1887.) t)y [Stevenson. 



vailing dip is south-east, tliough tliere are some reversals. The dip be- 

 comes very flexuous at four miles and a half, and the same beds remain in 

 sight thence until near Belspring station, where all exposures cease. The 

 structure may be regarded as representing two anticlinals with irregular 

 •crests, separated by a well-defined synclinal, whose axis is somewhat 

 more than two miles south from Belspring station. The northerly anti- 

 clinal is cut off by the Walker Mountain fault. 



The faults of Price's mountain east from New river in Montgomery 

 county hold between them a fragment of an anticlinal, the Price Moun- 

 tain area of Vespertine coals. Between the Walker Mountain fault at the 

 north and the northerly fault of Price's mountain, the Knox limestones 

 ■describe a synclinal, though the few and unfortunately somewhat indefi- 

 nite exposures show that it is complicated. The lower beds of the Knox 

 limestone are brought into contact with Umbral red shales, but whether 

 they are dipping to or from the fault could not be ascertained. The lime- 

 stone on the northerly side dips northwardly at fifteen to thirty degrees, 

 while the Lower Carboniferous rocks beyond the fault are dipping in the 

 same direction at thirty to fifty-five degrees, the rate increasing toward 

 the summit of the Price's Mountain anticlinal. The dip is gentler on the 

 southerly side of the axis, rarely exceeding twenty degrees. The condi- 

 tions at the southerly fault were not clear at the only point where it was 

 crossed, further than that the Umbral shales and the Knox limestones are in 

 contact. The eastward extent of these faults was not ascertained. They 

 do not appear to cross New river at the west. 



The Walker Mountain Fault. 



This fault, following the southerly foot of Little Walker mountain, 

 •enters Wythe from Smyth county and, at the county line, brings Knox 

 limestone into contact with the Vespertine sandstones. The line of fault 

 is crossed by Stony fork of Reed creek at somewhat more than six miles 

 from Wytheville, its place being shown there by a narrow valley passing 

 in front of the M. E. Church. The church is on Umbral shales, while 

 Knox limestones crop out on the opposite side of the bottom. The condi- 

 tions are the same in Crockett's cove, but in Pulaski county for several 

 miles they are very different. There the Lower Carboniferous beds on 

 the northerly side must be brought into contact successively with Lower 

 and Upper Silurian, Devonian, and possibly with Vespertine near the 

 Pulaski fault ; beyond that fault, Knox beds occur again. Tlie fault-line 

 passes but a little way south from the Altoona mine ; is crossed by the 

 Dub in and Pearisburg pike at half a mile, possibly a little more, north 

 from Back creek ; by New river just below the mouth of Back creek ; and 

 by the Newport and Christiansburg road at only a little way south from 

 Tom's creek : in each case bringing the red Umbral shales into contact 

 with the lower limestones of the Knox group. 



Generally speaking, the structure in the vicinity of this fault is simple, 

 and notwithstanding the enormous vertical extent of the fracture, the 



