W. M. Fontaine— Conglomerate Series of West Virginia. 375 



Staunton Pike, along the east slope of the mountain, there was 

 seen midway in the conglomerate, what appeared to be the blos- 

 som of a coal bed. As I had observed no evidences of coal in 

 the conglomerate northward from this locality, this exposure 

 was studied with some care, but nothing definite could be ascer- 

 tained. Six miles farther south, on the same side of the moun- 

 tain, a small coal bed occupies this place on the property of Mr. 

 Bradley. There it is three feet thick." Dr. Stevenson also 

 points out the mistake made both by himself, and myself, in ad- 

 mitting the presence of coal in the conglomerate of Mononga- 

 hela county. 



Dr. Newberry has shown that the Sharon coals of Pennsyl- 

 vania, which are in the reports of the first survey put under the 

 conglomerate, are really of later aue. There remains then no 

 case where coals are found within the rock in its extension north- 

 ward.* As is well known, the conglomerate in Pennsylvania 

 north of this part of West Virginia, has thinned down to a ho- 

 mogeneous rock of 100 feet and less. We must then look for 

 the north extremity of the special basin in which the expansion 

 of this rock took place, somewhere in Randolph county. In 

 farther confirmation of this, Dr. Steve 



fact that in that county the upper Umbral shales, at one point, 

 thin out entirely, and. the conglomerate is in contact with the 

 limestone. 



In Ohio, the reports of that State show that the conglomerate 

 has become too thin to form a continuous stratum. 



Proceeding southwest, from Ohio into Kentucky, we find the 

 conglomerate series forming the west outcrop of the east Ken- 

 tuckv coal field, being the sub-conglomerate coals of that State. 

 Mr. Joseph Lesley, (Proc. Am. Phil. Soc, No. 91,) in his ac- 

 count of this outcrop belt, shows that in that quarter the Umbral 

 shales are entirely wanting, and that the coals under the con- 

 glomerate lie immediately on the sub-carboniferous limestone. 

 He traces this outcrop from Carter county southwest to Clinton 

 county, on the south border of the State. The thickening of 

 the series in that direction shows plainly that his line of investi- 

 gation diverged from the edge of the basin and approached 

 nearer and nearer toward the central portions. He states that 

 the series consists of two members, the upper one a conglomer- 

 atic sandstone, and the lower one a coal-bearing portioiL The 

 upper member thins in proceeding southwest, while the lower 

 sor Tyson's section of the Cumberland basin be correct, then it is clear 

 t of Randolph Co., in Maryland, the conglomerate again has coal in 

 "} gives on Savage River, above the Umbral shales, and 

 "Coal-Measure Conglomerate," a thickness of 451 feet- 

 hree coal beds, two feet, two feet six inches, and two feet 

 ss is begun and ended with massive sandstones, having a 

 ) New Eiver field. 



