MIDDLE AND UPPER DEVONIAN OF ROMNEY REGION 13 

 DESCRIPTION OF WEST VIRGINIA SECTIONS 



Clifs near South Branch of the Potomac River. — -The nearest 

 outcrops of any considerable extent are the cliffs of argillaceous 

 blue pencil shales by the side of the road southwest of Romney 

 and near the bridge over the South Branch of the Potomac River. 

 Most of these shales contain small iron-like concretions and on 

 weathering are generally stained a brownish or iron color. There 

 is a decided tendency in most of them to split into narrow, long, 

 pencil-shaped pieces. The cliff in places- is from 20 to 25 feet in 

 height; the cut continues for some distance. and affords a fine 

 exposure of this part of the Romney shales. The dip is not great 

 at this locaKty, and soon after crossing the river to the west the 

 Oriskany sandstone is reached. 



Fossils are rare, but a few occur in some of the layers. Lio- 

 rhynchus limitare (Vanuxem), Pterochaenia fragilis (Hall), Pro- 

 ductella Ambocoelia, a Crinoid stem, and perhaps a few other 

 species occur. Pterochaenia fragilis (Hall) is known to occur in 

 New York from the Marcellus shale to the Chemung formation 

 inclusive, while Liorhynchus limitare (Vanuxem) is confined to 

 the Marcellus shales and regarded as one of its most characteristic 

 fossils. These bluish to blackish shales, containing the charac- 

 teristic species — Liorhynchus limitare (Vanuxem) — -of the Mar- 

 cellus shale of New York, occur in at least the lower half of the 

 Romney formation and are correlated with the Marcellus shale of 

 New York. 



Outcrops from Romney to Hanging Rock. — The valley road 

 between Romney and Hanging Rock, which is down the river to 

 the north of Romney, affords frequent opportunities to study the 

 Romney formation, and the exposures may be considered as typical 

 for its upper part. ; 



Ledges of bluish-gray to grayish shale occur along the road 

 by the side of Big Run, about one-half mile north of Romney, 

 some of which has a decided concretionary tendency, forming 

 large irregular layers. Fossils occur abundantly in certain of 

 these layers, especially species of Chonetes and Camarotoechia, 

 the latter on account of their abundance forming layers that are 



