178 AN AMERICAN GEOLOGICAL RAILWAY GUIDE. (W. VA.) 



6. West of Altamont the railroad continues on a broad, undulating plateau, the Savage and 

 Allegheny Mountains of Pennsylvania having here coalesced into one. This remarkable flat 

 mountain top, from 2,400 to 2,600 feet in height above tide, has always attracted much attention 

 from the comparative softness of the outlines of the topography, giving a park-like character to 

 its topography. F. 



7. Here the Lower Coals and Lower Barren Measures are shown, with a email remnant of the 

 Pittsburg bed in the tops of the hills, it being the seam worked there. F, 



8. At this station is the eastern outcrop of the Pittsburg coal bed, west from the anticlinal of 

 Laurel Hill, (Chestnut Ridge of Pennsylvania.) From this locality the coal and the railroad level 

 constantly approach, until at Wolf's Summit, a little west from Wilsonburg, the coal is under the 

 track. S. 



9. The Pittsburg seam is extensively worked here. F. 



10. Just before reaching Wolf's Summit, the Pittsburg coal bed is at the railroad level, and is 

 worked near the track at the Summit. The Redstone coal bed is seen two inches thick in the 

 Summit cut. Between the Summit and the Brandy Gap Tunnel the Waynesburg coal bed is seen, 

 and is worked just south from the railroad, the opening being visible from the track. At the west 

 end of the tunnel the Washington coal bed is exposed above the track. This is in the Upper Barren 

 Measures. S. 



11. Here the track comes down to the Waynesburg bed, which is rudely mined here and at 

 several localities between this and West Union station. S. 



12. About one-fifth of a mile east of this station, a fault crosses the railroad, which brings up 

 the Lower Barren Series against the Upper Barren Series. Thence, from Ellenboro to within a short 

 distance of Petroleum station, the rocks are nearly horizontal, and the Upper Freeport coal bed is 

 exposed in several of the cuts. But, near Petroleum, there is a most remarkable upheaval, which 

 has brought up the lower coals, the strata suddenly rising within a few yards to an angle of 80 

 degrees. Just west of Laurel Fork Junction the rocks dip down again, the conditions being here 

 on the west side similar to those at Petroleum on the east. After passing the first cut west from 

 the station, the dip is suddenly reduced from 50 degrees to nearly horizontal. This forms the so- 

 called " Oil Break," as all the productive oil wells are found along the line of this belt. This belt 

 is about one and a half miles wide, running in a direction a little east of north and gradually flat- 

 tening out towards each extremity, and forms one of the most remarkable geological features in 

 this State. This curious disturbance is well worth a visit. Near it, a few miles off by a branch 

 road from Cairo, is the vertical chasm, 4 feet wide, which was filled with the mineral Grahamite, 

 now worked out. S. AND F. 



13. There is a fault here, forming the western boundary of the disturbed region, as that at 

 Ellenboro is the eastern. The distance between the two faults at Ellenboro and Kanawha is 37 

 miles. From Ellenboro to the east side of the " Oil Break " is 15 miles, the belt being two miles 

 wide, and from the west side of the break to Kanawha is 10 miles, so that the upheaval at the "Oil 

 Break" is between the two faults. The geology from this point to Parkersburg has not been 

 determined, as the vertical extent of this fault has not been ascertained. 



14. Between Grafton and Benton's Ferry the railroad passes through the arch of Laurel Hill. 

 At the Valley Falls, above Nuzum's Mills, the conglomerate is exposed alongside of the track, and 

 in the bed of the river. The lower coals are well shown for some distance below Nuzum's Mills. S. 



15. The road at these stations crosses some of the highest strata to be found in the Appalachian 

 coal field. F. 



16. Between Benwood and Wheeling the openings in the Pittsburg coal bed are numerous, and 

 the Sewickley and Redstone coal beds are exposed in the bluffs at many places. S. 



