THE SURFACE FEATURES—SUBCARBONIFEROUS LIMESTONE—MASSIVE SANDSTONE—CARBONATE, LIMONITE AND SILICEOUS OXIDES OF IRON—ANALYTICAL TABLES—PERCENTAGE OF IRON—THE RICHLAND BLAST FURNACE—THE COUNTY COAL—CHEMICAL ANALYSIS SHOWING PERCENTAGE OF CARBON—COAL OF THE EASTERN AND THE WESTERN PARTS—FOSSILS —FIRE CLAY—ECONOMIC QUESTIONS—THE GLACIERS—QUICK-LIME— OCHER DEPOSITS—TIMBER, ETC.

THE county of Greene is bounded on the north by Clay and Owen Counties, on the east by Monroe and Lawrence Counties, on the south by Martin, Daviess and Knox Counties, and on the west by Sullivan County. In shape, it is a parallelogram, and contains 540 square miles. The principal stream of water is the West Fork of White River, which runs in a southwesterly course through the county, and divides it into two nearly equal parts. The main tributaries of White River in the county are Eel River, Latta's Creek and Black Creek on the west side, and Richland Creek, Doan's Creek and First Creek on the east side. Indian Creek, with its tributaries, waters a portion of the eastern border of the county, and empties into the East Fork of White River.
The county east of White River is quite broken, with hills from 120 feet to 300 feet in height, whereas to the west of the river, with the exception of a ridge running from Eel River on the north to White River on the south, near Fairplay, and passing a short distance to the west of Worthington, the county is generally level, or slightly undulating, a considerable part of it being prairie.
Latta's Creek Marsh, Bee-hunters Marsh and Goose Pond contain in all about nine or ten square miles of land subject to overflow during freshets. These marshes can be drained, and thus by aeration furnish to agriculture a large body of very fertil( land. Previous to the completion of the Indianapolis & Vincennes Rail. road, the county was without a direct and practicable means of commuitition with the distant centers of trade, consequently up to that time there was no incentive or inducement offered the citizens to attempt any development of its mineral resources. And even with the coming of this road, and later of the Narrow Gauge Railroad, the wealth of natural minerals has been slow of development, but enough has been discovered to render it certain that Greene is one of the richest counties in the State in stone and coal, in valuable clays, ocher beds and iron ores. The geological formations represented by the succession of strata in this county ale: 1. Subcarboniferous limestone period. 2. Millstone grit epoch. 3. Coal measures epoch. 4. Glacial epoch. The continuous vertical section of the coal and subordinate limestone formation are similar to those of Clay County.

SUBCARBONIFEROUS LIMESTONE.

At the mouth of Fish Creek, in the northern part of the county, limestone belonging to the Chester group of the subcarboniferous limestone formation outcrops on the bluff bank of the creek, and is exposed to the depth of fifteen or twenty feet, and is at this place overlaid by drift, but at a short distance southwest it is increased by the addition of two to five feet of shale, with an irregular thin seam of Coal A. and the millstone grit. Some of the layers of this limestone contain a few fossils, but they are difficult to obtain sufficiently perfect for cabinet specimens. The following comprise all that could be recognized: Orthis umbraculum, Archimedes Wortheni, Athyris subtilita, Pentramitis obelus, P. pyriformis, Spirifer incra,ssatus, Productus carbonarious, P. Cora, and an abundance of encrinite stems. It belongs to the upper member of the subcarboniferous limestone, and is designated by Prof. A. H. Worthen in the Geological Report of Illinois as the Chester group. The greatest development of this limestone seen in Greene County is on Beech Creek, a branch of Richland Creek, on Section 12, Township 7 north, Range 4 west, where it forms a great mural precipice, capped with a massive sandstone of the millstone series. The following section was obtained at this locality: Brownish gray sandstone, in thick beds, which has the appearance of being most excellent building stone 25 feet Shale, which thickens up to many feet, and in some places contains Coal A 1 inch Buff-colored limestone, in which were seen Pentramitis obesus, P. pyrtformis and Archimedes Wortheni .20 feet Gray siliceous shale, partly covered. 25 feet Bluish limestone (in which could be discovered no fossils), with intercalations of sandstone, Mostly covered b y talus 50 feet At the junction of the sandstone and limestone at this locality, there gushes forth a mammoth spring of good, cool water, which was at one time utilized to run an overshot wheel that propelled the machinery of a grist mill. The subcarboniferous limestone makes its appearance at the base of the hills along this creek for a distance of several miles, and is overlaid by'a few feet of shale and the massive sandstone at the base of the millstone grit. It also makes its appearance at the ore banks on Ore Branch of Richland Creek, in Section 28, Township 7 north, Range 4 west, and on the eastern border of the county, near the Virginia -Blast Furnace (now abandoned), and south from the furnace along Indian Creek.

