noah rievnda Tee IE ote Vda ety a ree Te ee ee ee HOR ee Pele Qe onwey Aetna ies eew yy tot Vary Pare) te or Pe COL A PA Pe Od a OO Rape eh PE eH hep e Mae yA Ee Yt WMA eet beden Boe ih te ia 4 8 . Parmer eee carer ee ees re ee ee PC kD WEG Dae Sg a 4 boa day at bana woe Seg oe eke DAD Ree @) AE MEME BoM Oe E mriyhiy, Co ‘ ae tate Parris We ee Der eC a J a | ‘ ee ae a ea Perea narra eta Soran oT er era wie Serr pew a Os Boe WY DR UR OO DC eC A RR ii iL aa LZ . ee ee OE ERO ong Ge Ee hg CN CAN i te Fa OT i Pbk geared gt ne vee eee SEE AD OH Ca OME PEP NE Chee Cb Cpe baer Oy CPE ae Eee beets geek te MEN Ree emp Qe dears BLED bye Aye ee PU ue eee SN ea OE CAG Pe ERR EDIE eth pki he DORAL PARE poe Eb mp Ret ee U ed gets gC Bact gy De Bed Pe EE EAL Ale ROG Eta Rea Cote trite Pere eM ce ee ay ay eH ‘ ‘ re tebe Re tho bbl at Fa bat gy Pea rts oat Te Sk Adah 0 ee sre HGH Hayes nana et EAE! GEM Moots thay coe aeat = ee ae Pore ee ie eer we web anes Beeiniad Dye BP 1a sie ee A : Purigete LB Babyigd Ph Obe bak pa etek bee de ed a ; , reer feb nd 2b Ge peda be dao dob leew Dies. Ate a ea phe Se a ee bed idea) Belek ade le Le A PE yee gee be tte reer ee Cana te terre rir) ou Sater 2 eld Busine oe pea ee PA Rede le Folie ui bib Shea od @ date ky Ube ey Pre ec ee fob bed Week Babson Faber Rate ade eee hee Oe ee ee es eae. Vibe or deus ie apaady b fhad eae f Weta Gey Be be eee tere er dee Pt tt a wee ibd ott bem eu eee ted Corer re sit ideal bide eotam Batt pe Pe Natta Pg Rob sen ha eb eed a il fh oe inka bodeibi DR ipeare Povey Bien wk ‘ pea gee tied by pave y Ae en aad we Baayen sb teach at bop PAS FU EL eset Be pede de im wei le bet eben sea TF SOR eRe eed deme gfe tte nt en WR ee dy) dak ged hate ed iba scoe yh ht ee he ay Cte Ee Ask bite ine be Lettenet Ub gto ged ure the een te Be ee yer eat rte ete ike Ghee ek p deh Br pce od gh ma ce ge ee Sb tet Dea tthe ee aC onthe sped Pe oF lene ES Te tok wwe Ben ey be eke peared it pa deitt be be Wem eet cape de ae ure tie Hae BE SE oe ‘i Bo ile pet lore Sar et they it PET Wh Maye eae eee Bee aT ee ea leer eck Bre oir, yabe we ded ae hn TA bw bende db iba Pare ee tana eed ie leat Sd a pS the AE be kaye ar be de PP RR gS rine aie ee Sp optiie hs Pa yb: Fe FPO Ww UE Dei iheie peak QE it ait ne bee dokap ee er kee Got Gm er Ep peed iy wot oO eer rn Pi ake e Wd se at N Bn tt ge aed og kh pe yeni ee Freer rrr ec a Aare apaee sere eer Ce, eee ine eee ee eer EE TE EB ae ott ey DS i A Be yee Sgt ie hie the de tafe oeedh oe daub aege eerdrae gee Rarer yrerer aad Peed Pts be ES gd Rote , tb iaae caste bbe 2 fey res Perea ya PT Pee We yO a ibe p er dpa nba by bag en bebe ae Cr re Fae iy ei tee: aheeneted Hsu enka ee ute ke ue steno ys fegba aes IB GAP Bev pein pe biuape Cr ee ee Cre ee | pe Tear kk Pe ae pide ye Orbe ae tere Bere pre tet elle pin tn tee paneer rer ar raven Ce a ey ee ee ee Ne Ed ld CU Farrer erie Tie ti Be ear a le cas eck ape gherben bab irede rape 6 bp A bed pekinese ee BI SA yee Pern rr ane renin eer CT eer ee es a ll See eee Pad ae Rie Gate ar} fee cM ela Re B i Cnr er ae ee te ae ere etre tk Peat te ea ant BE a chlo Whe it de ab ei be Ob ate aes Ce a a oT Weta et ee ee ene or er ee ote ec eine ieee por Pei bee te te bre Fie ia eee ek ed bape et ob yer Ce ee vt le tet ere Peg or tuple er ger ee mie wad deste ati feo nrce rerraen Permer aries te kt rar ae eae te bod dk enon ed th hoe ee etn Sih pet de ely em oth oa er ce ce ep pce united te weit ove ea RET Ld eveie © Aanerermrarae ris Serer ir ees ee ee ee et a aero ee ae eee On LET Se ay 0p teste ape tabadoncth desk de eat fey Priester tear dire Re Ba: ae agit eg rege Fe athe Fy be eb BR et Bogie beban pee inn ete Fir vowed oe Ti ee ae SU oe Poe ee Fe te me Ee bi ee eee te po toe WR EGA ehs« Det SEW Bek pete rested oat as tay bo feigei ge bie sae CAM Pare ere ee ery ete eer) os Sy WA tear ines vb eR be Rg ere Sek Bad appetite boged gibahen ME aed eit Ce : Cr ree Te Os re ea rors Ube eos pee tee ae et eS ed fi Ok OT Oe het Oh tM ' bawdws ar AL tub siots as Nea a eon He Sra nck pea ees eke werkeabe aed Hidede a red: pet dead tte sts re i rere ra a LL ee bed oe KP eb gett Lreaitesk ina 1A RAD PG, ei emai hanno Aina EO . baen Paneer ere ey ee SO) ttaad Pree ee ea WEE rd ne hated: OF ie tre lb rote diate bee dee tepid to ORE t: TBeB aeil G deg ne 7) i Cre te Wa oe te tetera Poe ee 2 cat Caer eo ee EA POOR WN eR Mee MRO MT OR ee ae te la A A mde ew a Ly vase bo LAV ba Peet SEAMED ay ey ks Vahey ited ed Goth ab muineiramee Teen rt rer etn eine ny CC Se I Oy beige i Cee ce A eS Cec mr nine Amin We Ck ods ae A a o ‘ fue ee AH bee TH eG Pees eb teva We ioste CA Be be ped he ded e Begh be tour bets UA TE CE aa ea hee goa eretng rake oF Pash ste VT a ee nA 4 ee Me NR Re reer aurea Se kee TURE Mee ee Me UA RL nh ! ies " 1 earn ey D Ve ob ee Bl bed uh fed Pein eee ried tye cee Oe aa ee Ciera Se cra ere Be ee Go [On CALC FTE Stree aE ef OR Se MY SA se AL A a “ Fi OU or ie KOE eae ke Bree aa ren ate a CEN Ueber ve eck op Npew tee etre GeeBe Tie et pte ae oe hte gee fair ue DF anit ae eC SEE eB erin eich eevee B pokes FA Oe Tee ade ey iahite a Re ab ec ec oe ED pap lr Va Tieeyte a Voy he ber eedgen CROs Oa ee Ce Ca Lar iy NT Os RA eat een a Nyce ape Netra te Bee or Se oer ee dese a Ad lol artes eH A ie, % Fy) Wea a with ets Ma ene tea re vie j 7 al oie AMERICAN JOURNAL OF SCIENCE AND ARTS. CONDUCTED BY BENJAMIN SILLIMAN, M.D. LL. D. Prof. Chem., Min., &c. in Yale Coll.; Cor. Mem. Soc. Arts, Man. and Com.; and For. Mem. Geol. Soc., London; Mem. Geol. Soc., Paris; Mem. Roy. Min. Soc., Dresden; Nat. Hist. Soc., Halle; Imp. Agric. Soc., Moscow; Hon. Mem. ‘Lin. Soc., Paris; Nat. Hist. Soc. Belfast, Ire.; Phil. ‘and Lit. Soc. Bristol, Eng.; Lit. and Hist. Soc., Quebec; Mem. of various Lit. and Scien. Scc. in America. | 183s VOL. XXIX.—JANTARY; 1836. NEW HAVEN: Sold by A. H. MALTBY and HERRICK & NOYES.—Baltimore, F. J. COALE _ & Co.—Philadeiphia, CAREY & HART and J. S. LITTELL.—Wew York, G. & C. CARVILL & Co., No. '73 Cedar St., and G. S. SILLIMAN, No. 48 ee ee —Boston, HILLIARD, GRAY & Co. PRINTED BY HEZEKIAH HOWE & CO. CONTENTS OF VOLUME XXIX. D+ o— NUMBER I. Page. Art. I. Observations on the Bituminous Coal Deposits of the valley of the Ohio, and the accompanying rock strata; with notices of the fossil or- ganic remains, and the relics of vegetable and animal bodies, illustra- ted by a geological map, by numerous drawings of plants and shells, and by views of interesting scenery; by Dy. 8. P. Hinpreru, of Ma- rietta, Ohio, - - - - - - - - 1 MISCELLANIES. : 1. Halley’s Comet, - -, - - - - - 155 2. Coins and medals, = - - - - - - 157 3. List of new publications since the commencement of the present year, 161 4, Facts respecting the meteoric phenomena of Nov. 13th, 1834, - 168 NUMBER II. Arr. I. Remarks on the Geology of the Lakes and the velo of the Missis- _ sippi; by Judge Gisson, of Pennsylvania, - - 201. Il. Fata Morgana at Gibr altar; by an officer in the American Navy, 214 III. Visit to the Quicksilver Mines of: Ee in a letter from an officer in the American Navy, - - 219 IV. The Traun Stein Rock; ina letter from an hoficer in the ie S. Navy, 223 V. The Salt Mountains of Ischil; by an officer in the American Navy, 225 VI. Remarks on the Topography, Scenery, Geology, &c. of the vicinity of the Cape of Good Hope; by Mr. Gores Cuampion, a HSS Oe in Southern Africa, - 230 VII. Physical Observations, made on board the U. Se ship Erie, during her passage from New York to Rio Janeiro, in 1834, and communicated tothe Navy Department; by D. J. Browne, - 237 VII. On the Deutarseniuret of Nickel, from Riechelsdorf, in Hessia ; by James C. Bootn, - - - - - 241 IX. Explosive Reaction of Hydrogen with Chlorine, under the influence of the solar rays; by R. Harz, M.D. Prof. of Chem. in Uniy. Penn. 243 X. Apparatus for the Evolution of Cyanhydric or Prussic Acid; by R. Hare, M. D. Prof. of Chemistry in the WS of Pennsylvania, 244 XI. Caricography ; by Prof. C. Dewey, - 245 XI. On Water Spouts ; by Lieut. H. W. Open, of the U. S. Navy, 254 _ XIII. Researches on the Commercial Potash of the Riate of New York; by Prof. Lewis C. Beck, M.D. - 260 XIV. Remarks on the theory of the Resistance of Fluids; by Ext W. Buake, 274 XV. A Letter on Otaheite; addressed to B. L. Outver, Bisq, of Boston, and by him translated, - 283 XVI. Notice of some American Birds; by Cuartes Fox, “of Durham (Eng.) 291 XVII. Meteorological notices in Indiana; by D. Date Owen, - - 294. XVIII. Chronometers, - = = - 297 XIX. Notices in Natural History ; by Judge SaMuEL W ooprvrr, - 304 XX. Ornithichnology.—Description of the Foot Marks of Birds, (Orni- thichnites,) on new Red Sandstone, in ACES NEN Sy Dy Prof. Ep- WARD HiTcucock, - - 307 XXI. On Currents in Water; by baie W. Ganson, - - - 340 XXII. Of the Parallelogram of Forces; by Prof. "THEODORE STRONG, - 345 Aes ihe 1V CONTENTS. - MISCELLANIES—-FOREIGN AND DOMESTIC. ‘ Page. 1. Fifth meeting of the British Association for the Advancement of Science, 347 2. Report of the fourth meeting on the British Association, = 4 355 3. Lyell’s Geology, 358 4. Notice of a new mode of preserving animal bodies; by Myr. H. N. Day, 359 5, 6. Remains of birds in the strata of Tilgate Forest—Specimens from Dr. Mantell, e Z uy a i3 362 Fier Recherches sur les Poissons Fossiles—Gradual rising of parts of Swe den, and of other countries around the Baltic, - - - 363 9, Notice of a Plesiosaurus and other fossils, and of remarkable human re- mains, &c. - - - - 364 10, 11, 12. ‘Volcanic eruption—Diamond, matrix of, &e. —Proceedings of the filth meeting of the British Association, = 366 13, 14. Mr. Hawkins’ collection of Saurian remains—Observations ona ‘dis- ease affecting the leaves of the vine, and on a new species of Mucedinea, ae 15. On Mercaptan, - - - - - - - 16. Experiments upon the chemical action of electrical currents produced he the influence of terrestrial magnetism and Caer eager magnets, &c. 369 17. New compounds of nitrogen, - - - 371 18, 19, 20, 21. Depth of mines—Topaz i in Ireland—Roasting of copper ores— The best method of assaying the ores of manganese, 374 2. Jahresbericht der Konigl. Schwedischen, &c. - 375 aS On the cause of the meteors of Nov. 13th, 1833; by Proe. D. Oumst=n, 376 24. Observations upon the facts recently presented by Prof. Olmsted, in rela- tion to the meteors seen on the 13th of Nov. 1834; by Prof. A. D. Bacus, 383 25. Aurora Borealis of Nov. 17th, 1835, - - 388 26, 27, Transactions of the Geological Society of Pennsylvania—Mr. Con- rad’s new work on American conchology, - - - - 391 28. Valuable cabinet of minerals for sale, - = Sa os 29, 30. Botanical specimens wanted—Fossil Flora of North America, - 393 Si, 32, 33, 34, 35. History of the Americas—Prodromus herbarium Rafines- quianum—Autiken Botanikon—Diamonds in N. Amer mae 394 396 36. List of new publications, -> - - 2 E ERRATA. P. 22, bot. 1. dele ‘“‘ Walhouding or” and insert ‘ the.”—p. 27, 1. 15 fr. top, for a shelig read “ shales.”’—p. 38, 1.8 fr. bot. for ‘ Monongahela,” “fal ‘* Maxahala.’” —>p. 40, 1. 15 fr. bot. for “‘ leaves,”’ read “‘ covers.””—p. 50, 1. 4 fr. top, for “ Another,” read ‘ Descriptions.”—p. 71, 1. 6 fr. top. dele ‘‘or Walhouding.’ *—p. 102 1. 10 fr. top, for “‘ poles,” read « polls. ?__p», 274, 1. 4 fr. top, and 1. 10 fr. bot. for < 28, ” read “© 27."—p. 315, 1. 12 fr. bot. for ‘‘ opyeo and teyvoo,” read “ opyes and wyvos.”” Dr. Hildreth does not consider it as quite certain, although highly probable, that the rock which he has called Lias, is identical with that of England; the opinion, that they are geologically identical, is ably maintained by another gentleman, whose observations will appear in our next number.—Ep. i Vol. xxvitt. p. 111, J. 6 fr. top, for “« W. W.,” read “ F. H.”—p. 118, 1. 5 fr. top, - for “10.63,” read ‘1068 grs.”,—p. 378, 1. 7, 10, 16, 27, and contents p. 7. 1. 8 fr. top, for “‘ Brown,” read “ Bronn.?’ wn te a SJ Bosworth Fina ie - ae LFendtetons Lith. Bostan. ios J L THE AMERICAN JOURNAL OF SCIENCE, &c. Arr. 1.—Observations on the Bituminous Coal deposits of the valley of the Ohio, and the accompanying rock strata; with no- tices of the fossil Organic remains and the relics of Vegeta- ble and Animal bodies, illustrated by a Geological map, by nu- merous drawings of plants and shells, and by views of interest- ing scenery; by Dr. S. P. Hitpretx, of Marietta, Ohio. Tue region embraced in the following observations, extends over a space of four or five degrees in latitude, by as many in longitude, hav- ing the Appalachian range of mountains for its base on the south and east, and the termination of the sandstone recks and coal, as its limit on the north and west ; including the north west portions of Penn- sylvania and Virginia, with the north east part of Ohio, and a small tract in the north east corner of Kentucky. It may be called the south east termination of that immense valley which lies between the Rocky Mountains on the west, and the Alleghany range on the east ; and which, as appears from the vast profusion of marine fos- sils found imbedded in the rock strata, was at some remote period the bed of an ocean. | That the change was gradual, from the dominion of the waters to that of dry land, is inferred from the horizontal, and tranquil state of the rock strata, bearing few or no marks of violence, or sudden force having ever been applied, so as to break, or disturb the con- tinuity of the beds, as is so often and almost universally seen, in transition and primitive regions, where the rocks are found lying in all degrees of inclination, from a vertical to a horizontal position. That this ocean rolled its waves and its tides over this valley for an immense period of time, is inferred from the great thickness of the rocky strata, which have been penetrated to the depth of more than Vou. XXIX.—No. 1. 1 Q Introductory Views. a thousand feet, without reaching the primitive rocks. ‘That the primitive rocks lie at a great depth may be inferred also from the color of the sandstone rocks, none of them being red, except where, in the mountain ranges, they are bordered by, or resting on the transi- tion series; the color being probably produced by the heat im- parted to the derivative rocks, by the primitive strata when in a state of fusion, which, as we have the best ground to believe, was once the condition of all crystalline rocks. Fragments of the sandstone rocks, through all parts of the valley are easily changed to red, by subjecting them to the heat of a strong fire, showing that they do not lack the chemical constituents of the old red sandstone, and that they have not been exposed to any great heat. In the vicinity of “ Flint ridge,” which is evidently a deposit from hot water, I have seen sandstones highly colored with veins of red, but in every other place near the center of the valley, which I have visited, they are universally grey, ash colored, or brown, accordmg to the tint of the silex, mica, lime, or clay, which entered into their composition. That the change was gradual from the condition of an ocean to that of dry land, is also inferred from the slight inclination, or slope of the northern side of the valley, taking the present bed of the Ohio river for the center, or most depending part. The elevation of the surface at the heads of the Muskingum and other streams, which take their rise in the table lands between Lake Erie and the Ohio, being only about four hundred feet above the mouth of the former river, having a descent of a little over two feet to the mile. On the south side, the slope is equally gradual, until the ranges of hills connected with the mountains make their appearance at a dis- tance of from fifty to seventy miles from the Ohio; the rise then be- comes much more rapid, averaging, in some places, especially on the New river, above the mouth of Gauly, fifteen or twenty feet to the mile, for the distance of forty or fifty miles. Those portions of the ancient ocean’s bed, lying near and on each side of the region now occupied by the Ohio river, were, doubtless, for many ages, cov- ered by lakes of fresh water, after the more elevated parts, had be- come dry land, and were clothed with vegetation. We are led to this conclusion from the numerous deposits of lacustrine and fresh water shells found in the sandstones and marls in the hilly portions of the valley near the Ohio river; and after the waters had been so far drained off as to lay bare the bottoms of these lakes, it must have r] Introductory Views. 