Stevenson.J OO-i [Feb. 5, 



sounl. At Flemiugtou the tliickuess is eight feet. There are no dis- 

 tinct partings, and the roof is aslialy sandstone, wliich occasionally forms 

 a troublesome horseback. The coal from the banks here is said to be 

 very good an 1 to command a ready market for use in gas-making. 



Lower Barrf.r Group. It will beiemembered that in the section 

 given in my former paper, eight strata of limcs'-one, having in all a 

 maximum thickness of thirty feet, were represented as belonging to this 

 group. These disappear southwardly, so that at Clarksburg only two re- 

 main, one underlying the Pittsburg coaA, and the other about one hundred 

 feet below it. Still farther south, in Lewis county, we find that only the 

 upper one holds out, and that disappears long before reaching the Great 

 Kanawha River. Even the fossiliferous limestone, which, in the Ohio 

 Reports, I have named the Criaoidal Limestone, thins out finally before 

 reaching the Northwestern Branch of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad, 

 though it is persistent in Ohio, Pennsylvania and northern West Virginia. 

 The fossiliferous shales accompanying this limestone were traced to near 

 Pruntytown, in Taylor county, beyond which, southward, they were not 

 seen. Not far fi-om Pruntytown, they yield baaiitiful specimens of Pro- 

 ductus prattenianus, JSTuciola ventricosa, Nueula (?) anodontoides, Yoldia 

 carhonaria^ Yoldia stevensoni, Ediiundia aspenwalensis, PleurotomaHa {?) 

 tu?nida and Bellerophoyi meekianus. 



Southward to the railroad and east from the Laurel Hill axis, the 

 shales increase greatly, but farther toward the south and especially along 

 the axial line they are replaced by sandstone, so that on the Staunton 

 pike, where the whole section is fully exposed for three hundred feet 

 below the Pittsburg coal, the only rocks are sandstones. East from the 

 axis the shales predominate, and for the most part are of a deep brick- 

 red color. The same color characterizes them in the disturbed region 

 at the west. 



In Upshur and Rmdolph counties, between Buckhannon and Beverly, 

 the Lower Barren Group seems to contain no coal, but in the vicinity of 

 the former village, there is a small seam about forty feetbelew the Pitts- 

 burg. Between Buckhannon and Clarksburg another is seen about one 

 hundred feet below that coal, and it occurs also at the latter place. 



The thickness of this group shows little variation along the eastern 

 border, and is not far from four hundred feet. 



Lower Coal Group. In Upshur and Randolph counties, it is im- 

 possible to procure a detailed section of this group without the expendi- 

 ture of very much more time than was at my disposal. The whole 

 country is deeply buried under debris, and connected exposures are rare. 

 The rapid and somewhat irregular increase of dip near Rich Mountain, 

 and the long stretches of "concealed," along the roads and streams 

 render the building of a section exceedingly difficult. It is, however, 

 sufficiently evident that this group, barely two hundred feet thick, near 

 tlie Pennsylvania line, has rapidly developed so as to be-in these counties 



