1865.J 



51 



[Lesley. 



of both the XI Shales and the XI Limestone will be apparent 

 from the followino; section :* 



Fig. 11. 



Coal Measures, 



It might be argued that this limestone formation is not itself 

 much, if any, concerned in the question of oil, from the fact 

 that the formation is absent in the oil districts of the Ohio 

 River on the Pennsylvania State line; as well as from the 

 fact of its clayey and cavernous constitution, no oil horizon 

 being as yet known in common clay rocks, nor any positive 

 proof having been yet afforded of its collection in caverns so 

 extensive and communicative, and so well drained as those 

 which characterize this formation. But on the other hand, 

 it may be urged : 1, that we do not know to what extent the 

 formation of caverns in it may be confined to the belt of 

 country in which its outcrops permit the cavern-producing 

 waters to escape with their dissolved material ; 2, that the 

 Rathbone Well, in Virginia, 700 feet deep, and the Lyon 

 Well, now to be described, both penetrate the limestone, and 

 find in it flows of oil ; and its crevices may, therefore, in some 

 regions, play the part of the crevices in the sandrocks which 

 yield petroleum ; and 3, that it is croAvded with animal or- 

 ganic forms, as can be seen from the following section copied 

 from Mr. Lyon's Report, K. R., Vol. IV, p. 528. 



Section obtained on the 218^7^ mile of S. S. Lyons Base Line. 



Feet. 

 XII. Thick, remarkably false-bedded, fine sharp grit-rock, . 10 

 " Thin-bedded, sharp grit-rock, . . . . . 11 



^' "Whitish sandy shales, ....... 22 



XI. Ore beds ; and gray shales, ...... 2 



" Thin-bedded, buft' limestone, mf/i.s7iwc!^/ossi?.s rare, . 8 



* J. Lesley, K. R., IV, p. 481. 



