Stevenson.] ' ^ [March 18, 



the Hamiltoa crosses the anticlinal, which at four miles further eastward 

 seems to have disappeared. 



The Pearisburg synclinal, between the Cove and Elk Garden anticlinals 

 in central Tazewell county, lies between the Elk Garden and Burk's 

 Garden anticlinals in eastern Tazewell, owing to the disappearance of the 

 Cove fold. Wolf creek, rising in Burk's Garden, flows for more than 

 fifteen miles in this synclinal within Bland county, so that Rich mountain 

 of Tazewell, continuous with Clinch mountain further west, becomes 

 Wolf Creek mountain of Bland county. The disappearance of the Burk's 

 Garden fold and the rapid growth of the Kimberling anticlinal keep this 

 trough distinct to beyond the eastern limit of Giles county. Brushy moun- 

 tain, the Devonian ridge with Vespertine foothills, continues to about the 

 eastern border of Bland, where under the increasing influence of the new 

 anticlinals the mountain gradually disappears. 



The Kimberling anticlinal was first observed on the Seddon and Mercer 

 county road, where, though narrow, it is distinct at not far south from the 

 summit of Brushy mountain. To the influence of this anticlinal, most 

 probably, is due the widening of the Vespertine area further west as shown 

 on the road crossing Brushy mountain to Hunting Camp creek. The 

 "Wilderness" road, leading from Kimberling creek to Rocky gap, 

 crosses the anticlinal at say a mile* from the junctitm of Kimberling with 

 No -Business creek. This fold, rapidly increasing in height, causes the 

 broad space of Devonian shales, known as the "Wilderness," which 

 extends from Brushy mountain northward almost to the foot of Wolf 

 Creek mountain. It soon brings up the lower rocks and the Medina in 

 crossing it forms a long V, with the opening toward New river. The 

 northern arm, known as Pearls mountain, reaching north-north-eastward 

 into the Pearisburg synclinal, terminates in a peak — the Angels' Rest — 

 near Pearisburg, where it bends on itself and becomes continuous with 

 Wolf Creek mountain. The southerly arm is Sugar Run mountain, point- 

 ing out in the synclinal between Kimberling and a new anticlinal, the 

 Sinking Creek, which first appears along the Saltville fault at a little way 

 east from the Bland county line. The Kimberling anticlinal attains its 

 maximum elevation between Walker creek and the Dublin and Pearisburg 

 road, whence it diminishes rapidly toward the north-east. Erosion has 

 been effective on both sides of New river, so that for several miles Lower 

 Silurian limestones are the immediately underlying rocks. 



But the comparatively rapid flattening of the Kimberling anticlinal per- 

 mits the Medina to appear in the Pearisburg synclinal with double out- 

 crop as Butte mountain at, say four miles eastward from New river. The 

 course of the fold and its loss of elevation are shown by the deep re-en- 

 trant angle between Butte and Salt Pond mountains. The latter is the 

 double outcrop of Medina in the synclinal between the Kimberling and 



*Many of the distances given in this memoir were determined by "dead reckoning," 

 there being no other means of making determination in the thinly settled portions. 

 They may be either too large or too small. 



