THE CARBONIFEROUS SYSTEM. 



Analyses op Coal No. 8. 



161 



Coal Seams No. 9 to No. 13. 



The coals higher than the Pittsburgh seam have, in Ohio, comparatively 

 little value. In this respect our Upper Coal Measures exhibit a marked 

 contrast with those in West Virginia, where locally the Redstone, Sewick- 

 ley, and Waynesburg seams are all of great importance, and locally rival 

 in value the Pittsburgh bed, magnificent as it is in its proportions. 

 Prof. Stevenson, who has spent some years in the study of the Coal 

 Measures of West Virginia, thinks that the coals I have mentioned are 

 represented respectively by Coals Nos. 8a (Redstone), 86 (Sewickley), 

 and 11 (Waynesburg) of the section in eastern Belmont county. Of 

 these, the Bedstone and Sewickley have their greatest development at 

 the east, thin out rapidly westward, and scarcely pass the Ohio, as, though 

 recognized in the Bellaire section, they are there less than one foot in 

 thickness, and have disappeared at Barnesville. The Waynesburg coal 

 Prof. Stevenson finds represented by an exceedingly variable seam which 

 passes through the highlands of Belmont county, and from its change- 

 ableness is called locally the "jumping six-foot seam." 



Coal No. 8c, of the Bellaire section, is what is known as the "Glencoe 

 coal." This is supposed by Prof. Stevenson to be a bed of very limited 

 extent. Along the east front of Belmont county it is generally work- 

 able, and attains a maximum thickness of four feet ; but it thins out 

 rapidly northward along the Ohio, and is scarcely known beyond the 

 county line. At Barnesville, on the Central Ohio Railroad, it has en- 

 tirely disappeared ; and it is also said by Prof. Stevenson to grow thin- 

 ner passing eastward from Wheeling. 



Coals No. 9 and No. 10 of Prof. Stevenson's section are both thin along 



the Ohio, but are persistent, and No. 10 thickens toward the west. This 



shows that they were formed in a basin of which the deepest portion lay 



in that direction. Traced on the north and west to the limits of the 



11 



