has been worked on the north fork of Symmes creek, in Section 16. The coal is said to be three and one-half feet thick, and of good quality. Along Wills creek this coal has been mined in Section 2 and in Section 3, being worked only for domestic use.. Coal No. 4 is not reached on Symmes creek, and is nowhere satisfactorily exposed along Wills creek, though it can be recognized here and there, and, with some difficulty, can be traced from Johnson's mills to Frew's mills. Fragments of the gray limestone were occasionally seen, but it was not observed in place. Nodules of iron ore are common in the sandstone above Coal No. 6, but are not in quantity to be of economical value.

Like Adams, Salem township lies at such an elevation as to be without available coal. The crinoidal limestone is seen on nearly all the roads, with Coal No. jb, eight to ten inches thick, about twelve feet below it. In the southern portion, on Salt Creek, there are one or two openings upon the "Norwich" coal, which are worked irregularly during the winter. The coal used here is obtained chiefly from Madison and Monroe townships, where Coal No. 6 is mined. In Monroe township we have the following section:

Coal No. 'jb is nowhere of any value, and is seen only occasionally with the crinoidal limestone, and then on the tops of the highest hills. The limestone is very shaly, and contains few molluscan remains, being made up almost entirely of crinoidal fragments. Coal No. 7 is usually very thin, and can be traced only with the utmost difficulty; but one mile south from Otsego, on the farms of C. Buker and C. B. Painter, it is developed, locally, to a very considerable thickness. There it shows coal, four feet; clay, one foot; coal, one foot six inches. The upper coal is of four feet; clay, one foot; coal, one foot six inches. The upper coal is of only moderately good quality, as it contains much cannel of low grade, but the bottom coal is said to be very fair.

No slaty coal is here seen on top. Streaks of pyrites are not uncommon in the upper bench, but they are thin and not persistent. The thickest is one foot and one-half below the roof, and one inch thick. The coal is regarded as exceedingly good, and some rude attempts have produced a coke of apparently fair quality. A specimen of the coal yields the following:

The same bed is worked in Section 8, in Section g, and near the road from Otsego to Liberty. Its thickness in these banks is nearly four feet.

Coal No. 4 is known, locally, as the " limestone coal," though the gray limestone is rarely seen. It is usually a cannel, of little value, and is not mined. Many years ago it was worked by stripping in Section 8, on property now belonging to Mr. Oscar Riney. It may be seen in a run, near' Johnson's mill, where it seems to be about twenty inches thick. At Johnson's mill, as well as at Otsego, the lower layer of the sandstone over Coal No. 6 is, in the bottom two feet, a conglomerate of iron ore and sandstone. The ore is apparently of average quality, but its association with the sandstone is such as to render it worthless. It is referred to here only because some might be led to expend money in exploring it. Any money so spent will be wasted.

In Highland Township, on the Adamsville road from Norwich, Coal No. "]b is seen at several places, lying a few feet below the crinoidal limestone, but is nowhere worked, as its thickness seldom exceeds sixteen inches. At Mr. Tait's, on this road, the Norwich coal is seen at the roadside, and is mined near by, by stripping. As nearly as could be ascertained, the thickness is two feet. The limestone is absent. About a mile north, the same bed is from two and one-half to three feet thick, with six inches of slaty coal. At both localities Coal No. jb is seen, barely one foot thick. Along Limestone ridge, which coincides with the Norwich anticlinal, the crinoidal limestone and the buff limestone, underlying the Norwich coal, are frequently exposed, and the interval between them varies from twenty to fifty feet. The latter disappears before reaching Bloomfield, where the crinoidal limestone appears in the Otsego road. Near that village an opening in the Norwich coal, gives the following section:

1 his bank seemed to be of very fair quality, and to have no great tendency to disintegrate on exposure. Specimens were submitted to analysis, with the following results: No.

In Union Township, at New Concord, we reach the bottom of the boat-shaped synclinal. The Norwich limestone and coal are exposed here, near the village. In a boring for oil, made here several years ago, the following section was obtained :

No. 3 of this section was at one time mined by Mr. Speer, under the depot at New Concord, by means of an incline. It is there thirty inches thick, and overlaid immediately by the crinoidal limestone, five feet thick, and exceedingly hard. The coal obtained here was of excellent quality, but the bed is too thin to be profitably worked. The same coal is worked at Norwich quite extensively. It is about two feet thick and of very fair quality. The crinoidal limestone is there seventeen feet above it, and the interval is occupied by shaly sandstone. The Norwich coal has been worked at Norwich, but the banks have long been deserted, and no measurement could be made there, but it is said to be two feet thick. In a run north of Norwich, crossed by the Adamsville road, it is seen twenty inches thick. The limestone, nine feet below it, is blue on the fractured surface, but weathers buff, is fossiliferous and very tough. It is the " flint rock," No. 8, of the oil boring. The absence of Coal No. 7a in the boring renders somewhat uncertain the identification of Nos. 25 and 30 of the section ; but the Norwich limestone is present in the western portion of Guernsey county at from one hundred to one hundred and fifteen feet above the Cambridge coal (No. 7). The interval in the boring between the limestone and No. 25, is only about one hundred and twenty-five feet, so that Mr. Stevenson was inclined to regard No. 25 as the Cambridge coal. The interval between Nos. 25 and 30 is one hundred and five feet, which is greater than is usually seen between Nos. 6 and 7 in Muskingum county, though about the same as in Guernsey and Tuscarawas counties. The intervals between the coals of the Barren group, that portion of the series between Coals No. 6. and 8, seem to diminish westward and northward from a line running through Muskingum, Tuscarawas, and southern Carroll counties. The interval between the crinoidal limestone and Coal No. 6 varies in Carroll county from two hundred and fifty to less than one hundred and fifty ; in Guernsey, from two hundred and forty to two hundred; and in Muskingum, from two hundred and twenty-five to one hundred and eighty. The opposite statement is true respecting the relations of the lower coals, as has already been shown respecting Coals Nos. 4 and 6 in the report upon

