NINEVEH    AND    GORDON    OIL    SANDS,   PENNSYLVANIA.        363 
The  term  "Fourth  sand"  has  generally  been  applied  to  the  true  Gordon  sand,  and  the  name 
"Gordon  Stray,"  when  not  used  for  the  Nineveh,  has  designated  any  bed  a  short  distance 
above  what  the  drillers  considered  the  Gordon  sand. 
CORRECT    IDENTIFICATION   OF  SANDS. 
Previous  discussion  of  this  question. — The  only  published  intimation  of  a  possible  mistake 
in  correlation  of  these  sands  is  a  statement  by  I.  C.  White,a  in  which  he  expresses  some  doubt 
on  the  subject,  as  follows: 
The  oil  sand  struck  at  2,935  feet  in  the  Smith  well,  2,049  feet  below  the  Pittsburg  coal,  by  Mr.  Worthing- 
ton,  in  July,  1888,  was  identified  by  him  as  the  Gordon  sand  of  Washington  County  to  the  north,  and 
has  ever  since  been  so  designated  by  the  oil  fraternity,  having  proved  productive  of  oil  and  gas  in  a 
nearly  continuous  belt  from  Nineveh  southwestward  into  Wetzel  and  other  counties  of  West  Virginia 
for  a  distance  of  50  to  60  miles  or  more. 
Mr.  Worthington  and  others  (the  writer  included)  have  sometimes  thought  it  possible  that  this  very 
productive  horizon  of  the  New  Freeport  district  in  Greene  County  might  not  represent  the  Gordon  sand 
of  Washington,  but  possibly  the  "Thirty-foot"  sand  between  it  and  the  "  Fifty-foot"  horizon.  But 
this  inference  is  formed  only  upon  the  lessened  interval  (2,050  feet  instead  of  2,100  feet)  between  the  sand 
in  question  and  the  Pittsburg  coal,  but  as  this  interval  is  but  50  feet  less  than  at  Washington,  and  is  the 
same  as  it  is  in  Butler  County,  between  the  Pittsburg  coal  and  the  great  Third  oil  sand  of  the  Butler, 
Armstrong,  Clarion,  and  other  producing  fields  of  the  Venango  sand  region  to  the  northeast,  it  appears 
quite  probable  that  the  original  identification  as  given  in  I  5  is  correct.  At  any  rate,  it  is  the  nomencla- 
ture universally  used  by  the  oil-producing  interests  in  Greene,  Wetzel,  Marshall,  Tyler,  and  Doddridge 
counties. 
To  I.  C.  White,  therefore,  belongs  the  credit  of  having  first  questioned  in  print  the  corre- 
lation. The  evidence  collected  by  the  present  writer,  and  given  as  follows,  may  be  regarded 
as  decisive  proof  of  the  correct  correlations: 
Evidence  from  comparison  of  well  sections. — In  studying  the  underground  stratigraphy  of 
Washington  and  Greene  counties  a  great  number  of  well  records  have  been  plotted  on  a 
uniform  scale  and  placed  side  by  side  with  the  various  persistent  horizons,  such  as  the  Pitts- 
burg coal  and  Big  Injun  sands,  in  agreement. 
The  following  table  shows  the  important  beds  encountered  by  the  drill  and  used  in  this 
correlation.  The  principal  datum  horizon  of  the  region  and  the  one  used  by  all  drillers  in 
measuring  to  the  various  sands  is  the  Pittsburg  coal,  which  lies  from  300  to  1,300  feet  below 
the  mouth  of  the  well.  Other  beds  which  are  easily  recognized  are  the  Little  Lime  and  Big 
Lime,  the  Big  Injun  sand,  and  the  various  beds  of  red  shale. 
Drillers'  terms  for  oil  and  gas  rocks,  etc.,  and  their  geologic  correlations. 
Geologic 
formation. 
Name  applied  by 
drillers. 
Geologic  name. 
Ap- 
proxi- 
mate 
maxi- 
mum 
thick- 
ness. 
Approximate 
minimum  and 
maximum  inter- 
vals to  top  of 
bed  from  Pitts- 
burg coal. & 
Correlation  with 
sands  in  neighbor- 
ing fields. 
Feet. 
Feet. 
[Washington  coal. 
Washington  coal  . 
3 
+  420-550 
Washington. .. 
i  Bluff  sand 
Waynes  b  u  r  g 
sandstone. 
60 
+330-450 
(Waynesburg  coal . 
Waynesburg  coal. 
5 
+270-400 
Monongahela . . 
■JMapletown  coal  .  . 
[Pittsburg  coal 
Sew  ickley  coal 
8 
+  90-120 
Pittsburg  coal 
10 
0 
Murphy  sand 
Morgantown 
sandstone. 
30 
-170-240 
Conemaugh 
Little     Dunkard 
sand. 
Saltsburg     sand- 
stone. 
100 
-300-420 
Big  Dunkard   or 
Hurry-up  sand. 
Mahoning    sand- 
stone. 
150 
-420-600 
oRept.  Geol.  Survey  West  Virginia,  vol.  1  (a),  1904,  p.  132. 
b  +  indicates  above  Pittsburg  coal;  -  indicates  below  Pittsburg  coal. 