3 occupied a vast period of time to hollow out the local valley be- tween the hills, in which the Ohio now meanders, and to deposit that vast bed of alluvial earth which constitutes its present fertile and rich bottoms. It is obvious that these were all formed after the currents of water had cut away the deposits of clay and earth, which the rains and small rivulets had washed away from the adjacent highlands into the bed of this vast fresh water lake or lakes, down to the sandstone rocks formerly deposited in the bed of the ocean ; and after they had also cut away the sandstone rocks themselves down to the present bed of the Ohio, a depth of one hundred and fifty or two hundred feet, it is evident that little or no river alluvions could have been deposited, for they rest on the rock, which forms the present bed of the river. . This cutting away of the sandstone rocks, must have occupied a long period of time; for, the operation, of necessity, commenced at some point be- low, at least as far west as the falls of the Ohio, giving at this outlet, an impulse and impetus to the. waters above, that neither earth nor rocks could resist ; enabling them to cut away the solid strata, and to form the present bed of the river in their bosom. That this was ac- tually the fact, is made to appear from the mural walls of sandstone, seen in many places, at the same elevation, in the face of the river hills, on both sides of the stream; they are composed of the same materials with the same texture, for the distance of several hundred miles. Various other strata confirm this opinion ; clay, limestone and coal, being found at the same level on both sides of the river, shew, as plainly as demonstration can speak, that these strata were all deposited in a tranquil state, and that, in the course of ages, they have been cut through by the abrasion and tearing away of the wa- ters. The hills bordering the rivers and creeks have all been formed in the same way: the. ridges corresponding to the course of the streams and not the streams to the ridges; and although there is a considerabie descent from their heads to their outlets, yet the hills and ridges are considerably higher near their heads than at their mouths, which is evidently attributable to the greater abrasion and wearing away of the general surface, as we approach the Ohio, on account of the action of the waters which descended into the lower parts of the valley before the present channels of the water courses were formed. ‘This is made evident from the wasting and wearing away of several of the deposits, which are found in the heads of the streams, at the depth of many feet below the surface, and which, as we descend, gradually crop out, and finally in a few miles disappear: 4 Introductory Views. and this not from any dip in an opposite direction, for the inclination of the strata is with the course of the stream, that is, towards the Ohio river, or the center of the valley. This fact is finely illustrated in a deposit of coal, lying on the heads of Duck creek and in the ridge, which divides these waters from those of Will’s creek, in Ohio. The hills are about three hundred feet in height, and the place here spoken of is about thirty eight miles north of Marietta. A bed of coal, five feet in thickness, appears on the face of the hills at an elevation of two hundred feet above the bed of the creek, and is also found for many miles around in the adjacent hills on the opposite side of the valley, and at the same elevation. ‘The roof of the coal is composed of bituminous shale, upon which rests a coarse sandstone of nearly eighty feet in thickness. “As we descend the creek, the coal approaches the sur- face and the sandstone becomes more thin, until at the distance of twenty five miles, the coal wholly disappears, with the stratum of sandstone rock, and the strata below come to the surface in nearly the same order in which they appear at the distance of twenty five miles above. The inference is, that this coal deposit had been laid bare: by the wasting away of the supermcumbent strata, and had finally itself been decomposed by the action of the atmosphere and frosts, and washed away by the rain. ‘The operation is still goimg on; and rock strata and coal, are daily laid bare and are found wast- ing away in the beds of streams, and torrents in the elevated parts of the valley. The same process which cut away the sandstone rocks in forming the bed of the Ohio, is still in force in the small streams and rivulets which run into it from the hills. If it is a considerable stream, the strata of rock are cut away, at the mouth, as low as the bed of the river, and as you approach the hills and ascend towards its head, the bottom of the stream is composed of sandstone rock, with occasional cascades, over which the water, as it falls, acquires force in proportion to its elevation, and finally wears away the solid rock till all obstructions are removed. Examples may be seen in all the hill and mountain torrents. ‘The process now pursued by the smaller streams, is doubtless the same with that of the larger in by-gone ages. | | It appears probable that before the growth of trees, shrubs, and grasses had commenced, or had made any great progress in clothing the hills, and face of the valley ‘‘as with a garment,” debacles were more efficient, and the abrasions of the surface by rains and, torrents, Introductory Views. » 5 were much more rapidly accomplished than after that period. While a part of the valley was yet covered with water, evaporation was much more abundant and the rains more like those of tropical cli- mates; tearing up and wearing away the surface with great facility, and effecting greater changes in the features of the valley in one season, than can now be accomplished in many years. The roots of the trees, and the plants, after they had taken possession of the surface, giving firmness to the soil, and defending it from abrasion in the same manner that the trees, where they are suffered to stand undisturbed by the officious interference of man, now defend the banks from the encroachments of the Ohio. ‘They not only pro- tected the newly clothed surface on the hills; but in the valleys, and near the beds of rivulets and brooks, when the streams overflowed, they arrested the soil and fragments of rocks that were urged on- ward by the turbid waters, and thus these periodical deposits gradu- ally raised up the bottoms or alluvial soils, to their present height. That this was actually the fact, and that the surface of the soil in narrow vallies and bottoms, was once much below its present condi- tion, is proved from the presence of wood and trunks of trees, found at the depth of thirty or forty feet in sinking wells, shafts, &c. A single shower has been known to make a deposit of several feet in thickness on the borders of small streams. No longer since, than the month of June, A. D. 1834, a few miles from Marietta, a cloud, in the course of fifteen or twenty minutes, poured its watery con- tents on the hills, to an average depth of eight or ten inches. No accurate measure was taken of the water, but a half bushel measure and a common pail, or bucket, in separate places, were filled to overflowing ; and several rail fences on the sides of hills, were mo- ved a number of feet by the column of water, rushing down their - declivities. In Licking and Knox counties, during the same season, a much greater amount fell, doing great damage to the Ohio canal and to mills on the small streams. If in these days, such torrents fall in places remote from any great collections of water, or from ranges of mountains, what might they not have been, when this great valley was one vast wet and marshy plain, affording an im- mense expanse of watery surface to evaporation. At what period after the creation of the earth, this change, from an ocean to dry land took place, we have no data to determine; but it is not impossible that future geologists may, by their research- es, arrive at some tolerable approximation. ‘That the change was 6 Introductory Views. gradually produced, is certain from the nearly horizontal position of the rocky strata, so far as they have fallen under our observation ; and it is also certain that it was preceded and accompanied by the occasional subsidence,. or sinking, or occasional flooding of lands, probably islands, abounding with tropical plants, and trees, which were deposited in the coal measures of the valley. There is a degree of probability, little short of certainty, that these trees and plants grew on, or near the spot where their remains are now found, for they are universally in a horizontal position, as if laid tranquilly down by water ; in general, their delicate forms are perfect- ly preserved, indicating gentle deposition, and when they are mixed together in confusion, it of course implies a correspondent agitation of the water. ‘That they are the growth and deposit of remote pe- riods of time, is inferred from the specific difference of many of the fossil plants, in the different beds, compared with those of modern times, and from the vast deposits of sand and clay, which separate them; these are frequently not less than one and two hundred feet in thickness, as will be more fully shown in the sections of strata, at different places. It is the opinion of most geologists of this age, that the tropical plants, found in the coal beds, grew either on, or very near the spot where they are now inhumed; and that the climates - which produced such plants, have been changed by the gradual al- terations which have taken place on the surface of the earth by the changing of oceans into dry land; the same latitudes covered with, or surrounded by water, being from the known capacity of water to retain and equalize caloric, much warmer while in this condition, than after becoming dry land. Some attribute the greater warmth of the ‘earth in the higher latitudes in the earlier periods, to the greater inter- nal heat, which is supposed to have gradually declined. ‘The depos- its of sand, clay, &c. over the coal, and in alternation with it, must have been produced by aqueous agency in some form, either im lakes, or in bays, estuaries or lagoons of the ocean, or in gently flow- ing waters. Mr. Parkinson in his ‘ Introduction to the study of Organic Remains,” makes the following remarks. ‘“ By these facts we learn that at some remote period of the existence of this planet, it must have abounded with plants of the succulent kind, and as it appears from their remains in great variety of form and luxuri- ancy of size. These, from what is discoverable of their structure, were beset with seta and spines; were not formed for the food of animals, nor from the nature of the substance of which they were composed, were they fitted to be applied to the various purposes to Topography of the Coal Strata. T which wood, the product of the earth at a subsequent period, has been found to be so excellently adapted by man. Their remains, it must also be remarked, are now found in conjunction with that sub- | stance which nature has in all probability formed from them, and which by the peculiar economical modification of its combustibility, is rendered an invaluable article of fuel. If this be admitted to be the origin of coal, a satisfactory cause will appear for the vast abun- dance of vegetable matter with which. in its early ages, the earth must have been stored. ‘This vast, and in any other view, useless creation, will thus be ascertained to have been a beneficent arrange- ment by Providence for man, the being of a creation of a later pe- riod.” General Topography of the Valley in relation to the Coal Measures. Sandstone, in all its varieties, being the prevailing rock in the coal deposits, the general surface of the region presents great simi- larity in its features, especially in those portions that lie within’ fifty or sixty miles of the Ohio river; these regions exhibit long sloping ridg- es, running parallel with the river, and are often faced with mural pre- cipices of sandstone to the height of one hundred feet above the base of the hills. In other places, there are cone-shaped, isolated hills, especially where creeks make their debouchure, having in the course of ages worn down the sides of the hill, both above and below into beautiful slopes. ‘This is frequently seen in the heads of creeks, that take their rise in a loose rich loamy soil. The tops are then crowned with sandstone, covered with trees, while the sides are clothed with the richest productions of the forest, growing in a loose black soil, formed of decomposed leaves and the remains of the rocks which have wasted slowly away before. the wintry frosts and the summer rains. In any part of this region the view from the highest hills, presents one vast plain filled with hollows, and afford- ing no spot much, if any more elevated, than the one on which the spectator stands,—bringing forcibly to the mind, the reflection, that this now hilly and broken region was once, at some remote period, a level, and nearly horizontal plain. Scattered through this hilly and broken region, tracts of tolerably level land, are found embracing many miles of square surface. In sinking wells in such places, it is not uncommon to find, at the depth of thirty or forty feet, frag- ments of the trunks and branches of. trees, with water worn pebbles, 8 : Topography of the Coal Strata. indicating the scite of a pond or lake, which existed before the present water courses were formed, for the more perfect drainage of the coun- try. Within the boundaries of such places, beds of argillaceous iron ores are sometimes found of considerable extent. On the north side of the Ohio, this broken country continues, until it is gradually lost in the table lands and plains on the heads of the Muskingum river, or terminates in abrupt precipices on the prairies of the Scioto. On the south side at the distance of fifty or sixty miles, the hills gradu- ally become larger and more elevated, until they rise into moun- tains. The country on the Kenawha river affords one of the finest spe- cimens of these changes in elevation. Near the mouth, the hills are about two hundred feet in height—at the Sales, sixty five miles above, they are five hundred feet—at the falls of Kenawha, one hundred miles up, thei elevation is increased to eight hundred ~ feet, and at ‘ Marshal’s pillar,”’ in the cliffs of New river, they at- tain the height of fifteen hundred feet and are called the-Gauly mountains ; beyond which point, to the valley of the Green Brier river, the country is a mountainous table land composed of succes- sive ranges lying in parallel ridges, taking a N. E. and S. W. di- rection. The more elevated of these are known as the Sewell and Meadow mountains, the slopes and sides of which afford good farm- ing lands. From the tops of the Sewell, we have a fine view of the valley of the Green Brier, which lies extended at its feet, and spreads its broken and undulating surface, dotted with farms and cultivated spots, to the base of the Alleghany range, a distance of thirty or forty miles. This valley is based on limestone, superin- cumbent on sandstone, and in it, rise the celebrated sulphur springs, whose waters annually revive the drooping energies and restore the health of the invalids from less favored climates. ‘The cool and pure air from the mountain tops, free from pestilential miasmata, without doubt, contributes much to the healthfulness of this delight- ful valley. Vast caverns have been scooped out of the limestone rock in different parts of the valley, by the streams which circulate beneath the surface, many of which abound with interesting fossils. The celebrated relics of the megalonyx, described by Mr. Jefferson, were found here in a saltpetre cave. ‘The Green Brier, the Gauly, the Little Kenawha, the Monongahela, and the north fork of the south branch of the Potomac rivers, all take their rise from the high lands at the head of this valley ; and from the opposite courses Topography of the Valley of the Muskingum. 