DETAILED GEOLOGY OF BURGETTSTOWN QUADRANGLE. 115 
Pittsburg coal. —In that portion of the township south of the ridge 
road from Florence westward to Paris the Pittsburg coal is a hun¬ 
dred feet or more below the tops of the higher knobs. In the valleys 
the coal outcrops not far from the ridge road, but, owing to the 
steep dip of the formations to the southeast, it remains under cover 
the whole length of the ridges to the south and east. Northwest of 
this ridge road the Pittsburg coal occurs only in the higher hills, 
except in the vicinity of Five Points and farther east. In this area 
a structural basin carries the coal a hundred feet or more below the 
summits of the hills. East of the Florence-Frankfort road the Pitts-, 
burg coal is overlain by shale and a bed of limestone. Twenty feet 
above the main coal bed is the Rider coal, which is fully 2 feet in 
thickness. West of this road the conditions above the Pittsburg coal 
are entirely different, the coal being overlain bv the Pittsburg sand- 
stone, which is from 20 to 30 feet thick. Only a few hills within the 
township are high enough above the Pittsburg coal to show any 
distinctive marking strata. These hills are along the Florence ridge. 
The knob west of Florence reaches well into the Benwood limestone, 
and the knobs 1 mile and 2 miles east of Florence are capped by the 
slabbv white Dinsmore beds of the lower part of the Benwood. 
Rocks between the Pittsburg coal and Ames limestone. —The Pitts¬ 
burg limestone is everywhere present below the coal, at a distance of 
7 to 20 feet. Below the limestone is a sandy shale, extending about 
180 feet below the coal. At this point a massive sandstone appears, 
which reaches close to the position of the Ames limestone and locally 
replaces it. In the shale 100 feet below the Pittsburg coal is the 
Bavington coal, which is present in a limited area southwest of 
Frankfort. It is thick enough to be of commercial value and is 
opened for mining. 
Ames limestone. —The Ames limestone outcrops along Raccoon 
Creek, from Murdocksville to the mouth of Brush Run, also on Aunt 
Clara Fork of Kings Creek. The easternmost outcrop on the latter 
stream is about 14 miles from the west edge of the quadrangle, near 
a small shop. At this point the limestone is directly under a massive 
sandstone, by which it appears to have been partially replaced. 
Lower down the creek, near the edge of the quadrangle, the limestone 
has its normal thickness of about 2 feet. Kings Creek cuts deep 
enough into the Conemaugh formation to reach the Ames limestone, 
but it was not located on that stream. A small coal outcrops not far 
from the road level along the creek for a distance of more than 2 
miles from the edge of the quadrangle. This coal is probably the 
Lower Ames coal, as it is about 240 feet below the Pittsburg coal. 
No comparison of elevation was made to determine the intervals 
between beds in this township. The structure of the rocks was deter¬ 
mined entirely from elevations on the Pittsburg coal. 