MILLSTONE GRIT.

This epoch follows the subcarboniferous in regular sequence, and is principally represented by a massive sandstone, usually in two benches, and separated from each other by a bed of shale, varying from a few inches to four feet or more in thickness, and at some places carries a thin. coal, L. This massive sandstone is, apparently, in the position occupied by the conglomerate sandstone most usually found at the base. of the coal measures, yet in this part of the State it is, so far as 1 have been able to discover, entirely free from the admixture of quartz pebbles,. which give rise to the latter name. The millstone grit covers fully three-fourths of the county. Its boundary on the west may be approximately laid down as passing from Johnstown, on Eel River, across the county in a southwesterly direction to Marco, on the Indianapolis & Vincennes Railroad, while the irregular margin of its eastern outcrop is in. Monroe County, some miles east of the Greene County line. Between this massive sandstone and the subcarboniferous limestone there is inter posed a bed of argillaceous shale varying from a few inches to thirty feet or more in thickness, that contains in many places a bed of good, block coal A. Above the sandstone are argillaceous and siliceous shales,-with benches of flags and other stones of good dimensions for building purposes. In all, this group may attain a depth of 300 feet or more in Greene County. The massive santistane—or conglomerate, as it may be. called for convenience—gives to the scenery of this county on the east side of White River a marked character. Near the tops of many of the ridges that skirt along the streams it forms conspicuous benches, and the slopes below are strewn with cyclopean blocks that have broken off and fallen from the parent mass above. In places, it has a portion of the lower part worn away by the combined action of the frosts and running water, so as to form deep caverns with projecting roofs of stone that afford an excellent protection in time of storms to wayfaring men and farm stock, for which reason I suppose they have received the common name of rock houses. In the more secluded parts of the county, the rock houses constitute the abode of a variety of wild animals, that seek in them a friendly shelter from the inclemency of the weather.

THE IRON ORE OF GREENE COUNTY.

It is at the junction of the conglomerate with the subcarboniferous limestone that we find the great repository of limestone iron ore in this county; and, in fact, it forms the common horizon of this variety of iron ore in most of the Western States. The ore lies in pockets of various dimensions, and owes its origin in most cases to a metamorphism of the
surrounding rocks, produced by the permeation of mineral water that is strongly charged with protoxide of iron. On Ore Branch of Plummer Creek, Section 22, Township 7 north, Range 4 west, on Mr. Heaton's land, the base of the conglomerate has been completely changed by this process into a siliceous ore that is rich in iron to the depth of ten or twelve feet. Similar ore was seen on Sections 21 and 28 of the same township and range; also, in the greatest abundance at Mr. Lavel place, on Sections 4 and 9, Township 7, Range 6, where it cannot be less than twenty-five to thirty feet in thickness, and great blocks lie scttered over the side of the ridge; it is in abundance, also, on Section 12 of the same township and range, and in the neighborhood of Owensburg, in the southeast part of the county. The old Virginia blast furnace on Indian Creek, in the western edge of Monroe County, has been out of blast for many years, but when in blast the or was obtained close at hand from large deposits fifteen to twenty feet thick, covering several acres. The Virginia blast furnace cannot be more than five or six feet across the boshes and twenty to twenty-five feet highit is poorly constructed, and the only wonder is that it made any iron at all. However, fragments of pig-iron that were picked up around the stack give evidence that it made a very fair quality of iron, and was abandoned only in consequence of the great expense incurred in getting the metal to market—the nearest being Louisville, on the Ohio River, to which point the pig-iron was hauled in wagons. A characteristic specimen of ore from the ore banks half a mile northeast of this furnace was analyzed, and the following result obtained:

Loss by ignition, water and organic matter 10.00
Insoluble silicates 31.50
Sesquioxide of iron, with some protoxide and a little
alumina and manganese 58.50
Total 100.00
Specific gravity, 2.56; per cent of metallic iron, 40.95.
This ore will give over forty-five per cent of iron after being'roasted, and will make an excellent quality of cold short pig-iron.The principal ore used at the Richland blast furnace, near Bloomfield, from Ore Branch of Plummer's Creek, forms a bench on each side of a ravine, and appears to lie between the massive ore and the subcarbonif
bottom of the deposit. Capt. M. H. Shryer, who frequently saw this bed of ore at the time it was being worked for the blast furnace, says that the deposit is fully nine feet in thickness. It lies in kidney-shaped masses in a matrix of ferruginous clay, and contains less silica than the massive ore. CharaCteristic samples of this kidney ore and of the massive siliceous block ore from the Richland furnace ore banks were analyzed, and the following result was obtained:

