108 J. J. STEVENSON CARBONIFEROUS OF APPALACHIAN BASIN 



Orton found it varying from 26 to 42 feet within a short distance. The 

 Wheeling record shows two coals, one at 556 and the other at 96 feet 

 lower, resting on 541 feet of sandstone. The lower bed is clearly the 

 Lower Kittanning, the "Clay vein" of the Ohio side, which at exposures 

 up the river is from 100 to 115 feet below the Lower Freeport. This 

 lower bed, the Lower Kittanning, appears in another well on Wheeling 

 creek at 645 feet below the Pittsburg. 



Southward, in Marshall county, west from Greene county of Pennsyl- 

 vania, the record of a well at about 7 miles south from Wheeling shows 

 the "Big lime" of the Lower Carboniferous only 983 feet below the Pitts- 

 burg. The top of the Pottsville seems to be at 780, but it is probably 

 higher, the upper portion being shale. The Allegheny shows neither coal 

 nor sandstone. Near Moundsville, 10 miles south from Wheeling, one 

 finds a condition which will be observed many times farther south in 

 Wetzel county of West Virginia, where in a considerable area only sand- 

 stone is found in the Allegheny. In one well near Moundsville sandstone 

 begins at 615 feet below the Pittsburg and is continuous for 255 feet, and 

 the "Big lime" is reached at 937. At 5 miles east from Moundsville the 

 sandstone begins at 448 and is continuous to 748 feet below the Pitts- 

 burg, the "Big lime" being 958 feet. At Majorsville, in the northern 

 part of the county, on the Pennsylvania line, 12 miles southeast from 

 Wheeling, the interval to the "Big lime" has increased to about 1,100 feet, 

 the Lower Freeport coal bed is at 593 feet, and the Allegheny consists of 

 alternating shales and sandstones. Five miles farther south, near Lou- 

 dens ville, the only coal bed is at 615, and at 40 feet lower is a sandstone 

 70 feet thick. The relations of this bed are doubtful. It is too high for 

 the Lower Kittanning and too low for the Lower Freeport. In the south- 

 ern part of the county, on this side, the records give few details, only the 

 sandstones being recorded; but in many wells sandstone predominates in 

 the Allegheny. In one it begins at 640 and is continuous to 960; in an- 

 other from 566 to 881, and in a third from 450 to 845 feet below the 

 Pittsburg; but in other wells shales predominate to 690, 735, and 743 

 below that coal. These records are all from a single district extending 

 five miles north from the line of Wetzel county.* 



Eeturning to Pennsylvania, one finds a record at Nineveh, in Greene 

 county, almost at the Washington line and about 12 miles east from 

 Majorsville. Here the Allegheny shows neither coal nor black slate and 

 no important sandstone except the Butler-Freeport, 70 feet thick. In 



* I. C. White : Geology of West Virginia, vol. i, pp. 350, 352, 363, 365-360 ; vol. \a, 

 pp. 218-219, 220, 223-224, 228, 231 ; vol. ii, pp. 460, 464-465. 

 J. S. Newberry : Ohio Survey, vol. iii, pp. 741, 760. 

 E. Orton : Vol. vi, p. 61. 



