Stevenson.] CO [March 18, 



limestones of the Trenton. The cherts at the base of the Trenton or top 

 of the Calciferous are reached at the first house. Thence exposures are 

 rare until at the Sharon Springs some sandstones with indefinite dip are 

 shown in the stream. These springs, which are the sources of the North 

 Fork of Holston river, are very large and issue from very near the Salt- 

 ville fault. The place was a popular summer resort in former times, but 

 the construction of the railroad through the Great valley made it practi- 

 cally inaccessible and the hotel has few visitors. 



The Saltville fault passes very near the yard at Sharon Springs, the ridge 

 behind the hotel being sandy. The dip where the pike passes through 

 this ridge is southward at fifty-eight degrees, and the silicious limestone 

 of the Vespertine is shown at the nortlierly foot of the hill. The lower 

 beds of the Vespertine have been eroded near the pike, but at a fourth of 

 a mile eastward they form a low hill, in which a coal bed was mined at one 

 time to supply local needs. The pits have fallen shut and most of them 

 appear to have been little more than extensive strippings along the out- 

 crop. The thickness varies greatly ; it is reported as eleven feet at one 

 place. The coal is badly twisted, but the crushing and polishing are much 

 less tiian at many other localities. Notwithstanding this crushing, the 

 volatile matter is considerable and the coal cokes on the fire. The rocks 

 enclosing the coal are regular and not much distorted except at one place, 

 where the distortion may be due to a surface creep. 



The Tazewell pike continues northvv^ard, crossing Garden mountain, 

 and, within a direct distance of four miles, entering Burk's garden, to 

 which reference was made in the notes on Russell and Tazewell counties. 

 This road was not followed beyond the abandoned coal-pits. 



The Rich Valley road is near the top of the Calciferous until six or 

 seven miles beyond Seddon, where it crosses the Saltville fault ; but within 

 a little way it returns to the Calciferous and remains in it. The Calcif- 

 erous limestones and shales are apparently non-fossiliferous ; certainly 

 fossils are rare, none having been seen, though the exposures were exam- 

 ined for several miles. The dips vary from twenty to forty degrees, the 

 more common rate being not far from thirty. Waddell's lead mine, aban- 

 doned long ago, is a group of rude excavations in Calciferous at five or 

 six miles east from Sharon Spiings. The road leading to Hunting Camp 

 creek leaves Rich valley at nearly seven miles from the springs. The 

 dips quickly steepen on that road, so that limestones exposed in the little 

 stream-bottom near the first house are dipping southward at from fifty to 

 sixty degrees. The Saltville fault is reached at barely half a mile, at top 

 of an abrupt grade beyond the first house. 



The blossom of a thin coal bed, indicating a thickness of not more than 

 ten inches, was seen at the top of the first hill, which may be the same 

 with a thin bed digged in the bed of a run not far west from the road. 

 The silicious limestone is exposed at R. Waddell's house and a coal bed 

 is worked in a small way by ]\Ir. Harmon, very near the summit of the 

 road, which is far from being the summit of Brushy mountain. The pit 