Guernsey county. The coals in Union township are not much esteemed for manufacturing purposes, and supplies are obtained mostly from Coal No. 8, in Belmont county.

Coal is found in sufficient abundance for domestic use in nearly every portion of the county north from the railroad, but of the numerous seams mentioned in the general section, only Coal No. 6, is of persistent importance. Each of the others is workable at some point, but is liable to such variations in thickness as to render it unworthy of general note. Coal No. 6 is fully available along Wills creek and the Muskingum river, where it is within reach of transportation. Analyses from three townships show the percentage of ash to vary from 1.6 to 1.9 per cent.; of sulphur, from 1.59 to 1.97 per cent.; and the yield of fixed gas per pound from 3.7 to 3.8 cubic feet, while the coke in all cases is compact. One analysis from Washington township shows a somewhat inferior coal, containing 3.02 per cent, of sulphur, and an increase of ash. The coal throughout is an excellent fuel, and the low proportion of sulphur makes its coke comparatively good for use in smelting iron. The gas from this coal is said to be somewhat inferior in point of brilliancy.

In Hopewell township, along the line of the National road, there are several small mines opened in Coal No. 3, which have yielded fuel to the immediate neighborhood fora number of years. This coal has been generally referred to the Putnam Hill limestone horizon, but the reference originated in the error that prevailed for some years as to the place of this limestone, it having been confounded with the Lower Miner limestone. This Hopewell coal is probably No. 3. It has been mined on several farms in the neighborhood. In the adjoining township of Hopewell, in Licking county, is the celebrated Flint ridge. The flint belongs to the horizon of the ferriferous limestone, but at the northern base of the ridge is the finest development of No. 3 coal in this portion of the state. It is the well-known P'lint Ridge cannel coal. The cannel has been found in full thickness at but a single locality. It is upon the southeastern side of the ridge that the mines in Muskingurrv county are located. The coal here is ordinary bituminous coal, divided by a number of partings, and consequently a dirty seam; but it has good thickness and may fairly be counted as a supply that will at some time be available. There would seem reason to believe in considerable area of this coal in these two townships and possibly in adjoining ones. There is not likely to be any large demand for it, aside from the accessible portions of the cannel coal, under the conditions that now prevail, as it cannot compete with the better seams around it so long as they are produced so cheaply. The other seams of coals, Nos. 7, 6 and 5, are insignificant as sources of fuel. Their chief interest is in their occurrence as geological elements. A small mine has lately been opened in the coal below the Putnam Hill limestone (the Brookville coal, Coal No. 4; Coal No. 3/;) within the city limits of Zanesville, but the thickness of the seam is small, and it cannot support any continuous or extensive operations.

South of Zanesville, in the river hills, the Lower Kittanning coal nowhere appears, though its companion seam is everywhere present and worked. At the horizon where the lower coal is due, a buff limestone bearing an ore and also a bed of fire-clay is often found. This series is also well shown on Putnam Hill, opposite Zanesville; the limestone is here twenty-seven feet below the Middle Kittanning or No. 6 coal. The limestone is fossiliferous and contains well-preserved forms, among which large bivalve shells are especially noticeable. The coal of this basin, so far as it has been worked, is a two or three-benched coal. The main, and sometimes the only, parting is a sulphurous band two or three inches thick, and eighteen or twenty inches from the top of the seam. Nodules of pyrites are often found near thispartingalso. At a little less than a foot from the bottom, a " bearing-in " slate is often found. The seam is mined by under-cuttingand blasting, one pound of powder being expected to bring down twenty tons of properly prepared coal. Rooms are worked fifteen feet wide. There is often found a thin band of slaty coal at the top of the seam. The irregularities in the seam occur mainly in the bottom. The seam is applied to all ordinary uses. Its composition as sampled from Harper's bank and given by Prof. Orton from Lord's analysis, is as follows:

