Stevenson.] *5c) [August 20, 



Notes on. the Geology of Wise, Lee and Scott Counties, Virginia. By John 

 J. Stevenson, Professor of Geology in the University of the City of New 

 York. (With three wood cuts.) 



[Bead before the American Philosophical Society, August 20, 1880.) 



During the winter of 1880, General J. D. ImbocTen discovered valuable 

 coal beds near the Big Stone gap in Wise county, Virginia, at about sixty- 

 miles from the Tennessee line. The property soon passed into the hands 

 of Northern capitalists, for whom I have investigated its economic value. 

 The facts obtained may be of interest, as the only attainable information 

 respecting Southwest Virginia is contained in the brief memoirs by Prof. 

 J. P. Lesley* and in Prof. Safford's Geology of Tennessee. I am under 

 very especial obligation to General Imboden, who, previous to my arrival, 

 had studied the general geology with much care. 



The area to be described in this paper includes those portions of "Wise, 

 Lee and Scott counties which are drained by the forks of Powell river and 

 by the North Fork of Clinch river. Its north-western boundary is Black 

 mountain, a ridge of the Cumberlands, which here forms the line between 

 Virginia and Kentucky. At some distance from tlie Tennessee line. Stone 

 mountain separates itself from that mountain and follows a N. 56° E. 

 trend for about fifty miles to the Little Stone gap, where it unites with 

 Powell mountain, which comes from the west of south-west. No examina- 

 tion was made beyond that gap, but, according to the map accompanying 

 Prof. Lesley's memoir of 1873, the two mountains separate again and are 

 distinct for several miles further toward the east. Wallen's ridge begins 

 midway in the valley between Stone and Powell mountain at three or four 

 miles south of west from Little Stone gap, and continues rudely parallel 

 with Stone mountain to somewhat more than a mile beyond the Big Stone 

 gap. There it is divided by a narrow valley into Wallen's ridge and Poor 

 Valley ridge, whicli continue beyond the State line into Tennessee. 



Two forks of Powell river, known as Pigeon and Roaring, rise on the 

 southern slope of Black mountain and unite at the head of the Big Stone 

 gap. The Soutli Fork rises in the valley between Powell mountain and 

 Wallen's ridge, flows through the eastern extremity of the latter and 

 unites with the river at barelj^ a mile below the Big Stone gap. The 

 North Fork of Clinch river rises in the valle}'- between Wallen's ridge and 

 Powell mountain and breaks through the latter mountain at the North 

 Fork gap, which is about twenty-five miles south-west from the Little 

 Stone gap. Thence it flows eastwardly to Clinch river. 



Two lines of section were followed ; one beginning on the crest of Stone 

 mountain, at say a mile west from the Little Stone gap and crossing the 

 valley to the crest of Powell mountain ; the other beginning at Black 

 mountain and continuing southward through the Big Stone gap, across 

 both Poor Valley and Wallen's ridges to the south-eastern side of Powell 



* Proceedings of this Society, 1862 and 1872. 



