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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Nowhere have we found so persistent a horizon of ore as. that found
a few feet below the great coal seam. Attention to this ore was called
by Dr. Briggs, in the old Geological Reports. Scarcely anywhere was a
section made of this part of the vertical range of strata without the discovery of this ore. It is in nodules, often small, but sometimes very
large and heavy. Unfortunately, the nodules are generally too much
scattered to make mining profitable, yet there are doubtless many places
where this ore might be obtained by stripping, in sufficient quantity to
serve a valuable purpose for mixture. A sample obtained on the land
of James Hawkins, on Snow Fork of Monday creek, in Ward township,
Hocking county, was analyzed by Prof. Wormley. The result is given in
No. 4 of the table. The ore is siderite or carbonate of iron, and yields
31.50 per cent. metallic iron. It is often filled with beautiful.impressions
of coal plants, a collection of which was made for the State cabinet.
On the farm of Benjamin Saunders, on the west branch of Monday
creek, the stream has cut its way below the great seam of coal, and
revealed the same range of nodular ores, found below the coal on Snow
Fork and elsewhere. The ore is rich in iron, but the nodules are too
much scattered to make mining profitable. Generally, in the upper
Sunday creek valley, this ore would be several feet below tbe beds of
the Streams.
IRON ORE ABOVE THE NELSONVILLE COAL.
The strata of rocks lying above the horizon of the great Nelsonville
seam of coal are apparently less promising in iron ore than those below it.
On the old Marietta road, one mile north-east from Nelsonville, two
ranges of nodular ore were seen, and their places proximately given in
No. 1 of the map of grouped sections.
A sandy ore (probably of little value) was seen on the hill near the
village of Straitsville, Perry county.
On the headwaters of Sunday creek there was seen at one place, where
the shales are not cut away by the heavy sandrock, two lines of small
blue kidneys of blue carbonate or siderite, one three and the other four
inches thick. The lower line is fifteen feet above the great seam of coal,
and the other six feet higher. At one place, near Millerstown, a deposit
of five inches of blue carbonate of iron, four feet below the middle or
Norris coal, was seen. Whether this will prove a continuous layer or is
only a local deposit, I had no means of ascertaining. Fifteen feet above
the middle or Norris coal is a quite persistent deposit of ore of the limonite class. This seam can be traced through all the hills to New Lexington, where it is found in its proper place above the upper New Lexington
coal, which is the equivalent of the great seam of Sunday creek. It