KENTUCKY 111 



between Lee and Clay, so that the sections in the last county appear to 

 be in strange contrast with those of Wolfe and Breathitt. In northwest 

 Clay the intervals are apparently not much greater than in northwest 

 Breathitt, but as the beds are followed southeastwardly one soon finds 

 the Sharon at 100 to 125 feet below the Quakertown and 250 feet below 

 the Mercer. Coal bed 3A, which on the other forks of Kentucky river 

 is simply a rider bed to the Mercer (3), becomes widely separated, until 

 in southern Clay it is 125 feet above, while in the same neighborhood 

 the Tionesta (4) is 425 feet above the Sharon (1). The thickening in- 

 volves the higher measures also. In Wolfe county the ferriferous lime- 

 stone is only 120 feet above the Tionesta, in Breathitt the interval is 130 

 to 150 feet, and in Clay it finally becomes 200 feet. In almost every 

 section where the exposure is complete a coal bed, usually cannel, is 

 shown at from 30 to 40 feet below the limestone. The splits from the 

 Tionesta, 4A and 4B, become distinct beds in Clay, the interval to the 

 latter being fully 100 feet in southern Clay. 



Underneath the Tionesta, the Lower Splint, one finds a sandstone 

 except in northwestern Clay and apparently in Wolfe. This thickens 

 southward, becoming 80 and even 115 feet. In the northerly sections it 

 is referred to as " mainly sandstone," but evidently it becomes more 

 massive southward, so that on the border of Bell and Harlan counties it 

 appears from the sections to be almost wholly sandstone. In sections 

 within Clay, Bell, Perry, and Leslie counties, exposing the bottom of 

 the sandstone, a thin coal is shown at never more than 5 or 10 feet 

 below it.* 



Professor Crandall made a preliminary study of Pike, Letcher, Har- 

 lan, and Bell counties, the eastern tier along the line of Virginia and 

 West Virginia. Pine mountain is the state line to almost the southwest 

 edge of Letcher, whence to the Tennessee line it is the northwesterly 

 boundary of Harlan and Bell counties. The great fault of this moun- 

 tain brings up. the Pottsville with extraordinarily increased thickness, 

 there being in the Pike County region, belonging to the lower portion, 

 about 2,000 feet of rock, coarse ferruginous and more or less conglom- 

 erate sandstones alternating with shales so as to form five or six benches. 

 Cross-bedding prevails throughout, and the pebbles are from mere grains 

 to three-fourths of an inch in diameter. Thin coal beds exist in the 

 shales, but they are unimportant. 



The shales overlying the lower Pottsville have continued to increase- 

 Crandall found them 50 feet in western Greenup and 150 feet in Law- 



*A. M. Hodge : Preliminary Reports on Southeastern Kentucky Coal Field, 1887, pp. 59, 64, 67, 7'2, 

 73, 74, 75, 78, 80, 82, 98, sections 81, 81, 85, 86, 87, 88, 89, 90, 100, 102. 



