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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dance of excellent ore, and forty furnaces that have been for years using
charcoal for its reduction. But the supply of fuel afforded by the forest
growth of a country is comparatively small, and it has there been already
to a large extent exhausted. Now this region abounds in coal, though
mostly of the coking variety, and it is evident that its prosperity and
progress will hinge upon the intelligent adaptation of the coals found
there to the purposes heretofore served by charcoal. If the mineral fuel
of this portion of the State can be successfully employed in the reduction
of its ores, the iron manufacture may be expanded to an indefinite extent;
without this, it must not only cease to advance, but diminish.
Already an exhaustive investigation into the properties and adaptations of the different Ohio coals, has been begun by the Geological Corps.
This should be continued until every owner of coal lands, in every county
in the coal area, shall know with accuracy how much and what kind of
coal he possesses, for what it is fit, how much it is worth, how it can be
worked, and where it is to be marketed. It is not too much to expect,
that, when this investigation shall have been completed, the industries
of the State will be sensibly affected and very much expanded by it.
IRON.
While it is true that coal is, as we have called it, the main-spring of
modern civilization, it is also true that much of its value depends upon
its association with iron. In the few words I have devoted to our coal
deposits, I have done nothing like, justice to their richness and value;
and while Ohio cannot boast of an equal endownment in iron, it may at
least be said that she has fully her share of this element of wealth. In
most countries certain varieties of iron ore are found associated with
coal-blackband, clay-iron-stone, &c.-and in these ores Ohio is far richer
than any of those States that share with her our great Alleghany coal
basin. Again, our poal field is so situated, and the coal it furnishes is
of such quality, that a large part of the richer crystalline ore found in
other States must inevitably be brought to our territory to be smelted
and manufactured.
In order that the conditions under which the production of iron is now,
and is hereafter to be, carried on in Ohio, may be better understood, I
will devote a few words to a description of the different varieties of iron
ore found in our country, and their relation to the fuel with which they
are to be smelted.
The richest of all the ores of iron is the " Magnetic oxide," which contains, when pure, 72.4 per cent. metallic iron, and 2.76 oxygen. It consists of the protoxide and sesquioxide combined, and may be recognized
by its black powder and its magnetic property. This variety of ore is
found in great abundance in the crystalline rocks of the Alleghany belt,