1884.] l^t) [Stevenson. 



along the southerly side of the whole cove. The east end, knowa as 

 Thompson's cove, has Clinch mountain as its southerly boundary and 

 Rich mountain as the northerly. This is a typical cove ; the jNledina out- 

 crops approach very gradually at each end so as to give a distinctly lozenge- 

 shape 1o the outline. The Medina has been removed by erosion for a dis- 

 tance of fully six miles, the distance between Short mountain and Morris 

 knob, the latter being the end of Rich mountain ; while Plum creek has 

 made a water gap through Rich mountain almost due south from Jeffer- 

 sonville, the county seat of Tazewell county. There evidently the whole 

 of the Medina has been removed for a distance of nearly three miles — but 

 the ridge is persistent on both sides nearly to the gap. The Cove anticlinal 

 is not the same with the Loop anticlinal ; as the latter diminishes, the 

 former, lying somewhat further north, increases. 



The synclinal between the Cove and the Burk's Garden anticlinal is 

 very close and complex along the Tazewell pike ; the dips are abrupt, and 

 three subordinate folds were seen in the Clinton, between Clinch and Flat 

 Top mountains. The pike crosses Clinch mountain at but a little way 

 west from the maximum of the Cove anticlinal, crosses the northerly divi- 

 sion of the Poor valley, and ascends the Burk's Garden fold which, within 

 six miles, has brought up Medina through the Clinton to form a bold ridge, 

 known as Flat Top or Poor Valley mountain. The Saltville fault is 

 reached beyond Brushy mountain, but the exposures do not suffice for de- 

 termining how much of the Lower Carboniferous has been cut off. 



From this line eastward, the structure of the belt between the Elk Gar- 

 den anticlinal at the north and the Saltville fault at the south becomes 

 simpler. As the Cove anticlinal diminishes, the synclinals on each side 

 gradually approach until they unite in the valley of Wolf creek, between 

 Rich mountain and Garden mountain. The Medina outcrop of Clinch 

 m-auntain passes round the easterly end of the Thompson-Ward cove, and 

 forms the crest of Rich mountain eastward from Plum creek, while the 

 Clinton of the northerly Poor valley is continuous with that of the Wolf 

 Creek valley. That the Cove anticlinal wholly disappears before the road 

 leading from .leffersonville to Burk's Garden is reached is not altogether 

 certain. In descending the southerly slope of Rich mountain along that 

 road, one leaves the Medina at the summit, and quickly comes upon ex- 

 posures of the Clinton, the dip being almost east of south ; but the dip is 

 reversed soon, and the synclinal is close. Exposures in the Wolf Creek 

 valley are not detailed, but the presence of a very gentle anticlinal ex- 

 plains the greatly diminished dip shown an the slope of Garden mountain. 

 The rapid increase of the Burk's Garden axis is shown by the clumsy mass 

 known as Bear town, from which the Medina walls of the Garden pass 

 out. These walls unite at the east end of the Garden to form Round 

 mountain, and thence the fold diminishes. Prof. W. B. Rogers, in one of 

 his memoirs, speaks of this as the "great Garden anticlinal." Burk's 

 Garden has an extreme length of about six miles, and an extreme width 

 of not far from four miles. The surrounding wall is broken only at the 