9 which they pursue we are led to conclude that the dividing ridge at the heads of these streams is the highest land west and north of the Alleghany range. Between the head branches of several of these streams, are considerable tracts of: ‘ Glade” or table lands, affording from their elevation a soil and temperature suitable to the growth of trees and shrubs of a more northern climate. Large tracts of tol- erably level lands, covered with a heavy growth of forest trees, are found in this elevated region between the head branches of the Gauly, the Elk, and the western forks of the Monongahela. The ranges of mountains, although members of the same family, have received different names, and are the interrupted portions of the Laurel, Chesnut and Cheat mountains; while the same ranges far- ther west are called the Sewell mountains. On the tops of the mountains themselves, there is sometimes a considerable extent of level land. One of the branches of Cheat river runs for a distance of fifty miles on the top of a mountain ridge, through a tract of level land, six or eight miles wide, clothed with hemlock and lau- rel. On the heads of some of the western branches of the Mo- nongahela river, are found beautiful and fertile valleys. Tygart’s valley is one of the most extensive, and will be more fully described when we speak of the topography of the valley of the Mononga- hela. The stream is here called the “valley river,’ and affords many valuable scites for mills. It is of the most -permanent char- acter, having its sources in the mountains, and it is fed by never failing springs. The face of the country on the Monongahela, to its junction with the Alleghany, is hilly, but affords vast tracts of fertile and arable lands. On the Youghiogany and Conemaugh it rises into mountains, with fine tracts of land between. The re- gion on the Alleghany river is hilly and broken, and on all the streams which run into the Ohio on the north, the same uneven sur- face is continued. Topography of the Valley of the Muskingum. The general aspect of the country through which the Muskingum river passes, is hilly and broken, especially all that portion where sandstone rock prevails. On the head branches the surface is more level, with occasional ridges of hills. The water is limpid, being more highly charged with carbonate of lime than that of the Ohio river. Its bottom is, in many places, covered with quartz pebbles and gravel of various hues, but mostly-white, giving, ee XXIX.—No. 1. 2 10 Topography of the Valley of the. Muskingum. with the open valves of bivalve shells, a rich and beautiful appear- ance to its bed, especially in low stages of the stream in the summer and autumnal months. ‘The alluvial lands along its borders are com- posed of a rich but rather arenaceous soil, formed, in the course of ages, from the debris and washings of the uplands, mixed with decayed vegetable matter. ‘The early or ancient alluvions, which form bluffs in the bends, and elevated plains back of the bottoms, where they are not washed away by changes in the bed of the river, are composed ' of gravel and pebbles, with a very light or thin soil on the surface. The elevation of these plains, is, in many places, more than one hun- dred feet above the present bed of the river, from which we are led to infer, that when the superabundant waters took the course now followed by the river, the hills, if formed at all, were very low, ‘as in many places they are now not more than seventy five ora hundred feet above the surface of these ancient plains. On these elevated alluvions, almost without exception, are seated those an- cient ruins of fortifications and cities, so long the wonder of antiqua- rians. Much of the gravel and many of the pebbles composing these plains, are the remains of disintegrated primitive rocks; being composed of greenstone, gneiss, varieties of granite, mica slate, &c. intermixed with fragments of fossil organic remains, and with some. perfect forms; amongst which are distinguished, numerous species of alcyona, madreporites, corallines, and shells, the tenants of the antediluvian ocean. ; Broken remains of fossil trees are also found, the vegetable struc- ture being easily recognized. The latter are generally in an agati- zed or quartzose state, many of the former are also, siliceous, and may have been torn, at an early period from those abundant depos- its of organic fossils, found in Flint ridge, and many other places on the streams which pour their tributary waters into the Musk- ingum. ‘The country, on the head waters of the Muskingum, al- though not very hilly, is, without doubt, the most elevated portion of the northern side of the valley. ‘The streams from this region taking, a northerly, a southerly, and an eastern direction, furnish their perennial tribute to the ocean, at very remote points, finding their outlet either in the gulf of Mexico, or the bay of the St. Law- rence. A number of small lakes and Poses repose in the hollows of these elevated table lands. Topography of the Valley of the Muskingum. 11 - The summit level of the Ohio canal is three hundred and ninety three feet, above low water mark at the mouth of the Muskingum, while the tops of some of the adjacent hills are at an elevation of nearly one hundred and fifty feet more, making the highest lands between Lake Erie and the Ohio river to be four hundred and fifty three feet, above the water at either of those places; there is a dif- ference of only two feet between the level of the mouth of the Muskingum, and the lake; the latter being lower by two feet. When compared with the ocean, the hills on the heads of the Musk- ingum, are at least one thousand feet above its tide ; a meridian line from the mouth of the Muskingum, would pass a little east of the summit level, from which spot, there is sufficient descent to cause a rapid current in the water, and when urged on by an accumula- tion of power from the sudden rise of the streams, the torrent be- comes capable of levelling all obstructions that may oppose its course, tearing up the sandstone rocks, and shales down to its present deep and tortuous bed, amongst the hills which cluster along its borders. From the termination of the sandstone rocks, to the westerly heads of the river, a distance of not less than sixty miles, boulders and fragments of primitive formations are found scattered over the sur- face of the earth. They are however, not confined to the surface, but in sinking wells, at the depth of seventy feet, the same varieties of water worn and rounded fragments are found. ‘They are of all sizes, from a pound weight, to that of several tons; and they are found through the tertiary deposits from the N. E. line of the Ohio, to the Mississippi river. I have now before me a fragment of a large boulder from the “Grand prairie” in Illinois. The early set- tlers of these regions observing their singular appearance, and entire dissimilarity to that of any local or known rock, gave them the very appropriate name of “the lost rocks.” ‘They are most commonly seen in solitary masses, but sometimes in groups of several hun- dreds, as if deposited from powerful currents, or streams of water suddenly arrested in their course. ‘The fragment before me is com- posed of feldspar, mica and hornblende. The feldspar is nearly white, and is the most abundant material. The mica is in plates of from one eighth to a twelfth of an inch in diameter, color, black, or that of. very dark smoke, and it composes one eighth part of the mass. ‘The hornblende is in grains, from the size of a mustard seed to that of half a grain of wheat, and very uniformly diffased, and its cohesive power is rather weakened from Jong exposure to the at- 12 Topography of the Valley of the Muskingum. mosphere. Other masses have red, or purple feldspar. There is also very beautiful sienite, and porphyritic granite, with hornblende rock, containing large crystals; greenstone, jasper and mica slate, are also found. These, in company with other hard materials, are, — uniformly, in rounded masses, with the angles completely abraded, as if transported from considerable distances. Primitive rocks, m place, are abundant on the northern shores of Lake Superior, but they are not known much south of that point. With proper atten- tention and time, I have no doubt the origin of these ‘lost rocks” could be discovered. They evidently, have been brought from the N. west, and remarkably concur in this respect, with the course of the boulder rocks, described by Prof. Hitchcock in his be of Massachusetts. The dividing ridges between the water courses on the. east side of the Muskingum, and especially those between the head waters of creeks, are composed of the remnants of the bottom of the ancient ocean, and afford the highest lands in this part of the valley. Where their direction accords with the position of settlements and towns, they are chosen for roads and highways, as they are very dry, and sometimes, for miles in succession, they are barely wide enough for a road, and they are, by the hand of nature, regularly rounded and shaped to the form of a modern turnpike. In other parts, where spurs put off into the head branches of small rivulets, they spread out to considerable breadths, affording level lands for farms. As these dividing ridges have been formed by the streams, so their di- rection is governed altogether by that of the water courses. The tributary streams on the west side of the valley, above the mouth of Licking river, rise in a supercretaceous or tertiary region. © The surface is flat or undulating, with here and there a hill of con- siderable elevation, crowned with sandstone; while the general sur- face and the earth, beneath, so far as it has been penetrated in digging wells, are composed of alternating beds of loam and clay, gravel and sand, water worn pebbles, and boulders of primitive rocks. : The boulders, so far as I have observed, are confined chiefly, to the tertiary portions of the valley, and are rarely if ever, found in the hilly secondary or sandstone formations. ‘The northern part of the valley contains many wet prairies and swamps, in which the common cranberry flourishes ; numerous small lakes and ponds in this region, give origin to several af the head branches of the Muskingum. Topography of the Valley of the Muskingum. 13 The white cedar is said to grow in some of these swamps, with a shrub which bears a berry similar in taste to the cranberry, and is called the “ high cranberry.” It is a fruit-bearing viburnum. In very wet seasons, the swamps between the waters of the branches of the Cuyahoga and Tuscarawas, were formerly passed by canoes, and this was the mode of communication between the waters of the lake and the Ohio river, anterior to the construction of the canal. The streams which rise in the table lands and tertia- - ry portions of the valley, are much more permanent and durable than those in the hilly and sandstone formation. All of them, in propor- tion to their length and the elevation of their heads, afford scites more or less favorable for mills, as the water in its passage over the strata of rocks has a gradual or precipitous descent. ‘The most cel- ebrated of these falls, are those of the Vernon, Licking and Musk- ingum rivers. Several of the eastern branches of the latter river, take their rise within a few miles of the Ohio, especially Wills creek, and Still water creek, and both flow in a northerly direction in opposition to the general course of the Muskingum, as may be seen by looking at: the map. A westerly branch of the former creek rises within a short distance of the Muskingum, at a spot forty miles below its mouth, and runs more than a hundred miles to pass the same place on its way to the Ohio, demonstrating that the dividing ridges between the Ohio and Muskineum, are of considerable elevation. One ridge, a - few miles south of Barnsville, is estimated at five hundred feet. The region occupied by the valley of the Muskingum, is nearly two hundred miles in length, by one hundred or more in breadth at its central and northern portions; while its southern extremity below Zanesville is but little over fifty miles, having its narrowest portion on the Ohio river. All the north east part of the valley, and the hilly sandstone region south and east, between it and the latter stream, belong to the carboniferous group and coal measures, and nearly all the streams that flow into the Ohio, in some part of their course, pass over deposits of bituminous coal, while those which flow northerly into lake Erie, passing over calcareous rocks, are without the margin of the great basin through the most depending part of which the Ohio takes its course, and no coal has been as yet found on the northerly side of this anticlinal line. Although the Cuya- hoga, which is a lake stream, and runs for many miles, parallel with the table lands, in its most southerly bend, touches the sandstone de- 14 Forest Lees. posits, and discloses fine beds of coal at the great falls in Portage county. It isthe only instance yet known, although, from the fact of petroleum being abundant, it is probable coal may be found ata considerable depth below the surface, near the lake in several places north of this line. Forest Trees. As these interesting and valuable productions of the soil depend so much on the exposure and geological composition of the earth in which they grow, a short description of them may be very ap- propriately introduced in company with the topographical history of the region in which they are found. ‘The whole valley was, a few years since, clothed with immense forests of the most beautiful trees, which are fast disappearing before the hand of cultivation. On the higher ridges, the soil of which is composed of disintegrated sand- stone, the favorite abode of the chesnut and chesnut oak is found. The elevated flats and tops of broad ridges whose soil contains considerable sand mixed with yellow loam, slightly tinged by iron, are the spots in which the yellow oak, hickory, black walnut and butternut are found most abundantly. A soil of this composition parts with heat slowly, and those regions that are furnished with it are noted for the protection they afford against late spring frosts, so often ruinous to the fruits in the valley of the Ohio. The steep declivi- ties of the northeasterly and northern side hills, where the earth is composed of sandstone and decayed leaves, is the favorite spot for the yellow poplar, or Liriodendron tulipifera, and Magnolia acu- minata, or cucumber tree. ‘The yellow poplar may be called the monarch of the hills, as the sycamore is of the bottoms. It is often seen of the height of one hundred and twenty feet, and from three to eight feet in diameter at the base, with a perfectly straight shaft of eighty feet without alimb. ‘This tree is extensively used for boat gunnels, and the manufacture of boards, and is to the west what the white pine is to the north. Where the soil on the side hills is formed from decomposed limestone and leaves instead of sandstone, the timber is principally sugar tree, interspersed to the top of the hills, with spice wood and beech. ‘The less elevated hills and flats, whose soil is formed from decomposed argillaceous sand- stone and clay of the ancient diluvium, are clothed with white oaks, dogwood, (Cornus florida,) sassafras, various species of hickory, - Cereis Ohioensis, or Judas tree, yellow pine, and shrubs of many Geology of the Muskingum Valley. be: kinds. In these situations, the wild grape grows in great abundance | and makes an excellent wine. The laws of climate, soil, &c. are so beautifully and so certainly adapted to vegetable life, that the geology ofa country is intimately connected with the trees which clothe and beautify its bold and rugged features ; and he whois acquainted with the rock formations of a country, can describe, before he has seen them, the species of trees most natural to its soil. ‘The bottom lands, or recent alluvions, are clothed with different species of for- est trees, suited to their elevation. If low and wet, sycamore and beech prevail, with red and sweet elm, and the over cup, white oak, or swamp oak; if high and dry, sugar trees, poplars and walnuts, with the low land hickory, often intermixed with groves of acacia or black locust, honey locust, and solitary trees of hackberry—on the dry plains back of the bottoms, the Persimon, or American date tree, grows in great luxuriance ; its rich, glossy leaves emulating the orange in beauty. If the soil is gravelly, the red cedar springs up, and along the rocky sides of the creeks the hemlock spreads its rich green branches and tapering top. The rocky cliffs are ornamented with the rosebay and kalmia latifolia. While the red men possessed the country, and every autumn set fire to the fallen leaves, the for- ests presented a most noble and enchanting appearance. The an- nual firmgs preventing the growth of shrubs and underbrush, and destroying the lower branches of the trees, the eye roved with de- light, from ridge to ridge and from hill to hill; which, like the divis- ions of an immense temple, were crowded with innumerable pillars, the branches of whose shafts interlocking, formed the arch work of support to that leafy roof which covered and crowned the whole. But since the white man took possession, the annual fires have been checked, and the woodlands are now filled with shrubs and young trees, obstructing the vision on every side, and converting these once beautiful forests into a rude and tasteless wilderness. Geology of the