4 PP. REPORT OF PROGRESS. FONTAINE & WHITE. 



tainly Chemung, as shown by their fossils, there is an in- 

 terval occupied by strata which contain no fossils. The 

 lowest of these have a bright red color and the general char- 

 acter of the Catskill group as seen elsewhere, and hence 

 they may be of that age. The upper beds, lying next under 

 the conglomerate above described, are mainly flaggy sand- 

 stones, of a dingy ^rey color, and may be of Vespertine 

 age. At the White Sulphur Springs in Greenbrier Co. W. 

 Va. the red beds are about 340 feet tliick, and the flaggy 

 sandstones occupy an interval of about 600 feet. 



AVhere all the members of the Vespertine exist in Vir- 

 ginia the group is trijDle, composed of the conglomerate 

 and firm silicious sandstones at the base, with a middle 

 portion of grey sandy shales containing coal, and an upper 

 member of red shales and sandstones. All three vary a 

 good deal in thickness, but the coal of the middle member 

 is usually found included within an interval of 100 feet. 

 Two distinct beds are usually found, about 40 feet apart, 

 but the coal is sometimes found distributed in thin layers 

 a few inches thick over a space of 40 or 50 feet. This is 

 the composition of the group along the eastern and south- 

 eastern border of W. Virginia. In Montgomery Co. Va. 

 we find two workable beds of coal in the middle member. 

 At the White Sulphur, these may still be distinguished, 

 but they have thinned down to 6 or 8 inches. In W. Va. 

 along the southeastern border, there are no persistent work- 

 able beds, and the coal exhibits a tendency to break up into 

 thin layers. The coal is found near the central portion of 

 the middle member. The overlying red rocks, forming the 

 third member, are by some geologists considered as form- 

 ing a portion of the Umbral and placed in one group with 

 the Lower Carboniferous Limestone. But the limestone 

 forms a clearly defined limit to these rocks, and there was 

 evidently an important change, at this horizon, in the con- 

 dition of the deposition. In the absence of all fossils from 

 these strata, it would seem best, in W. Va. at least, to place 

 them with the underlying Vespertines, into which they pass 

 by insensible gradations. 



As stated above, Prof. Wm. B. Rogers found the entire 



