136 J. J. STEVENSON CARBONIFEROUS OF APPALACHIAN BASIN" 



A thin coal bed is reported here just below the section in the river bed. 

 The coal bed, number 8, is between 140 and 150 feet above the Brook- 

 ville ; it comes down to the railroad grade within a short distance, where 

 it underlies a black shale filled with marine fossils. As the coal bed is 

 in the place of the Upper Freeport, this is evidently the Uffington shale 

 of the Morgantown region. At Sago, 7 miles south from Buckhannon, 

 the Brookville comes up, 4 feet 6 inches thick and 10 feet above the mass- 

 ive Eoaring Creek sandstone; but at 3 miles farther south the bed 

 is double, the upper part, more than 3 feet thick, being largely cannel 

 shale, while the lower portion, 11 feet 11 inches thick, is in 8 layers of 

 coal and shale and still only 10 feet above the sandstone. Here the 

 Upper Freeport is 150 feet above the Brookville, 4 feet 2 inches thick 

 and in 5 benches of coal and slaty coal. It overlies a massive sandstone, 

 but the interval to the Brookville is mostly concealed. At Alexander, 15 

 miles south from Buckhannon, the Brookville is far up in the hills, 13 

 feet thick and 10 feet above the Eoaring Creek sandstone, with another 

 massive pebbly sandstone, 60 feet thick, beginning at 5 feet above it. 

 The most remarkable feature in this whole region is the uniformity of 

 the interval between the Brookville and Roaring Creek sandstone, which 

 varies little from 10 feet in an area of more than a thousand square 

 miles. 



On the east side of Lewis county, about 6 miles west from Buckhannon, 

 a well record is given by Doctor White on the authority of Mr F. H. 

 Oliphant. This shows the great sandstone overlying the Brookville 80 

 feet thick, but divided midway by 20 feet of shale, a breaking up in the 

 westerly direction, which, as will be seen, becomes so marked that this, 

 like the other sandstones of the whole section, can be traced with little 

 certainty. The coal bed, 12 feet thick, is said to be 775 feet below the 

 Pittsburg, and no higher coal is noted in the record. Near Ireland, in 

 southern Lewis, and about 12 miles west from Alexander, in southern 

 Upshur, a section and boring combined show coal 3 feet 5 inches at 612, 

 a thin coal at 697, and a third, not measured, at 721 feet below the Pitts- 

 burg. The highest bed is evidently the Lower Freeport, and the interval 

 would place the lowest at the Brookville horizon, though the distance to 

 the Pittsburg is about 50 feet less than that assigned farther north. At 

 a few miles south the Brookville is exposed, 13 feet thick, with a sandy 

 parting which occasionally becomes 8 feet of sandstone. The coal above 

 is soft, but that below the parting is splinty. Many well records exist 

 for Lewis county, but for the most part they are incomplete, noting only 

 the sandstones. 