Muskingum Valley. The northern and western portions of the valley belong to the tertiary, or the supercretaceous of De La Beche; the southern and eastern, to the carboniferous series of the same writer; while a portion on the extreme southerly borders is identified with the new red sandstone group. As the valley approaches within twen- ty or thirty miles of the Ohio river, the limestone rock becomes more sparry, and retains no traces of organic remains, or fossil 16 Geology of the Muskingum Valley. shells, but in many places, abounds in cubic crystals of sulphuret of iron. Some of the calcareous deposits are dark colored and decompose into a marl on exposure to the air, and all have a tendency to crack and break into rhombic fragments, as they lie in their beds. ‘The sandstone rocks are more coarse, and are also destitute of the casts of fossil trees, found so abundantly in the strata of rocks in the vicinity of Zanesville, and on the waters of Moxa- hela creek in Perry county. Coal deposits are more rare, and the - beds thin and shaly. There are numerous beds of red and light blue marl of a schistose structure, lying under thick deposits of sand- stone ; they are filled with the impressions of fossil plants, general- ly of the genus Sphenoptera, affording decisive evidence of a con-- comitant and exuberant vegetation, analogous to that of the carbon- iferous group; although from some cause, the materials for coal were furnished much less abundantly than in many other parts of the val- ley. The strata of red marl are in many places from ten to forty feet in thickness, and on exposure to the air and frosts, decompose into a red clay highly charged with iron, disclosing nodules of the red oxide of iron in considerable quantities ; and occasionally fossil shells of the genus Unio, completely changed into the same mate- rial. From this fact, we are led to conclude, that these deposits were made in fresh water, and probably in a calm and tranquil con- dition, as the texture of the marl is very fine and smooth. Several shells, taken from the red marl, a few miles west of Marietta, are figured on page No. 1 of the wood cuts, and numbered 17, 18, 19, 20 and 21. Below the surface of the earth, beds of the red marl are found of much greater thickness. In boring for salt water, on march run, a few miles N. W. of Ma- rietta, a stratum was recently passed, of one hundred and fifty feet, resting on sandstone; tracts of tolerably level land, several miles in extent, are sometimes found near the heads of small streams. In these situations, diluvium, or earth deposited from water of very ancient date, forms the superstratum. It is composed of an ash col- ored, tenacious clay above, and deep blue, or dark colored below, resting on gravel or sand, in which is imbedded decayed wood ; de- posits of this kind have been passed through in smking wells, at the depth of sixty or seventy feet. Marine and fresh water shells are sometimes found in the sand, lying side by side, as the following detail will more fully show. Six miles above the mouth ‘of the Muskingum and one mile and a half north of the Ohio river, a well Geology of the Muskingum Valiey. ; 17 was dug by B. Racer, Jr. in October, A. D. 1834. It is situated © ona small elevation near the heads of a rivulet, or small branch, about fifty feet above its present bed. ‘The well is sixty feet in depth. The first forty feet passed through a tough tenacious clay, — ash colored ; such as is now found on the sides of some of the ad- jacent hills. The next ten feet were composed of a plastic clay, of a blue color, mixed with fine micaceous sand, and thickly sprinkled with small fragments of wood, leaves and seeds of monocotyledon- ous plants. Under this lay a bed of woody materials, composed of the fragments of trunks and branches of trees, grape vines, seeds and leaves. The last ten feet were chiefly fine silicious and micaceous sand; the upper part mixed with blue clay, such as is now found in the bottoms of fresh water ponds, or in eddies and lagoons of our large rivers. Scattered through these ten feet, and especially the up- - per portion, were found numerous individuals of fluviatile shells, ap- parently of the genera Unio and Anodonta, with one perfect form ofa genuine oyster, and several fragments. Some of these are casts, and others petrifactions of hard calcareous materials, with the cuticle still adhering. Figures of the oyster, and one of Anodonta, are given on page J, of the wood cuts, numbered 22 and 23. The clay in the vicinity of the shells, and amongst the fragments of the trees, after being exposed to the air for a few days, shows numerous fis- sures and cells, tinged with a rich blue color. The fragments of wood exhibit the same color in every fissure and crack laid open by the process of drying. It is evidently a phosphate of iron furnished by the animal and vegetable materials. Water having been pro- cured at this depth, the process of excavating was discontinued, or, many more and probably other species would have been discovered. The ridge of river hills between this spot and the Ohio, is at least two hundred feet high and based on, or rather composed of sand- stone rock. ‘The appearance of the bed of sand, containing the shells, is similar to that deposited in running water, although other circumstances might indicate the bed of a lake or pond, drained through the outlet of the present run, or filled up by the sliding down of the adjacent hills, although the clay and its contents of veg- etable matter, would rather indicate a running stream of considera- ble magnitude. The hills at the head of the run, which discharges its waters into the Little Muskingum, are equally high, and lie be- tween the head branches and the Ohio, which here makes a large bend; and if the shells, sand, &c. were deposited by the river, it Vou. XXIX.—No. 1. 3 18 Geology of the Muskingum Valley. must have been at a period when the whole valley was covered with water, and before the present hills were formed. ‘The annexed sec- tion will give a better view of its location. Fig. 1. Explanation.—a, Ohio river—b, Alluvion or Ohio bottoms.—ce, River hill — d, Run and once —e, Well. OF Adjacent hills, north. —8) Tus of the hills ona level with the bed of the river. Grotto of Plants. At the southern outlet of the Muskingum valley, two miles below the mouth of the river, and forty rods from the bank of the Ohio, an interesting grotto, has been formed in the sandstone from the | gradual disintegration of the rock by a chemical process. The » rock is rather coarse grained, and is composed of siliceous sand, silver colored mica in minute scales, with lime as a cement, which probably by the aid of the elements of the atmosphere generating nitric acid has formed a nitrate of lime, as the rock itself for a con- siderable depth, as well as the surface is impregnated with these saline particles; thus it slowly effloresces, and at the same time crumbles away, dislodging and throwing down minute grains of the rock. Irregular veins of argillaceous stone, lke hardened clay which are not so readily decomposed, are disseminated through the rock and stand out, in bold relief, from the surface, while cells of all sizes, from an inch, to six or eight inches in diameter, and as many in depth, are thickly scattered amongst these projecting portions. The roof of the grotto is particularly rich in this natural “ fret work,” giving it the appearance of an immense honey comb. In the center, the roof is about twenty feet high, and slopes gradually down to the floor on the back side, to both extremities ; which are about one hundred feet distant. It is twenty feet in depth. ‘The side next the river, for twenty five or thirty feet, presents a per- pendicular face, on which the decomposing process is now most active. It is ae from argillaceous fragments and is of a light ash, Geology of the Muskingum Valley. 9 almost white color, and shows the formation and mechanical struc- ture of the rock to great advantage. It lies in gently curved waves, such as are produced by a stream of water with a moderate current flowing over an uneven surface. So perfect is the illusion, that the observer easily imagines the actual living currents to be passing be- fore him; and this is beautifully exhibited in the prefixed drawing of the grotto of Plants.* The rock itself or rather this stratum, is about fifty. feet in thickness. It rests on a bed of argillaceous or slaty marl, two feet in thickness. The upper portion is ash colored and very heavy, and the lower portion of the bed, fourteen inches in thickness, is of a deep rich brown, orred. _ Its structure is slaty, and it splits easi- ly in the line of stratification into thin layers. It is completely fill- ed with vegetable impressions of the most perfect and. beautiful structure ; many of them appear to be aquatic plants, but the most abundant are of the genus Neuroptera. If the slaty matrix, were less fragile, very perfect specimens could be procured. As it is, they are, in the hands of any one versed in the botany of fossil plants, sufficient to determine the species. Several figures are given of the plants found here, from No. 23 to 26; (pages 10 and 11 of the ~ wood cuts.) No. 23 is one of the most beautiful and perfect branch- es of the arborescent fern that I have everseen. ‘The foliage is sim- ilar to that represented by M. Ad. Brongniart in one of his antediluvian trees, as he supposed they appeared when living. I have seen no similar species, described in his work.on fossil plants. No. 24, was probably a very porous, thick leaved, aquatic plant, termination ovate ; as fragments of the extremities were found of that shape, cuticle scabrous. The leaf was replaced by a deposit of yellow ochre, one eighth of an inch in thickness, leaving the outlines and markings of the cuticle on the red shale. A large proportion of the plants at the grotto are replaced by yellow ochre. Several other species are impressed on the same fragment. No. 25, is a very rich fern. Each leaflet appears to have been composed of, or mar- gimed by rounded grains, too large and too uniform, for the fruit. The beautiful oblong leaf, No. 26, resembles ‘ Neuropteris Scheuchzeri,” but is not sufficiently acuminate. Its structure is similar to that of an oleander leaf—and is probably a new species. ‘On the same fragment, are two species of Neuroptera. Pods and seeds of plants, are also common; with the leaf of a thick, aqua- tic plant, like that of the Nelumbium luteum, passing transversely * See lithographic Frontispiece. 20- Geology of the Muskingum Valley. through the bed, as if they had been inhumed in their growing and natural position. From their undisturbed, and perfect condition, I am led to conclude that they lived and vegetated on the spot where they are now found. Had they been transported by currents of wa- ter, the leaves and branches would have been more confused and broken. The grotto is seated on the side of a deep ravme, which the water in running from the hills, has gradually worn in the rocks, at an elevation of one hundred feet above the bed of the river; of which and the distant hills in Virginia, the tops of the adjommg cliffs afford a beautiful view. The prefixed sketch, exhibits the contour of the river hills, as they generally appear on the Ohio river. ‘The following actual sec- tion and description of strata taken at the Grotto of plants, will give a general view of the rock formation near Marietta, and for some distance below. Section of Rock Strata at the Grotto of Plants. Order, descending.—Slight dip 8. W. — ai a iii Ml = | 1 te uu an (li A sia e ~ ¢ | = i | nn a | uN Ll > . DT TTT NEES a Hl a j GM WEE nu ae Cc . TT TITER UL a, \ i a I 10 --~ OTT CUT ANI Wh LITTLE IAAT Yj ff Wy) HE pat Yj Yi Ly i 10 Uy YUL Hy Mii ti Geology of the Muskingum Valley. | _ 1. Commencing on the top of the hill, above the grotto, which is here two hundred feet in height, above low water in the Ohio, there is a deposit of about forty feet, of an ash colored, clayey earth; a part of which has been formed from sedimentary precipitation, and part from the decomposition of the argillaceous sandstone rock.—40 feet. 2. Friable, loose, slaty sandstone—easily decomposmg—contain- ing considerable mica, and a large share of argillaceous materials, with some oxide of iron, giving it a light tinge of ochre, mixed with the prevailing ash color.—85 feet. 3. Yellow, ochrey marl, with nodules of red eitie of iron scat- tered through it. A few fresh water univalves, fossilized, and an argillaceous cast of an extinct species of cray fish, the head much more pointed than the recent species, have been found in this de- posit.—4 feet. 4. Fine grained, compact sandstone, containing little mica, eX- cept in the horizontal seams, which divide the sandstone into lay- ers of very uniform, but varying thickness, of from two inches to twenty four inches. The upper and the bed face of the sandstone, are very smooth, and require but little dressing to fit them for round- ing into grindstones; to which use this deposit is found to be well adapted, and is very frequently applied. It extends for many miles along the face of the river hills, and quarries are opened in it at va- rious places. Many hundreds of grindstones are annually sent from this deposit to the towns on the river below. The thinnest layers are on the top, and they grow gradually thicker as they descend. No organic remains have been found in this rock, so far as I can discover by repeated enquiries of the workmen, excepting a few fragments of what appeared to be fossil wood.—20 feet. 5. Compact, or but partially stratified, tolerably coarse grained sandstone, with fine silvery particles of mica imbedded ; cemented by lime; color, light ash, approaching, in some parts of the rock, to white. Fracture very even, both in the line of its strata and in a vertical direction, splitting easily into blocks of the best building stone, of any dimensions, and, in the town of Marietta, it is exten- sively used for architectural purposes. ‘The upper portion of the bed contains frasments of argillaceous stone, of irregular shape, scattered through it. In this deposit is hollowed out the Grotto of plants.—90 feet. 6. Red, or chocolate colored shale, or slaty marl. The upper portion of the deposit, for six or eight inches, directly under the sandstone, and on which the rock above reposes, is ash colored and 22 Geology of the Muskingum Valley. very heavy ; composition similar to that species called “fire clay,” and resembles the variety used in the manufacture of stone ware, and in making bricks for furnace hearths; breaking into irregular, . but generally rhombic fragments, with no disposition to a slaty struc- ture, and destitute of any traces of fossil plants. A similar clay is often found resting on the roofs of coal beds. ‘The lower portion, for sixteen or eighteen inches, is of a fine, smooth, argillaceous mate- rial and of a slaty structure, and is filled with impressions of plants, be- tweén the contiguous lamine. The leaves and stems are replaced by a yellow ochery matter, in some instances looking like the faded plant onadarkred ground. ‘The figures of plants described above are from this bed. Many more species are found here, similar to those that will be described from another deposit a few miles from this.—2 feet. 7. Hard, and fine grained, argillaceous rock ; bluish color; break- ing into irreeular fragments; when fresh broken, imparting a sul- phureous odor. It was probably formed from marsh mud.—10 feet. 8. Ash colored, slaty sandstone, in thin layers, containing a large share of mica. ‘Texture loose and friable-—20 feet. } 9. Dark brown, slaty marl, alternating with thin beds of ash col- ored marl; the lmes of separation, plamly shewing its deposition from water. It is very friable and crumbles on exposure to the air and frosts into a dark red, or brown argillaceous soil, producing fine crops of wheat and small grain. ‘The brown portions of this deposit are filled with impressions of the sphenopterous class of plants, the foliage of which is more coarse, and larger than im the bed described above. It also contains a vast many impressions of the thick leaved plant like Nelumbium luteum.—10 feet. : 10. Hard slaty sandstone, very fissile, color inclined to brown, splitting into folia of from one eighth of an inch to an inch in thick- — ness, contains a large proportion of mica, especially on the surface between the layers. It has the appearance of having been subject- ed to considerable heat.