A considerable area has already been worked out, but it is impossible to say just how much. As to the extension of the seam to the southeastward, under drainage, no facts are at hand, but the abrupt boundaries upon the open sides of the basin led Prof. Orton to expect similar boundaries in the portions of the basin under cover. There is but one other district in the county where this seam is worked extensively. In Newton township, in the southwestern corner of the county, a valuable field of the Lower Kittanning coal has long been worked. It is here known as the Del Carbo coal. In the southern part of the county the Middle Kittanning seam known as the Upper Zanesville coal, or No. 6, is due above the drainage levels in Wayne, Springfield, Newton, Clay, Brush Creek and Harrison townships and in Zanesville corporation. The seam falls short of three feet in parts of the field, and it nowhere yields fully four feet of coal, but it holds with surprising steadiness a measure ranging from 30 to 42 inches of coal. Its structure is maintained with great regularity over large areas. The lower bench expands or contracts a little, but the upper is very uniform. To the southward, however, a change occurs. In Newton and Clay there is a considerable thickening of the lower bench, accompanied by a reduction of the upper bench. The false roof is also increased, or there is added to it a distinct seam of what is called bone coal, a bed six to twelve inches in thickness, and a true coal, but too high in ash to be marketable. Also in following the seam southward, through the deep valley of the Muskingum, until it finally sinks below drainage, we find upon the extreme boundary its measures reduced and its quality impaired.

The general conditions of the seam from Zanesville northward are understood. Within the limits of Zanesville the coal has been extensively mined, though in small banks that produce each but a few thousand tons in a year. A large acreage has already been worked out, but much remains. Zanesville has cheaper coal than any other city of its size in the state. South of Zanesville the conditions of the seam are gradually changed. Following first the Muskingum valley, we find the coal at its proper horizon and with its normal characteristics in the river hills on both sides of the Muskingum as far south as Taylorsville. Only country banks are found on the east side, but on the west side, which offers the advantage of working against the dip, and also of nearer approach to the river, there are a number of shipping mines. Several of them have inclines connecting them with boat landings. Their product is in all cases shipped to the river and mostly to McConnellsville and points southward.

feet ten inches, and occasionally rises to four feet, but from these measures several inches of partings must be deducted. The quality of the coal is excellent. At Ballou's salt works, in Section 12, Brush Creek township, mining has been carried on quite extensively for many years. Since the abandonment of salt boiling, the mines have been kept in operation for the river supply of coal. The seam is thinner than at the Owen's mine, averaging not more than three feet. The direction of the river valley through Wayne, Brush Creek and Harrison townships is but little south of east, and consequently the fall of the strata in descending the valley is well marked. The coal seam has an elevation of about 200 feet above slackwater at Putnam Hill. At Ballou's landing it is only about ninety feet above the same level. It lies at the water's edge opposite the lower end of the Taylorsville lock. The seam here has>the following structure: /

The seam is verging to its southern limit apparently at this point. There is scarcely a farm between Zanesville and Taylorsville in which the coal has not been mined; there is not one in which the seam is not known to be present. The greater thickness of the coal at the Owens mine has been referred to, but the further statement is necessary that it is the lower bench that makes the principal increase. At Zanesville and northward this bench varies from four to ten inches in thickness, but at the Owen's mine it is fifteen inches thick. The change is an important one, for the seam is soon to undergo the most marked transformation that is experienced by any coal seam in the entire scale, and this is the beginning of it. The lower bench maintains its increase, even where the whole volume of the seam is diminished, as at Taylorsville, as has been made evident. In Brush Creek, Clay and the eastern half of Newton townships, the seam is constant in its occurrence; whenever it is due there it is found. In Sections 27 and 34 Newton township, shipping- mines are opened on the line of the railroad. The Del Carbo mines have yie.lded a large amount of- coal from both the Kittanning seams, but only the upper seam is at present mined here. Numerous farmer's banks are opened in the coal throughout this territory. At and about Roseville, in Clay township, mining is carried on upon a somewhat larger scale, for the supply of the numerous potteries that are established here. The change already referred to in the expansion of the lower bench of the coal seam is especially to be noted here. From the Owen's mine, in the Muskingum valley, to Roseville, the distance is about six miles. The lower bench has increased in the direction from fifteen to twenty-six inches, while the upper bench has been reduced to the extent of six inches or more. In the southern part of Washington, in Perry, Wayne, Salt Creek, Harrison, Brush Creek and Clay townships, the Upper Freeport coal appears as a workable seam of considerable value. It is mined in many small banks, and in one or two of greater importance. The most northerly of these centers of mining is at Sonora, and in its immediate vicinity on the western side of Perry township. The coal is chiefly mined in Sections 6 and 7, but a few openings are to be found in Section. 8 The coal of Section 6 extends directly into Section 10, Washington, where it is also mined. On the farm of Mrs. Cullins, in Section 8 the coal is found three feet thick and of fair quality. The seam is here one hundred and twelve feet below the Cambridge limestone. At Sonora the coal runs from two to four feet in thickness. It is very irregular, owing to the frequent intrusion of the overlying Mahoning sandstone. The limestone that accompanies the coal is strongly developed throughout this region. It does not seem probable to Prof. Orton that the seam will be found a fit basis for large mining operations in this neighborhood, but he states that a local supply of considerable importance will be long maintained. The same statements will apply to the coal that lies directly southeast of Sonora, where mining in a small way has long been carried on.

