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stones and limestones increase, the latter in the Cheat and other 

 mountains, near the sources of the river, having a thickness of 

 from 60 to 100 feet. 



Coal is also found, though in less considerable seams, along the 

 valley of the Little Kanawha. Near Hughes' river, one of its 

 tributaries, it is very abundant ; and in the same neighbourhood, 

 springs of petroleum, or rock oil, have been discovered. North and 

 west of this stream on the ridge, selenite or crystallized gypsum is 

 said to occur, though at what place and to what extent, we are not 

 informed. 



On the Great Kanawha, the exposure of coal is one of the most 

 extensive and valuable anywhere in the United States, and here 

 from its immediate vicinity to the Salines, its practical usefulness 

 has been tested on a wide and profitable scale. On the Coal, 

 Gauley, and other rivers in this portion of the west, the beds of 

 this mineral are frequently brought to view, and in fact no better 

 general description can be presented of its extent, than that it is al- 

 most continuous with the vast beds of sandstone, which spread in 

 nearly horizontal planes over nearly the whole of this broad 

 region. 



A coal containing much less bituminous matter, occurs immedi- 

 ately west of the eastern front ridge of the Alleghany, in Hampshire 

 county, lying in nearly horizontal beds, in -five successive tiers, and 

 extending for a distance of many miles along the borders of the 

 Potomac. A simple enumeration of the strata here exposed, will 

 furnish an illustration of the resources of this corner of the state, 

 well calculated to inspire astonishment 'and exultation. Upon a 

 stratum of valuable iron ore, not less than fifteen feet in thickness, 

 there rests a bed of sandstone, upon which reposes a coal seam, 

 three feet thick ; above this, another bed of sandstone, then a two 

 feet vein of coal, next sandstone, then another coal seam of four feet; 

 again a stratum of sandstone, and over it a seven feet vein of 

 coal ; over this, a heavy bed of iron ore, and crowning the series, 

 an enormous coal seam of from fifteen to twenty feet in thickness. 



The Saline formation, associated with the vast strata of sandstone 

 before described, has as yet been almost unexplored, excepting in 

 the valleys of the Great and Little Kanawha. High up, on the 

 New River, and at one or two points on the Greenbrier, salt water 

 has been found, and the erection of salt works has been attempted, 



