320 
HUBBARD AND CRONEIS 
many feet in breadth. The colors grade into each other both 
vertically and horizontally. Great blotches of green or red are 
common. Weathers rusty brown to black. Nb fossils were seen. 
About 150 feet. 
2. CALCAREOUS SHALES AND LIMESTONES 
(THE MIDDLE LIME) 
This division is thin bedded for the most part but there is one 
layer about eighteen inches in thickness. In general, the colors 
are buff to blue in the limestones, and green to brown in the 
shales, the entire formation weathering a dark brown, except a 
light blue 4 inch limestone layer which becomes yellow to white. 
In some places, it is paper bedded; blue with delicate yellow 
layers alternating. There are calcite veins, and in a limestone 
lense-like layer, there are cavities partially filled with calcite 
crystals. 
From 10 to 30 feet. 
3. GREEN AND YELLOW SHALES 
Calcareous to sandy, thin, red layers occur. The formation is 
thin bedded, and rather regularly jointed so as to break into 
blocks. Weathers yellow and brown and disintegrates more rap- 
idly than division number one. 
About 50 feet. 
4. BLACK AND GRAY SHALES 
These occur locally below the Shenandoah and probably belong 
to the Russell formation. The colors are black, gray to nearly 
white, weathering a dirty black to mud color. These shales are 
dry, fissile and non-fossiliferous. They may be erosion remnants. 
Thickness 0-10 feet. 
Besides the exposure at Bane, the Russell outcrops about a 
half mile farther down Walker Creek and is also exposed over a 
very limited area at the Norfolk and Western Railroad cut near 
Goodwins Ferry. (Not shown on the map) 
Bassler® believes that the formation has a thickness of at least 
a thousand feet in the vicinity of Clinchport, Virginia. He says, 
“Although the major portion of the formation is of little value 
from an economic standpoint, the argillaceous shales of the upper 
division may prove of use for mixture with pure limestones in 
® Bassler, R.'S. “Cement Resources of Virginia”, pp. 148. 
