WEST VIRGINIA BASIN 67 



and about 10 miles off the strike westward. Mingo count3% adjoining 

 Lincoln at the south, extends to the Kentucky line at the Big Sandy 

 river. Near Dingess, 10 miles west-southwest from the last locality, a 

 record gives 



Feet 



1. Black shale 22 



2. Gray limestone 6 



3. Red rock 4 



4. Gray limestone 2 



5. White shale 4 



6. Red rock 2 



7. White shale 34 



8. Gray shelly limestone 51 



9. White hard limestone 125 



resting on the Logan sandstone. The shaly upper portion, 72 feet, is 

 about the same as in Lincoln county, but contains limestones. The 

 shales thicken westwardly, for, at 10 miles away on the Big Sand}^ op- 

 posite Warfield, Kentucky, they are 153 feet, with 4 feet of limestone 

 separating them from 60 feet of shale and sandstone, while at a little 

 farther south they are 195 feet, resting directly on 40 feet of sand, with 

 no intervening limestone. The main limestone thickens southwardly, 

 being 205 feet at the last locality, where the w^hole thickness is 440 feet. 

 It is easy to recognize in this Mingo County section the Chester and Saint 

 Louis limestones of the Kentucky geologists.^ 



Along the eastern and southern outcrops. — Returning now to the outcrops 

 at the east, south from the New river and eastward into the Great valley, 

 information is wanting respecting the counties of Highland, Bath, and 

 Alleghany, Virginia, which are east from Pocohontas and Greenbrier 

 of West Virginia, as well as respecting Monroe of West Virginia, south 

 from the New river. The numerous faults beyond the Alleghany moun- 

 tains of Virginia, beginning near the Greenbrier river, have led to the 

 preservation of narrow strips of Mississippian farther toward the Great 

 Valley than at the north, so that in Montgomery, Pulaski, Wythe, and 

 Smyth counties small areas remain even in the valley itself. 



In the pett}^ areas of Mississippian within the Great Valle}^ alread}' re- 

 ferred to in the previous pages on the Pocoiio, the Mauch Chunk is 

 represented almost wholly b}' shale. No measurements are known for 

 the Catawba Mountain area, but in the Price mountain of Montgomery 

 Professor Fontaine measured 1,090 feet of shale, which he regards as in 

 part contemporaneous with the Greenbrier limestone. * The shales are 

 present in the little area along the Norfolk and ^^'estern railroad west 



*The references for these counties are Geol. of West Virginia, pp. 27-^, 275, 277, 27S, 279, 280. 

 * W. :M. Fontaine : Amer. Jour. Sci., vol. xiii, p. 119. 



