410 W. iM. Fontaine— West Virginia Asphaltum Deposit. 
‘“ Albertite,” it is mined and used for the production of gas. It 
is highly valued as an enricher of the common coal used in 
the manufacture of this substance. The value of the mineral 
has led to the extensive working of the deposit by a compan 
of Baltimore capitalists, who transport the material by a brane 
road of their own construction to Cairo Station, on the Balti- 
more and Ohio Railroad. 
The asphaltum deposit occurs in the county of Ritchie, 
on McFarland’s Run, a branch of Hughes River, nearly 12 
miles due south from Cairo. To reach it, the branch railroad 
passes, by a series of zigzags, over hills upward of 500 feet 
high, thus disclosing quite an extensive series of strata, the 
nature of which, by means of the railroad cuttings and the ex- 
cavations at the mines, may be easily made out. 
he geological formation here disclosed is that known as 
the “Upper Barren Measures,” being a portion of the strata 
above the Pittsburg Bed which are unproductive of coal. 
These barren strata, lying toward the center of the Appalachian 
coal basin, and being consequently the highest in the series, 
are in this portion of the State greatly developed, and present 
some noteworthy features. For this reason, and also because 
no measurements, as far as I know, have been made of these 
rocks, I will give the section from the level of the mines to the 
summit of the hills, which rise some 520 feet above them; the 
culminating point being 24 miles distant. In this will be mz 
cluded the strata which lie below the mine level, and have 
been penetrated by the workings. These have penetrated 160 
feet below the surface, which distance, with the 520 feet dis- 
closed along the railroad, gives us a vertical section of 680 feet. 
he lowest stratum reached in the mine is a red shale, which 
has not been penetrated ; its thickness is consequently unknown. 
The section commencing at the bottom is as follows: 1. R 
shale, thickness unknown. 2. Gray shale, 20 feet. 3. Sand- 
stone, 80 feet. 4. Gray shale, 55 feet. 5. Sandstone, 95 feet. 
None of the strata denominated shales in this section aa 
purely so. They contain throughout their thickness many V 
