THE ALLEGHANY COAL FIELD. 99 



THE ALLEGHANY COAL FIELD. 



BY COL. CHARLES WHITTLESEY. 



Read before the Cleveland Academy of Natural Science, April 17, 1854. 



The materials are not yet collected for exhibiting fully 

 the physical structure of the great coal basin that occu- 

 pies the western slopes of the Alleghany or Apalachian 

 range of mountains. 



The Geological Surveys, began in the four States of Ohio, 

 Pennsylvania, Virginia and Kentucky, which embrace most 

 of this field, have not been completed, but are all sus- 

 pended or abandoned. 



In regard to the number of its strata, their thickness and 

 dip, the details are so numerous, that the labor of many 

 men, many years, is yet necessary to complete them. 



The published reports, made in those four States, give 

 merely the results of first examinations or reconnoisances. 



More is known of the dip, thickness and extent of the 

 coal bearing rocks in Ohio than in the other States. 



On a map, which is before me, the general outline of the 

 basin is marked out with' tolerable accuracy, from the 

 reports alluded to. 



The dip of the beds, local and general, is represented to 

 the eye by arrows pointing inwards from the border, 

 towards the centre of the basin, which is in Virginia, South 

 of Wheeling. I intended to prepare from this a reduced 

 map, and sections, so far as they can now be made, for 

 publication in the Annals of Science. This is the best and 

 only sufiicient mode of representing rocky strata, but in 

 this case it would require an expense not warranted, and 

 I content myself with giving you such written descriptions 

 as will show, in a dry way, the number of beds as now made 

 public. 



The coal bearing rocks lie in very thin beds, alternating 

 frequently, as the sections here given will show, and there- 



