314 D. WHITE — POTTSVILLE SERIES ALONG NEW RIVER, W. VA. 



stones overlie the lower conglomerate, all of which are excluded from 

 the " Pottsville " as restricted on New river by Professor I. C. White. In 

 connection with this fact it may be noted that, while on New river the 

 transition from marine to coal measures sedimentation is very much 

 more gradual than in the Pottsville basin in Pennsylvania, it is marked 

 by a much stronger contrast and evidence of change than is apparent in 

 the Great Flat Top Mountain section. This section, while nearly desti- 

 tute of conglomeratic material, presents an essentially arenaceous and 

 quite frequently phytiferous series, with occasional coaly layers, as far 

 d6wn perhaps, if there is no unconformability, as the horizon of this 

 lower Piney Creek conglomerate. This circumstance will be referred to 

 later in relation to certain Appalachian evidence tending to show that 

 the base of the Pottsville series (lithological) diagonals in time. 



POCAHONTAS COAL ON NEW RIVER. 



One of the most interesting stages in the New River section is the next 

 higher level at which plants were found. In shales associated with a thin 

 coal (see C, figure 1) nearly 700 feet below the top of the upper Piney 

 Creek conglomerate, or about 400 feet below the Quinnimont coal, a few 

 species are common at Piney creek, at the mouth of Arbuckle creek, and 

 near Rush Run. They are the following : 



Sphenopteris, n. sp., Pocahontas form. 

 Neuropteris smithsii, Lx., Pocahontas form. 

 Ehabdocarpus, sp. , Pocahontas form. 

 Alethopteris, sp. 



The fact that the first three of these are predominant in and character- 

 istic of the Pocahontas coal in Great Flat Top mountain and have not 

 been found to extend far above or below that horizon led me to regard 

 this stage, from paleontologic evidence, as equivalent or near to the Poca- 

 hontas coal, an opinion which has since been corroborated on the strati- 

 graphic side by Mr M. R. Campbell, who has traced the strata from Tug 

 river, about 60 miles away, across to New river. 



FLORA OF THE QUINNIMONT-FIRE CREEK STAGE AND ITS AFFINITIES. 



Without stopping at this time to discuss the paleontologic details of 

 other intermediate horizons we will pass to the consideration of the 

 general affinities of the fossils from the important coals. To concentrate 

 the data as much as possible the species obtained at various localities 

 from the Quinnimont-Fire Creek coal * are tabulated in one list. The 



* While the equivalence of the Quinnimont and Fire Creelc coals is, as I have said above, not 

 conclusively proven, they are certainly so near together, if not the same, that in a broad considera- 

 tion, dealing with groups, they may be treated as at one stage. 



