ALLEGHENY FORMATION IN WEST VIRGINIA 141 



at least 405 feet, but near Winfield, in Putnam county, it is apparently 

 only 175 feet.* 



This great mass of sandstone, coarse and in many portions pebbly and 

 marking the eastern border of the field, includes not merely the Alle- 

 gheny but also the lower part of the Conemaugh. It is in a narrow strip, 

 with a width of not far from 25 miles in a northwesterly direction. It is 

 not characteristic of the Pennsylvania and Maryland area east from the 

 Alleghanies; it is not found in the southward continuation of the First 

 Pennsylvania bituminous basin until one reaches Eandolph county, 

 though suggestions of it occur farther north ; thence to the Kanawha the 

 sandstone appears in increasing quantity and coarseness, so that the 

 several sandstones which have been recognized and named in the northern 

 portion of the field become practically continuous. The great mass and 

 coarseness of these beds in Webster, Braxton, Nicholas, Clay, and Ka- 

 nawha counties of West Virginia suggest that the shoreline at the east 

 suddenly extended westward near the latitude of southern Barbour 

 county. Southwestwardly from the Kanawha this mass of sandstone can 

 be traced to the Kentucky line across Boone, Logan, Wyoming, and Mingo 

 counties. Northwestwardly from the narrow strip referred to, the mass 

 breaks up quickly, shales increase, and the several divisions, as is ordi- 

 narily the case with sandstones, become traceable with little certainty; 

 but locally one finds most unexpectedly conditions which are recalled by 

 Mr Campbell's description of the Charleston sandstone. 



It is necessary now to return to the Pennsylvania line, that the section 

 may be traced southward under the western counties of the state to the 

 line of the Chesapeake and Ohio railroad — a task of no little difficulty, 

 as the key rocks disappear, and the coal beds which were formed only 

 around the borders of the field soon thin out. The sole dependence in 

 most of this area must be upon the records of borings which have been 

 published in the Geology of West Virginia. 



Beginning with the measurements at Morgantown, one has the follow- 

 ing approximate intervals from the Pittsburg coal bed: 



Feet 



Upper Freeport coal bed 560 



Lower Freeport coal bed 625 



Upper Kittanning coal bed 670 



Lower Kittanning coal bed 705 



Kittanning sandstone, top 730 



Kittanning sandstone, bottom 785 



Brookville coal bed 785 



Pottsville sandstone 805 



* M. R. Campbell : U. S. Geol. Survey folios, Charleston, p. 5. 