—LO feet. | 11. Bed of the Ohio river. Many of these deposits are very extensive and covera great many square leagues—apparently dipping towards the Ohio river, both on its right and left banks, so that, this river, although wending its way amidst a wilderness of hills, yet flows in the most depending portion of the valley. ‘The red shale, or brown marl deposits appear, so far as I have observed, to be confined chiefly to within forty or fifty miles of the Ohio, on either side, from the mouth of the Guyandott to the mouth of Walhouding, or Big Beaver river, and probably — Geology of the Muskingum Valley. - 23 much farther east. It is characteristic, and forms one of the series, of the saliferous group, which underlies the whole of the Ohio val- ley. It is most abundant in the vicinity of salines, except on the Kenawha, where it terminates at the mouth of the Elk, a few miles below. A trace of its general outlines, is given on the map of the coal region. At all the places in which I have examined this rock, (and they are many, and at remote points,) it has contained vegetable impressions, and more or less imbedded nodules of the red oxide of iron, which mineral, probably, imparts to it the rich brown, or red hue. Section of Rock Strata at Indian Run. - Order, descending.—Slight dip to S. W. s Wigs tum. No. of stra- Thickness in feet. A | RAG ‘MO _— AA ll Mt i} 8 | 9 y iain ANN ANI ue Wy 9 | 10 LOTTI: Hl | | i] : A | 10 | 75 | | } | : a | IU TAU | i 4 at CN HAT Pave TT [2 ot i4| 9 a a a Se ss LA = The above section with the following description of strata, will give a connected view of the order of superposition of rocks, near the 359 feet. 24 Geology of the Muskingum Valley. outlet of the Muskingum valley, from the surface of the hills to the depth of two hundred feet below the beds of the streams. Itis taken. at a point two miles west of Marietta, where a search, recently made, for salt water, was abandoned from a want of means im the operator to continue the work. 1. Hill top. Ash colored earth, in some places mixed with yel- low sand—clothed with yellow pine, ee oak, chesnut oak, &c. —2 feet. 2. Light blue Pideiane! in thin beds, from one inch or two to. eight or ten in thickness; mica between the layers; texture of the stone very suitable for grindstones, being compact and sharp grain- ed.—10 feet. 3. Light colored, coarse grained sandstone, with ina little mica, and cemented by lime. Compact and splitting into good building stone; lower part of the bed much finer grained and stained with veins of dark carbonaceous matter.—50 feet. 4. Bituminous shale, with thin veins of coal of a few.inches in thickness near the bottom of the deposit.—20 feet. ’ 5. Grey limestone—containing nodules of brown oxide of iron ; _ no impressions or casts of fossil shells —2 feet. 6. Argillaceous, sandstone, in beds of from one to two feet in thickness—contains no fossil casts of trees, or plants.—50 feet. 7. Brown marl, with nodules of red oxide of iron; many of the nodules and flattened pieces contain, when broken, fine impressions of arborescent ferns. Portions of the trunks, two or three feet in length, and three or four inches in diameter, much flattened, are also found on this branch, and probably from this bed. I have frag- ments, completely replaced by iron ore, in which the woody fibre is very distinct in its large longitudinal fracture. The bed of the run contains numerous fragments of various rich iron ore, scattered over its bottom. Figures are given at Nos. 27 and 28, (page 12 of the wood cuts,) in iron ore from this place. They are both of the genus Neuropteris, but are probably undescribed species. No. 27 resembles Anomopteris, rather more than Neuropteris.—6 feet. 8. Slaty sandstone, very fine gramed in the lower part of the bed, containing impressions of fossil plants—upper part of the bed mixed with considerable mica, and free from impressions.—9 feet. 9. Brown slaty marl, upper part of the bed ash colored ; lower part, nearly that of Spanish brown, compact and heavy, filled with casts of a thick leaved plant, genelly: vertical as if buried i in a liv- Geology of the, Muskingum Valley. 25 ing state. ‘They are too much broken to give any definite outlines of their form, sufficiently correct for a drawing. The middle por- _ tion of the bed abounds with impressions of several species of Neu- roptera. A figure of one of these species, is given on No. 29, (page 12 of the wood cuts.) ‘The plant is replaced with yellow ochre, and belongs to the arborescent ferns. ‘The upper or ash colored por- tion of the bed, for about two or three inches in thickness, is filled with the impressions of an asteroid blossom, arranged in rows, upon a stem—sometimes six or eight in a line, the lower half of one resting on the upper half of another. They are of different sizes, but all equal.on the same stem, and generally, each floret contains twenty four petals or rays., ‘The marl in which they lie, contains a little mica, and is literally filled with them. The broad leaf of some arundinaceous plant is sometimes seen impressed amongst them. Figure No. 30, (page 9 of the wood cuts) gives a very correct view of their forms and size. _ Figure No. 31, (page 13 of the wood cuts,) is from a very slaty, micaceous sandstone, on the Little Musking- um, six miles east of this spot, and is a species of Neuropteris. No. 32, (page 9 of the wood cuts,) is from the same place, and is either a portion of a thick ribbed palm leaf, or of the impressed rays of the fin of a fish. It is most probably a palm leaf. No 31, is reduced to about one third, and No. 32, to about one fourth the natural size.—10 feet. : N. B. The boring for salt commenced in this stratum. 10. Dark, blue argillaceous sandstone, rather soft in its texture, but containing a considerable amount of sharp fine silex.—75 feet. 11. Red compact marl.—2 feet. 12. Hard blue rock, containing silex intermixed, scales of which scintillate with steel.—3 feet. ih 13. Blue, argillaceous slate, filled with iron pyrites of a bright brass color, leading the operator to think he had struck a rich gold mine.—19 feet. 14. Grey sand rock, with a large proportion of mica, coming up with the sludge in the pump, the size of a large fish scale two eighths of an inch across.—9 fect. 15. Blue, compact lime rock.—12 feet. 16. Grey sandstone, with a large proportion of mica.—3 feet. 17. Red sandstone.—3 feet. 18. Blue compact sandstone, with fimt in fragments.—9 feet. Vor. XXIX.—No. 1. 4 26 Geology of the Muskingum Valley. 19. Red sandstone, with hard fragments of silex.—7 feet. 20. Black carbonaceous deposit, upper part containing some sand, and throwing off a large quantity of carburetted hydrogen gas, and considerable petroleum. ‘The lower part of the deposit, five feet in thickness composed of black carbonaceous matter like the pulverized coal of pine wood and floating on the top of the water in the head of the well, quite dry when removed ; probably the petroleum rendered it repulsive. I have some of it in my possess- ion; it is quite inflammable and resembles mineral charcoal.— 13 feet. 21. Blue, argillaceous conglomerate, with imbedded pebbles of white quartz, pieces the size of a pea coming up in the pump; when dried in the air, the fine mud became coated with a white salt, bitter and pungent, probably a niuriate of lime. Here the boring ceased at 200 feet from the top of the well, and 359 below the surface of the hills. Muriatiferous Rocks. As we proceed up the Muskingum valley, the hills become more elevated, especially at the great salt deposits, about forty miles from the mouth of the river, where they rise to an elevation of nearly three hundred feet, above the bed of the river; at a point, twenty five miles from the mouth, to the falls at eae a distance of about thirty miles in a direct line, the strata dip south or south east, at the rate of about twenty feet to the mile, several ofthe strata cropping out between these two points; showing the same upward tendency of the saliferous rock strata here, that has been observed at the works on the Kiskiminitas and Kenawha, but whether this. elevation was caused by the immense evolution of gases, much more abundant in early times at all the salines than at present, or from internal heat, remains as yet unknown. ‘The temperature of the salt water as it rises from the deep wells, is found to be about 50° of Farenheit; while that of springs and wells of fresh water in the vicinity is about 52°. From this we may infer that the salif- erous and secondary strata are of great thickness and that those seen, lie far above the primitive rocks, which are doubtless of igneous origin; and the existence of internal heat is countenanced by the fact that mines regularly increase in temperature as they descend deeper into the earth; the same fact is also observed in Artesian ~ Geology of the Muskingum Valley. 27 wells. Four miles above McConnelsville, a deposit of grey or -horncolored flint rock, comes to the surface and rises upon the adjacent hills a short distance above ; at this town in boring for salt water the flint stratum is reached at about one hundred feet, and it continues to dip at. nearly the same rate for ten or fifteen miles below. ‘This rock is a certain guide for the well diggers, as the main salt rock is very uniformly found at six hundred and fifty feet below it. At the lower wells on the Muskingum, twenty five miles from the mouth, the salt rock is reached at nine hundred feet from the surface. Some wells at these salines, are sunk more than three hundred feet below the present surface of the ocean, and the salt . rocks, generally through the valley of the Ohio, lie below tide wa- ter. ‘The rock strata below the surface, are similar to those passed at the other salines in the west, being a series of yellow and grey sandstones, slate clay, red argillaceous marls, bituminous coal, shells, flint, red or brown sandstone, calcareous rocks, and finally pure white saccharine sand rock, containing a small portion of silvery mica, in which the excavations terminate, and in whieh the only strong and lasting supply of brine is found, throughout the salt region. It is porous, and full of cavities, affording a free circulation to the water; the augur sometimes dropping several inches, at once into one of these cavities. At the Muskingum salines there are two stra- ta of this rock which afford salt water—one at about two hundred feet below the siliceous rock, twenty four feet in thickness, affording good water but not in sufficient quantity. It is more compact than the lower rock but it is not of so pure a white. The second lies at about four hundred and fifty feet below this, and is from forty to fifty feet in thickness. The upper part of this rock is sometimes tinged with red. In all the salt wells on the Muskingum a stratum of rock is passed, known to the workmen by the name of the lower hard rock. At McConnelsville it is struck at six hundred and twen- ty feet below the surface, or about one hundred and eighty above the lower salt rock, lying between these two rocks. It is about forty feet in thickness and possesses some singular properties. From Mr. Stone, a very intelligent man who was for many years engaged in the salt business, I received the following description. Where he pierced this rock it is forty two feet thick and the boring occupied forty five days of labor. ‘Through its whole depth, it is very dense and compact, and in particular veins, or beds, possesses great tena- 28 Geology of the Muskingum Valley. city and hardness, so much so, that twelve hours operation, with an augur, weighing with the poles, more than half a ton, and making sixty strokes in a minute, penetrated only three inches; with these constant and repeated blows, the augur, or drill was not perceptibly diminished or worn away ; proving from the effects, as well as by in- spection of the detritus that the rock contains little if any siliceous ingredient. If not mixed with other matter thrown down from the rocks above, the sludge, or borings would be nearly as white as chalk; they are now almost white, and from chemical tests appear to be composed of carbonate of lime, a little salt and protoxide of iron. About six feet below the upper surface of this rock, the me- tallic pump, or sucker, used to bring up the sludge, was frequently arrested, both in its descent and ascent, as if forcibly held by some invisible power ; and that so strongly, that the workmen were obliged to hook on the poles, in place of the rope commonly used for this service lest their efforts should break it. ‘There was sufficient room for the pump without touching or rubbing much against the sides of the well, usually about four inches in diameter. The long continu- ed and forcible blows of the steel augur no doubt excited great mag- netic action, both in the hard ferrugmous rock, found in the upper part of the stratum and in the iron connected with the rods. Mr. Disbrow in one of his experiments in boring to form Artesian wells, speaks of the drill being so highly charged with magnetic power as to sustain a heavy jacknife. I should ascribe the retention of the pump, rather to the magnetic power excited by the operation of boring, than to any inherent magnetism in the rock. The rock is entirely calcareous, and sometimes contains fine particles of salt, mix- ed with the borings. ‘The most remarkable character of this rock is its singular density. From the inclination of the strata, the lower salt wells produce a stronger brine than those higher up the Muskingum. Fifty gallons of water yield to the manufacturer fifty pounds of salt of a very fine quality. By an analysis of the water, made at Cincinnati, by a prac- tical Chemist, four ounces of the water yielded the following re- sults. Muriate of soda, x. é : 260 grains. Muriate of magnesia, . : abt ve QO jens Muriate of lime. Say, . ah) seri pare There was also a faint trace of Iodine and some carbonate of Iron. From this analysis it appears that the water contains about fifteen Geology of the Muskingum Valley. 29 per cent of the muriate of soda, and is in strength and freedom from other ingredients rather superior to any other water yet brought into use in the valley. Salt water is found in the vicinity of the Muskingum river, up’ to Coshocton, and probably further up, and, also on some of the larger creeks. Manufactures are in operation on Moxahala creek, where the bed of the stream is lime rock; also on Will’s creek, where the whole country abounds in limestone. Coal and sandstone continue to accompany the muriatiferous deposits, and are found at very considerable depths below the surface. \ In excava- ting a shaft, on Salt creek, ten miles S. E. of Zanesville, a bed of fine coal, seven feet in thickness, was found lying under a thick de- posit of slate, very compact and free from fissures. The rock per- forated in this portion of the shaft, was one hundred and fifty feet in depth; it was dry and impervious to water, which caused great trouble in the sandstone strata above ; the coal bemg found in the bottom of the shaft. ‘The same fact was observed, in sinking a shaft near Portsmouth, Ohio, in slate, the whole distance, one hundred and fifty feet being very dry, and entirely free from water. On all the eastern branches of the Muskingum, coal is found in extensive deposits, but becomes more scarce, and is found in thin- ner beds as we approach the table lands between Lake Erie and the river ; this region being the northern and western verge of the great coal basin. Near the borders of the coal region, iron ore be- comes much more abundant, and is found in extensive beds of re- cent argillaceous or bog ores, and also in kidney shaped masses, im- bedded im clay, and often under coal deposits. Ores of this variety are extensively worked in Stark and several of the adjacent coun- ties. ‘The lime rocks here abound in fossil marine shells of the ge- nera, Productus, Terebratula and Spirifera, with ammonites and chambered shells; indicating that some of the coal deposits have been deeply submerged under salt water since their formation; or that the vegetable materials, composing the coal had once floated in an ocean, and were precipitated by an accumulation of calcareous, argillaceous and sedimentary materials, collected on and about them while floating. Marine fossils are found both above and below the coal, and sometimes deposits containmg fresh water shells are intermixed, al- though they are not so common, as they are nearer to the Ohio riv- er. Some of these fresh water fossils bear a striking resemblance to 30 ; Putnan Hill Strata. living species now found in our rivers. For a notice of No. 20, 21 and 22, (page 1 of the wood cuts,) see the appendix. Through nearly all the coal region we find many proofs of the -predominance both of fresh and of salt water. West of the coal - deposits in Ohio, the fossil shells are altogether marine, at least so far as I have seen them, and many of them belong to the supercre- taceous or tertiary genera, and are similar to those found in the same formations in the Southern States. - A section of the rock strata near Zanesville, will give a satisfac- ‘tory view of the geological structure of this portion of the valley ; and for this purpose, I have chosen a lofty hill on the west side of the river, called “ Putnam hill.” The scite of the town of Put- nam, lying along its southern base was selected in the early settle- ment of the state, by General Rufus Putnam, and the town was na- med after him. The Muskingum river commg down from the N. E. here makes a bend, sweeping the base of the hill, and tumbling and foaming over the hard ferruginous limestone that forms its bed. ’ This hill, at some remote period, was united im continuous strata with its congener of nearly the same elevation on the east side of the river. But the waters, which have made such changes on the surface of the earth, accumulating from the regions higher up the valley, here forced a passage, tearing away the sand rocks, slate clay, coal and shale, down to its present bed, leaving the face of the hill very abrupt ; and with the assistance of a road excavated out of its side, affording a fine view of the thickness and order of stratifi- cation. 