Loss by ignition, water and organic matter, mostly water, 11.50 Insoluble silicates 17.00
Sesquioxide of iron, with some protoxide and a trace of manganese Alumina Carbonate of lime

It was tested for sulphur and phosphorus, but no traces were tonna. Two hundred grains of this siliceous ore mixed with fifty grains of limestone were fused in a Hessian crucible and a button of iron was obtained that weighed seventy-six grains—equal to 38 per cent—very nearly the same result as obtained by the humid analysis. The button indicated a very good quality of iron slightly malleable and gave a semi-crystalline fracture. The roasted ore would yield fully 40 per cent of iron in the blast furnace, and on account of the manganese which it contains it is admirably adapted for the manufacture of steel, either by the Bessemer process or in the puddling furnace. Iron made from the above ores alone will possess cold-short properties, but by mixing them, in the proper proportion with the red-short specular and magnetic ores from Missouri and Lake Superior, a neutral iron may be made. The Richland Furnace went into blast about the year 1841, and the final blowing-out was in 1859. The stack was about forty-five feet high and nine feet across the boshos; it was worked with a hot blast and used charcoal as fuel.
About nine tons of pig iron were produced daily. The cause assigned for the stoppage of the furnace was the want of suitable and economical means of getting the pig iron to market. The blowing cylinders were forty-two inches in diameter and six feet stroke. Good deposits of siliceous and earthy carbonates of iron are seen at quite a number,of localities in this County that are not enumerated above, namely, at Gaskill's, on the L & V. Railroad on Section 86, Township 8, Range 6; on Black Creek, in the southwest part of the county; at Phillips' coal mine, and immediately around the old blast furnace.

THE COAL OF GREENE COUNTY.

All the coal beds on the east side of White River and over a considerable strip of country on the west side of that river, are either in the conglomerate or are sub-conglomerate. For the most part, these coals are of the splint or block variety, and though generally in thin seams are nevertheless of good workable thickness at some localities and will answer in the raw state for smelting iron. Coal A is seen at a number of places northeast of Worthington where it is cut through in the grade of the I. & V. Railroad, and lies in close proximity to the subcarboniferous limestone; indeed it is often separated from the latter by only a few inches of fire clay. Coal B lies from sixteen to thirty feet above Coal A, being intercalated between two benches of the conglomerate and is from four to eighteen inches thick. At Gaskill's, on Section 12, Township 8, Range 5, Coal A lies thirty to forty feet above the railroad track and has been partially opened, but proved too thin for mining to advantage. At Woodrow's old mill on Section 14, Township 8,-Range 5, Coal A outcrops on the bank of White River, and is twenty-eight inches thick. It is a block coal, but apparently contains a considerable quantity of sulphur. Immediately above the coal and forming its roof is black bituminous fissile slate two feet, then a few feet of siliceous shale, which latter is succeeded by forty to fifty feet of massive sandstone. About 200 yards north of this old mill up a short ravine, this sandstone forms a great cliff, and Coal A outcrops at its base only about ten feet above the subcarhoniferous limestone which shows itself at the foot of the ravine. Coal B, about eighteen inches thick, outcrops in Point Commerce, on the west side of the hill at Mr. Miller's mill on Eel River, and in the sandstone bluff on the west bank of that stregn near its mouth. In excavating the foundation of his mill, Mr. Miller found beneath the bed of the river several layers of good clay iron-stone. Though rich in metal, it is barely Two and a half miles northwest of Worthington, on the farm of Joel Adams, on the west half of Section 7, Township 8, Range 4, Coal A three feet thick, is mined in the ravine by stripping off the two or three feet of superimposed earth. The quality of the coal is good block. On the hill close by may be seen the conglomerate sandstone which usually lies above this coal. In digging a well at his dwelling-house on the top of the low ridge to the south of this mine, Mr. Adams passed through: Soil and drift, thirteen feet; Coal B, one foot; sandstone, in which water was found, ten feet. Had the well been sunk through the sandstone, he would have reached Coal A, which is only twenty or thirty feet below Coal B, and is seen again at an outcrop on the south side of the property. On Mr. Shryer's land in the southeast corner of the same section, the Adams seam of coal also makes its appearance and may be traced to Johnstown Mille on Eel River where it is struck in the mills and as far south as Marco. At McKis sick's, on Section •36, Township 8, Range 6, Coal A is three feet thick and has shale above it. The following result was obtained from an analysis of a characteristic specimen from the above bed:

