ANALYSIS OF DAVID WHITE'S CONCLUSIONS 125 



persistent member. Although frequently only 18 to 24 inches thick, it 

 retains its characteristics as a bright, clean coal, and will furnish much 

 fuel in commercial quantity between the northern line of the state and 

 the Great Kanawha river. 



It is mined frequently in Preston, Barbour, and Upshur counties by 

 the farmers, and is always preferred by them to the Upper Freeport 

 below. 



In the vicinity of Sutton, Braxton county, this coal Jhas long been 

 mined and has furnished the principal fuel supply for the town, al- 

 though only 21 feet thick. 



Through Webster and Clay counties it appears to be universally present 

 at the proper geological horizon, and frequent openings have been made 

 on it by the farmers. 



At Clay Court House it comes just above the great cliffs of Mahoning 

 sandstone, at about 375 feet above Elk river, and is between 2 and 3 feet 

 in thickness, though a few miles below, on the lands of Mr Thompson, 

 it has thickened up to 40 inches. 



At Queen Shoals, near the Clay-Kanawha county line, on Elk river, 

 this coal is mined on a commercial scale and shipped by rail to western 

 markets. It is so highly prized that orders for it cannot all be filled. 

 It lies here about 175 feet above the black flint which in emerging from 

 the bed of Elk river makes the " shoals." 



The same coal is mined near Clendennin, and also at the Graham and 

 Mason mines, in Kanawha county, and is the horizon from which Dr 

 David White obtained the plants listed on pages 170, 171, etcetera, loc. cit. 



At North Coalburg, on the Kanawha river, this coal is termed the 

 " Big bed," and is extensively mined . Its interval there is 175 feet above 

 the black flint by accurate measurement, according to the levels of Mr 

 C. C. Lewis, of Charleston, West Virginia. 



This Masontown Coal horizon is unquestionably in the Conemaugh 

 formation, entirely above the Mahoning Sandstone group, and yet on 

 pages 172-173, loc. cit., its flora is referred by Dr David White to the 

 Kittanning horizon, while the flora of the same coal at Clay Court House 

 is referred to the Freeport group. It is needless to say that such results 

 discredit the use of fossil plants for refined stratigraphical determinations, 

 and must continue so to do until the coal flora and its geographical di- 

 versity are more completely known. 



Stratigraphic Corollaries 



In concluding this discussion the following important corollaries 

 should be noted by every geologist interested in problems of stratig- 

 raphy : 