The best known basin of the upper Freeport coal in the county is in the vicinity of Jackson, in the southeast corner of Washington township. The coal is mined here on quite a large scale and is sold in Zanesville and to farmers round about. This is known as the Alexander coal, having been worked on the largest scale and for the longest time by James H. Alexander. This field is spoken of as a distinct one; but the Sonora coal belongs to the same basin, as is shown by the Shick and Sherlock and other mines throughout the interval. Along the National road westward from Jackson, the coal has been worked at various points, and it continues as far west as the land is found high enough to hold it. The coal has been principally mined on the Clark farm, two miles cast of Zanesville, but the adjacent land of Adam

Rock holds a small acreage on which mining is still going forward. Throughout the whole district the coal lies very shallow. A great deal of it is got by stripping, and when mining is undertaken the character of the work is everywhere limited by the weakness and treachery of the cover. The coal ranges from three to five and one-half feet in thickness, and it is rendered dirty by numerous partings in the seam. To compete in the general market it would require thorough screening. The coal has a good name where it is used, but the limitations of area and of cover will prevent this immediate district from becoming any more important as a mining center then it now is. Southward, throughout the northern half of Salt Creek township the coal is frequently found in good volume and is worked in many local banks. It is known as a four-foot seam. A considerable acreage is thought to exist here. The same thing can be said of Wayne township. Near Duncan's Falls a number of small mines are opened in this coal. The general thickness of the seam is four feet and in quality it holds to the usual standard.

Southward from Duncan's Falls, throughout the Muskingum valley, the coal is easily followed as far as the south line of Section 20, Harrison township, a little below Gaysport, where it falls to the level of the river. Important mines have been worked near this point for many years, the coal being known as the Blue Rock coal, and finding its market along the river. The immediate cover of the seam is very heavy, reaching well up to the Pittsburgh coal. The hill above it consists in large portion of the clays and shales of the Barren measures, making a treacherous series to undermine. It was here that four miners were imprisoned nearly forty years ago by a rush which closed up the entries leading to day. They were rescued alive after fourteen days' and thirteen hours' imprisonment, during which time they had no food except a lunch or "check" that two miners had carried in on the morning of the day on which the crush occurred. The Blue Rock coal, as it now appears, is in marked contrast to the general product of the seam elsewhere. It is atypical "pitch" coal, clear and bright to a higher degree than any other Ohio coal - nearly as clear as anthracite. No mineral charcoal is found in the present product of the mine. Its composition, as shown by Prof. Lord's analysis of a single block, is as follows:

These figures show a remarkable coal, higher in volatile combustible matter than any other bituminous coal in the series, the cannels not being included. The proportion of sulphur is excessive, constituting the only drawback upon the otherwise high quality. The seam carries, when normal, a regular thickness of four leet, but, as elsewhere, it is liable to sudden interruptions, some of which are strikingly shown in the main entry of the present Blue Rock mine. The coal is here entirely cut off for many yards. Much time and some money have been spent at various points along the valley, and especially on the opposite side of the river, in a fruitless search for the Blue Rock coal. The horizon of the coal is everywhere made clear, though not generally recognized by its fire clay and limestone, but of the coal itself not a trace may be left. This fact Prof. Orton says should be borne in mind in all investigations directed toward this seam. It was never universally distributed, like the Middle Kittanning, in its field. In addition to the irregularity of original formation, the seam, where once duly formed, was afterwards exposed to the accidents of quite a violent erosion. So coarse a sandstone as the Mahoning cannot be explained without calling into action strong currents for its transportation. From these two causes, viz., failure of uniform and continuous formation and waste of the basins that were formed by erosive currents, results the exceeding uncertainty of the upper Freeport coal through a large portion of the territory in which it is due. The upper Freeport clay is worked at its proper level at Ballou's landing, in Brush Creek township. It is here a non-plastic clay of good quality. It has been worked to some extent in the firebrick factory at Putnam. The coal does not appear in immediate connection with the clay, but it has been found and mined on adjoining farms at its proper level.

The least known and least developed but by far the most promising field of the Upper Freeport coal in Muskingum county is included in Clay, Newton and Brush Creek townships, and is rendered accessible by the valleys of Brush Creek and its tributaries. There is a possible important extension of it into Harrison townships as will be presently shown. So far as can be determined by natural exposures, the coal occupies parts of Sections I, Clay; 25 and 36, Newton, and 7, 6, 26, 5 and 27, Brush

