12 CHARLES S. PROSSER 



The Staunton folio by Darton, which appeared in 1894, was 

 the first one published by the United States Geological Survey for 

 the Appalachian part of the Virginias. In this folio Darton gave 

 the following description of the Romney shales: 



The rocks consist of dark shales, black and fissile below, but somewhat 

 lighter and more compact above. Some of the basal beds are carbonaceous 

 to a moderate degree, and they have been worked at several points with the 

 mistaken idea that they might prove to be coal-bearing. The formation 

 includes occasional calcareous streaks not far from its base, and the upper mem- 

 bers contain alternations of thin, pale-brown or dark-buff sandy beds, which 

 constitute beds of passage into the next succeeding formation. The vertical 

 range and stratigraphic position of these passage-beds appear to be somewhat 

 variable, so that there is no definite line of demarcation between the two 

 formations.'' 



In both of these publications the Romney shales were limited 

 below by the Monterey sandstone, which later has been shown to 

 be the southern continuation of the Oriskany sandstone of New 

 York,^ as was stated many years earlier by Hall.^ The upper 

 limit of the Romney shales was the base of the Jennings formation, 

 which has been shown to correspond with the Genesee shale, Por- 

 tage formation (including the Sherburne, Ithaca, and Enfield mem- 

 bers), and Chemung formation.'* 



While Chief of Division of Appalachian Geology of the Mary- 

 land Geological Survey the writer studied with some care the 

 outcrops in the vicinity of Romney, Hampshire County, in north- 

 eastern West Virginia. Particular attention was given to the 

 exposures of the Romney shales, while the subjacent and super- 

 jacent formations were also examined, and because Romney is the 

 typical locality for this formation it is believed that a somewhat 

 fuller account than has yet been published is desirable. 



^ Geologic Atlas of the United States, Folio 14, p. 2, col. 4. 



2 Schuchert, Bulletin Geological Society of America, XI (1900), 271, 312-15; 

 Prosser, Journal of Geology, IX (1901), 416; Schuchert, Proceedings United States 

 National Museum, XXVI (1903), 420; and Rowe, Schuchert, and Swartz, Maryland 

 Geological Survey, Lower Devonian, text (1913), p. 90. 



3 Geological Survey of New York, Palaeontology, III (1859), 40, 401. 



4 Prosser, Journal of Geology, IX (1901), 419-21; Prosser, Maryland Geological 

 Survey, Middle and Upper Devonian, text (1913), pp. 345-49; Swartz, iZ)jc^., pp. 423-34. 



