NATURAL SCIENCES OF PHILADELPHIA. HI 



work, and a thorough comparison of the labors of the Pennsylva- 

 nia and Ohio geologists, as well as the more recent sections of 

 Stevenson and White. 



It has been stated that the measures are almost horizontal, hav- 

 ing a dip of about 2 or less from low axes, which are generally 

 north and south, Mr. I. C. White, in his preliminary introduction 

 to his "Notes on the Upper Coal Measures of Western Virginia 

 and Pennsylvania," read before the Lyceum of Natural History of 

 New York, and reprinted from their Annals^ speaks of the " Divid- 

 ing Ridge" as a w^aterslied between tlie tributaries of tlie Monou- 

 gahela and those of the Oliio, which occui)ies the median line of a 

 gentle anticlinal axis which passes across tlie coal measures from 

 north to south. 



There are, without doubt, many of these gentle north and south 

 axes in the southwestern coal measures at least in Tyler, Ritchie, 

 and Pleasant Counties, and one of them on tlie western limits of 

 the Academy's Harrisville tract sheds the oil as well as the water. 



Geologically there seems to be no reason to expect awy great 

 development of mineral resources. 



Tyler County Tract During the entire time occupied by the 

 examination of the lands of the Academj-, extensive forest fires 

 prevailed, and the whole region was densely clouded with smoke, 

 which not only made it impossible to get any extended view of the 

 countiy, but so completely obscured the sun that at 3 P.M. it was 

 not possible to indicate its position in the sky. This smoke sliort- 

 ened the day and prevented mc from visiting certain tracts where 

 the fires were prevailing. 



The so-called Tyler County tract lies across the border of Tyler 

 and Ritchie Counties, from the headwaters of the largest tributary 

 to McKiin Creek, across the " Dry Ridge" to the banks of Hughes 

 River. It contains more bottom and, therefore, more arable land 

 than the Harrisville tract, and what parts have not been settled 

 on contain an abundance of fine timber. 



What I have said of the structure of the Harrisville tract applies 

 largely to that of the Tyler County tract, though the poverty of 

 the country in coal in the latter must be assumed on different 

 grounds from that of the former, where numerous borings made 

 in the search after oil served to show the absence of coal within a 

 reasonable distance below the surface; while here there are no 

 such exploitations. 



About three miles south-southwest of the lower corner of the 

 Tyler-Ritchie tract, on the property of Mr. Campbell I discov- 

 ered a thin bed of coal, which, from what I could learn, agreed in 

 general description with the thin seam opened in the base of tlie 

 liills near EUenboro'. It would be rash to generalize, from a hur- 

 ried observation of a bed beneath the surface of a run, a continuity 

 wuth the p]llenboro' bed eight miles distant, but so far as I could 

 carry the measures southward by a rapid transit over them, they 