1. Argillaceous earth and clay, from the decomposed sandstone forming the stratum beneath.—10 feet. 2. Argillaceous sandstone. Slaty structure, tinged yellowish by the oxide of iron and containing imbedded nodules of argillaceous iron ore. The lower part of the bed dark colored.—10 feet. 3. Carbonaceous, slaty clay, with bitummous shale, contammg thin seams of coal the thickness of paper, the coal still retainmg the outlines of the vegetable foliage impressed on the shale. Itis a thin bed of only one foot in thickness. Some of the impressions are similar to those found in Section No. 12.—1 foot. 4, Bituminous coal. Structure foliated, splitting into thin lay- ers. Color inclined to dark brown. Specific gravity 1.22, being rather less than the average for common coal. In deflagrating with the nitrate of potash, twenty grains of the coal consume one hun- Putnam Hill Strata. Section of “ Putnam Hill?’ Order, descending —Strata, nearly horizontal—Slight dip to S. E. LN ity LN Ds a ia Soc iy, A wn i y, co fl oa f aes 7) —— Z ae a a aa . | \ \\ i — yy " 7 a, a il : 7 \\ AY \ Te \ \ \ 1 i i I 1H : i ! | Mi || 1] th | \ ili iy : WY (| Eile . 1 LN | SL Ly, th l Ww Cp Yi wy | gs Bae ZZ oS Lge 3 ; SEE Ze , EZ Z ers BLL yy Zz GZ Z z 7 ZZ Z ZEZZE: DLR Zz Z) 32 Putnam Hill Strata. dred grains of the nitrate, which would give to the coal about sixty per cent of carbon ; it requiring about thirteen grains of wood coal, to decompose that quantity of nitre. Forty grains of this coal heat- ed to redness in a crucible, and kept at that point for a few min- utes, left twenty one grains of coke, which contained but little earth, for fourteen grains of this coke, deflagrated, one hundred grains of nitre. While burning in a grate, it flames freely at first, but soon melts and runs together, obstructing the circulation of the air through the burning mass. ‘This character is common to the coal from the upper deposit, not only at several remote points in Ohio, but also on the Kenawha river in Virginia. The bitumen it contains is very pure and free from sulphur.—8 feet. 5. Slaty, micaceous sandstone, in thin layers, from half an inch to two or three inches in thickness, very fissile—some of the lower layers are hard, and fine grained—when struck, emitting a metallic sound, as if they had been subjected to a strong heat. No veget- able remains have been seen in this stratum.—15 feet. 6. Fine plastic clay, nearly white ; a few miles west of this local- ity, the same bed is found with a much ‘purer clay, and is used in the manufacture of Pots for glass house furnaces. It supports a great degree of heat. ‘This vicinity abounds in clays very suitable to the manufacture of earthen ware of various kinds.—1 foot. 7. Stratum of shelly ash colored limestone, with a tinge of yellow decomposing very readily into marl. It seems to be made up of de- composed and broken, and also of many whole shells, of the same ge- nera, and generally of the same species with those found at “ Flint ridge,’”’ a few miles west of this spot, in a calcareo-silicious deposit, abounding in cellular quartz, with veins of chalcedony, and furnishing a material for millstones equal to the best imported Paris Burrh stones—a further description of this interesting deposit, which lies at an elevation somewhat greater than this, will be given hereafter. The figures of shells Nos. 1, 2, 3, 4,5, 6, 7,9, 10, (page 2 of the wood cuts, and fig. 8 on page 3,) are from this bed, a description of which may be given in the appendix. No. 11, (page 2,) is an impres- sion very common in this bed of limestone. ‘The stellated points are of a greenish hue and appear to be connected by a fine striated sub- stance. It is probably a species of Gorgonia, but the fragments of stone are too small to give its original figure or outlines. ‘The spines of a species of Plagiostoma, are very abundant in some parts of the bed. The perfect shell is found near Columbia in compact _ Putnam Hill Strata. 30 limestone, two specimens from that place are in my collection.— 13 foot. 8. Very compact close grained, slaty sandstone in layers, from half an inch to an inch in thickness. It contains a portion of fine gramed yellowish mica. The fracture is smooth, displaying dark colored lines, a sixteenth of an inch in thickness, passing through the stone in the line of stratification. The bed and _surface-faces are remarkably even, like roofing slate, for which purpose it has been used, but is rather too heavy.—7 feet. 9. Pale blue, slaty clay—very fissile and loose in its texture. Considerable quantities of argillaceous iron ore are found in detach- ed nodules scattered through the bed, in flattened reniform masses. On exposure, the surface becomes oxidized, and peels off in thin concentric layers. The clay contains fine particles of sand and mi- ca. Near the bottom of this stratum, fossil shells, in good preser- vation, are found, imbedded in indurated masses of clay, indicating a removal from their original bed. ‘Those in my possession, belong chiefly to the family of Pectens, with one Fusus. Figures are giv- en in Nos. 12 and 13, (page 2 of the wood cuts,) with descriptions added below. This bed is very extensive, and without doubt is passed in boring for salt some distance down the river, as the whole series dips directly to the S. and S. E.—52 feet. 10. Dark blue limestone—compact and hard in the upper part of the stratum, lower part carbonaceous, loose and friable. It abounds in fossil shells of the genera Terebratula and Gryphea; it contains also Enerini, the latter in branches, three or four feet in length, are seen rising a little above the surface in the face of the stone, be- tween the seams, and especially in weathered pieces. The animal structure is replaced by pure crystallized carbonate of lime. When the stone is fractured, these white cylinders appear in strong con- trast with the dark mass of the rock in which they are imbedded. Some specimens are three fourths of an inch in diameter, others much smaller. Not having seen the base of these animals, I can- not determine the species, but from the figures in Parkinson, should call it the “‘ Encrinus rectus.”,—The Terebratule are small, and many of them similar to No. 5, (page 2.of the wood cuts,) but so closely imbedded as not to be removed without defacing the speci- men. ‘The Gryphea, resembles ‘‘ Gryphea arcuata.”—5 feet. 11. Bituminous coal—a thin bed of less than a foot, but of a fine quality and brilliant fracture. Specific gravity about 1.30. There Vou. XXIX.—No. 1. 5 ; 34 Putnam Hill Strata. is a thin bed of shale of two inches, above the coal, on which the limestone reposes. It has been remarked, that coal lying immedi- ately under or over lime, is of a better quality than that which is as- sociated with sandstone.—1 foot. « : 12. Slate clay, common and bituminous shale. ‘The upper part of the deposit is of a light or ash color, four feet in thickness. ‘The lower part is dark colored and bituminous, being made up of thin folia of shale and coal intermixed, frequently not thicker than pa- per. This portion of the bed is six feet thick, and strongly resem- bles a mass of tobacco leaves as they are pressed closely together in a hogshead, and still retain the brownish yellow color when first exposed to the air. ‘This deposit is remarkable for the great varie- ty and beauty of the vegetable impressions found between the lam- ina of coal. The most abundant variety belonged to a broad leav- ed, arundinaceous plant. Figures are given of ten species, from numbers 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10 and 11, (on pages 3, 4 and 5 of the wood cuts,) and probably fifty or a hundred more might be found if diligent search were made, and the shale had a little more tenacity, but it is so fragile that only partial figures of the branches can be obtained. Nos. 1, 7 and 9, are portions of the cuticle, or - bark covering the trunks or large branches of Fucoides. No. 9 ex- hibits a very peculiar structure, such as I have not observed in any other specimen. The surface is arranged in squares of about half an inch in diameter, separated by raised lines of a sixteenth of an inch, which break on each other, throwing the squares into alternate rows. In the center of each is a circular depression of two eighths of an inch, bearing a lustrous or glazed surface, as if a smooth, warty tubercle had been pressed forcibly into it. ‘The intermediate surface is maculated, similar to the skin ofthe dog-fish. ‘The whole impression is made in a thin layer of coal, glued to a brown ferru- ginous slate, and must have lain on the outer surface of the bed. The drawing is half the size of the original specimen. No. 1 is al- so impressed on a thin lamina of coal lying between layers of shale. The surface of No. 7 retains the vegetable coloring like that of the yellow leaf tobacco when dried. A portion of the shale an inch in thickness is impressed, from side to side, with these figures—other - portions are marked by the smooth, broad leaves of arundinaceous plants. No. 2, is from the upper portion of the bed and resembles “ Fucoides Wilsonianus.” No. 4 is from the same bed and is also a Fucoides, but of an undescribed species, as I suppose many of Putnam Hill Strata. 35 those which follow are also undescribed. Having had access only to the first six numbers of M. Brongniart’s work on ‘‘ Vegetaux Fos- siles,’” Iam unable to determine. The drawings are faithful delin- eations of the plants represented.» Nos. 8 and 3, are beautiful spe- cies of arborescent ferns. ‘The nervures on the foliage of No. 2, are very strongly impressed.” The filaments of the leaves on No. 8, are united at the base, and considerably curved. No. 5, is a very sin- gular fossil, and has several equivocal marks in its form and struc- ture. The outlines of the fragment are similar to the hinder part of a fish; while its flattened body strengthens the illusion. ‘The specimen is about four inches long, three inches wide and one in thickness, composed of ash colored, marly clay. The surface is covered with depressed spines of the eighth of an inch in diameter— none were overan inch in length when I received it, and those were all broken and shortened from their original extent. In the same bed a fragment was seen eighteen inches in length and much thicker than this one, but it broke into small pieces in removing it. It may be the remnant of a large Equisetum—the surface is bituminized. No. 6, is also a species of Fucoides, as near as I can determine; it is from the upper bed. No. 10, represents the seeds of some mon- ocotyledonous plant, which are thickly scattered in patches, amidst the fossil leaves in the shale. ‘The seeds are a little enlarged in the fieure. No. 11, appears to be ‘“ Calamites remotus,”’ and was ta- ken from the upper part of the bed. The columns still retain the siliceous cuticle common to canes. The radius of the four columns, of which the specimen consists, being taken, the outlines of the whole circumference is given in the drawing. The oblong tubers on the face of the columns are finely preserved. ‘The original whole, must have been a beautiful stem. The lower part of the shale bed is composed of the half bituminized leaves of grasses, arundinaceous plants, &c. the mass not being sufficiently vegetable to form perfeet coal, although directly beneath, it passes into that state—several feet of the shale would afford nearly as good fuel as Bovey, or wood coal.—10 feet. 13. Bituminous coal, eighteen inches in thickness, of rather a poor quality, not sufficiently compact—structure slaty, displaying impressions of broad, delicate leaves between the seams, from which we may infer that wood did not enter into the composition of this bed. No. 34, (page 8 of the wood cuts,) is a piece of coal from the heads of Duck creek, but represents.the appearance of the foliage, between the layers of coal as seen at this bed.—14 feet. 36 Putnam Hill Strata. 14. Slaty clay—upper portion of the bed dark colored, middle and lower parts, light blue. ‘This great deposit contains a few veg- etable impressions in the upper part, with imbedded nodules of iron ore scattered through the whole. The lower part contains some sand, within a few feet of where it rests on the sand rock below.— 60 feet. . 15. Sand rock, composed mainly of siliceous sand, tolerably fine grained, with a little mica, general aspect yellowish. ‘The struc- ture of the upper part of the deposit is compact, or in very thick beds. The Zanesville canal is excavated in this rock, and as the work proceeded, it furnished many fine specimens of fossil trees, carbonized wood, and impressions, both in outlme and figure, resem- bling the scales, and form of an immense fish, of some extinct spe- cies. A figure of a portion of one of these casts is given at No. 12, (page 6 of the wood cuts.) ‘The centre of each scale is deeply sunk im this cast, but in the original, this part must have been raised, standing out boldly from the surface like the bosses on a buckler. The plates are arranged in rather curved lines, reposing on each other like tiles on a roof, and must have been a quarter of an inch in thickness, and from a half to three-fourths of an inch across the face. "Towards the back of the specimen they are crowded and smaller, as if compressed forcibly together. It was, however, after all, most probably not a fish, but a portion of the trunk of a palm tree. Nos. 13 and 14, (page 6) have been in my possession, sev- eral years. ‘They were received from Mr. Horace Nye, to whom I am indebted for many similar favors, he having furnished the most of the fossil specimens exhibited in the section of “ Putnam Hill.” From the texture of the rock, I think they are from a more ele- vated bed, but are certainly from this vicinity. No. 13 appears to be impressed by the bark of a tree, similar to those now living. No. 14 is more lozenge shaped, and I should think lived at a period between those found in our coal deposits, and the growth of the earliest species of those now clothing the earth; there being a most marked and entire difference between those of the two periods. No. 15 (page 5) is a cast, apparently the termina- tion of the trunk of some ancient palm tree. It is about eighteen inches in length, and three inches in diameter. The surface co- vered with lozenge shaped scales, arranged in spirally oblique lines. No. 16 (page 7 of the wood cuts) is about fifteen inches im length and six inches in diameter at the larger extremity. This is only Putnam Hill Strata. 