32 J. J. STEVENSON — LOWP:R CARBONlFEJiOtlS, APPALACHIAN BASlN 



to which more detailed reference will be made in chapter ii. At Alva, 

 in Tyler county, the two sandstones are 161 feet, with no record above 

 or below for many feet. Few of the Tyler records o^o below the Slienango 

 or Big Injun, as that is the oil-bearing rock in the Hebron and Sisterville 

 pools of that count3^ In one well near Little Mills the Big Injun is 79 

 feet, separated by 20 feet of black shale from the Squaw, which is 20 feet. 

 The Keener varies from 15 to 19 feet. 



In Pleasants county, which extends along the Ohio river beyond Tyler, 

 the Mauch Chunk is wanting and the Pocono is continuous with the over- 

 lying Pottsville, the records showing from 330 to 375 feet of sandstone 

 for the two formations.* 



The next tier of counties at the south consists of Harrison, Doddridge, 

 Ritchie, and Wood, the last reaching the Ohio river. 



The records in Harrison begin on the western side, almost on the strike 

 from Mannington, in Marion county, and show a condition not easil}" 

 explained. It is true that near Mannington limestone is reported below 

 the Big Injun, but in Harrison the sandstone is very thin, 20 to 40 feet, 

 with a great thickness of limestone below it within the Sardis Pool dis- 

 trict. The same condition is reported from the Ten-mile district, a few 

 miles southwest from the last; but in southern Harrison, within the 

 Jarvisville district, the records give no information bej^ond the fact that 

 the Big Inj n is still thin, 47 to 80 feet, the underlying rocks being un- 

 recorded. Doctor White lays emphasis on this change in the Big Injun 

 as explaining the absence of oil and gas. 



In Doddridge county, near Sedalia, onl}^ 10 miles west from Sardis, the 

 Big Injun is sandstone, 102 feet, with underlying rocks unrecorded. 

 Three or four miles northwest, at Center Point, the Keener is separated 

 occasionally and is given in one record as 13 feet, but as it is separated 

 from the Shenango only by a very thin shale, the two rocks are recorded 

 usually as a continuous sandstone. As thus constituted, the Shenango 

 in northern Doddridge averages about 115 feet and is separated from the 

 Squaw or Sharpsville sandstone b}^ 34 to 40 feet of shale, reported in one 

 record as black. The conditions observed in Tyler, Wetzel, and the 

 northern counties are reproduced here, though the Shenango is thinner. 

 Farther south, in eastern Doddridge, near the Baltimore and Ohio rail- 

 road, the Shenango is but 79 feet, with only "shales, sand, and shells " 

 below it for 148 feet. In south central Doddridge, 8 miles from the rail- 

 road, the thickness is given as 195 feet, with unrecorded rocks for 583 feet 

 below; but at Oxford, 8 miles farther west, near the line of Ritchie 



* I. C, White : Geology of West Virginia, vol. i, 1900. Monongalia county, p. 235 ; Marion county, 

 pp. 245, 347; Wetzel county, pp. 339-349; Panhandle, pp. 3G2-3G9 ; Tyler county, pp. 33G, 338, 355- 

 3tJ0; Pleasants county, p. 353; McDonalds, p. 228. 



