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



stones; succeeding them, the rocks show a decided change, and 

 in this portion, the Catskill beds, if they exist at all here must 

 be found. The following is a section of them, with the 'thick- 

 ness estimated in part. (1.) 120 feet of alternations of deep 

 red marhtes, and thick-bedded, rather argillaceous, reddish- 

 brown sandstones. The sandstones and marlites are in about 

 equal proportions. (2.) Seventy feet of dark red marlites, in- 

 Bhreoos sandstones of very argillaceous char- 

 acter, and showing balls and nests of brovi 

 from balls of pyrites. The sandstones when fresh an 

 brown color, but m weathering, assume yellowish-brown hues, 

 (3.) For 150 feet the ground is not well 

 to be occupied by strata like the last, with 



ce of the sandstone. In (2), the marlites 



) the lower portion next to (1). The; ' 



bers, possessing a thickness of 340 feet, in which ferrugi- 

 matter abounds, are in all probability of Catskill age, but 

 as they, so far as I know, contain no fossils, the question cannot 

 be answered with certainty. These are succeeded by about 500 

 feet of flaggy sandstones, with interstratifications of shales, all 

 when fresh dingy yellow, or brownish gray, but weathering to 

 a dull brown color. These strata are of still more problemati- 

 cal age. As however in the eastern exposures, the Vespertine 

 lower member seems to thicken at their expense, I include them 

 with it. The j unction of these beds with the lowest undoubted 

 Vespertine strata, is here concealed by slides, as is partially a 

 considerable portion of their upper member. 

 _ Above the highest of these beds we have a decided change 

 m the character of the deposits, and here I place the base of 

 the Vespertine. This rock is a white, p.-bblv. highly siliceous 

 sandstone, in the lowest portion seen. Its base m not exposed 

 here The pebbles are mostly small, but some of them attain 

 the dimensions of half an inch. The great mass of the rock, 

 especially the middle and upper portions, is a coarse sandstone 

 of impure white color, becoming somewhat argillaceous at the 

 top The thickness seen was about sixty feet. This rock, it 

 on GreeXfeT rTvI *"" "^ hwUght UP ** ^ plaCG examilled 



This is one of the most persistent and highly characteristic 

 members of the Vespertine. Though alv, 

 glomerate bands and marked by its siliceous , 

 shows considerable changes ,n thickness, and the coarseness of 

 Along the Greenbrier River the conglomerate 

 portion, when exposed, often shows pebbles an inch 

 ter. Professor Rogers mentions an exposure near Hunter^villp 

 where the pebbles are even two . -mtersv.lle 



Next above the sandstone member at Lewis Tunnel, we find 





