328 



TRANSACTIONS OF THE 



ACCOUNT OF THE TRAVERTIN DEPOSITED BY THE WATERS 

 OF THE SWEET SPRINGS, IN ALLEGHANY COUNTY, IN THE 

 STATE OF VIRGINIA, AND OF AN ANCIENT TRAVERTIN 

 DISCOVERED IN THE ADJACENT HILLS. By G. W. Feather- 

 STONHAUGH, Geologist to the United States, Fellow of the Geological 

 Societies of London and Pennsylvania, &c. 



In a report lately made to government, and recently 

 published by order of both houses of congress^ I have at 

 page 21 spoken of a rare geological phenomenon, in the 

 valley of the Sweet Springs, Virginia ; the which, as it 

 is connected with the structure of the Alleghany ridges, 

 I am desirous of giving a more full description of, for the 

 transactions of the Geological Society of Pennsylvania. 



The principal ridges of the Alleghany elevations have 

 a general parallelism to each other, and coming from the 

 north, run in a S. S. VV. direction through the state of 

 Virginia, until they blend with the table lands that are 

 bounded by the carboniferous beds of the Cumberland 

 mountains, in the state of Tennessee. Many of the val- 

 leys between these ridges are intersected by numerous 

 knobs, outliers and spurs, which, at inferior elevations,^ 

 are connected with the main ridge. The White Sul- 

 phur Springs, in the county of Green Briar, rise at the 

 western foot of the main ridge, usually passing under the 

 designations of Alleghany and Backbone mountain, on 

 account of its being a watershed for the heads of various 

 important streams, which empty into the Ohio river at 

 the west, and into the Atlantic at the east. 



In passing from the White Sulphur to the Sweet 

 Springs, a distance of about 18 miles, the direct course 

 would be nearly south, but there is a good main road, 

 which passes somewhat obliquely through numerous 

 romantic dells and defiles of the Backbone Ridge aBuded 