37 half its original thickness, as it is split into two parts near the center and is considerably flattened. The surface is covered with double interrupted lines, or lines in pairs, about half an inch apart; the interruption or break in one line being opposed to the continued line in the adjacent row. ‘These lines are raised less than the six- teenth of an inch, and follow the curve of the trunk. The space between the lines is filled with fine longitudinal strie, resem- bling threads. The surface has a most beautiful and finished ap- pearance, as if impressed by the hand of a master. - The transverse furrow is evidently the cicatrix of the foot stalk of a broad leaf, half encircling the stem, like that of many arundinaceous plants. ‘The rock in which these fossils are imbedded splits freely, and affords valuable materials for architectural - purposes. It embraces the up- per half of the deposit, which is forty-two feet in thickness. The lower half, although it is not equally divided, exhibits a very singu- lar appearance ; the component parts are much coarser and appa- rently made up of a fragmentary sandstone, intermixed with slate, bituminous and carbonaceous materials in thin veins, pursuing an undulatory course, often rising in one spot and sinking in another, as if thrown up by the force of a current pressing against some ob- struction, or as if otherwise disturbed after being deposited. Some of these veins of coal and slate are several inches in thickness, others only a line or two, or even less. They are frequently inter- rupted and broken, but are resumed again ina spot a few feet distant. The structure of this portion of the rock is slaty, easily splitting in the line of stratification. Between each of the contiguous layers is seen, a thin coating of bituminous argillaceous or carbonaceous mat- ter, staining the surface of the seams, and often impressed with the figure of some leaf or stem of a plant ; amongst these varieties the calamites are rather more common than any other. ‘This portion of the rock contains much more mica than the upper part of the bed. The shaded and curved lines in this stratum of the section will give a pretty correct idea of its appearance. ‘The contorted portion of the bed rests on a deposit of fine argillaceous slaty sandstone, of one or two feet in thickness. It is very light colored and splits into lamine of one or two inches, the surface of cach piece being coated with a soft taleose material, which forms the line of separation.— AO feet. : _16. Calcareous iron ore, deep brown color, resting on a thin bed of black hornstone or flint, of six or eight inches in thickness, con- 38 Putnam Hill Strata. taining a great many broken and some whole shells of the genera spi- rifera and gryphea. ‘The shells retain their calcareous material, effer- vescing freely with acids. ‘The upper portion of the bed is intense- ly hard, but breaks into fragments, and is gathered up below the falls and used in the manufacture of iron. ‘This deposit forms the bed of the rapids or falls at this place. ‘The black flit contains numer- ous cells, as if it had consolidated suddenly after bemg deposited in a very hot state, as nothing less than a powerful heat can hold it in solution.—1 foot. 17. Fine compact ferruginous sandstone, filled with very perfect vegetable impressions, of several feet in length. Figures No. 17 and 18 (page 7, wood cuts) are from this deposit. No. 17 is a portion of a “ calamites dubius,” which is most beautifully and perfectly im- pressed, leaving a thin coat of bituminous matter in its place. No. 18 appears to be a fragment of the foliage of some palm, or arundi- naceous plant. Portions of arborescent ferns, and the flowers of some vegetable resembling an aster, are very commonly impressed on the same fragment of rock. ‘This deposit can be approached only at low stages of the water, as it lies in the bed of the river a little below the falls. ‘The most distinct and perfect impressions of fossil plants in all this vicinity are found in this bed, as if nature jeal- ous and careful of her choicest productions had placed them in a spot difficult of access, enveloped in numerous stony coverings, and deen by water from the prying curiosity of man.—3 feet. . Limestone—dark colored and carbonaceous—in beds of four ta six inches in thickness—containing fossil encrini and broken shells.—1 foot. IT am informed that a few feet below this limestone there is: a deposit of very fine coal, much thicker than any of the upper beds. A spot contaming a more interesting series of fossils and rock strata, can hardly be found, than this in the vicmity of Zanesville. The sand rocks, on Monongahela creek, a few miles S. W. of this, are filled with the most perfect fossil casts of Palm trees, calamites, the roots of aquatic plants, &c. Figures No. 19 and 20, (page 7,) are from this place. No. 19 is a very fine sand- stone. No. 20 is replaced by siliceous material. ‘They are differ- ent species of the stems of arborescent ferns. No. 33, (page 9 of the wood cuts,) is from stratum No. 17, and is prea a monocotyle- donous plant. Cannel Coal. 39 Cannel Coal. The only places as yet known in this country where this interest- ing species of bituminous coal is found, are in the vicinity of Cam- bridge, Guernsey County, Ohio, on the waters of Will’s creek; the first notice of which was given by the Hon. B. Tappan in Vol. XVII, of the American Journal of Science. It will probably be found in some other places in that region, as I have picked up considerable masses of it on the shores of the Muskingum, brought _ down by the current from the streams above. {t is found in a dis- trict abounding with limestone, which possibly may have had some influence in impressing its peculiar characters. The composition of this coal, by analysis, does not materially dif- fer from the common black slaty coal of the country. It contains rather more bituminous, and less carbonaceous matter. Its specific sravity is 1.41, while a large share of the common coal does not ex- ceed 1.30. In deflagrating it with the nitrate of potash, thirty grains of this coal decomposes one hundred of the nitre, which will give about forty per cent. of charcoal. By carefully examining the appearance and structure of the coal, I am induced to suppose that it has been subjected to a degree of heat sufficient to melt and agelu- tinate it into a compact mass, after it was deposited in its-present bed, and that it was originally a deposit of common slaty coal. The outer surface of many pieces, has marks and lines impressed on it, as if made by the superincumbent slate, while it was soft or fluid. Its fracture is vitreous and conchoidal like that of a mineral which has been in a fused state. ‘The following description of the cannel coal deposit was kindly furnished by Judge Tappan, and taken by his son. “This bed of coal is situated about five hundred yards north of Grummon’s tavern, five miles west of Cambridge ; the country about it is rolling, the hills rismg generally to the height of one hun- dred and fifty feet, with broad valleys between. The coal is found about sixty feet below the summit of one of these hills, near a small run. The bed of coal is twenty one inches thick, of a somewhat slaty structure in its lower part, and rests on and is covered by bitu- minous shale, which gradually passes into common shale above. Below it has been examined only to the depth of a few inches ; the water of the run having prevented a more extensive search in that direction. I did not see any vegetable impressions in the coal, or in the shale, nor was any limestone visible, although I was informed that 40 White Lias Limestone. there is a bed of limestone six or eight feet thick at some distance above the coal. Sandstone, clay slate, and common bituminous coal are found in the neighborhood. The soil is a yellow clay. I was also informed that the same kind of coal had been found im digging a well, about one mile and a half S. W. of the place before mentioned, of about the same thickness, and at about the same level. ' I could not ascertain the order of superposition of the strata, no sec- tion of the hills having been cut for roads, or by the runs of water. The limestone rock of this vicinity abounds in fine fossil shells, and other relics of a former age; many interesting remains being discovered in breaking the rocks to construct the national road. Amongst these, were some beautiful large ammonites and overgrown sryphea, or nautilites, with a shell which resembles a lymnea. Drawings of an ammonite and an ampullaria are given at figures 24 (page 1 of the wood cuts) and 14 (page 2) taken from the limestone in this vicinity, with descriptions below. Many of these fossils al- though imbedded in lime, are replaced by silex. White Lias Limestone.* About twenty miles §. E. from Cambridge, on the head-waters of Will’s creek, Little Muskingum, and Duck creek, in an elevated hilly country, is found a very interesting deposit of fine white hmestone, of a quality similar to the lithographic variety. It lies in stratified beds of eight and ten feet in thickness, and leaves a space of eight or ten miles square, in the heads of these streams, lying chiefly on the southern side of the anticlinal line, between the waters of Will’s creek and the other two streams. It is seen cropping out on the sides of hills, and in the beds of runs at various points through the neighborhood. It is the only deposit of this stone, of any extent, at present known in this part of Ohio. I visited that region last spring and took sections of the rock strata; two of which will be given, including two interesting deposits ; and so far as I know both are peculiar to this district of country. One of them is white, the other a brecciated or fragmentary limestone, found a few miles north of the other. The hills at this spot are one hundred and eighty or two hundred feet in height, but in the dividing ridge, and on the waters of Duck creek a few miles west, rise to more than three hun- dred feet. This spot is distinctly marked on the map. * We have not seen any specimens of this rock from Ohio.—Ed. White Lias Limestone. 1 See Section of White Eras Limestone Strata, on the “ Clear Fork” of the Little Muskingum. Order, ascending.—Dip S. E. Fig. 5. | No. of Stratum, e| Nl : aa RG, Ga a : | eee WULMLLMLYLL 4) 4 "Gel 3 caf mcm — S (<=) @ Le Bed of the Creek. ‘1. Limestone ; compact; dark; carbonaceous; in beds of six inches to two feet in thickness. It is destitute of fossil shells at this point, but on Papaw creek, a few miles south, contains orthocera- ‘tites of more than a foot in length, in sparry lime rock, resting on a bed of light blue clay, filled with beautiful crystals of the sulphuret of iron.—8 feet. 2. Bituminous coal ; slaty structure. ‘This bed is nearly all pure coal ; fracture brilliant, and in spots, having the appearance of being melted, or made fluid by heat. It rests on the limestone below, and has a roof of the white variety, with a very thin bed of shell between. Its specific gravity is 1.38, being very near that of the cannel coal. [It contains about fifty-six per cent of charcoal ; twenty-two grains decomposing one hundred of nitre ; forty grains ce in a crucible, leaving twenty-two grains of coak. ive feet. 3. Water lime, in thin beds, and not so firm and compact as the bed above, reposing on the coal.—6 feet. 4. Achloritic rock. This bed has all the outward characters of chlorite. Its fracture is rough and splintery, breaking into cunei- form fragments; saponaceous ; not easily scratched with the nail, but may be cut with a knife. Its color isa deep, almost verdi- gris, green. The chemical constituents of chlorite, silex, alu- Vou, XXIX-——No. 6 42 White Lias Limestone. mine, magnesia, oxide of iron and muriate of soda, are all found in our rocks, and these materials held in solution, at the time the lias beds were found, might have been deposited here. I have seen nothing in any other place that bears any resemblance to this bed. It lies between two distinct deposits of white limestone, and con- tains no fossil remains that I could discover. ‘The bed is’ a very curious mineral earth, and might be called a secondary chlorite.— 4 feet. ig 5. White lias limestone; structure compact; color yellowish white, where exposed to the air, but a greyish white in the bed, and when first broken. Its fracture is slightly conchoidal, with an earthy surface; adheres strongly to the tongue, and is composed of a nearly pure carbonate of lime, carbonic acid and a little carburet of iron. In its properties and appearance it approaches more nearly to chalk than any other mineral I have seen in the valley of the Ohio. It is cut easily with the knife, is perfectly smooth, and on wood, leaves a streak similar to chalk, but is too hard to be used for the same purposes. It stands the weather without exfoliating, and would make a most beautiful building stone; being easily wrought it could be worked into tomb stones, and various other useful articles. Its specific gravity is 2.08.—8 feet. 6. A variety of calcareous tufa, reposmg on the compact lime- stone. It is porous, as if pierced in all directions by small worms. Color, greyish yellow, with many particles of spar intermixed, as if deposited in a portion of the cells, giving the surface a glimmering appearance. It is coarse grained, harder than the pure carbonate below, and mixed with other materials both argillaceous and are- naceous, not found in that, although it is evidently a kindred de- posit. Streaks resembling yellow ochre are scattered through it. —6 feet. 7. Hard sparry lime rock ; light dove color tinged with brown, in beds of about a foot in thickness; breaks into irregular masses, very compact and fine grained. ‘The lower part of the bed resting on the tufa is coarse grained and tinged with yellow. No fossil re- mains were noticed, although it was examined very carefully for this purpose.—30 feet. 8. Sand rock; a very thick deposit ; the lower half of the bed is stratified in thin layers of a few inches, with considerable mica. The upper half compact, rather coarse grained, composed of sharp sand, with a few scattering scales of white mica, and cemented by lime ; color, light ash. It splits freely, and makes good stone for architec- White Lias Limestone. 43 tural puposes. This portion of the deposit contains some fossil re- mains. Figure 21, (page 7 of the wood cuts) was taken from this bed, a little distance from this spot, and resembles the caudal half of a fish. The drawing is much reduced. The original, when taken from. the rock, was three feet in length and about six inches in diameter, but has been broken and shortened. ‘The figures on the surface dif- fer in their arrangement in this respect, from any other in my pos- session, the greater diameter of the scaly impression is placed transversely, while in the others it is longitudinary.—100 feet. 9. Yellowish, argillaceous soil, rich and loamy ; covered with a growth of yellow and white oak, poplar, hickory, &c. ‘The soil on the hills being very loose and fertile——10 feet. This interesting deposit of white water lime, extends from the heads of Sunfish creek, across the heads of the Little Muskingum, over to the east fork of Duck creek, of an average width of six or eight miles, cropping out at various places, where the runs have cut away the superincumbent strata to a sufficient depth. Calcareous Breccia or Fragmentary Lime rock. About eight miles north west of the water lime beds, is found a very mteresting deposit of fragmentary lime rock. This bed is on one of the southerly branches of Will’s creek, two miles from Sum- mersville, which is seated on the dividing ridge between the waters of the latter creek and those of Duck creek and Little Muskingum. A part of the same water which falls on this ridge, runs into the Muskingum river, above Zanesville, and apart into the Ohio, -near Marietta. ‘The waters of Will’s creek, are deep and sluggish, while those on the south side of the ridge are rapid and shallow. The soil on the north side of the ridge is black and loose with a large proportion of sugar trees and yellow poplar amongst the growth of the forest. On the south side the soil is lighter colored, and the timber mostly oak, both indications of peculiar rock formations, The one is more calcareous, the other more argillaceous. 44 Fragmentary Lime Rock Strata. Section of Rock Strata on Will’s creek. Direction of strata, E. and W.—Position, nearly horizontal.—Order, ascending. Fig. 6. No. of stratum. Le _ om |? oe Bed of the Run, 1. Coarse, calcareous, mill stone grit, or fine Breccia, in beds of _ about a foot in thickness. This rock is composed altogether of comminuted, and generally rounded grains of different colored lime- stone, from the side of a very large pea to that of fine sand. ‘They are strongly cemented by carbonate of lime, with a little iron, which makes a very firm cement. ‘The color of the grains is generally light ash, and a dirty blue. Where the component grains are fine, the sparry cement gives it the glimmering look of siliceous sandstone. From its great resemblance to the Laurel hill mill stones, which are siliceous, the neighboring inhabitants have manufactured it into stones for their mills, especially for the grinding of wheat—very good flour is made from these stones, but they need dressing often. When used a few days, the surface of the stone, between the furrows, takes a fine polish—shewing the imbedded grains of lime, similar to a Breccia. This deposit rests on a stratum of common grey lime- stone, which forms the channel of the run below. At the spot Fragmentary Lime Rock Strata. 