44 W. M. Fontaine—Vespertine Strata of Virginia. 



the thin flags at the top of the system show beautiful ripple 

 marks. Toward the base, as we approach the coal-bearing 

 member, the marlites are no longer of uniform red color, but 

 are variegated with green and grayish splotches. The prin- 

 cipal portion of the red strata much resembles some of the 

 red shales of the supposed Catskill, which will be described 

 farther on. The entire thickness is by estimate 250 feet. 



This red upper member seems, from the measurements of 

 Professor Eogers, to thin out to the north. As remarked above 

 he puts it with the Lewisburg limestone, which is probably the 

 equivalent of the St. Louis and Chester groups, in his Umbral 



In his measurement of the Umbral in Greenbrier Mountain, 

 near Huntersville in Pocahontas county, he puts fifty feet of 

 red shales under the limestone. This point is thirty miles north 



Still farther north, on the Potomac, near Western port, Profes- 

 sor Rogers gives no red beds under the limestone, but shows 

 that fifteen feet of red shales and sandstone occur about twenty 

 feet from the base, which is composed of reddish and sandy 

 gray limestone. J 



In the vicinity of the Greenbrier River, as above mentioned, 

 the coal-bearing portion of the Vespertine rises boldly from 

 beneath the red marlites, and forms cliffs of imposing height 

 near the railroad bridge. These strata, however, £o not attain 

 a sufficient height to disclose the white sandstones and con- 

 glomerates, which form the lower member of the Vespertine in 

 the two Virginias. Across the river they soon come down 

 with a westerly dip, and disappear under the limestone to 

 appear no more. This broad anticlinal seems to be the last 

 important undulation affecting the strata in a westerly direction 

 for these maintain apparently a westerly dip nearly to the Ohio 



In my article on the " Conglomerate series of West Virginia," 



in the numbers of this Journal, for April and Mav, 



18/6, I have given some account of the geology of the country 



• direction. 



The middle member of the Vespertine as disclosed here, 



shows at its top, about seventv feet of rather siliceous, bluish 



gray sandstones, in thin beds, and of very firm texture. Under 



these occur about forty feet of thinly bedded, gray flags, which 



show throughout a curious distribution of carbonaceous matter 



Fully fifty, pretty persistent, thin strings of carbonaceous 



bated over this space, being usual I v net 



more than an inch or so thick, but sometimes suddenly swelling 



out to the thickness, of nearly a foot No underclays exis? 



and all the material was plainly derived from drifted vegeta- 