Creek township, but boundaries for a coal field of this particular seam, when laid down in advance of careful exploration, are of little worth. The probabilities arc thought by Prof. Orton to be all in favor of a large territory for this Brush Creek basin. Throughout the area named it presents ample signs of steadiness and seems uniform and regular in its character. It does not vary much from a thickness of four feet in any of the numerous openings that have been made in the seam for local coal banks. At the Dewall banks in Section 36, Newton, there are four feet four inches of coal overlaid by six inches of cannel. Its quality also seems in all respects satisfactory. It is a bright, fairly clean coal, well jointed, cutting easily and mining to good advantage, much freer from shale and clay than this seam usually is. The regular black slate above the seam becomes locally a cannel coal, but of no great value. The coal is shown on the east side of the Brush Creek valley in every farm for two or three miles, through Sections 5, 7 and 27. It dips down under the heavy ridge that separates Brush Creek from the Muskingum river in the townships of Brush Creek and Harrison. Crossing this ridge to the eastward and descending toward the river valley by one of the branches of Blue Rock river, upon reaching the level at which the coal is due, one finds the farmers mining it by stripping from the creek bottoms, the coal still holding a thickness of four feet. F'rom this point on to the famous Blue Rock mines, the coal appears almost continuously, being everywhere called a four-foot seam. Where the change begins to occur by which the present remarkable character of the Blue Rock coal is acquired, there are no present opportunities for learning, but the inference is a legitimate one that the Brush Creek coal extends under the divide until it unites with the Blue Rock field, for these two fields belong, says Prof. Orton, to one and the same basin. If the proper exploration shall confirm this view, it is clear that here is one of the largest and most promising of the Upper Freeport coal-fields of Ohio. While the seam does not show as great thickness here as in the other chief centers of production, it seems steadier than elsewhere, and if this fact is established it will more than compensate for the smaller measurement. It must not, however, be forgotten, that the seam has everywhere else, and even in this field to some extent, suffered from the erosion due to the transportation of its sandstone-roof and that, in consequence, a hitherto undisclosed irregularity may hereafter appear. The wide limits provision- ally assigned to the field may also be proved incorrect; but in any case a very valuable and promising body of the upper Freeport coal is already in sight in the Brush Creek valley. These statements complete the accounts of the lower coals of Muskingum county. While there is not a large mine in the county, the aggregate production is not insignificant, but the mining is of such a quality as to escape public notice and record to a great degree. The possibility of larger mining interests has however, been indicated.

By an inspection of geological maps it will thus be seen that there is hardly a hill in the southern half of the county that does not contain iron ore, and in many instances this ore is found in workable seams. But the most valuable ore-beds, both in extent and quality, are in the northern and northeastern portion of the county. The ore is of great excellence and purity, and the iron made from it has a high reputation; the ore is known as the brown and red hematites. The ores of this county are likely to prove of importance. They are of excellent quality, and are made the more available by the proximity of good coking coal. It is not improbable that Coal No. 4, in Jackson township, may be employed raw, as it does not cake, and contains less than two per cent, of sulphur. In Washington township good ore is found fifteen feet below Coal No. 6. In Jackson, Licking, and Muskingum townships an ore bed is seen in conjunction with the chert above Coal No. 3, and the same was observed in Madison township. This is the horizon to which belongs analysis No. 2, in Jackson township. Another bed rests almost upon the conglomerate in Jackson and Licking townships. Analysis No. 1, in Jackson township, is of ore from this deposit. These ores should be smelted at Frazeysburg and Irville or Nashport, as those places are upon the Ohio canal, by which coke and the richer ores could be transported without difficulty.

Omitting coal, omitting iron ore, omitting lime and building stone, there are to be found more than twenty varieties of clays and sands existing in beds that are inexhaustible, all of which are being utilized and in demand, in their raw, unmanufactured condition, throughout the Union. It is safe to say that the aggregate amount of sand, clay, lime, limestone, and the manufactured products of the same, that arc shipped from the county during the current year will not fall short of sixty car loads per day - the shipment of pressed brick from Zanesville alone being 40,000 car loads in limitless quantities, and of the very best quality. Of the limestone alone there are twenty -two distinct and separate seams, varying in color from a light gray to a deep blue. It is susceptible of a high polish and is used in all ornamental work, and for purity, beauty and durability, they have not a superior in the state. The sand and building stone, which are in great demand throughout the country, are here easily and cheaply quarried and are equal to that of Waverly and Berea. Buhrstone is found in the western townships. It is fine grained and imparts a keen edge to tools. It was formerly quarried for millstones, but is not now used. Gypsum and kaolin both exist here. The county has a large number of inexhaustible salt wells, from which the best grades of salt can be manufactured, but owing to the cheapness of salt at the present day this branch does not command the importance it did years ago. Should the demand for salt revive so that its manufacture would again bring remunerative prices, her salt wells would all again be put in operation. Many of them have a capacity of 7,000 to 8,000 barrels per year. Petroleum in considerable quantities is obtained in the southern part of the county.

The clays of the Muskingum valley are destined to play an important part in the future of the great clay industries of this country. They are of remarkable variety, there being no other single locality in the United States where so many different sorts of valuable clays are obtainable. They are adapted to making stoneware and faience of nearly all descriptions, and are also suitable for the manufacture of concrete of the highest grade. That the development of the clay interest is to be a most potent factor in the county's future growth is a demonstrated fact. The use of the clays here found has conclusively proven that they are pre-eminently adapted to be made into bricks of all descriptions, pottery of every variety, and the encaustic tiling that has won, by its beauty and durability, such worldwide fame.

