e 
June, 1871.] 1 25 : [Lesley. 
Note on an Apparent Violation of the Law of Regular Progressive De- 
bituminisation of the American Coal Beds Coming East. 
By J. P. Lusiey. 
(Read before the American Philosophical Society, June, 1871.) 
In the course of a Geological survey of certain lands in Somerset County, 
Pennsylvania, it appeared that the beds of coal existing at Ursina held 
much less volatile matter than was expected. The gas coals of West- 
moreland County, which come east as far as Connellsville, only thirty 
miles west of Ursina (see accompanying map), hold between 30. and 40 
per cent. of volatile matters. Three analyses show the Ursina coals to 
have but 17 per cent., while a fourth gives 22 per cent. This puts the 
Somerset County coals into the sem-bitwminous class. Yet the specimens 
were taken from gangways, a good many years old, and several hundred feet 
from the otttcrop, under high hill cover, at a point on the western border of 
the First Bituminous Coal Basin of Pennsylvania, near the Maryland and 
Virginia Stateline. More properly we should say that the Ursina coals lie in 
the second synclinal of the First Basin. For the Negro Mountain Anticlinal 
comes up from Virginia and splits the First Basin into two in Pennsyl- 
vania. The mountain dies down at Castleman’s River; but the anti- 
clinal axis runs on northward. The First Basin is similarly split into 
two, east of Johnstown, by the Viaduct Anticlinal, which may or may 
not be an actual prolongation of that of Negro Mountain. 
To make the situation understood, the following extracts from my re- 
port to the owners of the property will suffice. The accompanying map 
shows the Backbone of the Alleghany passing by Altoona. This is the 
eastern edge of the First Bituminous Coal Basin. The two long parallel 
mountains between Ursina and Connellsville enclose the Second Bitumin- 
ous Coal Basin of Pennsylvania. The Third, Fourth, and Fifth lie west 
of it, and the Sixth occupies the northwest corner of the map ; no moun- 
tains separating the last four. 
Figs. 1 and 2 will suffice to show the topographical character of the 
country, and how the areas of the almost horizontal coal beds have been 
cut out into patterns, as if with a jig-saw, leaving outcrop edges around 
all the hillsides, at which gangways enter, and from the mouths of these 
shutes depend. 
Figs. 8 and 4 give vertical sections of the coal measures made with 
Becker’s Barometer ; and Figs. 5 and 6 show longitudinal Vertical sections 
of the hills. 
Special surveys like this have more than a commercial value: they 
reveal, sometimes very unexpectedly, new truths for men of science. It 
is an advantage to have them placed on record for common use. Too 
many of the collected facts of science are annually lost for want of pub- 
lication. 
The property surveyed in this instance, lies in’ my old tramping and 
camping ground of 1840, during the fifth year of the State Geologicat 
