Delaware gazette. [volume] (Delaware, Ohio) 1855-1886, 1871-01-27
GEOLOGICAL REPORT OF OHIO
SUNDAY CREEK VALLEY.
[Hon. E. D. Mansfield in. the oinoinnauaa

N6Jbe.l
At last the Geological Report of
Ohio is printed. The art of printing is
supposed to be of great benefit to man
kind, but so far as government printing
is concerned, it seems intended for the
next generation. We are glad however,
to get the scientific explorations of pub
lie officers, come when they will We
have received from DR.. Newbury the pc
illogical report, and there are some
things in It which we want to lay be-
fore the readers of the Gazette. DR..
NewbuJy thinks there is much poetry in
geology, and we agree with him per
1ectly. We don't know any subject on
which the ''poetic license is more free
ly used, or in which the imagination has
roamed more unrestrained. According
ly, the Doctor begins with a beautiful
allusion othat rather ancient state of
the world in which the carbon-bearing
flora foated on the surface of the earth
in fairy forms, and was at length, by the
irresistible force of sunlight, converted
into what we vulgarIy call COAL It re-
minds US of the mermaid world un-
der the ocean, and of the celestial in
habitants of moon and stars, which po-
cts and astronomers imagine. For our
selves, we are content to take the coal
without the poetry. To say that coal
was once beautiful vegetation, or that
a piece of coal is a diamond concealed,
may be true, but, unfortunately, the coal
will neither go back to the flowers nor
forward to the diamonds. 1t is simply
coal and IS it not best SO ? 1t is in the
form God meant It for the use of man;
and, as such, is a great practical bless
ing. Civilization owes an untold debt
to coal, and this goodly State of Ohio
will hereafter owe more to coal than to
any one element of wealth.
We turn for the present to what is
termed economic geology, and is found
in the second part-Prof. Andrews's
Survey of Southeastern Ohio. In the
first place, however, we will mention a
fact stated by DR.. Newbury which must
surprise many of our readers. He says
that 0zfe-haIf of the iron ore raised in
the Marquette region of Lake Superior
IS smelted in Ohio and that one-third
of all the iron mined on Lake Superior
is S1zelted zt1th Ohio c0aL These facts
are remarkable. Ohio coal is the very
best for the manufacture of iron, and a
large number of the furnaces in Eastern
Ohio are employed in smelling Lake
Superior iron. The coal there employed
was first found in the valley of the Ma
honing, and called the "Brier Hill
coal. This IS the dry, open-burning
coal, which these qualities make the
best for furnaces. This kind of coal is
not, however, confined to the Mahoning.
It is found in other parts, and it is believ-
ed the coal of Sunday Creek Valley, or,
as it is generally called, the Nelson
vile field, will, in some localities, be
found equal-to that. We shall hear
more on this point, no doubt, in the
next report of Prof. Andrews. In the
meantime, we notice what he now says.
In an article in the Gasette, last August,
we described our visit to Sunday Creek
Valley and what seemed to US won
derful mineral region. Some persons
may have thought the statements too
strong, but Prof Andrews, allowing for
the caution which scientific men ought to
observe, fully confirms what we said
He says:
''In all the tributaries of Sunday creek
which have the requisite erosion, we
find the coal. In the branch which runs
through the southeast section of Pleas
ant township, Perry County, we find the
coal in full thickness, measuring, at the
bank of Joshua Sands, II feet inches,
with several clay partings At the bank
of William Bennett, a little above, it is
probably as thick the water prevent
ing, at the time of our visit, a tull meas
urement. In this neighborhood the
coal lies too low for easy drainage, but
the difficulty can be obviated. A. vast
body of coal in the hills of the north can
be mined up the dip from this valley.
There is scarcely any limit to the coal,
which is rendered accessible by the
various branches of Sunday creek, in
Pleasant, Monroe and Salt Lick town
ships. The great body of high lands
which constitute the divide between the
waters flowing south and those flowing
north through Jonathan's creek, into the
Moxahala and Muskingum, and west
through Rush creek into the Hooking,
is doubtless underlaid with this COAL
The coal seam constitutes a vast sheet,
of II feet in maximum thickness on the
south. but gradually growing thinner, to
q and s feet. in its northern outcrop
along the GAINESVILLE & Cincinnati Rail-