378 I. C. White — Bowlders at high altitudes. 



gheny, it seems probable that these granite bowlders were trans- 

 ported to the head of the Chartiers by the current which set 

 down the Allegheny during the epoch of submergence, having 

 been gathered up by the latter stream where it crossed the ter- 

 minal moraine below Franklin. 



Near the mouths of the Conemaugh, Youghiogheny, and 

 Cheat Rivers, large deposits of rounded bowlders extend up 250- 

 300 above the present water level, but as we ascend any of 

 these streams the bowlder line gradually declines until along 

 the upper reaches of each stream, the deposits fail at 75-100 

 feet above water level. 



Owing to the nature of the topography, and the country 

 rock along the draining streams, the region along the Upper 

 Monongahela has these terrace deposits in better preservation 

 than any other with which the writer is acquainted, and this is 

 especially true of the West Fork branch of that stream. It is 

 along this line that the existence of a great submergence which 

 covered the country with a thick coating of transported mate- 

 rial up to a certain level, is most conclusively shown. In the 

 region of Morgantown, on the main Monongahela, these terrace 

 deposits end at about 275 feet above low water, or 1065 feet 

 above tide, while at Fairmount, 26 miles above, there is a vast 

 amount of this terrace material thrown down about the junc- 

 tion of the Valley and West Fork Rivers, and the upper limit of 

 the same is a little over 200 feet above low water, which is here 

 850 feet above tide. 



About 20 miles farther up the river (West Fork), near 

 Shinnston, the upper limit of the terrace material is found at 

 160 feet above the water, but here the latter has an elevation 

 of about 885 feet above tide. 



At Clarksburg, where the river unites with Elk Creek, there 

 is a wide stretch of terrace deposits, and the upper limit is there 

 about 1050 feet above tide, or only 130 feet above low water 

 (920) while at Weston, 40 miles above (by the river), these 

 deposits cease at 70 feet above low water which is there 985 

 feet above tide. It will thus be observed that the upper limit 

 of the deposits retains a practical horizontality from Morgan- 

 town to Weston, a distance of 100 miles, since the upper limit 

 has the same elevation above tide (1045-1065), at every 

 locality. 



These deposits consist of rounded bowlders of sandstone, with, 

 a large amount of clay, quicksand and other detrital matter. 

 The country rock in this region consists of the soft shales and 

 limestones of the Upper Coal-measures, and hence there are 

 many " low gaps " from the head of one little stream to that of 

 another, especially along the immediate region of the river, and 

 in every case the summits of these divides, where they do not 



