Stevenson.! ^iU [Feb. 4, 



Upper Freeport Coal Bed along Laurel Ridge in Preston 

 county of West Virginia." By John J. Stevenson, Profes- 

 sor of G-eology in the University of the City of Il^ew York. 



Mr. Fraley reported by letter that he had received and 

 paid over to the Treasurer the last interest on the Michaux 

 Legacy due Jan. 1, 1881, amounting to $129.60. 



And the meeting was adjourned. 



The Upper Freeport Goal Bed along Laurel Ridge in Preston County of 

 West Virginia. By John J. Stevenson, Professor of Geology in the Uni- 

 versity of the Gity of New York. 



{Bead before the American Philosophical Society, February 4, 1881.) 



Laurel ridge, the easterly boundary of Ligonier valley in Pennsylvania, 

 enters West Virginia at or very near tlie north-western corner of Preston 

 count}'-. It is a bold anticlinal, which in Indiana, "Westmoreland and 

 Fayette counties of Pennsylvania, as well as in Preston and Barbour 

 counties of West Virginia, exposes the bottom of the Lower Carboniferous, 

 and at some localities brings up the Chemung rocks, while the Conglomer- 

 ate and the Lower Productive Coal group, the Allegheny series of Lesley, 

 are shown on its sides. The fold is cut transversely by several deep gaps 

 in Pennsylvania, where it shows no longitudinal valleys of considerable 

 extent ; but in Preston county of West Virginia it is divided longitudinally 

 by Cheat river, whose gorge is one of the most noteworthy attractions of 

 the Baltimore and Ohio railroad. 



A strip, extending nearly twelve miles along the westei'ly slope of the 

 ridge in Preston county, and divided by the Baltimore and Ohio railroad, 

 was visited by the writer in December of 1880. The Upper Freeport Goal 

 Bed, the most important member of the Lower Productive Coal group, pre- 

 sents some features there which may be deserving of note. 



The easterly outcrop of that bed is crossed by the railroad at probably 

 two miles eastward from Tunnelton station, and there, on the Graham- 

 Beall estate, an old opening was examined which showed the following 

 section : 



1. Mahoning sandstone not measured 



2. Shale. . . .^ 0' 3" 



3. Goal 3/ 10" 



4. Clay 0' 2" 



5. Goal 1' 8" 



But the exposure at the bottom is not complete, for, underlying the 

 measured portion, is some good coal, and still lower is a considerable thick- 

 ness of impure slaty coal, which is not worth digging. The coal, as far 



