332  CONTKIBUTIONS    TO    ECONOMIC    GEOLOGY,   1903.  [bttlx.225. 
of  the  coal.  In  1902  the  basin  was  examined  by  Mr.  William  Griffith," 
who  gave  a  very  interesting  and  exact  description  of  the  geologic  rela- 
tions of  the  coal  beds,  but  he  made  no  tests,  and  simply  accepted  the 
current  statements  regarding  its  anthracitic  character. 
The  greatest  thickness  of  coal  has  always  been  found  on  the  south- 
eastern side  of  the  basin,  where  the  rocks  are  standing  nearly  vertical 
or  overturned  and  where  the  coal  has  been  severely  crushed  during 
the  crustal  movements  that  have  thrown  the  rocks  into  the  great  folds 
of  which  this  synclinal  basin  is  a  part.  The  overturned  or  southeast- 
ward dipping  beds  on  that  side  of  the  syncline  have  given  rise  to  the 
impression  that  the  coal  beds  dip  generally  to  the  southeast,  and  con- 
sequently underlie  all  of  the  territory  between  Third  Hill  Mountain 
and  the  Shenandoah  Valley.  Several  deep  wells  have  been  drilled  in 
this  region  to  find  the  coal,  and  considerable  money  has  been  expended 
in  fruitless  search. 
In  order  to  obtain  additional  information  regarding  the  general 
geology  of  this  region  and  to  determine  the  commercial  value  of  the 
coal,  the  writer  spent  a  few  days  of  the  past  season  in  the  held.  This 
brief  preliminary  examination,  which,  though  not  revealing  satisfac- 
torily the  characters  of  the  coal  beds,  is  sufficient  to  throw  light  on 
their  stratigraphic  position  and  on  the  geologic  structure  of  the  basin. 
GENERAL  GEOLOGY. 
Age  of  the  coal-hearing  rocks. — In  1838  Professor  Rogers  decided 
that  the  coal-bearing  rocks  of  this  basin  belong  to  formation  X 
(Pocono),  but  his  report  was  not  published  until  1884,  and  in  the 
meantime  persons  interested  in  the  field  had  been  pleased  to  regard 
them  as  the  southwestward  extension  of  the  anthracite  fields  of  Penn- 
sylvania. The  confusion  resulting  from  the  different  age  determina- 
tions was  conclusively  settled  in  1902  by  Mr.  David  White,  who 
visited  the  field  and  made  a  collection  of  fossil  plants  from  the  coal- 
bearing  horizon.  As  stated  in  the  appended  report  of  Mr.  White,  this 
evidence  corroborates  in  every  respect  the  early  determinations  of 
Kogers  and  shows  conclusively  that  the  coal  beds  are  contained  in  the 
Pocono  formation. 
Mr.  White's  report  on  the  fossil  plants  of  the  Meadow  Branch  coal 
field  is  as  follows: 
The  shales  associated  with  the  coals  opened  on  or  near  Short  Mountain,  in  the 
Sleepy  Creek  basin,  are  generally  prolific  in  fossil  plant  remains.  The  flora  is,  how- 
ever, meager  in  species,  notwithstanding  the  abundance  of  material.  This  poverty 
in  species  is  characteristic  of  the  older  Mississippian  in  general  and  is  in  strong  con- 
trast with  the  floras  of  the  Pennsylvanian  series. 
Plants  were  collected  by  me  in  December,  1902,  from  the  drift  near  the  turn  in 
the  road  and  from  the  shaft  known  as  Chappelle,  near  the  top  of  Short  Mountain. 
"  Griffith,  William,  The  anthracite  of  the  Third  Hill  Mountain,  West  Virginia:  Jour.  Franklin  Inst., 
vol.  15-1,  1902,  pp.431 
