GENERAL STRATIGRAPHY OF THE REGION. 
79 
coal, though it is not present over a sufficient area to permit a definite 
correlation. It is usually underlain by about 10 feet of reddish shale, 
below which is 2 or 3 feet of bluish clay or shale, overlying 4 or 5 
feet of bluish-white to cream limestone in two or three rather mas¬ 
sive layers, very hard and tough, and a light buff on fracturing. 
This limestone caps the tops of many of the highest hills in Morris 
and East and West Finley townships. 
A few feet above the Nineveh coal is a small gray limestone a few 
inches in thickness. This small limestone is overlain by about 50 
feet of laminated sandstone, which extends to’a rather prominent 
layer of bluish-gray limestone from 14 to 24 feet thick, very hard, 
and with a dark-brown mottled appearance on fresh fracture. This 
is one of the most prominent beds in the Greene formation. 
FORMATIONS BELOW THE PITTSBURG COAL. 
CONEMAUGII FORMATION. 
The Conemaugh formation lies below the Monongahela, extending 
from the base of the Pittsburg coal to the top of the Upper Freeport 
coal. It is a mass of shale and sandstone nearly 500 feet thick and 
contains little of economic importance. Few of its beds have dis¬ 
tinctive characteristics by which they may be used as key rocks for 
the determination of the position of other beds. The strata are 
described from the top downward. 
INTERVAL BETWEEN PITTSBURG COAL AND AMES LIMESTONE. 
Below the Pittsburg coal is a limestone that occurs here and there 
in two beds. The upper and more persistent bed maintains a thick¬ 
ness of 1 to 2 feet. It is hard, shows a blue color on fresh frac¬ 
ture, and weathers to a bluish white. The lower bed is brownish 
red, and in places it is as thick as the upper bed, but at many points 
it is wanting. 
The interval from these limestones to the Ames limestone is occu¬ 
pied by shales and flaggy sandstone having a thickness of about 200 
feet. Near the Ames limestone these rocks give way locally to a 
massive brown sandstone from 10 to 20 feet thick. In some places 
the sandstone lies directly above the Ames limestone, and in others 
it is separated from the limestone by red shale 10 to 15 feet thick. 
AMES LIMESTONE AND COAL BEDS. 
At about the middle of the Conemaugh formation is a group of 
beds that are very persistent and easily recognized. They con¬ 
sist of the Ames limestone and adjacent coal beds. The limestone 
ranges from a few inches to 8 feet in thickness. It is of a light gray 
color in outcrop, but when freshly broken shows a crystalline frac- 
