l66 STRATIGRAPHY THE POTTSVILLE SERIES. 



Pennsylvania State Line, but expands to a total thickness of 

 nearly 4000 feet along the Virginia Line in McDowell Count} . 

 This great expansion of the measures from the north to the 

 south presents problems of correlation that cannot be solved 

 in the present Report. In the northern end of the State, the 

 identity of the several Pottsville formations is known in Pres- 

 ton and Taylor Counties, where detailed studies have been 

 made. In the southern counties, where the Pottsville reaches 

 its maximum expansion, the coals have been studied and 

 named as far northeast as Kanawha. A glance at Figure 1 

 will show that this leaves Clay and Braxton on the southwest 

 and Upshur and Barbour on the northeast of Lewis, where 

 detailed work has not been done. Until these counties have 

 been investigated, the problem of correlating the several 

 members of the Pottsville of northern West Virginia with 

 their greatly expanded equivalents in the southern counties 

 must remain unsolved for the present. In Lewis the several 

 members of the Pottsville above drainage, with one exception, 

 have no common resemblance either to formations in the north 

 or the south that is sufficient to correlate them definitely. The 

 one exception noted is that of the Kanawha Black Flint, a 

 dark, silicious horizon, carrying marine fossils, that occurs 

 in the Great Kanawha Valley. In Lewis this formation was 

 definitely recognized at one point and the fossils it contains 

 there are the same as those of its type locality. The presence 

 of marine fossils in abundance at this place leads to the belief 

 that the formation can be traced south westward through 

 Braxton and Clay to a connection with the southern counties, 

 and possibly northeastward for a considerable distance. Be- 

 low the Black Flint, the correlation of the Pottsville of south- 

 ern Lewis must, for the present, remain unsettled. 



This series in Lewis contains no coals of importance 

 above drainage, although a few thin seams appear. Several 

 wells have been drilled for oil in the- region between Bablin 

 and Cleveland, penetrating the entire Pottsville, but the most 

 of these do not show coals of importance, so that it seems 

 probable that the coals of this series in Lewis lack the neces- 

 sary thickness and continuity to make them of value for com- 

 mercial mining. In other portions of Lewis, as well as in Gil- 