Pottery may be divided into three classes; stone ware, common white ware (technically known as faience) and porcelain. Stoneware may be called the lowest order of pottery, it being the cheapest, simplest in manufacture and least susceptible to artistic ornamentation of the three. It is made as follows: After the clay has been moulded on the potter's wheel, the interior is coated with 'slip-clay,' which melts when fired and forms an opaque glass. The exterior is generally given what is known as a 'salt-glaze;' that is, when the fire is at its greatest heat, common salt is thrown into the fire places; the salt volatilizes, and, being an alkali, combines with the surface of the clay and gives a blush of glaze. The object of glazing is, of course, to make the body perfectly impervious to liquids. Common white ware, the next higher grade of pottery, is distinguished from stoneware and porcelain in that it has a porous clay body, upon which a comparatively easily fused glass is melted to make it impervious. It is further characterized in that it is made with two fires. The first and hotter fire is on the clay itself and is technically known as the 'biscuit fire.' The clay comes out of this heat hard but porous. To make it impervious it is then dipped into a thin slop consisting of the materials of crown glass suspended in water. By the suction of the dry, porous, once-baked clay, it becomes evenly coated in the dipping process with a thin coating of glaze material. It is then replaced in the kiln and gets a second or 'glost' heat. This heat melts the constituents of glass together, and covers the surface of the ware with a thin, impervious sheet of glass. In the case of tiling, which belongs to the faience class, the glass is stained with metallic oxides - as cobalt, nickel, copper, etc. Thus one of our beautiful American encaustic tiles may be roughly but accurately described as a little brick in a glass covered box.

Porcelain is the third and highest grade of pottery. It is distinguished from faience in the fact that the glass is much harder than crown glass, it being made of feld-spar, and the second or glost heat is therefore much higher than the first or biscuit heat. The result is that in this second fire the body as well as the glass becomes vitreous; which accounts forthetranslucency of the porcelain. Because of the high temperature that the glaze of porcelain requires, it cannot be colored in the glaze, and in order to decorate it, it is painted in soft firing colors on the glaze, after the ware is finished, and burned at a very low heat. Common white ware is decorated on the clay after the first or biscuit fire, and then glazed over; which accounts for the fact that the colors of such ware are never dimmed by use; while the colors of true porcelain wear off in time. The French Limoges ware, that made in England by Boulton, and the Rockwood pottery in the United States, is decorated in this manner. The problem of adapting the glaze to the clay has always been difficult, and for a long time was kept a secret; so that in the middle ages, the work of the pottar was regarded a black art. Within the last twenty-five years, however, experimenting has ceased to be done empirically, through the efforts of the chemists in the royal porcelain factory at Berlin, and the national French factory at Sevres, and work is done on a scientific basis. It has been found what combinations of chemicals are necessary to make glass suitable for the purpose, and howto vary them so as to adapt them to different clays. It was discovered that the ' crazing' or crackling of glass on some, and peeling off on other clays, was due to the fact that the body of ware as well as the glaze melted intimately upon it, expanded and contracted with the variations of the temperature of the atmosphere; and, while this expansion and contraction was so minute as to escape detection except by the most delicate physical instruments, it was found that the inequality of expansion and contraction was the cause of the incompatibility of the clay and the glaze for each other in making ware. Recognition of the true facts of the problem cleared the way to its solution, and has taken the art from the ignorant experimenter and placed it in the hands of scientific men. Indeed, until very recently the knowledge of the composition and properties of clay current among clay workers in Ohio was almost wholly practical, and there may seem to be ground for surprise that such excellent results should have been attained with so little aid from science. The scientific research directed to it is much more scanty in proportion to the interests involved than in almost any similar field.

The literature of a technological subject always represents the progress of science in respect to that subject. In this field it was long represented by only one book that is largely useful in American practice, viz.: Prof. G. H. Cook s Report on the Clays of New Jersey. In many respects, the Ohio field is different from that of New Jersey, as for instance, in the geological horizon of its clays, which are all coal measure formations, and until the publication of Prof. Orton's report, in 1884, there was little scientific literature directly devoted to them. The clay deposits of Ohio may be separated into two well-defined divisions, viz.: the clays of the drift, and the far older group that is found interstratified in various horizons among the bedded rocks of the state. In geographical distribution, these two divisions are quite distinct, the former having its chief developments throughout the northern and western portions of the state, and the latter throughout south-eastern Ohio, but. they overlap to some extent upon the boundary. The drift region of Ohio is bounded on the south by a sinuous line, entering the state on the southeast, in Columbiana county. There are then in the south and east of the state twenty-one counties in which no upland drift is found. The clays which constitute bedded formations may be divided into two groups, - coal measure clays, and the lower clays. The geographical extent of the coal measures is bounded by a line somewhat similar to that which bounds the drift. Included in and cut by this boundary are thirty-three counties, but not more than twentytwo hold any large measure of mineral wealth. The valuable coal seams of Ohio are mainly in the lower measures, and the clay deposits worked are wholly confined to that group. Following the nomenclature of the coal measures with which they are associated, the clays of Muskingum county are known as the Kittanning and Freeport clays. In this county the Kittanning clay appears at Zanesville and Roseville. The coal is usually absent, leaving the clay, hence some question can be raised as to whether the clay lies over or under the coal. The deposit extends from north of Zanesville to below McLuney, in Perry county, and towards Deanstown, Morgan county. The Middle Kittanning clay is also worked in a few cases, though its developments have none of the characteristics that attach to the lower coal. The horizon of the lower Freeport coal is productive of good clay in two districts. One is at Zanesville, where it is opened at Downerd's bank, the Tile works bank, and at several other places. The clay is of second grade, plastic and quite ferruginous. The other district is at Moxahala, where the Pyle clay is referred to this horizon. It is mined and shipped by rail largely to Columbus. It is a clay of second rate in part of its territory, and in other portions, plastic, ranking as a high grade No. 2 clay. It carries red oxide of iron enough to discolor it, and to affect its character for refractoriness, doubtless, but portions of it are excellent. TheUpper Freeport horizon, inoneortwo places, yields valuable clays. The best is found near Taylorsville, Muskingum county, where it is called the Ballou clay. It is here a hard clay of some value, and is carried to Zanesville for the fire-brick works. The higher veins of coal are not used at all, and are met only in limited places. No clay from above the Upper Freeport is used in this state, unless it be in one mine in Jefferson county, where a small amount of clay is taken from beneath a coal, probably the Brush creek vein.

