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Along McMahan's Creek back of Bellaire a coarse sandstone comes in close under the coal. In section 36 it is eleven feet below the coal and twenty-five feet thick. It makes a fair building stone for heavy masonry, such as foundations for houses, bridge abutments, piers, etc. It was used for the piers of the B. & O. R. R. bridge over the Ohio River at Bellaire. By taking the elevations of the coal in section 18 at Neff's siding, in section 26 on the north line of the township, and at Rockershousen's mine in section 28 in the south edge of the township, the dip of the coal is found to be very nearly thirty feet per mile in a S. 37° E. direction.

Mead Township. -The coal seam is mined at several points along the river in this township by means of slopes and shafts of moderate depth. It does not crop in the township. The coal is mostly shipped on the river and used on steamboats, a small portion being consumed in the local market for domestic uses. The coal is reported of the same thickness and structure as about Bellaire.

York Township. Although this township is south of Mead, and is the most southeastern township of Belmont county, it shows a crop of the No. 8 coal on Captina Creek in sections 21 and 27, about three and one-half miles northwest of the village of Powhattan at the mouth of Captina Creek. The coal must change its dip very considerably from Mead and Pultney townships, in order to come to the surface again at this point. The coal is reported in the bed of the river opposite Powhattan.

On F. Dorsey's land, in N. W. quarter S. W. quarter section 14, М. С. Workman works a mine in the Pittsburgh coal for the local market. The coal is here reached by a shaft twenty-five feet deep. The coal and water are hoisted by horse-power. The section of the coal is as follows:

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The bottom coal is never raised, as it is poor and slaty, and when broken allows a large amount of water to come into the mine. The best coal of the seam is the top bench of twenty-five inches. The bearing-in is made in the bottom, and the coal is then shot in the central doubleparting and thin coal. The faces of the coal are east and west as nearly as could be determined with a small compass. Neither clay veins, horsebacks nor faults have been found in this mine, but the coal rises gently and uniformly to the north.

The coal comes above the bed of Captina Creek, in S. E. quarter section 21, and remains only a few feet above the creek until reaching the S. W. quarter section 27, when it again goes under the creek-bed. The coal has been opened in several places, and is often laid bare in the creek bluffs. The mines are all liable to be flooded by high water from Captina Creek.

In S. E. quarter section 27, a section was taken with the barometer showing five coals above the Pittsburgh seam. None of them have been opened in this vicinity. The section is as follows, giving distances from the bottom of the No. 8 coal:

Thin coal over bed of limestone several feet thick........
Coal, 3-4 inches over bed of limestone several feet thick........
Coal blossom, well marked....

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Washington Township. - The Pittsburgh coal does not crop in this township, but it is worked by means of a shaft in N. E. quarter section 10, on the B., Z. & C. R. R. The coal gives the following section:

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The total of the main coal is six feet. This is about the average all through the mine. The coal is very uniform in thickness and structure, and no irregularities such as clay veins, horsebacks or faults have been found. The roof coal makes a good safe roof. The clay is taken down with the main coal.

This mine is troubled somewhat by the presence of fire-damp and oil. The oil is found mostly on one side of the mine, where it seeps out of the coal and roof and gathers on the water in the drains and sumps. Enough is gathered to oil the small coal cars and machinery about the mines, and the remainder is pumped out with the water and turned into the creek. It has taken fire several times and so caused considerable trouble in working the mine. The amount of fire-damp is not large. After the mine has been examined in the morning by the mine boss with a safety lamp, the miners go in with their naked lights.

The shaft is seventy-four feet deep from the surface to the bottom of the coal. The strata passed through are alternate beds of limestone and clay shale. The four-foot coal that supplied local use before the shaft was opened, is here ninety-eight feet above the bottom of the Pittsburgh coal. The coal from the shaft is shipped and used on the narrow-gauge railroad running past the mine from Bellaire to Zanesville.

The composition of the coal is as follows: (Lord)

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Goshen Township. - The Pittsburgh coal shows in but one place in this township. That is in N. W. quarter section 36. The coal is there stripped in the bed of the stream on Du Bois's land. No mines in the coal were found in the township. At Du Bois's place the coal is from four and one-half to five feet thick, with the usual partings. Where it was opened no roof coal was observed, but its place was taken by a bed of clay. The roof coal may have been eroded by the present water course. To the north of this exposure the bed of limestone a few feet above the coal was noticed in full force.

