ISO* Mr. Weaver on the Carboniferous Series 



Hopewell ridge, occurs the following series of beds : limestone 

 and limestone shale, variously coloured shales and argillaceous 

 sandstones ; sandstone and conglomerate in Allegripus ridge, 

 including a bed of bituminous shale with impressions of ferns; 

 red rock and. shale in the Raystown branch of the Juniata ; 

 conglomerate, various sandstones, shales, and argillaceous beds 

 containing coal beds in the Hopewell ridge and continued still 

 further east. The coal beds thus first appearing in Hopewell 

 ridge, (of which the most western is 20 miles east of the Alle- 

 ghany mountain,) appear to be of a highly bituminous quality, 

 caking in the fire and forming excellent coke, but of high spe- 

 cific gravity, 1'700, and denominated by the author transition 

 bituminous anthracite. It is to be observed also, that the shale 

 which alternates with the coal measures here is rich in clay 

 ironstone. On this section I shall merely take the liberty to 

 remark, that were we to conceive disruption and denudation 

 to have taken place between the Alleghany bituminous moun- 

 tain range on the west and the Hopewell ridge on the east, 

 with an original curvature of the beds from west to east: or 

 even to suppose these eastern and western coal tracts to have 

 been originally separate deposits, there appears no very conclu- 

 sive reason, judging by the evidence given, why the coal of the 

 Hopewell ridge might not be referred to the carboniferous se- 

 ries, as indeed it had been previously in the judgement of the 

 committee of the Senate of Pennsylvania. 



In these sections the author represents the eastern base of 

 the Alleghany mountain range as consisting of old red sand- 

 stone, with subordinate beds of limestone supporting the coal 

 measures; and the same language is employed when speaking 

 of the north-eastern extremity of the Alleghany mountain 

 range in Pennsylvania ; and again when describing the coal 

 basin of Blossburg on the Tioga river ; on which it is remarked, 

 *' a large portion of these red sandstones and the lower red 

 argillaceous sandstones and shales are crowded with Products 

 and crinoidal remains ; and occasionally Fucoides and Caryo- 

 phyllise, Pectens and Spiriferte are interspersed." The applica- 

 tion of the term old red sandstone does not seem quite correct 

 in these cases, in as much as these beds appear to be an alter- 

 nating series lying above the great body of the carboniferous 

 limestone that becomes apparent in the northern parts of the 

 State of New York, and which itself reposes there conformably 

 on the extensive formation of old red sandstone subjacent to 

 it, while it supports in a similar manner the alternating beds 

 in question, and these support the more productive coal- 

 bearing measures. 



In this distribution of the coal in Pennsylvania, anthracitous 



