60 J. J. STEVENSON CAKBONIFEROUS OP APPALACHIAN BASIN 



ter seems to be distributed throughout so as to increase the ash. The 

 thickness varies from 8 feet 6 inches to 9 feet.* 



Some small patches remain within the Second basin north from 

 Ligonier, in Westmoreland county, at about 40 miles northwest from the 

 Salisbury basin. The measurements are: 



Feet Inches 



1. Limestone 6 . 



2. Concealed and thin limestones Ill 



3. Coal or coaly shale 6 



4. Clay 3 



5. Limestone 8 



6. Shale and sandstone 28 



7. Clay 2 



8. Limestone 4 to 10 



9. Coal bed 2 9 



10. Shale 17 to 37 



11. Pittsburg coal bed 8 



It is difficult — indeed, impossible — to make positive correlation of the 

 beds above the Pittsburg. The interval, Number 10, decreases north- 

 ward, the measurements being 3 miles apart. This locality is far north 

 for Monongahela and, compared with the Blairsville-Connellsville basin 

 a few miles west, the limestone is in great excess. It is quite possible 

 that the highest limestone belongs within the Dunkard. The Pittsburg 

 shows traces of a roof division, apparently wanting in the Salisbury 

 basin, there being on top at most of the pits from 8 to 12 inches of ceal 

 and slate interleaved. The main coal is usually 8 feet thick and is in 

 five benches, in which the character of the coal differs. The ''bottom," 

 about 8 inches, is very poor, but the second, 2 feet thick, is very good; 

 the third, ordinarily less than 1 foot, is broken by many binders of clay 

 and mineral charcoal; the fourth, about 2 feet, is prismatic, tender, and 

 very pure, while the top bench is hard coal, often containing some 

 cannel.-j- 



The Blairsville-Connellsville iasin. — This following the westerly foot 

 of Chestnut ridge, the last great fold of the Appalachian in Pennsyl- 

 vania, may be regarded as practically continuous from the Kiskiminetis 

 river at the north across Fayette and Westmoreland counties to within 

 a few miles of the West Virginia line at the south. The section rarely 

 extends much above the Waynesburg coal bed, the rocks yield readily to 



•F. 4 W. G. Piatt: Somerset county (H 3), pp. 78, 83, 85, 86, 89, 93, 94, pi. vi, figs. 

 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 39. 



J. J. Stevenson: Fayette and Westmoreland (K 2), pp. 40, 41, 53, 54. 



tJ. J. Stevenson: Payette and Westmoreland, pt. 11 (K 3), pp. 14, 152, 153, 167, 

 168, 169. 