Warren Township. - This township shows the coal in the northern and western part. The eastern and southern part is high land, forming a part of the watershed between the Ohio and Muskingum rivers. In this township the Meigs Creek coal is worked almost if not quite as much as the Pittsburgh coal. About Barnesville the Meigs Creek coal is used almost entirely. The two coals are here of about the same quality and thickness, the Pittsburgh coal being cut down by the sandstone roof.

In sections 11 and 17 the Pittsburgh coal is reported about four feet thick, with no roof coal and a poor, weak shale roof, while the Meigs Creek coal is of about the same thickness, with a firm strong roof. In sections 12 and 17 the thick ledge of sandstone comes down on the coal, cutting away the roof coal and reducing the upper bench of the main coal. In the northwest corner of the township the coal is from four to four and one-half feet thick, with the sandstone roof. It is here so filled with pyrites as to be almost useless, even for domestic and steam purposes. The coal is worked in N. E. quarter section 31 for the use of the locomotives on the B. & O. R. R. It here gives the following section:

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The coal all through the southwest part of the township has about the same section as that above given. The sandstone frequently rests immediately on the coal, and the quality is then usually poorer, there being more pyrites in the coal.

Somerset Township. - The Pittsburgh coal is found only in sections 30 and 36 of this township. It is reported to have the same thickness and structure as in the southwestern part of Warren township.

GUERNSEY COUNTY.

Millwood Township. - This township has a larger area of the Pittsburgh coal than any other township of Guernsey county. In the southeast corner, along the B. & O. R. R., the coal is about 130 to 140 feet above the track. At the west side of the township it is from 210 to 220 feet above the track and near the hill-tops. The high ridge and its spurs between Salt Fork of Wills Creek, in Oxford township, and Leatherwood Creek in this township, holds the coal throughout the township.

In N. E. quarter section 20, near Quaker City, on the land of Doudna and Bros. the coal is mined for local use. It here gives the following section:

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The total coal is about four feet. In this mine a few horsebacks

have been found that cut down almost to the bottom of the coal.

The coal ranges about four feet throughout the township, and usually has considerable pyrites scattered through the coal, as well as gathered at the upper parting. No trace of the roof coal was found. In many places in the township there is no shale between the coal and the sandstone that is shown over the shale in the last section. The quality of the coal is usually reported as poorer when the sandstone rests on it. At Quaker City the coal is 190 feet by the Y-level, above the Ames limestone, and at Salesville, in section 32, it is, by hand-level, 193 feet above the Ames limestone.

Oxford Township. -The principal area of the Pittsburgh coal in this township is in the ridge running east and west through the central part of the township, along which the national turnpike runs. There is a ridge in the southeast corner that holds the only other area of any size. There are small unimportant outliers in sections 9, 25, 27, 31 and 35, which are of little economic value, the coal in them having a light cover and being very poor and rotten. About Fairview, in the eastern part of the township, the coal is from thirty-eight to fifty inches thick, with a sandstone roof and no roof coal.

In N. W. quarter section 2, at Galbraith's bank, just west of Fairview, the coal measures as follows:

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The best coal is found in the middle bench of fifteen inches. The bearing-in is made on the lower parting.

A coal near the place of No. 8b has been cut through in a well near this mine. It was reported as two feet thick and very slaty and poor. The interval could not be measured. At this mine the coal always dips to the west, at one place as much as eight feet in 100 feet. No roof coal was found either here or farther west. In the southeast corner of this township no sandstone was noticed over the coal, only clay shale. The marks of coals 8a and 86 were noticed at several points. The Ames limestone is exposed in section 6, but the interval to the No. 8 coal could not be measured with the hand-level. To the west of Fairview for a few miles a clay shale replaces the sandstone over the coal and marks of coals 8a and 8b were observed. The roof coal was not seen, but was reported in the outlier in sections 25 and 27 of a thickness of twelve inches and with twelve inches of clay between the main coal

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