Rock Strata. — Kenawha Valley. Ill 



as welt as other materials.* A discharge of hot water from the bow- 

 els of the earth may have taken place, at that period of time whei> 

 the Sewell mountains and the accompanying ranges were raised to their 

 present elevation, which as it slowly cooled, deposited its mineral 

 contents in this present bed of silicious, and other materials. For 

 it contains several other substances, both argillaceous and ferruginous, 

 combined with the silicious portion. In all our coal beds, there are 

 evident indications that the coal has been subjected to a strong heat, 

 as well as pressure, either at the period of, or after its formation. 

 Portions of it present every appearance of having once been in a mel- 

 ted or semifluid state, and this is still more apparent in cannel coal, 

 a variety of the bituminous. Its fracture is almost invariably vitre- 

 ous, a still stronger evidence of its having once been in a melted con- 

 dition. *• A similar, dark, carbonaceous, silicious deposit is found in 

 many parts of the coal region, especially at considerable depths in the 

 earth, when they are boring for salt water, but no where in such 

 vast abundance as here. It is seen, with a similar character, in the 

 bed of the Muskingum at Zanesville, but only about a foot in thick- 

 ness. That deposit contains fossil shells ; but I have not yet learned 

 that any fossil remains have been discovered in this deposit, although 

 it is probable it contains them, for they are found in the strata both 

 above and below it. The specific gravity of the silicious slate, is 2.43. 

 It does not melt before the common blow pipe, but requires the heat 

 of the compound pipe fed by oxygen and hydrogen gases. — 6 feet. 



10. Resting on the silicious slate, is a thin deposit of argillaceous 

 iron ore, in nodules of from three to six inches in diameter, imbed- 

 ded in argillaceous, yellowish marl. This deposit does not exceed 

 eight inches in thickness. 



11. Coarse grained, yellowish sandstone in thick beds ; composi- 

 tion chiefly silicious sand, with feeble cohesive powder ; in the divi- 

 ding ridges, this deposit is one hundred and fifty feet in thickness ; 

 but near the Kenawha, on many hills, it has wasted away by frosts, 

 rain, Stc. to a very thin bed ; at this spot it is eighty feet thick. 

 The hills near the river are crowned with the remains of this deposit, 

 worn and w^asted away into many curious and fantastic shapes. In 

 some instances they imitate pillars and columns, in others, chimnies 

 tables &;c. cavities being worn quite through large masses of fifty 

 or eighty feet in height, leaving them standing on several bases like 



* Especially if aided by alkali. 



