Page:History of Richland County, Ohio.djvu/185

 HISTORY OF RICHLAND COUNTY.

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��thickness ; that a1>ove them there is a marked thickening- of the Waverly rocks, and such change in their mineral constituents and modes of Reposition, as to make their subdivision into Cuyahoga shales. Berea grit, and Bedford shales, so clearly defined in the Cuyahoga, impossi- ble. The interval between this rock and the coal measures also varies greatly, and it is evi- dent that at different horizons the sandy shales of the Waverly pass into coarse conglomerate, which form long, narrow ridges, with a north- erly and southerly l)earing, and nowhere ex- tending in broad sheets in an easterly and west- erly direction. The fact is of interest, in this connection, that the whole bod}' of the A\'averly here is composed of coarser material, and is generally more homogeneous than further south.

The following sections will show the general character of the upper memliers of the Waverly, and the local character of the Waverly con- glomerate :

Section from top of hill, near the southwest corner of Washington Township, to the "oil- well " on the banks of the Mohican, six miles south of Loudonville : ^ ,

Feet No. 1. Coarse ferruginous, cherty conglomerate

No. 2. Olive shales of Waverly 270

No. 3. Alternate bands of sandstone and argilla- ceous shales 100

No. 4. Argillaceous shales, with nodules of iron ore,

many fragments of crinoids, spirifers, etc. 20

An exposure half a mile west of No. 3 of this section shows a coarse and more massive sand- stone, approaching to the WaA'erly conglomerate.

Section three-fourths of a mile northwest of Lucas:

Feet.

No. 1. Red and yellow conglomerate 10 to 18

No. 2. Hard white sand-rock in three layers... 19

No. 3. Covered 160

No. 4. Sand and argillaceous shales at bottom

of valley

The upper part of the Waverly conglomerate is represented l)}- the upper part of this sec- tion. The rock shows occasional seams of peb- bles, and in places colored bands, not as marked,

��but of the same character as the Mansfield quarry. It is firm and strong, splitting easily in the lines of stratification, and furnishes a very good quarry rock. Section at Newville:

Feet.

No. 1. Olive shales of Waverly 160

No. 2. White sand-rock 10 to 15

No. 3. Coarse sandstone with pebbles and

bands of gravel 80 to 100

The lower 100 feet of this section compose the rock bluffs at Newville, which present a striking resemblance to some of the outcrops of the sub-carboniferous conglomerate. It splits more readily into thin layers, and its true char- acter as the WaA^erly conglomerate is apparent from its mineral composition, as well as from its stratigraphical position.

Section at Daniel Zent's quarry. Bellville:

Feet.

No. 1. Earth 2 to 4

No. 2. Coarse pebbles of drift 8 to 10

No. 3. Sandstone in thin layers 15

No. 4. Sandstone in massive layers 8

No. 5. Sandstone in layers of one to four feet.... 15

The rock of this exposure is much like the Logan sandstone, contains few pebbles, l)ut is on the same horizon as the Waverly conglom- erate. '■" It affords a large amount of excellent building-stone, most of which is taken by the railroad company. This rock forms all the hills in this part of the county, which rise rapidly to the north to the height of thirty feet or more. It is in the coves and gorges cut down in this rock, and opening southward, that most of the gold of this county has been found, which is obtained not only at the bottom of the gorges, but from the earth which covers the slopes to the top. These facts, coupled with that of find- ing many erratics of quartz in the tops of the hills to the north and northwest, indicate that this gold was brought in b}' the recent, and not by the Waverly drift.

Many la3'ers in this quarry are conspicuously ripple-marked, and remains of fucoids are

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