Topography of the Little Kenawha. 83 



The specific gravity of a specimen of the Wheeling coal in my 

 possession is 1.23. Twenty grains of this coal decomposed one 

 hundred grains of nitrate of potash, which will give it about sixty 

 per cent of charcoal, and make it a valuable coal for coaking. — 

 6 feet. 



11. Dark blue, carbonaceous, slaty clay, of nearly the same 

 quality as the bed above the main coal. It contains many fossil 

 plants, impressed between the laminae. — 8 feet. 



12. Limestone rock ; sparry and compact; dark colored ; free from 

 organic remains ; makes a strong cement for mortar. — 15 inches. 



13. Sandstone rock ; silicious ; rather coarse grained, and con- 

 tains many fine plates of silvery mica in its composition. The ce- 

 ment appears to be lime. This deposit contains casts of fossil plants ; 

 a very perfect portion of the extremity of a calamites cannoeformis, 

 wdiS found in this rock, a drawing of which is given in figure No. 36, 

 page 8 of the wood cuts. — 25 feet. 



14. A thick deposit of slaty clay, in alternating beds of different 

 colors, of red shale and ash colored marl, containing, no doubt, 

 many vegetable impressions, as the rock reposing on this deposit is 

 very similar to that described at the " Grotto of plants,^' below 

 Marietta. This bed extends to the surface of the water in the Ohio 

 river where it is at low stages. — 60 feet. 



In boring for salt water a short distance above, at the depth of 

 three hundred feet, a bed of coal was passed, eight feet in thickness ; 

 the usual group of carboniferous rocks being passed in reaching it. 

 The section of the Wheeling coal strata was taken with great accu- 

 racy and care, by a very intelhgent friend residing at that place ; 

 specimens from all the different rocks being forwarded at the same 

 time. 



Topography of the Valley of the Little Kenawha. 



This stream is about one hundred miles in length, and takes its 

 rise near the most elevated portion of the mountain ranges ; its head 

 branches drinking in the same showers that supply the Gauly, Elk, 

 Cheat and Greenbrier rivers. Towards the breads of the stream, 

 there are tracts of table or flat lands, affording scites for extensive 

 settlements, well suited to the growth of grass and small grains. 

 About eighty miles from the mouth, are falls or cascades of conside- 

 rable elevation, where the river descends from the more elevated ta- 

 ble lands, or mountain districts, into the region at their feet ; afford- 



