28 .T.J. STEVENSON LOWER CARBONIFEROUS, APPALACHIAN BASIN 



Professor Fontaine found the Pocono near Lewis tunnel, on the Green- 

 brier river, about 6 miles east from White Sulphur Springs, West Vir- 

 .i>inia, as well as at Caldwell station, 12 miles farther west. At the latter 

 locality 250 feet of red crumbling marlites underlie the Greenbrier or 

 Mauch Chunk limestone. These had been referred by Professor W. B. 

 Rogers to the Mauch Clmnk (Umbral), but Fontaine prefers to place 

 them in the Pocono. Below these he finds 290 feet, representing his 

 middle division of Augusta and Rockingham, consisting mostly of sand- 

 stones, in which are many carbonaceous streaks — not coal beds, as no 

 fireclay is associated Avith them. But at Lewis tunnel this division is 

 350 feet, with irregular coal beds underlain by fireclays. Below this is a 

 coarse, more or less conglomerate sandstone, 80 feet thick, resting on 

 transition beds 500 feet, consisting mostly of 3^ellow flaggy sandstones, 

 weathering brown. The whole thickness is 1,160 feet.^^ This is on the 

 line Avith the Augusta locality. 



Beyond the Greenbrier river, owing to the rapid development of faults, 

 the Pocono extends farther eastward than it does at the north, and the 

 area of Carboniferous reaches to East or Peters mountain, Avhile toward 

 the southeast is the narrow strip along Brushy mountain, in Bland, 

 Smyth, and ^^^ashington counties ; the similarly narrow strip along Little 

 Walker mountain, in Montgomery, Pulaski, Wythe, and Smyth counties, 

 as well as some petty outliers within the Great valle}^ in Catawba and 

 Price mountains of Montgomery and in Pulaski and Wythe counties. 

 The information respecting Monroe county of West V^irginia beyond East 

 mountain is very scanty, as is also that respecting Catawba mountain. 



Fontaine made a careful study of Price mountain, Avhere he measured 

 1,090 feet of red shales above his middle division, but made no detailed 

 measurement of the loAver divisions. The greater part of this mass be- 

 longs to the Mauch Chunk, Avhich here has no limestone. Tavo coal beds, 

 2 and 6 feet resj^ectively, are mined here.f Stevenson visited Price 

 mountain, as Avell as the little area east from Wytheville,on the Norfolk 

 and Western railway, but made no measurements. His conclusions re- 

 specting the shales agree Avith those of Fontaine. 



Little Walker mountain is knoAvn as Brush mountain in Montgomery 

 county. There Professor Fontaine assigned 930 and 670 feet to his 

 loAver and middle divisions, but did not obtain any measurement for 

 the upper division. Stevenson succeeded in making a section on New 

 river at 4 or 5 miles southwest from Fontaine's locality. He cuts off 

 most of the loAver division, placing it in the Devonian, and practically 

 draAVS the line under the conglomerate sandstone, 30 to 80 feet thick, 



* W. M. Fontaine : Am. Jour. Sci., vol. xiii, pp. 44-48. 

 t W. M. Fontaine : Op. cit., p. 119. 



