96 J. J. STEVENSON CARBONIFEROUS OF APPALACHIAN BASIN 



seen on the surface. Where the shales are thickest they hold coal beds 

 at 5, 55, 85, and 110 feet above the Lower Carboniferous limestone, the 

 second bed being cannel. This great thickness continues southward into 

 Powell county, where 100 feet are exposed on Indian creek.* 



The Sharon sandstone is 175 feet thick in Bath county, northwest 

 from Menifee. It is a coarse sandstone with some conglomerate cemented 

 by iron ore. At the localities examined by Mr Linney the sub-Sharon 

 shales are wanting, replaced by the sandstone which rests on the Lower 

 Carboniferous ; but Mr Lesley in crossing the southeast portion of the 

 county found the shales 85 feet thick and underlying 100 feet of sand- 

 stone. Two coal beds were seen by him at 15 and 27 feet above the 

 limestone. t The shales are thinner in eastern Montgomery, which is 

 west from Menifee, for there Lesley found but 40 feet, with a coal bed at 

 4 feet above the limestone. The shales are thicker in Powell, south 

 from Montgomery, for there they are 75 feet, while the Sharon sandstone 

 has increased to 196 feet. In Estill county, south from Powell, the 

 Sharon is 235 feet thick near the old furnace in the northern part of the 

 county, where it rests on sandy shales and thin bedded sandstones with 

 a thick fireclay at the bottom, below which is a coal bed associated 

 with the iron ore of the Lower Carboniferous limestone. J 



Wolfe county is between Morgan at the northeast and Powell and 

 Estill at the west. Mr Hodge describes the Sharon as consisting of two 

 benches of sandstone containing quartz pebbles in greater or less pro- 

 fusion, separated by a shale deposit, the thickness of the whole approxi- 

 mating 200 feet. Underlying this is a mass of shale, 100 feet thick in 

 the northwest, but thinning rapidly southward and eastward to 50 feet. 

 The upper bench of the Sharon sandstone contains a great abundance 

 of quartz pebbles, whereas the lower bench contains comparatively few. 

 The pebbles diminish in quantity eastwardly on the north fork of the 

 Kentucky river, so that where the rock is shown in Breathitt, east from 

 Wolfe, it is almost free from them. The upper surface is very irregular 

 and the overlying shales and sandstones filling the irregularities are of 

 correspondingly variable thickness, so that the Sharon coal bed at times 

 rests almost directly on the sandstone, while at a comparatively short 

 distance it is separated from it by an interval of almost 100 feet. A 

 section in western Wolfe on the Powell border shows 



Feet. Inches 



1. Shale 150 



2. Conglomerate 115 



*A. R. Crandall : Vol. iv, new series, pp. 174, 177. 

 f.Jos. Lesley: Fourth Report, p. 4t>6. 



W. M. Linney : Geology of Bath County (1886?), pp. 35, 36. 

 | Jos. Lesley : Fourth Report, pp. 468, 460, 471, 530, 531. 



