The Jackson standard. [volume] (Jackson C.H., Ohio) 1847-1888, 1875-03-25


their shape until they fall to ashes
Unlike other coal seams which gener-
ally exist in good regularity, this coal is
often wanting where it might well be ex-
Pected to be found, and it has to be
searched for by boring at great risk and
expense, not one acre in twenty in the
Mahoning valley being found to contain
it. 1t rests upon the upper surface Of the
Waverly sandstone, or upon a coa.s =
grained sandstone which often covers the
Waverly, varying in thickness from a
foot to twenty feet. In the low places
there is generally a foot or Ell.
teen inches of black shale under
the coal, but there is seldom any fire clay.
except in the jackson region, where a
stratum of fire-clay is present. The
upper surface of the Waverly sandstone
is very wavy and uneven, forming in
places long, sinuous troughs, often very
narrow, and the coal is always got in these
troughs. In the hollows the coal is gen
orally found OF good minab!e height
ranging from three and halt to FIVE feet;
but on the sides of the hills it becomes
thinner, forming the shape of an acute
angle or of wedge, though a minabIe
thickness of coal is frequently suddenly
cut away on the hillside (and in places
in the hollows also) by the appearance of
a roof of sandstone or fire-clay, which
usurps the place of the coal. When this
foreign roof stays away the coal generally
exists on the hills, though growing thin
ner with each yard OF advance until it
reaches the summit, when it dips over
again into the bottom oil an adjoining
trough, forming an arch or an antclinal
Unless there is Il swamp or hollow near,
the coal is invariably cut away on the
hills before it thins out, by the presence
OF the white roof and it will frequently
happen that the coal will rise on one side
of the hilL for forty or even sixty feet,
perpendicular height, and still exist OF
foot or more in tn ckness; VIII lie
on the other side of the hill it will be cut
away altogether before it has risen fifteen
or twenty feet-a mlnable coal disappear
ing with six feet of advance by the white
roof OF sandstone or fire clay having been
encountered.
In the mine of the Fulton Coal Com
pany near the village of CInal Fulton, in
Stark county, there is hill Of immense
height-the highest, | believe, ever met
with in any coal mine in the State-the
top of which is fully sixty feet higher
than the swamp. The coal rises from
the side OF the swamp, climbing up the
side OF the hill Tor one hundred and fifty
yards at the rate of. about one foot to
four. When reaching the summit it
fattens off for few feet, then dips down
into a swamp on the opposite side In
the hollow or low place OF the coal in
each swamp the seam is nearly five feet
thick, while on the summit of the ridge
it is scarcely six inches.
All these hollows, troughs. or swamps
in which this coal bed is found app Alr ;
to have been scooped out through erosive
agencies. Whenever it is necessary in
mine (as it is quite frequently to cut a
passage-way through a HILL the strata
underlying the coal are found occupying
a horizontal plane, while the coal may be
pitching at the rate of twenty or even
thin ty degrees. This scooping of the
rocks was done long before the deposition
of the coal vegetation. To this fact is
due the limi el amount of coal No |, or
rather it is to this fact that there is any
OF this coal at all, for it is never present
on the plateaus which compose nine
tenths of its area. What changes may be
encountered in the more central portion
OF the field is a matter of much specula-
tion-the opinion prevails among prac-
tical men that it is wanting altogether
Whether present in equal amount to-
wards the basin of the field, or in even
greater quantity, the cost OF boring will
prevent for many years to come, any very
active search for it.
In many places in the Mahoning valley
the roof OF the coal is a conglomerate
rock. The Seceder mine and the Moore
mine, in Liberty township, have gener-
ally a conglomerate lying Immediately
above the coal ~a1id patches OF this rock
cover the coal in the mines of the Vienna
Coal and Iron Company, in Vienna town
ship, while the same roof is present in
places in several of the mines of Mineral
Ridge A conglomerate rock of two or
three feet of thickness is also found in
the jackson coal region of southern Ohio.
not directly alb I'VE the coal, and the peb-
bles are generally quite large, from one
to three inches in diameter.
Ali the material above the coal, as
proved by numerous borings and by the
opening of the shafts, show that the
strata are not regular, persistent matter,
but local layers of shale and sandston IS
without extended unbroken arrange
ment. One shaft, sunk to a depth of one
hundred and forty teet, may not possess
a single foot of sandrock, while the next
one, not q half mile distant, sunk to the
same depth from the same line of level,
may have twenty or thirty or forty feet
OF rock either in one or in several masses
or layers. These rock beds may be near
the coal, in fact they sometimes form its
roof, or they may be near the surface.
They are never continuous. but appear
and disappear in short distances, and are
found in beds of one foot and in beds of
ninety feet of thickness, and the same is
true of the various shaie strata, except
that no single bed is ever met exceeding
twenty-five to thirty feet of thickness
-, Al
appear to be of greater width than in the
Mahoning valley, and the hills are not so
numerous. In jackson county the coal
is spread over still greater breadth than
in the Tuscarawas valley, and here the
swamps or low places in the coal, instead
of being long, serpentine troughs, are
generally rounded like bowl In the
mines OF the Star Furnace Company the
coal occupies three different stages Of
level, and here, which is unusual in this
district, the swamp Is long and sinuous.
From the lowest place in the coal to the
highest point there are forty-fve feet OF
elevation. The coal first rises out of the
swamp by gradual inclination of about
twelve degrees, till it has reached eleven
feet, then it hattens off, forming plateau
of perhaps one hundred and fifty yards
in width, then rises again and levels out
as before, and still again rises until the
alluvial outcrop is reached. There is sell
dom any foreign matter Sandstone or
fire clay) found usurping the place of the
coal either in the basins or on the hills
At the mine of the Milton Furnace and
Coal Company, twelve miles from Jack
son Court House, the coal is comparatively
level in all directions but this is an up
per seam-the Anthony or Hill coal of
Prof Andrews-though it is, perhaps of
equal purity and value as a furnace coal
to that of the Jackson shafts being free