92 J. J. STEVENSON CARBONIFEROUS OF APPALACHIAN BASIN 



giving a total of 250 feet. It is evident that the Waynesburg coal bed 

 of the section is that which has been foUovped across the region as the 

 Uniontown. A record on the east side of the county reports 5 feet, and 

 one on the west side 3 feet of coal at the Pittsburg horizon; but Doctor 

 White states that the coal is frequently absent.* 



Wood county, west from Pleasants, Eitchie, and Wirt, adjoins Wash- 

 ington and Meigs of Ohio. In this county there is little to correlate; 

 the coal beds have disappeared, even the Washington, the persistent bed 

 of the Dunkard, becomes indefinite; the varying thicloiess of the Lower 

 Carboniferous limestone makes it impossible to use either the Logan 

 sandstone or the Berea grit as a datum except within the narrowest areas. 

 At Parkersburg, on the Ohio, the presence of the Brookville coal bed 

 enables one to fix approximately the place of the Pittsburg; it is at the 

 top of a mass of red and blue shale, not far below a sandstone 31 feet 

 thick, above which red shale seems to predominate. The most notable 

 feature of the well records in various parts of the county is the great 

 quantity of red shale, beginning often in the Conemaugh and continuing 

 many feet up into the Monongahela. The conditions change abruptly 

 in short distances, thick reds in one well being absent in another and 

 sometimes replaced by sandstones.f' 



Eeturning to the east, we find that the Pittsburg coal bed has been 

 mined in Upshur county near Buckhannon, where it is 4 to 5 feet thick, 

 and an opening near the line of Barbour county shows it 5 feet 6 inches, 

 with a very thin parting almost midway. The coal in the upper bench is 

 hard, contains much semi-cannel, and leaves a bulky red ash ; that in the 

 lower bench is tender, with thick layers of brilliant, structureless coal, 

 showing no lamination and with conchoidal fracture. These layers are 

 2 to 4 inches thick and the coal from the whole lower portion leaves a 

 white ash. The roof division of the bed seems to be wanting there. In 

 Lewis county, the Pittsburg is from 4 to 8 feet thick, the variation being 

 mostly in the upper bench. The same distinction in character of the 

 coal is shown here, and so marked is it that where no parting exists the 

 limits of the benches are well marked. Another coal bed is at a little 

 distance above the Pittsburg, and in Lewis county the Uniontown is 275 

 feet above the Pittsburg and very thin. 



The Pittsburg is present in Braxton county south from Lewis, but 

 in economic quantity only on the western or Gilmer side, where it is 

 from 5 to 6 feet thick, the variation being in the upper bench. It be- 

 comes thin toward the southeast and disappears before the outcrop has 



* I. C. White : Vol. io, pp. 467, 468. 



t I. C. White : Vol. i, pp. 285, 286, 292, 293, 294, 295. 



