GEOLOGY OP CHILIIOWEE MOUNTAIN, IN TENNESSEE. 75 
The group of rocks called Chilhowee is an alternation of 
three beds of sandstone and three of shale. The shales only 
differ from each other in thickness, and all are fine, calca¬ 
reous, and micaceous; on fresh outcrops they are blue, on 
weathered ones yellow. The upper bed is 300 feet thick, the 
middle 800, the lowest more than 1,000. The lowest only 
appears on anticlines and faults, and its total thickness is 
unknown. The sandstones differ somewhat, so that they 
can be distinguished from each other. The top bed is usually 
a fine, white sandstone or quartzite, of which 800 feet remain 
from erosion; the middle is a white sandstone, occasionally 
coarse, about 500 feet thick ; the lowest has 700 feet of white 
sandstone, a thin bed of shale, and then 700 feet of conglom¬ 
erate at bottom. The sandstone beds are composed of fine 
white sand and a few white quartz pebbles; the conglomer¬ 
ate has besides a large amount of feldspar in the form of 
pebbles and clay. These relations of material and thickness 
are quite constant over the entire length of the mountain. 
( c ) The slates of the Ocoee group, lying to the east, are 
similar to the Chilhowee shales when weathered, but are less 
calcareous, more argillaceous, and very much thicker. The 
Ocoee conglomerate is in places identical in appearance with 
the Chilhowee conglomerate, but usually contains less feld- 
spathic material. Its coarse bottom bed, which specially 
resembles the Chilhowee conglomerate, is much thinner, 
averaging 400 feet, and is as variable in thickness and text¬ 
ure as the Chilhowee conglomerate is uniform. 
d. (1) As has been stated, the structure of Chilhowee 
mountain is synclinal. The fold is usually open and its 
southeastern half is in places cut off by a fault. The syn¬ 
clinal axis of the mountain is also the axis of the cove, and 
the limestone there has the same fold as the Chilhowee beds. 
Both the syncline and these formations are bounded north¬ 
east and southwest by two thrust faults hading to the south¬ 
east. Owing to the uncertain amount of throw in these 
faults and their removal of the original contact relations, the 
rocks outside the faults can be assigned no precise relations 
