Part I. Report of progress in 1869, by J. S. Newberry, chief geologist. Part II. Report of progress in the second district, by E. B. Andrews, assist. geologist. Part III. Report on geology of Montgomery County, by Edward Orton, assist. geologist.

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county, about 30 feet below the main seam, which is here 9 feet 4 inches
thick. But at this point, also, the lower coal is much cut away by the
overlying sand rock, and presents a very singular appearance. One of
the best exposures of the lower seam, in the south part of Perry county,
was on the land of Thomas Barnes, on Lost run, Lick township. In the
immediate vicinity of Straitsville, we found no exposure showing the
lower seam.
In the neighborhood of New Lexington, the lower seam is quite persistent, and has been considerably mined. At the mines of the Miami
Company, on the branch of the Ztnesville and Cincinnati Railroad, the
lower seam is 3 feet 10 inches thick, and is largely mined. It is 22 feet
below the upper coal, which is here 4 feet thick, including an inch of
clay, parting near the middle.
Near the McLuney Station, Harrison township, Perry county, the lower
seam, represented as four feet thick, is passed through in digging wells.
Here the upper seam, four feet eight inches thick, is mined in many
places.
On John Lyle's land, section 14, Newton township, Muskingum county,
the lower seam, three feet ten inches thick, is extensively mined. By
reference to the map of grouped sections, the general range of this coal,
and its relation to the Putnam Hill limestone below, and the coal seam
above, will be readily seen. It is doubtless true that in places the seam
is wanting, the conditions not having been favorable to its formation.
Between this'coal and the one above it we find in places valuable clay
shales. Of these much pottery is made at Roseville and vicinity. There
is also, a few feet below the upper coal, a layer of nodular iron ore, which
will be noticed hereafter. The ore is imbedded in fine clay shales, which
are everywhere found below the upper coal. These were fine sediments,
which, in their deposition, evened up the bed or floor on which the coal
was to be accumulated.
NELSONVILLE OR STRAITSVILLE COAL.
We now reach, in our upward progress, a seam of coal which will
doubtless prove to be the finest in the State. The limits of its horizontal
range I have not yet found, either in Muskingum county to the north, or
in Athens county to the south. It is everywhere of good working thickness, and, over a large area, it measures from six to eleven feet. It is
thinner on the north, but on Sunday and Monday creeks, in Perry
county, it is eleven feet, and on the Hocking, in the vicinity of Nelsonville, it is seldom less than six feet.. There is no doubt that it is one
continuous seam, as it not only holds uniform relations to the lower
rocks, from the Logan sandstone up, but it has, moreover, been traced
from hill to hill throughout nearly the whole distance. A glance at the