* 

 24 PP. REPORT OF PROGRESS. FONTAIJSTE & WniTE. 



over large areas it is 5 or 6 feet thick, exclusive of jDart- 

 ings. 



Section of the Waynesburg Ooal at Cassville, Monongalia Co., W. Va. 



1. Roof shales, with many plants, 1 tol2 feet. 



2. Coal, 12 inches. 



3. Clay parting, with many plants, 6 " 



4. Coal, 18 " 



5. Shale of very variable thickness, 6 in. to 6 feet. 



6. Coal, main layer, A\ feet. 



7. Floor. 



The upper Barren Measures. 



These measures commence with the Waynesburg Sand- 

 stone (a rock which overlies the Waynesburg Coal bed) and 

 extends to the highest beds of the Carboniferous Forma- 

 tion. The existence of the Waynesburg Coal, and its ac- 

 companying sandstone, is not known in the Southern part 

 of W. Virginia. Hence the dividing plane between the two 

 measures is not made out in that quarter. Nothing is 

 known of the character and thickness of the Upi:)er Bar- 

 ren Measures in that direction. Only their existence is 

 known, and the fact that they are much less developed 

 than in the north. Every indication from the few facts 

 known about this, and the series immediately underlying 

 it, points to the fact, that after the jDeriod of formation of 

 the Lower Barrens the area of great subsidence and abund- 

 ant sedimentation was shifted from the southern portion 

 of the State to the northern. 



The series along the northern line of the State, is much 

 better known, both in its stratigraphy, and its flora. Of 

 the plants of this and the preceding series in the south 

 we know absolutely nothing. 



As these beds, to the top of the geological column, con- 

 tain no fossils of consequence except plants, and as very 

 few of these have hitherto been collected and studied, the 

 entire mass of rocks, up to the highest exposures in the Ap- 

 palachian Coal Fields, has been assumed to be of Carbonif- 

 erous age rather from the lack of evidence to show the 

 presence of any other formation, than from any positive 

 proof that carboniferous strata do really extend to the sum- 

 mit of the column. 



