106 THE ALLEGHANY COAL FIELD. 



of the coal field, it comes to the Ohio between Big Sandy- 

 River and Pomeroy. 



The strike of the strata, if we have it correctly, would 

 carry this group below the Pomeroy bed. If we examine 

 the section just given, measured by Dr. Hildreth and Mr. 

 Foster, in the valley of the Muskingum, we find no promi- 

 nent sandstone masses below the Pomeroy bed, on that 

 river, nor between that and the McConnellsville seam. At 

 Wheeling the great coal seam is above the "lower sandstone 

 group," and is overlaid by heavy beds of limestone, and 

 just above the McConnellsville coal seam we find, in Nos. 

 29 and 30, similar beds on the Muskingum. On these is a 

 thin bed of coal. The coal of this space is meager, while at 

 Wheeling it is very strong. 



From this thin bed, No. 31, we have a space of two hundred 

 and thirty-three feet in the upward section, extending to the 

 Ohio River, and perhaps further, of harren ground^ without 

 limestone, iron ore or coal, and composed principally of 

 sandstones. Is this the " ui)i)er sandstone group ? " Where is 

 the " lower sandstone group ? " At Pittsburgh and Wheeling 

 it is over three hundred feet thick. On the Musldngum the 

 thickest bed is fifty feet. As there is no where else in the 

 section a body of limestone at all resembling the Wheeling 

 beds, above the main coal seam, we are almost compelled 

 to call that the Wheeling seam. 



On this supposition the lower sandstone group has dimin- 

 ished more than two-thirds in the distance of sixty miles, 

 from Wheeling to the Muskingum. Moreover, there is not 

 in any part of the last section a thickness of barren ground 

 large enough to strike the attention, or such as to lead an 

 explorer to found a sub-division, till we ascend above the 

 great calcareous mass. 



At Wheeling the calcareous beds are several hundred 

 feet above the " lower sandstone group," and at Pomeroy 

 this group is below the main coal seam. Can there be an 

 arrangement into groups that will answer for the whole coal 

 field? 



