158 J. J. STEVENSON — CARBONIFEROUS OF APPALACHIAN BASIN 



is a massive conglomerate, 150 to 200 feet thick, forming cliffs from Nut- 

 tallburg to Gauley bridge, at 375 feet above the Raleigh. West from 

 New river, in Fayette county, the upper portion of this sandstone loses 

 its massiveness and coarseness within a few miles, but the lower portion 

 remains conglomerate for 12 miles. In western Fayette, in Boone, and 

 northern Raleigh the whole deposit becomes more or less a shaly sand- 

 stone and soon loses its distinctive features. The coal beds of the Sewell 

 formation are at least four, but only one, that at from 40 to 90 feet above 

 the Raleigh, is of commercial importance. This, the Sewell of New 

 river, the Sewanee of Tennessee and Alabama, is about 4 feet thick at 

 Sewell, on New river, and increases somewhat toward the west, but it 

 diminishes eastward and northward in Fayette county, becoming only 

 2 feet thick at the Hawksnest, 15 miles northwest from Sewell. 



The plane of separation between Sewell and Kanawha is sufficiently 

 sharp along New river, where the Nuttall (Sharon, Corbin, Dotson) sand- 

 stone is characteristic ; but westwardly, where that rock becomes indef- 

 inite, the two formations are continuous. Many of the coal beds familiar 

 to those living along the Kanawha river have been recognized here ; but 

 reference to them must be deferred until after the section along the 

 Kanawha river has been studied, and the relations of the Charleston 

 sandstone will be reviewed at the same time.* 



More than sixty years ago Professor William B. Rogers determined 

 that the coal rocks of New river, in Fayette county, belong to his forma- 

 tion XII, the Serai conglomerate of the Pennsylvania column ; but his 

 published notes are very brief. The first detailed descriptions known 

 to the writer were given by Professor Fontaine, who applied the name 

 " New River series " to the rocks in question. His section near Quinni- 

 mont extends from the Raleigh sandstone to the Lower Carboniferous 

 and shows 



Feet 



Raleigh sandstone 150 to 200 



Quinnimont formation 198 



Clark formation 326 



Pocahontas formation 543 



The Beckley and Quinnimont coal beds are shown in his section. 

 The top and bottom sandstones of the Clark are defined sharply, the 

 lower being a massive bed, and the thickness of the formation is 326 feet, 

 or almost 50 feet less than that given by Mr Campbell for southern 

 Raleigh. The excessive thickness assigned to the Pocahontas is due to 

 including beds at the bottom which later observers have referred to the 



* M. R. Campbell : U. S. Geol. Survey folios, Raleigh, 1902. 

 E. V. d'Invilliers : Geological Report on the West Virginia and Ohio Railroad Line, 1886, pp. 8, 

 12, 13, 14. 



