RECENT OIL "DEVELOPMENTS IN SCOTT CO. 189 



black shale. This red iron ore has not been recorded in any of the wells 

 whose records are given here, but it is present in some deep wells some- 

 what northeast of this region. 



STRUCTURE. 



The broad general features of the structure of the region are simple 

 and easily grasped. From a synclinal axis that lies a score or more miles 

 to the east of Oneida and runs northeast and southwest parallel to the 

 general trend of Pine and Cumberland mountains, the rocks rise gently 

 but persistently to the westward for many miles. This westward rise is 

 maintained in fact until the axis of the Cincinnati-Nashville uplift is 

 reached some 50 or 60 miles beyond the western edge of the Cumberland 

 Plateau. 



It is not probable that this rise to the west or west-northwest is sub- 

 stantially at a uniform rate, though the evidence to firmly establish this 

 point is lacking at present, largely because, for the region west of Oneida, 

 there are no good maps or well-established bench marks to give elevations 

 that would enable the details of the structure to be readily determined. 

 Some level lines have been run by Mr. Chas. W. Whitcomb from Oneida 

 to his group of wells northwest of town and from these it is shown that 

 the base of the Lee or the top of the Pennington, rises westward between 

 these points at the rate of 40 to 50 feet per mile. Whether the direction 

 between these points is that of the maximum rise for the region can not 

 yet be known, but if not it is probably not far from it. 



While the base of the Lee rises at the rate of 40 or 50 feet per mile as 

 above given, the top of the Lee as traced from Oneida to the Toomey 

 wells does not rise over 30 feet per mile, thus showing that a thickening 

 in the Lee to the eastward occurs either within the body of the formation 

 or, as some prefer to think, at its base. It is hoped that the logs of some 

 of the wells soon to be drilled may throw more light on the way in which 

 this change in the thickness of the Lee occurs, since it bears directly on 

 determining the structure of the rocks beneath the Lee. 



The contact between the Lee and the Pennington is marked, as has 

 been stated, by an old erosion surface resulting from a period of uplift and 

 erosion, or as it is generally called, by an unconformity. This unconform- 

 ity will doubtless add to the difficulties of determining, from the structure 

 of the Lee as revealed at the surface, what the exact structure of the rocks 

 below the Pennington may be, and yet it is believed that the essential fea- 

 tures of the structure of these lower rocks may be determined by careful 

 work on the surface rocks. 



What secondary structural features may be superposed upon the broad 

 general westward rise of the rocks is not known. It has been thought by 



