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of sandstone accumulating in thickness in our progress west. Con- 

 tinuing in the same direction, a series of these sandstones of various 

 hues and different textures, including numerous seams of coal, and 

 all dipping as before, but with a diminishing inclination, so as in 

 fact to approach nearly to the horizontal, accompany us through the 

 Big Sewell, Davy's mountain, Bracken's Ridge, Dogwood Ridge, 

 Gauley mountain, &c, to a point west of Campbell's creek, where 

 a gentle counter dip of the same rocks may be remarked, soon, 

 however, exchanged for the general direction before observed. 

 Here, as indicated in the profile, three great seams of coal display 

 themselves almost continuously for a distance of about 12 miles, 

 stretching in parallel and nearly horizontal bands along the almost 

 mountainous cliffs forming the boundaries of the rich and lovely 

 valley of the Kanawha in the vicinity of Charleston. 



Beyond this point, the level of the country declining, we come 

 upon a series of nearly horizontal arenaceous and argillaceous rocks 

 occasionlly presenting thin beds of limestone of various degrees of 

 purity, in some cases containing sufficient alumina to render it 

 valuable for hydraulic lime. This portion of the series extends as 

 far as the banks of the Ohio. 



The sandstones of which it will be seen so large a portion of this 

 region is composed, are remarkable for the enormous size of some 

 of the fossils which they contain, and the shales associated with the 

 coal are even still more rich in some places in these colossal relics 

 of a former world. A striking feature already alluded to in speak- 

 ing of the sandstones near the valley of Lewisburg, is observed very 

 generally throughout this region, and is exemplified in some of the 

 cliffs of the New river and Kanawha, on a scale of vast extent. I 

 mean the diagonal lamination of the rock — or, in other words, a 

 subordinate stratification oblique to the general lines of demarkation 

 of the several parallel beds of which the whole mass of the cliff or 

 mountain is composed. A similar fact was noticed in describing the 

 tertiary rock of broken shells at York, and the beds of gravel 

 observed in the neighbourhood of Richmond and at other places in 

 lower Virginia. In all these cases, a like agency has been at work 

 in producing this curious structure. In all of them we readily dis- 

 cover the action of tides or currents, depositing upon a surface, 

 originally, by some accidental cause, inclining to the horizon, the 

 sands and pebbles, and other materials of the rock, and thus adding 



