224 The American Geologist. April, 1892 
THE LOWER COAL MEASURES OF MONONGALIA 
AND PRESTON COUNTIES, W. VA. 
3y S. B. Brown, Ass’t Professor of Geology, W. Va. University, Morgantown. 
For ten or twelve miles south of Morgantown, W. Va., the Mo- 
nongahela river flows north along the strike of the Barrens with 
the Lower Coal Measures just rising above water level. The Ma- 
honing sandstone at the base of the Barrens in this region is 100 
to 150 feet in thickness, and the banks of the river are for long 
distances crowned with its high cliffs which, in many places, have 
weathered into fantastic forms. The streams that flow into the 
Monongahela from the east have worn deep and narrow gorges, 
whose steep sides are held up by the massive masonry of this Ma- 
honing sandstone. 
But it may be seen in ascending these streams that the strata 
bounding their sides are rising faster than the stream beds; hence 
lower and lower strata emerge from the water level, until at six 
or seven miles east of the river, the whole of the Lower Coal 
Measures outcrop along the hillsides, and the Pottsville conglom- 
erate hegins to show its pebbly surface along their banks. 
Starting three miles above Morgantown, at the mouth of 
30o0th’s creek, with the Upper Freeport coal at the river level, 800 
feet above tide, and following up this stream to the southeast, we 
find the coal constantly rises higher above the water, until at Old 
Clinton furnace, six miles distant, it is 165 ft. above the same, 
while at Halleck, on the Chestnut ridge anticlinal, it is in the tops 
of the hills, and 1,900 ft. above tide. 
This Chestnut ridge anticlinal forms a true watershed, and di- 
vides the streams flowing into the Monongahela from those tlow- 
ing into the Tygart’s valley, at Grafton. 
From Halleck, continuing southeast, we follow down Laurel run 
to Irondale furnace, and observe that the strata have dipped in the di- 
rection of our course almost as fast as the descent of the stream, 
untilat [rondale the Upper Freeport coal is but 1,000 ft. above tide. 
On reaching Newburg, the strata are again rising east, so that 
we have crossed the trough of the Ligonier syncline and find the 
Upper Freeport coal at 1,050 ft. above tide. At Austen, three 
miles further east, it is at the level of the B. & O. Railroad track, 
and 1,560 ft. above tide; at the Kingwood tunnel it is 1,800 ft. 
above the sea, and after a small dip to the east it again rises, and 
