1863.] Ig3 LL^^l^y- 



Professor Lesley communicated a notice of a remarkable 

 coal mine or Asphalt vein, cutting the horizontal Coal-mea- 

 sures of Wood County, Western Virginia. 



Mr. Lesley said, that through the kindness of R. H. Gratz, Esq., 

 of Philadelphia, a descriptive letter and a map had been submitted 

 to him, which exhibited geological facts of more than ordinary interest 

 to those who are studying the origin of the rock-oil deposits of the 

 West. This letter agrees with previously received, but vague, reports 

 of a true vein of bituminous coal or bitumen. The curious points of 

 the case require careful investigation ; but there seems to be no good 

 reason to doubt the essential correctness of the statement. 



The mine is situated on a four hundred acre tract of woodland 

 (oak, elm, maple, walnut, &c.), the position of which, in relation to 

 the rivers and railroad of the neighborhood, will be best shown by 

 the accompanying map. Plate III. It may be well to premise a few 

 words about the coal-measure region in the heart of which it lies. 



By referring to any map of all Virginia, it will appear that the 

 North and South Branches of Hughes River unite and flow into the 

 Little Kanawha about thirteen miles (in a direct line) above its junc- 

 tion with the Ohio at Parkersburg. The mine itself is somewhat 

 over twenty miles (in an air line) southeast of Parkersburg, and a 

 little under eight miles in an air line, south 4° west (both true and 

 magnetic), from the bridge of the Parkersburg Branch of the Balti- 

 more and Ohio Railroad over the North Branch of Hughes River. 



Two peculiarities mark this '^ coal vein." 1. It is vertical, while 

 all the stratification of the country is nearly horizontal ; and strikes 

 S. 78° W. (N. 78° E.), whereas the strike of the country is S. 35° 

 to 40° W. (N. 35° to 40° E.) 2. It is a solid bitumen-vein rather 

 than a coal-bed. 



1. The country of the neighborhood is that of the central part of 

 the great synclinal, which crosses the Ohio below Pittsburg, and 

 stretches down through Western Virginia parallel to the Ohio River, 

 into Eastern Kentucky. Across this broad and flat synclinal of coal- 

 measure rocks there flow from southeast to northwest, to fall into 

 the Ohio successively, -beginning at the north, the branches of the 

 Little Kanawha, of the Great Kanawha, the Guyandot, the forked 

 branches of the Great Sandy, (and then in Kentucky) the head- 

 waters of the Kentucky, the headwaters of the Cumberland, and 

 finally in Tennessee, the headwaters of the Caney. All these fan- 

 shaped water-basins have their highest or southeastern limit defined 



