1875.] «jy7 [Stevenson. 



The coal at the base is certainly much thicker than is stated. The old 

 props lying in the deserted entry are somewhat moi'e than five feet long. 

 Another exposure near the mouth of the creek shows the bed much de- 

 graded, giving the following section : 



Coal, 1 ft. 9 in.; Clay, 3 in.; Coal, 6 in.; Shale, 2 in.; Coal, 1 in. 



The roof here is sandstone. Elsewhere upon the creek it is shale, 

 which abounds in vegetable impressions. The coal from these openings 

 is said to be veiy good fuel though it contains considerable proj^ortion of 

 sulphur. It contains much volatile combustible matter and cokes 

 readily in heaps. 



Returning to Upshur county, we find underlying the Upper Freeport Coal 

 a sandstone about fifty feet thick, more or less flaggy, and apt to change 

 into arenaceous shale. Below this is a thin tough limestone, not very 

 pure, which seems to represent the Freeport Limestone. It was seen on 

 the Staunton pike near Roaring Creek and on Sand Ruij. Between the 

 limestone and the coal below, the sandstone is coarse and flaggy. The 

 interval varies from twenty to thirty feet. 



The next coal, No. 5, of the salt-well boring, was seen at only two 

 localities, one on Roaring Creek, near the Staunton pike, and the other 

 on Sand Run, near the great exposure of the Upper Freeport. It is a 

 persistent bed arid quite regular in thickness, varying little from four 

 feet throughout this vicinity. The coal is irised, exceedingly rich in 

 bituminous matter, and containing not a large amount of sulphur. It 

 burns nicely and cokes well. No regular workings were found, and only 

 "crop" coal could be examined. This is extremely brittle, so that, 

 unless it improve greatly under the hill, it will hardly prove tit for ship- 

 ping. 



The beds, No. 7 and No. 9, of the boring have not been identified at 

 any locality. Three miles east fi'om Roaring Creek, and five hundred 

 feet higher than the opening on the Upper Freeport, the blossom of a 

 ciial-bed occurs at the roadside. This is probably one of the lower beds, 

 but the question cannot easily be determined, as eastward the dip in- 

 creases rapidly in steepness, and the whole western slope of the moun- 

 tain is so deeply buried under shingle and so thoroughly paved with 

 fragments of sandstone and conglomerate, that connected exposures can- 

 not be found. 



East from this blossom, almost two-thirds of a mile distant along the 

 pike, and very near the crest of the ridge, a coal-bed is worked. The 

 mouth of the mine is three hundred feet higher that the blossom in the 

 roadside. In the interval along the road everything is concealed except 

 occasional exposures of sandstone. The bed near the crest is dipping 

 northwestward at twelve degrees, so that the space between it and the 

 coal above would be nearly five hundred feet, provided the dip does not 

 vary. It is perhaps better to regard the interval as about four hundred 

 feet. The coal is within a few feet of the conglomerate, but the inter- 



