77 



1887.] * * [Stevenson. 



paring them with the section obtained near Lewisburg, in Greenbrier 

 county, of West Virginia. 



The Vespertine. — This great period is represented by sandstones and 

 shales witli coal beds, having in all an extreme thickness of not far from 

 seven hundred feet. The bottom of the group is taken to be a grayish 

 sandstone, sometimes slightly conglomerate, often with impressions of 

 SpiropJiyton, and about thirty feet thick. It is a characteristic rock rest- 

 ing directly on sandy beds which mark the transition to Chemung and in 

 which the dividing line cannot be dra»vn very closely. On this sandstone 

 rests the succession of shales and sandstones, the latter varying from gray 

 to blue or red, from compact to shaly, from good building stone to miser- 

 able rubbish. The general succession is fairly well shown in many of the 

 smaller gaps through Brushy mountain of Smyth and Bland, as well as in 

 the similar gaps through Little Walker in Wythe, Pulaski and ]\Iont- 

 gomery ; a more accessible section is along the Norfolk and Western rail- 

 road for seven or eight miles west from Pulaski. 



The change in this group is as marked as that in the Umbral. The sec- 

 tion in Lee county shows 



Reddish silicious beds, some shale 150 feet. 



Some part of which must represent the Vespertine. No coal was seen 

 here. In the North Holston section near Mendota, in Washington county, 

 the Vespertine can only be in the concealed space of eighty feet at the 

 bottom. But the sandy beds increase toward the north-east so that before 

 the line of Smyth county has been reached a coal has been mined in the 

 river bed, while the shales and sandstones form a notable foothill to 

 Brushy mountain. At the Laurel gap, in Smyth county, the estimated 

 thickness is about 500 feet, while in the same ridge within Bland county, 

 the thickness appears to be approximately the same. But followed north- 

 westward into Tazewell county, this division is found insignificant wheie 

 shown among the Clinch faults, being thinner on Indian creek than in 

 Pennington's gap, in Lee county. Along the foot of Brushy and Little 

 Walker mountains, one finds the Vespertine very much as in South-cen- 

 tral Pennsylvania, a mass of shales, sandstones and irregular coal beds, 

 capped by a silicious limestone. 



The feature of especial interest is the great development of Vespertine 

 coal beds within Wythe, Pulaski and Montgomery counties. These have 

 been worked, especially in Montgomery county, for many years, and a 

 summary account of them was given by Prof. W. B. Rogers, in his report 

 for 1838. Prof. J. P. Lesley gave an excellent statement respecting the 

 beds and workings as they existed in 1860 ; while Prof. Fontaine has 

 described in detail the beds of Brush and Price mountains, in Montgomery 

 county. 



According to Capt. Boyd, thirteen beds or streaks of coal occur in a ver- 

 tical space of less than 400 feet within the gap made through Little Wal- 

 ker mountain by Stony Fork of Reed creek. The first five of these beds 

 are embraced within a column of 100 to 130 feet, No. 1 resting on the 



