MURPHREE'S VALLEY; GEOLOGICAL FORMATIONS. 19 



west side of the valley, have been protected and preserved 

 on the south-east side. This was occasioned by the vertical 

 break on that side, whereby the adjacent coal measures did 

 not partake, to any great degree, in the uplift of the valley.* 

 The valley rocks w,ere, therefore, relatively pushed up past 

 the Coal Measures to a height of much more than the whole 

 thickness of the measures; though subsequently denuded 

 down leloiv the level of their surface. On the north-west side 

 a similar break did not occur, but the fold slanted away into 

 a regular synclinal, exposing its surface to denudation. 



On the eastern side of T. 12, R. 1, east, and in T. 11, R. 2, 

 east, there is an elevated region in which the various branches 

 of Dry Creek have their source, that is known by the name 

 of Berry Mountain. This elevation is only a portion of Coal 

 Measure strata, that withstood the denudation. It contains 

 at least three seams of coal, which are wanting in the sur- 

 rounding region. They are of workable thickness, one of 

 them nearly three feet, and are regarded as good shop coals. 

 This is as far as they have been tested. As a report on these 

 coals has already been published, (Report on the Coal Meas- 

 ures ol the Plateau Region,) it is not deemed necessary here- 

 to enter on a further description. 



The face of the Coal Measures presents the same general 

 appearance up to the head of the valley. At the head, and 

 near the middle of the curve, the great fault described 

 below cuts the Coal Measures, as it has done the underly- 

 ing rocks, and a sink apparently of 200 feet occurs. It may- 

 be much more, but 200 feet is all that could be verified. 

 This is, as heretofore shown, a sinking down or throw of the 

 strata, along the south-east side of the fault line. The Coal 

 Measures are therefore thicker on that side than the other. 

 The top of the mountain is the same height on both sides of 



*This seems to be a natural consequence of the peculiar structure, ex- 

 plained below, by which the Blount Mountain synclinal is thrust or lapped 

 under the Murphree's Valley Arch. The usual structure in this part of 

 the state is the thrusting or lapping over of the arch towards the north- 

 west, while here, by the underthrust mentioned, the fold or arch appears to 

 be thrust up over towards the south-east. E. A. S. 



