QUINNI>rOXT-FIRE CREEK AND SEWELL COALS. 311 



Princes, two and one-half miles above. If my barometric sections are not 

 erroneous, the same seam is worked at Bcechwood, Stone Cliff (lower 

 opening), Dimmook, Rush Run, Red Ash, Beurys and Fire Creek. Thus 

 at the last named mines, which admittedly work the Fire Creek coal, the 

 interval from the mine mouth to the top of the up])er Piney Creek con- 

 glomerate falls within the same limits, approximately 295 feet, while the 

 stratigraphic environment is the same as at Quinnimont, Princes and 

 other mines unquestionably working the Quinnimont coal. 



Among New River coals, as well as among Pottsville coals in other 

 regions, there is much variation in the roof and in the thickness of the 

 seams themselves. At Quinnimont and Mill creek good fossils are ex- 

 tremely rare ; at Princes, Alaska, Fire Creek and Beurys a few fragments 

 were obtained, while Stone Cliff and Red Asli apj)roach the rich flora 

 found at Dimmock and Rush Run. The increasing richness of the flora 

 toward the apex of the long bend of the river near Thurmond suggests a 

 better preservation of the })lant remains toward the northwest or down 

 the dip, though the latter circumstance may be merely coincident. 



POSITION OF SEWELL COAL. 



Measuring again from the top of that valuable bench mark, the upper 

 Piney Creek conglomerate, my barometric readings show the mine 

 mouths at Thurmond, Brooklyn opposite East Sewell, Cunard opposite 

 Sewell, Nuttall, Fayette, Elmo and Hawks Nest to fall within a distance 

 of from 55 to 85 feet, or approximately 75 feet. There is little room for 

 doubt that the mines at these points are all in the same seam, best known 

 as the '' Sewell " or " Nuttall " coal. This coal (see /of figure 2) is also 

 exposed at Rush Run, about 70 feet above the ui)per Piney Creek con- 

 glomerate, or 365 feet above the opening on the Quinnimont-Fire Creek 

 coal. The same seam is reached by tram in the knob back of J5eurys, 

 and again by the same method farther up the river, at Stone Cliff. 

 Although no sections were made at the following })oint8, it appears very 

 probalde that the mines at Slaters and Central are in the Quinnimont-Fire 

 Creek coal, the operations at Caperton, Keeneys Creek, Gaymont and 

 Sunnyside being in the Sewell coal, Dr D. W. Langdon, whose geologic 

 interj)retations are well known to be reliable and who is especially 

 familiar with the New River series, kindly informs me that the Loup 

 Creek coal mines operate in the Sewell coal, a correlation with which the 

 evidence of the fossils is rpiite harmonious. 



From what ha.s been stated above it appears that all the New River 

 (Pottsville) coals now mined in this region come from two horizons — 

 the Quinnimont-Fire Creek horizon and the Sewell coal. 



As indicating in a general way the direction of the strike, it may be 



