The lower coal, opened near the village of Zaleski, splits in two within a foot of the roof, and the separated parts continue to diverge along the east entry until the wedge of slate which divides them has increased in thickness to twelve feet, forming two seams.

Both mines of this company are drift openings, and neither of them were very well ventilated. The mine of the lower coal made blackdamp more abundantly than any other mine I have yet examined in the State. There was quite a vigorous current of air moving along the airgallery, and it was brought forward within a few yards of the inmost room, yet so abundant was the black-damp that the light could only be maintained by moving slowly, and holding the lamp downward. In such an atmosphere a miner had been working during the fore part of the day. I directed the boss to find him another place, and stop the room until fresh air could be brought forward to renew the circulation. Double outlets were provided at both mines.

The Buckeye mines of the Ingham Coal Company, at King's Switch, situate in Athens county, are opened in No. 6, and were found in good order. The openings are level-free.

The works of the Carbondale Coal Company are also in Athens county. They are drift openings, and were in fair condition. The coal is also No. 6. These mines were opened many years ago, and were made the subject of two experiments, still unknown in successful practice in this State, that of excavating the coal by a coal-cutting machine, and opening and working the mines by the long-wall system. Both experiments proved failures, so far as reducing the price of mining was concerned, which was the object sought to be accomplished. The seam of coal is well adapted to long-wall work, but the pack-walls, instead of being of mine refuse, were made of hewn timber of more value than the coal pillars needed for supporting the mine, and the coal-cutting machine required more hands to operate it in cutting a ton of coal than would be required by manual labor. The successful application of,coal-cutting machines in mines is, however, only a question of time. The miners may look with disfavor on their introduction, but they will come as their best friend, for they will take much of the exhausting manual labor off the shoulders of the miner.

These mines are now in a fair state of ventilation, and work a large force of men. The coal is thinner than it is in the mines of the Hocking Valley opened on the same bed.

THE HOCKING VALLEY

Includes all the mines operated along the Hocking River between Athens and Logan. The mines are all level-free, except three shafts at

the lower end of the district, two of which work less than ten men. The mines are operated on No. 6. Those furthest up the valley, as Brooks's, Laurel Hill, Lick Run, and Hayden's mines, operated near the out-crop of the coal seam, have abundant means of ingress and egress among the numerous ravines which cut down through the coal. The system of opening up the mines is by single entry, and reliance is had for air by driving the entries through the hill, and trusting to the natural forces for the necessary current of air. Where the surface conditions forbid getting a second outlet through the hill, an air-course is driven along the face of the coal from one butt-entry to another, to cause a circulation. An effort is made to keep the miners working in rooms on a range of work swept by a current of air, and to have the air entry drivers alone working in the part beyond the reach of the current. By this arrangement the men in the rooms have generally, but not universally, a fair supply of air. The workmen in the entries, however far advanced in the fast, have not and can not have good air.

As the roof of the coal of these mines is generally hard and firm, and the superincumbent strata quite light, the rooms are worked twenty-four to forty feet wide, and the pillars are only eight and ten feet thick. After the rooms are worked this pillar of coal is left standing, and is lost. If double entries were driven on the face and butts alike, with strong pillars between each entry, to be pierced only for air, and the room pillars made strong enough to break a crush of the strata in working backwards, 95 per cent. of this coal might be recovered, and better ventilation would prevail. A ventilation relying on the natural forces alone is subject to the season, as a ship is subject to the wind. Artificial ventilation by the furnace or fan, when all the necessary arrangements are complete, is like a steamship, and can defy the wind or season. The true miner never complains of the season, but defies and controls it.

The mines at Lick Run were in a bad state in regard to ventilation. There are two main openings, one of which had no return for air, and the miners were suffering. The face of the entry, however, at the time of inspection, was nearly forward to a cross-air course driven from the other mine, and when this was reached the desired result could be attained. The other mine had an up-cast shaft, constructed of wood, near the mouth of the main entrance. In this shaft an iron fire-lamp or basket was kept burning during the day, and gave a little motion to the air, but some of the room-workings were unfit for the abode of the miners. I urged the mine-owner, Mr. Scott, of Nelsonville, to drive double entries, and to sink an air-shaft at the back of the workings, establish a furnace at the bottom, and carry an abundant supply of air through the mine.

The existing arrangements would suffice until these improvements are provided.

