Lesley.] ^Q [April. 



There are here, immediately underneath the lowest plate 

 of Conglomerate (20 feet thick), 5 feet of shales, then two 

 feet of yellow sandstone, then IJ to 3 inches of ball ore, 



Fig. 4. — On Little Paint Creek^ Kentucky. 



OIL SPRI 



then black and blue slates to the creek level. A mile or two 

 up the creek, and perhaps half a mile above the mouth of the 

 Mine Fork, there are in these black slates two distinct beds 

 of coal, 6 feet apart: the upper 10 inches, the lower 24 inches 

 thick ; and oil flows from them continually in small quanti- 

 ties. The extraordinary erosion of these valleys could not 

 be studied anywhere to better advantage than at the junction 

 of the Mine Fork with the South Paint. The topography is 

 exactly reversed. The nose of rock making the fork, itself 

 one of the most romantically picturesque piles of pulpit rocks 

 to be found in the United States,* points up stream instead 

 of down, the tributary Mine Fork meeting the main stream 

 fair in the face. (Fig. 6.) 



From the Crow's Nest down to the Lyon Well, and further 

 on down the Main Paint, the same appearances repeat them- 

 selves. Here are to be seen the old "stirring places," where, 

 before the rebellion broke out and put an end to all manner 

 of trade in Kentucky, Mr. George and others collected oil 



* I have given the crag at this point the name of the Propj-lon, be- 

 cause of its remarkable likeness to that feature of Egyptian architec- 

 ture. 