There arc three stoneware districts in Ohio; the largest at Akron, the most widely spread at Roseville, in Muskingum and Perry counties, and the least important near Rock House, Hocking county. The Roseville district is composed of a large number of small potteries. There are not less than eighty-five or ninety in the district, and most of them employ only a small number of hands. Fire brick is made in this county. Pressed brick is one of the newer departments of building material manufactures, and is making rapid progress. The largest center of manufacture in the state is at Zanesville, where the natural facilities have been utilized by two large firms, Messrs. Harris Bros, and T. B. Townsend & Co., and by others. The only artistic application to which clay is put in Ohio is the manufacture of encaustic tiling, ornamental pottery and terra cotta. Encaustic tiling is manufactured in only three places in the United States, at present, among which the works at Zanesville were the first to be established and are the most extensive. The name of this firm is the American Encaustic Tiling Company. Nearly all its products are sold in New York in the face of foreign competition. Our best tiles are as good as the best of the English and French, but the average foreign tiles exceeds the average of the home manufacture. The clays used are of many kinds, those varieties used in largest proportion which constitute the " body " clays and are found in the immediate vicinity of the works, but the clays which are employed for the more delicate processes come from widelyscattered and distant localities.

For the establishment and maintenance of a trade and manufacturing center, the question of transportation is paramount to all other considerations. The county is well favored in this respect. In the early days the Muskingum river afforded the benefits of a navigable stream which was of extraordinary service to the settlement. Later, with the National road passing through the village, with all of its travel, Zanesvilleand the county at large, felt that they had reached the height of transportation facilities, and, at that time the seat of justice, ranked as second only to Cincinnati in the Commonwealth. Railroads, however, in the present day, have superseded the old methods of conveyance, and Zanesville to-day is a common and terminal point for seven railroads, viz.: Baltimore & Ohio; Pittsburgh, Chicago & St. Louis; Bellaire, Zanesville & Cincinnati; Zanesville & Ohio, Columbus & Eastern; Cleveland, Akron & Columbus and Cleveland, Canton & Southern. Besides these the Belt Line road encircles the city of Zanesville and connects all of the roads, beside furnishing shipping facilities at the door of every local manufacturing concern. Combined, they offer transportation facilities equal to those of the more favored localities, and their branches and connections reach to every point of this country and by the most direct route. The Baltimore & Ohio railroad - Trans-Ohio division - extending from New York and Baltimore

The Pittsburgh, Chicago & St. Louis railroad over its branch, the Cincinnati & Muskingum Valley road, gives the city and county direct communication with Pittsburg and all points east, over the famous Pan Handle system, as well as reaching all important points in the West: Cincinnati, Indianapolis, St. Louis and Chicago. The Cincinnati & Muskingum Valley railroad, extending from Morrow, Ohio, through a rich belt of country, enters Zanesville from the south, and running north connects with the main line of the Pan Handle system at Dresden Junction. The Columbus & Eastern railroad gives direct connections for Columbus. The Zanesville & Ohio railroad connects Zanesville with Marietta and all points along the Ohio river. The Bellaire, Zanesville & Cincinnati railroad, running through the coal belts, terminates at Bellaire. The Cleveland, Akron & Columbus railroad, extends from Columbus to Cleveland, via Akron. The Cleveland, Canton & Southern railroad gives still another outlet. The Junction railroad, for which right of way has been secured upon the west side of the river, will cross the Licking and join the Chicago & Eastern railroad at the south side of Zanesville. In addition to the above-mentioned roads, the county has two projected roads for which rights of way have been secured and construction already begun. The Zanesville, Newcomerstown & Cleveland railroad - from Zanesville to Cleveland, - and the Zanesville, Mt. Vernon & Marion railroad, from Zanesville to Marion, Ohio, where it will connect with the Cleveland, Columbus, Cincinnati & Indianapolis railroad system.

The Muskingum - the largest navigable stream in Ohio, is navigable from its mouth to Dresden, a distance of ninety-four miles. From Marietta to Zanesville, a distance of forty-eight miles, it has a capacity to carry boats of two hundred to three hundred tons burthen, and from Zanesville to Dresden, and the Ohio canal, boats from one to two hundreds tons burthen. The river is now receiving extensive improvements at the hands of the government, and at no distant day the river traffic will be resumed with all points upon the Ohio and Mississippi rivers. The Ohio canal, which crosses the northwestern portion of the county, connects with the Muskingum river at Dresden, and by some it is predicted that in time a ship canal connecting Lake Eirie with the Ohio river will be a neces- sity and the chief avenue of trade between the lakes on the north and the gulf on the south. The route via the Ohio canal and Muskingum river is the most practical as well as the cheapest one yet suggested, and would undoubtedly be selected. With seven lines of railroads cutting the county in all directions - two of them trunk lines - the shipping facilities of the county are unsurpassed.