Poston's mines and those of the Nelsonville Mining Company are holed through in each other, and one serves for receiving and the other for discharging the ventilating current of air. The entries are all single, but air-courses are driven on the face of the coal from one entry to another, where there is no opportunity of getting out to day-light. The arrangements for ventilation were good in both of these mines.

The Nelsonville Mining Company, as observed in my last annual report, is a sort of co-operative concern, and, so far, may be said to have proved a success. Many of the original owners of shares have sold out, but new men have been found to buy their interests, and the mine has run steadily and had a good share of the coal trade since the first shipments were made, nearly a year and a half ago.

In Longstreth's mines, situated one mile below the village of Nelsonville, the cover of the coal is thicker than at Hayden's and Brooks's, and there are not as many chances to get out to day with an entry. The mines, two in number, both in communication with each other, are laid out in a series of blocks. The butt-entries are single, and are four hundred and fifty feet apart. The air-entries, driven from one butt-entry to another, are also made about four hundred and fifty feet apart, ten rooms being contained in each block. In these mines the pillars are recovered as the workings progress forward. After the rooms of a block are finished, the pillars are attacked. The entrances to the mines are made very narrow, to add strength to the entry and to break the crush which follows the removal of the pillars. But with this precaution the entries are not strong enough, and last summer a crush of the strata, which followed the extraction of the pillars, threatened to overrun and close it, and was only prevented from making a total wreck of a valuable and extensive portion of the mine by building a number of shanties (pillars of wood) and by timbering the entry at great expense. If the entries of this mine had been double, with a strong pillar between them, the crush would have been powerless for harm. Moreover, very little, if any, saving is made by single entries, as the money has to be expended on the aircourses, driven from one butt entry to another every four hundred and fifty feet, in dividing the mine into blocks, while the air-course drivers have never good air. The superintendent of these mines is one of few in the Hocking Valley who makes any attempt at the recovery of the pillars of the mine. Coal lands are cheap and abundant, and thousands upon thousands of tons of coal are annually lost to posterity, beyond the possible hope of recovery, in abandoned and crushed pillars.

Two miners were killed in one week in Longstreth's mines during the summer. An examination into the cause of the accident, made by request of the miners, did not seem to attach any blame to the mine-owners or to the officers in charge of the mines. The unfortunate men met death in their working places under circumstances beyond the control of the officers of the mines. Just at this time, however, the miners were very much excited, as the crush of one of the entries, referred to above, was then in progress. The falling masses of rocky strata, the squeezing of the entry-pillars, and the creeping of the coal floor, excites the fears of miners, even though their judgment teaches them that there is no cause to fear sudden and immediate danger. A few of the miners, unused to such scenes, seemed to think that the whole mine was about to close.

The mines at Doanville, the property of the New York and Ohio Coal Company, were ventilated by the use of a furnace. It was too small for good results. The miners complained of bad air, and an examination of the mine showed that a number of miners were at work beyond the reach of the circulating current of air. The mine superintendent promised to sink an air-shaft at the back end of the workings, and place a large and substantial ventilating furnace at the bottom of it. I suggested the advantage of driving double parallel entries and carrying the ventilating current along as the workings advanced, instead of the ordinary plan of driving air-courses in the fast, in which men are forever plunged in a stagnant and foul atmosphere. The old primitive mode adopted in the early days of mining, when the subterranean excavations were of limited extent, must disappear before the requirements of the mining law.

The Floodwood mines have several outlets and an air-shaft, and the working places of the miners were above complaint. The ventilation is by natural causes. The coal of these mines, usually five feet nine or ten inches high in the workings, is seven or seven and a half feet at a few points of the mine. This additional height is caused by the union of two coals-by an upper coal, a foot or so thick, coming down and uniting with the main seam. This upper stratum exists at all the mines of the valley, but it is separated from the main seam by a wedge of slate from four to nine feet thick. At the Doanville mines the slate was thinned out to nothing, and the two coals form one seam, making nine feet of coal all over the mine. Northward, towards Straitsville, Shawnee, and Buckingham, the upper coal has increased in thickness to four and five. feet, and, remaining united with the main seam, forms the great eleven and twelve-feet vein of Perry county.

STRAITSVILLE AND SHAWNEE DISTRICTS.

The mines of this region are mainly located in Perry county. They are all above the base of the hills. The coal is from eight to eleven feet