Specific gravity, 1.189; weight of a cubic foot, 74.37 pounds. Twenty to twenty-five feet higher than the coal bed above referred to, there is another opening to a seam of coal that has the same depth of bed with a roof of sandstone four or five feet thick immediately under the drift which covers the slope of the hill above. The quality of the coal at both these openings is that of a good block coal. Notwithstanding the upper coal is in the position of Coal B with regard to relative space, still I feel quite sure that the two openings are in one and the same bed. But the nature of the locality and the want of proper developments prevented me from arriving at a positive conclusion. The sandstone above the upper opening has all the appearance of the conglomerate and the openings being on opposite sides of the ravine, gives ample room for misplacement by a slide or horseback, the traces of which may be covered by debris. McKissick's mine is one and a half miles north of the I. & V. Railroad and may be easily reached by a switch from the
main road running the whole distance over a level prairie. Under the coal at the lower opening,
there is considerable iron-stone of good quality for making iron. It is here found stratified with the shale. South of McKissick's the subconglomerate coals have not been worked on
the west side of White River, its presence being known only by reaching it in wells at numerous places. On the east side of White River, the subconglotnerate Coal A is generally from thirty to thirty-six inches thick, and is also in this part of the county a block coal similar in character to what is found above the conglomerate in Clay County, anti may be used in its raw state for making pig-iron in blast furnaces. Ten or twelve mines have been opened tine partly worked to supply a limited home demand. At all these openings the coal is of good quality, is overlaid by the conglomerate, and ii places it is not more than' twenty feet above the subcarboniferous limestone. In the immediate roof shales of the coal, impressions of the flattened stems and trunks of sigillaria and calamites are abundant, but the shale is of too fissile a character to admit of their preservation ar cabinet specimens. Neither shell nor fish remains were discovered.
Coal A underlies a broad district of country which stretches out to the southwest of Bloomfield. At Hayes mine, Section 16, Township 6, Range 4, the character of the subconglomerate coal is quite changed, being at this mine a coking coal with two clay partings. The following section was made of the coal in this mine by Mr. Warder, of Owen County. The entrance to the mine was partly filled with water at the time, but the measurements at the far end of the entry were made:

The total thickness of this bed, including the clay partings, is five feet seven inches; reduced to clear coal, leaves three feet eight inches. This is a fine bed of coal, and is found over a large area of country which forms the "divide" between the waters of Doan's Creek and Plummer's Creek. Going south to Phillips' mine, on Section 21, Township 6, Range 4, the same bed of coal seen at Hayes mine is semi-block coal, three to seven feet thick, including a five-inch clay parting. Above the coal there is eight inches of a good quality of siliceous limonite iron ore, containing stems of coal plants—sigilaria and calamites. A fine specimen of the Calamites canneaformis was owned for a time by Capt. Shryer, of Bloomfield. The following section will show the position of the coal, which is opened in a shallow ravine near the top of the tableland. The bed is worked by stripping off the superincumbent strata of rock:

The same stratum of coal is also mined on the line between Sections 28 and 29, Township 6, Range 4, where it presents the same characteristics seen at the Phillips mine. In the neighborhood of Owensburg, and to the southwest in Martin County. the subconglomerate coal, A., has been opened and mined for blacksmiths' use at quite a number of places. It ranges from thirty to thirty-three inches in thickness, and is at some openings good block coal, while at others it is a bituminous coking coal. Owensburg is on the western limit of the subconglomerate coal, the place of the latter being possibly represented by an outcrop of excellent fire clay for potteries, lying near the top of the hill on the west side of the town. Below the fire clay there are large deposits of iron ore, similar to that used at the old Virginia blast furnace in Monroe County. A well dug by Mr. Potter in the eastern part of the town, on a branch of Indian Creek, passed through gray argo-siliceous shales fifteen feet; sandstone, three feet; blue argo-shale, four feet. The water in this well is no doubt obtained from the upper part of the subcarboniferous limestone which makes its appearance a short distance further up the branch.
Coal A at Babbit's mine is opened between Sections 28 and 33, Township 6, Range 3, nearly two miles southwest of Owensburg; the bed is two feet thick, and the coal is mined out in fine large cubes from twelve to fifteen inches thick. It is a coking coal, of a beautiful jet-black color, with numerous small cracks lined with scales of selenite not thicker than a sheet of paper. This is a remarkably pure coal, and would answer well for the making gas and coke. The analysis gave this result:

