BULLETIN OF THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF AMERICA 

 Vol. 13, pp. 119-126 March 3, 1902 



GEOLOGICAL HORIZON OF THE KANAWHA BLACK FLINT 



BY I. C. WHITE 



{Read before the Society December SI, 1901) 

 CONTENTS 



Page 



Results of Rogers' investigations 119 



Value of the flint as a key rock 119 



Results of the first investigations by the writer 120 



Investigations by Campbell and Mendenhall 120 



Investigations by David White 121 



Recent investigations by the writer 121 



Method employed and area covered 121 



Characteristics of the Upper Freeport coal 122 



Stratigraphic relations of the flint 123 



Analysis of David White's conclusions 123 



Stratigraphic corollaries 125 



Results of Rogers' Investigations 



To one of the nestors of American geology, the immortal William B. 

 Rogers, we owe the first description of the Kanawha black flint of West 

 Virginia. In his " Fourth Annual Report of Progress '' of the Geological 

 Survey of Virginia for the year 1839 he gives such a full and minute 

 description of this remarkable stratum that little has been added by any 

 subsequent observer. He did not define its exact place in. the strati- 

 graphic column, but by making it the dividing line between what he 

 called his " Upper and Lower Coal Series," there can be very little doubt 

 that he correctly divined its proper horizon. 



Value of the FliiNt as a Key Rock 



Unique in physical aspect, easily discerned, and almost constantly 

 present in the section, it constitutes a most valuable key rock in the 

 greatly thickened deposits of the region. Hence with proper care on 



XVIII— Bui.r.. Geoi,. Soc. Am., You 1?.. 1901 (119) 



