WEST VIRGINIA BASIN 59 



west, near Mannington, in the same county, Doctor White's well shows 

 the interval between Pocono and Pottsville to be 316 feet, thus : 



Feet 



Shale, in great part red 191 



Blue shale and limestone 28 



Red rock 5 



Gray limestone 92 



The upper limestone is present also at 3 miles north from Mannington, 

 where two limestones are reported at 5 and 22 feet above the silicious 

 limestone, which is 85 feet thick. At Mannington one finds the Fair- 

 view condition, for there a white limestone, 17 feet, is found below the 

 thin sandstone, which is marked in the driller's record as the top of the 

 Big Injun. In northwestern Marion the interval is given in one record 

 as 320 feet, with 5 feet of red rock and 68 feet of limestone at the bottom, 

 the upper beds being unrecorded. It may be noted here that in very 

 many wells there occurs, overlying the silicious or lower limestone, 

 several feet of soft rock termed the " Pencil cave." 



Great variation appears in Wetzel county, for in the northeast, near the 

 Pennsylvania line, the thickness of Mauch Chunk is 205 feet, which is 

 approximately that of southern Marshall in the " Panhandle," while at 

 12 miles south it is 257 feet, with 50 feet of silicious limestone at the 

 bottom ; but at Smithfield, 4 or 5 miles farther south, it is given as 133 

 feet, with the silicious limestone 88 feet, while at 2 miles northeast it is 

 said to be 396 feet, with the lower limestone 71 feet, separated by 5 feet 

 of '' Pencil " from 20 feet of limestone above. The extreme thinness of 

 Pottsville in this last record suggests that of the unrecorded 200 feet 

 above the limestone much should be referred to the Pottsville. In 

 Marion county, near the Wetzel border, 6 or 7 miles east from Smith- 

 field, everything has disappeared except 50 feet of limestone, which lies 

 between Pottsville sandstone, 105 feet, and Big Injun, 132 feet. 



There is great dearth of detail in Tyler, which lies south from Wetzel, 

 there being no complete record of any well in the county. In the north- 

 ern part, at 20 miles west from Smithfield of Wetzel and 5 miles east 

 from the Ohio river, the interval is given as 255 feet, with the silicious 

 limestone, 68 feet ; 5 miles west, on the Ohio river, the limestone is 97 

 feet, but at 2 miles farther west-southwest it is only 40 feet, while near 

 Hebron, 12 miles farther south, the whole interval is said to be 360 feet, 

 with the limestone 100 feet. No details are available for the little county 

 of Pleasants, adjoining Tyler along the Ohio river, but Doctor White 

 states that the shales disappear.^ 



*Geol. of West Virginia, i, pp. 236, 240, 243, 245, 343, 345, 348, 349, 356, 357, 360. 



