Stevenson.! -^OU j-jan 21, 



well shown on a fork of Wolf creek, known as Whetstone hollow. A few 

 of the beds are fossiliferous, but nothing can be obtained from a fresli 

 piece, while the weathered specimens are so tender that specimens are ruined 

 in the effort to free them from the rock. Huge stems of crinoids and some 

 indistinct specimens of Chnnetes were seen. The limestones are light blue, 

 argillaceous and non-fossiliferous. The shales are usually reddish, but 

 they form only a small part of the mass. No massive sandstone was ob- 

 served here such as was seen in Pennington's and Big Stone gaps. 



Nos. 2, 3 and 4 probably should be accounted as part of No. 1, but the 

 shales, for the most part, are calcareous and resemble some lower beds 

 more than they do those of Wolf creek. The shales, Nos. 8, 10, 12, 14, 

 16 and 18 are light blue to reddish blue on the fresh surface and weather to 

 a dirty or muddy yellow. A fresh edge seldom shows lamination, but the 

 weathered surface shows it distinctly. These beds are generally well ex- 

 posed in the bed of Abraham's creek, along side of which the railroad 

 grade runs. Fossils occur rarely in these shales, and the only distinguish- 

 able specimens seen belonged to a broad form of Spirifera leidyi. 



The limestone. No. 5, well exposed at the roadside and in the hills at but 

 a little way belovp the mouth of Wolf creek, is blue, but weathers yellowish 

 white ; it is composed chiefly of a Fenestella, but some layers have many 

 specimens of Athyris and Produchis. Nos. 7 and 15, both of which are 

 well shown in the creek bed as well as in the hill, have a similar origin, and 

 the Fenestella is distinctly shown throughout with only a rare Productus 

 and Zaphrentis. These two beds are exceedingly hard. No. 15 is the same 

 with that of which the bridge abutments for the Reedy Creek road were 

 constructed at the North Fork of Holston river. 



No. 6 continues from Mr. Kaylor's residence on Abraham's creek down 

 tlie stream almost to his mill, at probably two thirds of a mile from the 

 river. It has more than one bed of limestone and is closed by a sandstone 

 at the top. Below this interval, the section is almost continuous to the base 

 of the series. No. 9 is shown at the mill ; it varies from light to dark blue 

 or almost black, and shows many stems of crinoids, with Fenestella and a 

 Spiriferina closely allied to 8. kentuckensis. No. 1 1 is a handsome light 

 blue limestone and contains Athyris suhqiiadrata, Productus cora and 

 crinoid stems, which occur also in Nos. 17 and 19. No. 21 is an important 

 bed, which is shown at the mouth of Abraham's creek and forms a bi'oad 

 band on the cliff around the bend of the river below the railroad bridge. 

 For the most part, it is coarsely granular and dark gray, but it contains 

 some argillaceous layers and becomes a blue grit near the base. It yields 

 an admirable building stone, of which the bridge abutments and pier have 

 been constructed. The rock is very pure and burns into a beautifully 

 white lime, which shows no trace of iron when slaked. 



No. 22 is argillaceous and its fragments cover the narrow bank below the 

 bridge. This is by far the most fossiliferous bed of the whole series ; Pro- 

 ductus cora, Productus elegans, Athyris subquadrata, Spirifera leidyi^ 

 Hemipronites crassus, Pinrui and Allorisma having been obtained from a 