Specific gravity, 1.238; weight of cubic foot, 77.3 pounds.
Coke •
61 4 GGrayY ash 1.5
Fixed Carbon 59.9
Volatile matter. 38.6 W aterGood illuminating gas 35.6
Totals 100.0 100.0

The coke swells but little; structure of the coal, but slightly changed; color dull. Immediately above the coal. and forming its roof, there are three feet of black bituminous shale overlaid by five or six feet of conglomerate sandstone, which is again succbeded by a few feat of drift. The sans e bed of coal is opened on Section 20, and also on Section 23. The succession of strata here are as follows: Drift, thirty feet; sand
stone, three feet; shale, six feet. Coal A (said to be block), four feet, six inches. Another opening is made to this bed on Section 36, Township 6, Range 4, and at other places.

COAL OF WESTERN GREENE COUNTY.

The three townships, 6, 7 and 8, of Range 7, in the western part of Greene County are, except where cut out by the flats of Goose Pond, Black Creek, Latta's Creek, and the bottoms of small streams, under laid by the mammoth coal bed L. On Section 18, Township 6, Range 7, an opening has been made to Coal L. The bed is from four and a half to five feet thick, has from one to two feet of black, sheety slate in the roof, and no other material above except a foot or two of soil; but on the rise near by, in a well, thirty feet of siliceous shale were passed through without reaching the coal. At other places openings made passed through coal beds seven feet thick, if reports are correct. This seems to have been a mistake, however. The bed was probably five feet thick. Specimens show the article to be good coking coal. At various other points, similar coal was struck. Considerable Coal L has been mined around Linton, and is from four and a half to five feet of coking coal. It has also been mined on Sections 26, 23 and 22, and possibly belongs in some cases to Coal K. The country immediately around Linton is quite level, and no rocks are to be seen; but on going northward a few miles, the country becomes broken, and in road cuts along the hill sides is found exposed to view siliceous shales and flag stones in the upper part, while in the deeper parts at the base, there lie from two to ten feet of fossiliferous limestone, underlaid by the black bituminous sheety slate, containing teeth and other fish remains, which generally form the roof of Coal K, and occasionally the coal itself is seen.
On Section 32, Township 8, Range 7, Coal K outcrops in a ravine, and may be traced along the branch that cuts' through it for a considerable distance. It is here divided into three beds by two partings of fire-clay, and the total depth is five and a half feet. The principal fossils seen in the limestone which usually accompanies this coal are referable to the following genera and species:
Productus nabasheusis, P. corao
P. semireticulus, Spirifer cameratus, chonetes mesoloba, Athyris subtilita Bellerophon carbonaria, Nucula inflata, and large stems of encrinites.
Coal K has been mined at Mr. Bledsoe's. A specimen analyzed gave this result:

The structure of this coal changes but slightly in coking, is somewhat swollen, and of a dingy; lusterless color. Coal N is worked a short distance west of Mr. Bledsoe's. The following will show the relative position of these three beds of bituminous coking coal:
Here in the space of 108 feet are found three beds of fossil fuel that have an aggregate thickness of from thirteen to fifteen feet. The sulphur bands which are of common occurrence in Coal L are, at Mr. Bledsoe's, readily separated from the main part of the bed which is one of the very best bituminous coking coals in this part of the county. This coal is as a fuel above the average, and is sought after by blacksmiths far and near for forging iron and welding steel. An opening of Coal L has been made at Section 29, Township 8, Range 7. In the northern part of Wright Township, Coal K outcrops on Sections 4, 5, 8, 17, 22, and perhaps elsewhere, and is from four and one-half to five feet thick, with one or two clay partings, and is overlaid by a black shale and fossiliferous limestone. Eastward it has been struck in wells at various places and underlies all the high land in that direction as far as the line dividing Ranges 6 and 7. The outcrop of Coal I should be found in Range 6.

GLACIAL OR DRIFT EPOCH.

The super-strata of clay, gravel, sand and small bowlders of metamorphic rock which cover the entire county, except where removed by denudation, belongs to this geological formation. Various metals and ores foreign to the stratified rocks of this county are frequently found in this formation, but usually in such small quantities as to be of no practical value; indeed this float mineral of the drift serves too frequently to mislead the uninitiated who lose both their time and money in the vain search after the parent bed or vein which lies far north of the State. The stratum of clay commonly known as hard pan is generally reached at the depth of fifteen or twenty feet, and forms the horizon from which the supply of well water is obtained throughout the county.

