Stevenson.] * ^ [March 18, 



sandstone, known as " Quarry rock, " which the writer has assumed as 

 the base of the Vespertine. The first three beds alone possess any 

 economic interest, as no others are mined anywhere within this region. 



The lowest bed is usually very thin, but on Cloyd's mountain in 

 Pulaski, and on Brush mountain in Montgomery, it becomes of workable 

 thickness, two and a half to three feet. The second bed has been opened 

 near the Wythe and Tazewell pike in Wythe county ; at the Altoona 

 mine in Pulaski ; at several places along Tom's creek in Montgomery, all in 

 the foothill of Little Walker or Cloyd's or Brush mountain, as the ridge is 

 termed in different portions of its extent. Apparently the same bed has 

 been mined near Sharon Springs, in Bland county ; and on Price's mountain, 

 in Montgomery. It varies from nearly four feet of nearly solid coal in Wythe 

 to twenty-two feet of shale and coal in Pulaski, and nine or ten feet of coal 

 and shale in Montgomery. But these are extreme measurements and the 

 bed exhibits great and sudden variations in thickness, owing to the im- 

 mense pressure which the yielding material has suffered. A similar con- 

 dition exists in Bland county ; but the variations in Price's mountain are 

 comparatively small. The third bed was mined systematically onlj' at the 

 Altoona mine in Pulaski, though it was opened in Wythe county, 

 near the Wythe and Tazewell pike. Its thickness at these localities is 

 said to be between three and four feet. It is not worked now. 



The physical structure of the coal shows great variations, which cannot 

 be accounted for always by supposing different degrees of pressure. The 

 coal from the second bed appears everywhere to have undergone much 

 greater change than either the first or the third. In Wythe county at the 

 Boyd mine, in Pulaski ; at the Altoona mine and on the Dublin and 

 Pearisburg road ; and in Montgomery county, on Tom's creek ; as well 

 as in Bland county, near Sharon Spriags, the coal from the second bed 

 appears to have been crushed into fragments, which f§ere pressed and 

 rubbed until they were reduced to lamina?, so loosely packed in many 

 places as to be easily separable by the fingers. But the coal of the first 

 or third bed may be found on the same hillside, hard enough to bear 

 transportation, though it shows with sufficient distinctness that it too has 

 been subjected to severe crushing and rubbing. It has been broken into 

 fragments, which have been rubbed together until thoroughly glazed. 

 But the rubbing did not reduce the fragments to laminae. 



This variation may be due to difference in chemical composition or to 

 the fact that the thinner beds are not broken by shale partings. It is of 

 interest, however, to note that notwithstanding all this crushing and rub- 

 bing, the penetration of coal layers by shale layers in the second bed is no 

 greater than that often seen in coal beds within the very little disturbed 

 Coal Measures area of South-western Pennsylvania and the adjacent parts 

 of West Virginia. The crush of strata in Price's mountain has been 

 comparatively slight, despite the faulting, though there also, it is suf- 

 ficiently clear that the greater part of the crushing was endured by the 

 <;oal, as being the more yielding substance. 