From the foregoing brief review of Muskingum county and her resources, it must be acknowledged that few sections of territory of like extent command, in a higher degree than is here found, all those elements of wealth which constitute a prosperous and rich community. The agricultural capacity of the land, the mixed husbandry that exists, the easy drainage and consequent health that prevails, the inexhaustible mineral resources that abound, the facilities for transportation to all sections of the country, both by water and rail, the extent of the natural water-power which exists all along the river, all combine to render this, at no distant day, one of the most populous and wealthy sections of our entire country, either east or west. The business citizens of the county are realizing this more and more, daily, and the consequence is increased activity in all departments of trade and in all the industrial occupations pursued. A denser rural population will here be gathered, in a very few years, than will be found in any other county of Ohio. The county is, as it were, just opened to the hand of industry, and the demand of the times for coal, iron and her other minerals, must necessarily gather hither the energy and enterprise that will aid in developing these resources to the fullest extent.

The Mound Builders And The Indians

OBSCURE and mysterious, the pre-historic race known as Mound-Builders undoubtedly antedated the various Indian tribes who anciently occupied and claimed title to the soil that now constitutes the state of Ohio, and it seems probable that many centuries intervened between the time of the advent of the Mound Builders and that of the Indian tribes or nations. By some it has been thought not improbable that an effeminate, indolent and demoralized remnant of the former race deteriorated into the latterand formed the nucleus of some of the degenerate tribes of savages that during subsequent centuries roamed here at will, ultimately passing into hopeless savagery.

The extent, variety and labyrinthian intricacies of the Mound-Builders' works still found in many sections of Ohio indicate the plausibility of the view that the state includes what was for many successive centuries a favorite locality with this race, who dwelt here for ages, erected their works and made long chapters of a history that may never be written. The works that still exist in a tolerably perfect condition within the boundaries of the state arc approximately estimated at 10,000, but they doubtless far exceeded that number at the date of the first permanent white settlement a little more than one hundred years ago.

Only such monuments or remains can be attributed to the Mound-Builders as were regarded by the Indian tribes as antiquities or as the remains and relics of an extinct race. These consisted of mounds, effigies and inclosures. Mounds are subdivided into sepulchral, sacrificial, temple (or truncated) mounds and mounds of observation and memorial or monumental mounds. Effigies are sometimes called animal mounds and emblematic mounds, frequently symbolical mounds. Inclosures arc of several kinds, one class being known as military or defensive works, another as parallel embankments or covered ways, another as sacred inclosures. Under the general title of inclosures arc also walls of circumvallation, or ramparts constructed for military purposes, while others were doubtless wallssurrounding thcresidcnces of those high in authority. Perhaps others were erected for the performance within them of national games and amusements. Somemay have served a purpose in the performance of religious rites and ceremonies and facilitated indulgence in superstitious practices. Many of these works were constructed of earth, a few of stone, and fewer still of earth and stone com bined.

Sepulchral mounds are more numerous than any other kinds, and are generally conical in form. They are of all sizes, ranging in altitude from only a few feet to seventy, and always contain skeletons or parts of skeletons or present other plausible indications of having been built or used for purposesof sepulture, and were unmistakably memorial mounds reared over the dead. Ithasbeen claimed by some archaeologists that the size of these mounds bears a certain relation to the importance, when living, of the persons over whom they were erected. The mound near Miamisburg, on the bank of the Great Miami river, is symmetrical in form and sixty eight feet high, and if this theory is correct must mark the burial place of a great chief or ruler of the people. Professor Marsh of the Sheffield scientific school, connected with Yale college, some years ago opened a mound in Licking county which contained seventeen skeletons in whole or in part. But the most remarkable of all mounds within the state was one in Hardin county, in which were found about 300 human skeletons; but it is maintained by some that the leading features of the burials in this mound were indicative of an Indian rather than a Mound-Builderorigin. Sacrificial mounds are usually stratified, the strata being convex layers of clay and loam alternating above a layer of fine sand. They generally contain ashes, charcoal, igneous stones, calcined animal bones, beads, stone implements, pottery andspecimens of rudesculpture. Thesemounds are frequently found within inclosures which are supposed to have been in some way connected with the performance of religious rites and ceremonies, and in such mounds an altar of burnt clay or of stone is usually found. These altars, which sometimes rest on the surface of the original earth, at the center of the mound, are symmetrically shaped and are among the chief distinguishing characteristics of sacrificial mounds. Upon them, sacrifices of animals, perhaps of human beings, were offered up in the flames employed in that cruel, superstitious performance. The presence of skeletons in some of these mounds would seem to indicate their sepulchral as well as sacrificial character. In common with sepulchral mounds, these contain implements of warfare, mica from the Alleghanies, shells from the Gulf of Mexico, obsidian, and in some instances porphyry, from Mexico, as well as useful and ornajnental silver and copper articles,