ECONOMICAL GEOLOGY.

The total depth of all the coal strata in Greene County is fully 28 feet 9 inches; and the area which is under laid with coal may safely be estimated at 360 square miles, or 230,400 acres, over this district, after making full allowance for outcrops, horsebacks, loss from mining, etc., there exists fully six feet of coal available for market. As the mines. of the county are only worked to a limited extent, there is yet no data by which to fix its commercial value. If the product of one acre, six feet in depth (calculated at one ton per cubic yard) be 294,000 bushels, the price paid as royalty at one-half cent per bushel is $1,470 as the value of one acre. Calculated at the same rate
for the entire coal area of 230,400 acres, the total amount of $338,688,000 is obtained as the approximate royalty valve of coal in Greene County.

BLOCK COAL.

The area of the block coal in Greene County, which is included in the above estimate, is about 150 square miles, and its average depth may be take;i at two and a half feet. In quality it is fully equal to the same coal of Clay County and can be used in the raw state for the manufacture of pig-iron.

IRON ORE.

Greene County is rich in deposits of siliceous hydrated brown oxide of iron and clay iron-stone. Many of these deposits of ore are from ten to twenty feet or more in depth, and will furnish a full supply of ore for a large number of blast furnaces for many years to come. The only thing required to insure the immediate erection of blast furnaces at these ore banks -is a railway that will furnish means of transportation to market of the manufactured products. Good block coal suitable for fuel and limestone for flux are to be found in close proximity to the ore, and there is no quality of metal so much needed at this time in Indiana as the cold-short iron which the ores of the 'county will furnish in great perfection

BUILDING STONE.

Excellent quarries of sandstone and limestone are constantly being opened in portions of the county, notably on Section 6,2Township 8, Range 4, and Section 14, Township 8, Range 5. At these quarries, from six to ten feet of excellent stone is obtained. It is fine-grained, brownish-gray sandstone, with small specks of protoxide of iron, and lies in strata that range from six to sixteen inches in thickness, and may be taken up in slabs of any required length and breadth. Sandstone quarries have also been opened on Section 25, Township 7, Range 4. and on Section 4, Township 6, Range 4. The stone at the latter quarry is moderately fine-grained, has a cream color, can be readily split to any required thickness and is mined in large slabs from six to thirty inches thick. Good sandstone is also fovrd in Wright Township.

QUICK LIME.

The subcarboniferous limestone along the I. & V. Railroad and in the ridge skirting Richland Creek and Ore Branch will furnish material for an abundance of good white lime. The limestone which overlies Coal K in the western part of the county will at many places furnish a dark-colored but good strong lime, in every respect suitable for making mortar.




FIRE CLAY.
This valuable mineral which forms the substratum to coal beds has received very little attention in Greene County and as yet scarcely any effort has been made to test its refractory qualities or adaptation to the manufacture of fire brick or tile: The bed of fire clay which outcrops in the hill at Owensburg is of excellent quality for the manufacture • of stoneware, and a pottery was established on Section 25, Township 6, Range 2, in which the Owensburg clay is used. About one hundred gallons of ware—crocks and jugs—were turned out daily.

OCHER BEDS.

Beds of clay, colored with oxide of iron, are found near the mouth of Fish Creek, and also one and a half miles southeast of Solsberry, or on Section 4, Township 8, Range 3. It is also found in several other portions of the county. These ochers are of various shades of color and make a good cheap paint.

AGRICULTURE.

On the west side of White River, the surface is usually gently rolling, and there are several small prairies. On the bottoms and prairies, the soil is a sandy loam, excellent for corn, wheat, oats and grasses. In the marshes, it is a deep black muck, which, when drained and oxidized by atmospheric action, will furnish soil of great strength and endurance. On the ridges and table-lands, the soil is a yellowish clay, which is quite productive when suitably cared for. On the east side of the river, except in the valleys, the soil is yellowish clay. As the surface is rough, the rearing of fruit on this soil may be made an enterprise of great profit.

TIMBER.

On the west side of White River, the timber is generally small, comprising a variety of oaks and hickory. The eastern portion of the county is heavily timbered and contains the usual variety of trees found in this latitude—such as poplar, oak, black walnut, ash, sugar tree, hickory, etc.