Kentucky 99 



Mr Campbell's studies in Pulaski, Rockcastle, and Jackson counties 

 add to the knowledge of the Kentucky conditions and make easy the 

 carrying of the section into Tennessee. 



His Lee formation as denned in this area is evidently coextensive 

 with the Rockcastle group of Professor Crandall, and is from 250 to per- 

 haps 1,000 feet thick, thickening southward from Jackson into Pulaski. 

 It consists of sandstones and sandy shales, including two conglomerates, 

 the Corbin above and the Rockcastle below. 



The Corbin, evidently the coarse upper plate of Lesley and equiva- 

 lent in part to the upper bench of Mr Hodge, varies from conglomerate 

 to coarse sandstone. It is unimportant in Jackson county, but thickens 

 southward so as to be 200 feet in Pulaski, beyond which it continues 

 with lessening thickness into Tennessee, where it becomes unimportant 

 at 40 or 50 miles from the state line, The Rockcastle is at the bottom 

 of the formation and varies in thickness from to 150 feet. It occupies 

 a pre-Pottsville valle}^, eroded deeply in Lower Carboniferous beds, and 

 becomes prominent midway in Rockcastle county, whence northward it 

 was followed to the final outcrop in Jackson county. This valley is per- 

 haps 4 miles wide and the deposit, usually a coarse conglomerate, thins 

 out on each side. This lower conglomerate in some part is doubtless 

 equivalent to the lower conglomerate bench reported by Mr Sullivan. 



The shales and sandstones overlying this Lee formation are termed 

 Breathitt by Mr Campbell, and, so far as preserved in this area, are about 

 500 feet thick. Near the bottom is the important bed in Laurel county 

 already referred to, which is apparently the Sharon or at ver}^ near its 

 horizon. Mr Campbell refers to a coal bed underlying the Rockcastle 

 conglomerate.* 



Returning to the north, Lee county is south from Wolfe and east from 

 Estill. Here Lesley finds the sub-Sharon deposits 296 feet thick at Proc- 

 tor, while farther north the thickness is 195, decreasing northwest to 

 about 100 feet in southern Powell, and finally in northern Menifee to 15 

 feet. There are five beds of coal in Lee county, at 5, 106, 122, 157, and. 

 301 feet above the limestone, the highest being directly under the great 

 sandstone cliff. The rocks vary much, but sandstones prevail in sone of 

 the sections. Mr Lesley calls attention to the fact that the sandstone 

 diminishes southwardly from 200 feet in Menifee county to 82 feet in 

 Clay, and evidently thinks that the lower portion is replaced by shale, 

 thus explaining the thickening of the sub-Sharon. But Professor Cran- 

 dall notes that in Menifee, where the sandstone mass is thickest, the 

 underlying shales attain their greatest thickness for the region. Mr 



*M. R. Campbell : U. S. Geol. Survey Folios. London, 1898; Richmond, 1898. 



