Stevenson.] ■'■'*^ [Nov. 21, 



abundant alongside of the road and the ore is shown in place along the re- 

 versed fold. It is shown again higher up the mountain, where it carries 

 not a little brown hematite. White Medina is reached at the crest of the 

 mountain. 



Returning now to the mouth of Laurel fork. The Sallville fault is 

 reached just beyond the Taylor property at ten miles eastward from Salt- 

 ville. Thence eastward the road and river are south from the line of 

 fault. The fault is at some distance north from the road at Mr. I. H. Bu- 

 chanan's property, where Lower Carboniferous is represented only by the 

 lower shaly limestones and the Vespertine sliales below. On the first 

 stream entering Cove creek below Mr. Buchanan's house, the Knox sand- 

 stones extend fully one-third of a mile northward from the road. Coal 

 occurs in the Vespertine shales on Mr. Buchanan's farm where it was 

 opened many years ago. The thickness of the bed is said to be 2 feet at 

 one opening, 18 inches at another ; its place is no longer exposed, but the 

 bed lies very near to the gray sandstone. The coal burns nicely, but ac- 

 cording to Mi\ Buchanan it is very sulphurous. 



Gypsum occurs in vast quantity on the L H. Buchanan farm, sixteen 

 miles from Saltville, as well as on that immediately adjoining. It has 

 been obtained on the Taylor farm, ten miles, and on the Pierson farm five 

 miles from Saltville ; all of them along this road. These deposits will be 

 referred to in another part of this memoir. 



Tlie road lies in the Knox group, east from Mr. Buchanan, and white 

 cherty rock forms at many places the striking feature of the surface. The 

 shales of the group are shown on Black hill and the limestones were fol- 

 lowed almost to the county line. The road and river come together again 

 near the mouth of Lick creek. 



No obscurity respecting relations of the beds occurs until after leaving 

 this main road and turning up Lick creek on the road leading to Burk's 

 Garden. Except for very short distances this part of the area drained by 

 Lick creek is a wilderness. The course of the stream is very tortuous and 

 one has much difficulty in determining his place. The ridges all become 

 very high and, viewed from Black hill on the main road, appear to be 

 trending toward the southerly boundary of Burk's Garden. Brushy 

 mountain, the Vespertine ridge and the ridge of Knox sandstone^, all 

 lying north from the Sharon Springs road, are bold and, as seen through 

 the trees on Lick creek, abrupt. Exposures are very rare until within 

 three miles of the summit of Garden mountain, where Clinton shales are 

 shown. The structure is not wholly simple, for some imperfect exposures 

 indicate the presence of more than one anticlinal in the shales. Lick 

 creek rises on the side of Bear town, the clumsy knob in which the Medina 

 ridges, bounding the Garden, unite. 



