wiii'E.] CUMBERLAND TO THE OHIO RIVER. 285 



Thickness <>n the B. and 0. R. B.: Feet. 



N nr Piedmont 478 



N> ar < >al<land TOO 



NV ,vr Rowleebnrg 862 



At Mannington -;">"> 



At l'-eDaire 200 



Thicknesial Pottsville, Pa 1,000 



Thickness <>n New river, W. Va 1,400 



Lower Coal Measures, AU-eghany River Series [XIII). 16 — The next 

 higher seiies of rocks, called bhe Alleghany River Coal Scries, contains 

 the greate ■ portion of the coal in the Appalachian Held. These meas- 

 ures consht of alternate beds of coal, shale, limestone, and sandstone, 

 and where the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad first crosses them at Pied- 

 mont, Wes Virginia, have a total thickness of 308 feet; 310 feet near 

 Rowlesbun ; 225 feet in the deep shaft at Newburg; 202 feet at Xuznnfs, 

 10 miles w ;st of Grafton; and 220 feet at the Ohio river near Bellaire. 



In Penii ;ylvania this seiies has a thickness of 200 to 370 feet, while 

 in Ohio tlr- same seiies varies between 17.") and 250 feet. In northern 

 West Virg nia these measures are 200 to 300 feet thick, hut they thicken 

 rapidly to he southwest, and on the Big Kanawha, at Powellton, are 

 1,000 feet, :nd maintain that southwest from there to the Tug river in 

 Logan county. 



The principal coal beds of this series are the following in ascending 

 order: 



(/) Clark n. (2) Lower Kittanning. (.;) Middle Kittanning. (/) 

 Upper Kit t( nning. (5) Lower Freeport. [6) Upper Freeport. 



The Barr< n Measures, Elk River Series [XI V). — The Barren Measures 

 occupy the nterval between the Upper Freeport coal and the next 

 great coal 1><m1 about 000 feet above, viz, the Pittsburg seam. This Elk 

 River Seiies contains several (5) coal beds, but the most of them are too 

 thin and impure to be commercially valuable, with the exception of t lie 

 two lower on >s (Mahoning and Masontown). The rocks consist of mas 

 sive sandsto Les, red shales, and thin limestones. Marine fossils occur 

 for the last time about the middle of this series at the horizon of the 

 Oriuoidal lin estone, since above that stratum nothing but brackish or 

 fresh water forms are found. These beds furnish valuable building 

 stone (Mahoning, Morgantown. and ( kmnellsville sandstones), and make 

 a great band of red soils from western Pennsylvania clear across West 

 Virginia into Kentucky, and back around through southern Ohio to 

 western Pcni sylvania. 



This series is, in the hills at Piedmont, about 600 feet t hick. Where 

 next found on the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad, at Newburg, these 

 rocks are 650 feet thick, and the railroad runs in them from there to 

 Fairmont, except for a short distance on the crown of the Chestnut 

 Ridge axis, H miles west of Grafton. 



