118 



can be said in a detailed way upon particular strata will be descrip- 

 tive, being convinced that points of nomenclature and classification 

 cannot be ventured upon with profit until there shall have been col- 

 lected a vast deal more minute information than is now before us. 



This western section of Virginia is characterized throughout by 

 geographical features of great simplicity. The surface of the region 

 is undulating, and towards its south-eastern limit, mountainous ; but 

 the loftiest hills rise in gently swelling outlines, and no very promi- 

 nent peaks tower in acute and ragged lines, to denote that the strata 

 have been subjected to violent convulsive and upheaving forces. 

 Every thing bespeaks it to have been at one time an expanded 

 plain, gently tilted from the horizontal position, so that its surface 

 and the beds of rock beneath, decline with a slight but very uniform 

 depression, very generally towards the north-west to the valley of 

 the Ohio. 



The form, direction and character of both hills and valleys, give 

 evidence that its inequalities of surface were caused by the furrowing 

 action of a mighty and devastating rush of waters, which by a rapid 

 drainage scooped out enormous valleys and basins in the upper 

 strata, the remnants of which are consequently traceable across the 

 widest valleys from hill to hill, holding the same elevation, thickness 

 and inclination to the horizon. It is from this deep excavation of 

 the strata by natural causes, combined with the other important cir- 

 cumstances of a nearly horizontal position, that we are to draw our 

 estimate of the prodigious resources of a mineral kind possessed by 

 the region before us. Whatever valuable materials lie included in 

 the strata of the district, coal, salt, limestone or iron ore, the hori- 

 zontal position alluded to keeps them near the surface, or at an acces- 

 sible depth, over enormously wide spaces of country, while the 

 trough-like structure of the valleys, and their great depth, exposes 

 the edges of many of these deposites to the day, under positions in 

 which mining is the easiest imaginable, and with an extent of de- 

 velopemcnt not less accommodating to the researches of the scien- 

 tific geologist than bountiful to the wants of the community. The 

 same features prevail in the tertiary or tide water district of the 

 state, and ought to awaken there a corresponding feeling of congra- 

 tulation. The only essential difference of structure, is the far greater 

 depths to which the beds of this western territory have been ex- 

 cavated or denuded. A greater number of strata are there laid 



