Stevenson.] lOD [Nov. 21, 



a bluff on the opposite side of the river on the Miller farm, but the pits were 

 full of water when the locality was visited, so that no information could 

 be obtained respecting the relation of the gypsum to the bedded rocks. 

 On the Pierson place, the gypsum rests on the shales and lower limestones 

 of the Lower Carboniferous. 



Explorations for gypsum and salt were made on the Taylor farm at ten 

 miles above Saltville. Here again is a broad river "bottom," very simi- 

 lar to that at the Pierson place, five miles lower down the river. A deep 

 shaft or boring was made here ; gypsum was reached under the blue clay 

 at a few feet from the surface and some salt was found first at about 300 

 feet from the surface. The original "bottom" evidently continued on 

 the north side of a low hill, for there at some distance above the road gyp- 

 sum has been obtained. The Saltville fault passes through this property 

 and the gypsum appears to be on both sides of it, so that it rests on the 

 calcareous sandstones of the Knox and on the calcareous shales of the 

 Lower Carboniferous. 



Buchanan's Plaster Cove on Cove creek and its tributaries is nearly six 

 milee further east. It lies north from the road leading to Sharon Springs 

 and occupies a broad "bottom" on Cove creek, whence it is continuous 

 over a low divide to the "bottom " of a tributary stream on the adjoining 

 farm. The earliest pits were sunk on Cove creek "bottom," near Mr. L 

 H. Buchanan's former residence. Many shallow excavations were made 

 in order to obtain plaster for agricultural use and a shaft nearly 600 feet 

 deep was put down by Mr. Buchanan to ascertain how much gypsum he 

 owns. This shaft passed through only gypsum and red clay and stopped 

 in that material. The red clay appears to be in comparatively small 

 quantity. As at the other localities the soil rests on blue clay and gypsum 

 has been found everywhere on the "bottom." A little drain comes down 

 the hillside, its channel-way eroded in Vespertine shales which are ex- 

 posed on both sides ; gypsum occurs at its head and no doubt is continuous 

 with the main mass below. 



The "bottom" ends at the foot of the Vespertine ridge, nearly a mile 

 from the Sharon Springs road ; but a low divide separates it from a tribu- 

 tary which enters Cove creek at about one-third of a mile below Mr. 

 Buchanan's present residence. The rise on this divide is gradual and a 

 narrow strip of gypsum has been traced over it in a succession of pits. Some 

 exceedingly impure limestone is shown at a little distance from the gyp- 

 sum, but the latter evidently rests on the Vespertine shales. The stream 

 rising on the other side of the summit flows over the shales into the next 

 farm where it has a broad "bottom." Mr. Buchanan has digged gypsum 

 at the very head of this stream and the work continues down the stream. 

 The quarrying has been conducted in a very wasteful manner on the next 

 farm, where a great number of shallow broad pits sufficiently show the 

 enormous amount of gypsum present. Blue clay, often very tough, 

 everywhere overlies the gypsum and at several pits seems to enclose it. The 

 deposit ends on this stream at somewhat more than a third of a mile from 