45 where I examined it, there is a cascade or fall of six or eight feet, affording a fine view of the rock in place. At some remote period in the history of the earth, this deposit probably formed the shore of an ocean, or an extensive lake, which must have stretched far away north and west. This supposition is strengthened by the fact that calcareous pebbles coarse and large, form the substratum, at the distance of seventy or eighty miles west, a point which may | be supposed distant from this shore; just as pebbles are now found in our present seas, with the sand and gravel, on, and near the shores, the lighter particles and fragments being driven higher up by the waves and tides, while the larger and heavier are left in deeper wa- ter. This fragmentary rock extends eastward to the heads of Sun- fish creek, about fifteen miles, and is of a width at present unknown. No fossil shells were discovered, nor could I hear of any from per- sons manufacturing the stone.—10 feet. 2. Limestone, dark colored, and slaty structure.—30 feet. 3. Argillaceous, slaty, sandstone—easily decomposing.—60 feet. 4. Compact, sparry limestone, dove colored and fine grained.— 20 feet. 5. Bituminous coal, resting on the limestone, of a good quality, burning freely—slaty structure. ‘The same bed of coal makes its appearance on the south side of the ridge, in several places, under the coarse sand rock. ‘The lamine of coal when separated, display the impressions of some broad leaved plant between the contiguous layers ; it is very peculiar in this respect, affording the most satis- factory and unequivocal proof of its vegetable origin, were any still disposed to doubt it. ‘This bed, with the sand rock above, is de- graded and washed away about fifteen miles north of Marietta, where the hills are much lower, and is seen noymore in that direction. The impressions in this coal, when first displayed to the light, has the appearance of a dried, yellowish leaf—the vegetable matter, where not changed to coal, being replaced with yellow ochre. The specific gravity of this coal is 1.42.—5 feet. 6. Bituminous shale, with impressions of broad, fine grained or delicately striated leaves of some arundinaceous plant.—3 feet. 7. Coarse sandstone, similar to that on the south side of the ridge, and above the Lias, crowning the tops of the hills.—80 feet. 8. Argillaceous earth—yellowish color—timber chiefly oak. 46 Hockhocking Valley. Topography of Hockhocking Valley. From the sources of this stream to its mouth, the distance is about _ eighty miles. The average breadth for fifty miles above the mouth is about fifty yards. The region drained by its numerous tributary streams, and which may’be called its valley, will average about twenty miles in width. The whole extent of the valley, except near its northern extremity, is hilly and broken; the hills rising from two hundred to three hundred feet above the beds of the neigh- boring streams. Its general direction is southeasterly. On one of the head branches, a few miles N. W. of Lancaster, there is a per- pendicular fall of nearly forty feet ; and about eighteen miles below Lancaster, the main stream has a fall of seven feet. At these spots several mills are erected, as well as at many other places along the course of the river. The alluvial lands are broad and rich, but are occasionally overflowed from.the sudden floods that take place in this stream; the water being precipitated from the hills with such rapidity that the channel of the stream is insufficient to contain it. This difficulty is common to all the streams in the hilly parts of the Ohio valley, and will probably continue to increase as the country becomes more and more divested of its forests, which now act as a salutary check on the rapid descent of the rains on the hill sides, not only by their numerous roots and rotting foliage, which cover the surface, but by keeping the soil in a more loose and open condition than it is found to be in when in a state of cultivation. The hilly lands through this region are covered with a fertile soil, and clothed with a heavy growth of forest trees. At the southern extremity of the valley, the yellow pine is very abundant, and seems to have been once, and probably at no very remote period, the prevailing growth of this part of the country? Extensive districts in which a pine is not now found, are thickly scattered with pitch pine knots, lymg on the surface, the relics of former forests, which some disease, or probably the depredations of insects, has destroyed. In these situa- tions large quantities of pitch and tar, were formerly made. In “numerous mounds, opened under my direction, the charcoal found about the human bones, which they almost universally contain, and which the aborigines first burned before casting up the mound of earth or stone, as a sacred monument for the dead, is most generally the charcoal of pine wood—leading also to the conclusion, that at the period of their erection, yellow pine was the prevailing tree of the forest, for it is not probable they would take the trouble of ( Hockhocking Valley. : AT bringing it from any distance. While on the subject of mounds, I would remark, that I have not seen any in this part of the west which were thrown up by currents of water, as suggested by Prof. Hitchcock ; but they were all indisputably erected by human hands. The rock strata in the hills are chiefly sandstone, with beds of limestone near the hill tops, and in the beds of the runs. The great siliceous deposit crosses this valley a little below the main falls, passing over on to the waters of Raccoon creek. Where it traverses this valley, the silex was precipitated in a fine white powder, in beds several feet in thickness. Portions of it are tinged ofa deep yellow with oxide of iron, running in broad veins through the stone. It has been considerably worked into hones and stones for sharpening carpenters’ and tanners’ tools. Some portions of it are well adapted to these uses, and are considered nearly equal to the imported hones. In the central portion of the valley, bituminous coal is found in abundance. In the southern and northern extremi- ties it is more rare. In the southern it is buried under the other rock strata, and in the northern, which approach the great tertiary deposits, coal has not been formed. It is found in three principal beds, pursuing the same order as in many other portions of the great basin. One is near the base of the hills, and in the beds of runs, which is usually the purest and best coal. Another is found about fifty feet above, and a third near the tops of the hills, which here, as has be- fore been remarked in speaking of the great valley generally, have been formed by the degradation and wearing away of the surface by the action of water and other agents. A stratum found in one hill, is seen in another, at the distance of a quarter or half mile, across a valiey or ravine, at the same elevation ; the intermediate rocks which once connected the hills, having been removed in the course of ages. In the vicinity of the salt deposits, or muriatiferous beds, on Sunday creek and the Hockhocking west of this creek, the deposits of coal _ are from five to ten feet in thickness, evincing apparent design in *¢ Him who laid the foundations of the Earth,” in the greater abun- dance of coal in those places where it would be most useful; or otherwise the laws which governed the deposits of the muriatiferous rocks, and the coal, were most active and vigorous while these strata were forming. It may be that the soil over the saliferous rocks had some property congenial to the growth of such plants as formed the coal beds and not found in other soils, provided these bituminous depo- sits were formed of plants that grew on or near the spot, of which 48 Muriatiferous Rock. i indeed there can be no reasonable doubt. There is a harmony in their mutual and uniform appearance, which the most careless obser- ver cannot fail to notice. ‘The same dip to the south east, so appa- rent in the coal and saliferous strata on the Muskingum, is also found to prevail on the Hockhocking. In sinking a salt well on Sunday creek, four miles above the mouth, a stratum of coal was passed, nine feet in thickness, at the depth of eighty feet. Near the mouth of the creek, at another well, it was passed at the depth of ninety four feet, and was six feet in thickness. At Athens, four miles be- low, on the Hockhocking, a bed of coal was passed at the depth of one hundred and eighty-five feet, six feet in thickness. At the mouth of Stroud’s run, four and a half miles below Athens, a bed of coal is found at three hundred feet below the surface, which is eight feet in thickness, being twelve miles below the spot where this coal bed was first reached, on Sunday creek, making a dip of two hundred and twenty feet, or about 3°. At this angle the coal would come to the surface at a point five or six miles higher up the stream, which is without doubt the fact, as a thick stratum of coal is found in the bed of the Hockhocking a few miles north west of the upper salt well, and passes along under the base of the adjacent hills. Main Muriatiferous Rock. At the wells on Sunday creek, this rock is reached at the depth of about five hundred and fifty feet. It has that same clear, white, saccharine appearance which characterizes this remarkable deposit at nearly all the other salines. In approaching it, similar strata are passed, to those found at the Muskingum salt works, which lie about twenty five miles N. E. from this, and with them that notorious “‘ Flint rock,’ so much dreaded by all salt-well borers. On Sunday creek it is found at about one hundred and forty five feet below the surface. At Athens, eight miles below the upper well, it lies at two hundred and fifty feet, and is so hard as to require on an average, eight or ten thousand strokes of an augur weighing several hundred pounds, to penetrate one inch. Four and a half miles below this, the salt rock is reached at eight hundred feet ; and allowing the flint rock to proceed at the same angle, it would lie at three hun- dred and sixty five feet below the surface, or four hundred and thir- ty five above the salt rock; the two rocks lying a little nearer to each other than they do at the Muskingum salines. ‘The brine pro- cured on Sunday creek is very strong and pure, averaging at least Fosstl Remains. 49. fifteen per cent. of muriate of soda. That of the upper well is said to contain little or no muriate of lime, or “ bitter water,” and crys- tallises into a very white coarse salt. At the well, one mile above the mouth of Sunday creek, on the bank of the Hockhocking, the water is discharged with great force and freedom, rising in “ the head,” twenty feet above the surface of the river at common stages, and running in a constant stream, at the rate of twelve thousand gal- lons in twenty four hours. At this place, carburetted hydrogen is discharged, when the first veins of salt water are reached. Petro- leum is not very abundant, but is found in some of the wells after passing the great coal deposit. \ Fossil Remains. The sandstone rocks contain many relics of fossil trees, of that ancient and curious family, bearing those rare devices and figures on their bark, so artificial in their appearance as to induce a common belief amongst the ignorant, of their beg the work of man, in ages before the flood, and buried by that catastrophe in huge heaps of sand, since consolidated into rock. ‘The excavations in sandstone rocks have been, as yet, so few and partial, that but a small number have been brought to light, although the strata through this valley are one vast cemetry of the plants of a former creation. Ihave seen some specimens found in quarrying stones for a cellar, or in grading a road, and have heard of many more, proving that there is an abun- dant supply laid up for future geologists, when the country becomes more cultivated, and extensive openings shall be made in the earth. On the heads of Shade river, a few miles S. W. of Athens, there is a large deposit of Fossil trees, the wood being replaced by a dark ferruginous silex. The figure No. 22, (page 10 of the wood cuts,) was taken from a sandstone rock a few miles still further south, in company with several fresh water univalve shells, and casts resem- bling crayfish. The fossil from which this fragment_is taken, was eight or nine feet in length, and from two to three inches in diame- ter, tapering gradually toward the extremity. It was probably seve- ral feet longer, as only a part of it was detached from the rock. So great is the resemblance of the markings on the surface to scales, that the discoverers called it a snake, only they could not find the head or the tail of the monster. It is a sandstone cast, not to be distin- guished in texture from the rock in which it was imbedded. Vou. XXIX.—No. 1. ef 50 Fossil Remains. In the limestone rocks, near the tops of the hills, north of Athens, are found many fossil shells. Figures of two of them are given in - Nos. 13 and 14, (page 2 of the wood cuts,) both bivalves, although ma- ny univalves are also intermixed with them. Another of them will be given in the appendix. In sinking wells on the high grounds, re- mote from any large stream of water, wood, trunks of trees and leaves are often discovered at the depth of forty or fifty feet, generally ly- ing in or under a bed of blue clay or mud, having the peculiar efiiu- via common to recent marsh mud. ‘The same catastrophe which buried these vegetable remains, probably inhumed the mastodons, whose teeth and bones have been found in the diluvial, or ancient alluvial earth, near Athens, on the Hockhocking; ‘and also on Fede- ral creek, a large tributary of the former stream. Coal Deposit, on Leading Creek and Carr’s Run in Meigs’ County, Ohio. This deposit is found at an elevation of more than one hundred feet in the face of the river hills, three miles below the mouth of Leading creek, which is twelve or fourteen miles above the mouth of the Kenawha river. It continues along the face of the hills for eleven miles, gradually dipping to the S. E. until it disappears un- der the bed of the Ohio, two miles above Carr’s run. Its extent N. and N. E. is unknown, but it is found for many miles in the country, the line of extension being in that direction, that is to the N. E. Coal, is also abundant on the Virginia, or left bank of the Ohio, opposite to this deposit, and is without doubt a continuation of the second bed found on the Kenawha, as the coal is very simi- lar in appearance. At the upper and lower extremities of “ the Carr’s Run” coal bed, the deposit is thin, but gradually thickens in the middle to five or six feet. It is of this thickness at the mine owned by Mr. Pomeroy, near the center of the deposit. ‘The bed has been followed at this place, and on Leading creek, two or three hundred yards into the hill, and in one place entirely through. ‘The strata dip to the north, two or three feet ina hundred yards, requi- ring drains to free them from the water, when opened on the south side of the hill. Above the coal is a deposit of shale and ash col- ored marly clay, of eight or ten feet in thickness, which forms the roof of the mine—superincumbent on which, is a deposit of stratifi- ed sandstone rock, rather coarse grained, of nearly one hundred feet in thickness. ‘The shale abounds in fine fossil plants, generally of the \ Carr’s Run Coal. 51 same species with those found at the Kenawha coal beds, to be de- scribed when speaking of that region. In mining the coal, gunpow- der is extensively used ; a small charge, throwing out large masses of the coal, which are readily broken into portable fragments, and taken to the mouth of the mine in a hand cart, where a rail road, conveys a loaded car to the river, dragging up an empty one at the same time. Large boats, lying at the shore, receive the coal from the cars, and convey it to the markets below. .This coal, being of the _ black slaty structure, abounds in bituminous matter and burns very freely. Its specific gravity is 1.27. ‘Twenty grains of the coarse powder, decompose one hundred grains of nitrate of - potash, which will give to this coal, nearly sixty per cent of charcoal. It must therefore be valuable for the manufacture of coak, an article that must ultimately be brought into use in the numerous furnaces erec- ted along the great iron deposit, a few miles south and west of this place. The accompanying sketch (see p. 31 of the wood cuts,) gives a correct view of ‘‘ Pomeroy’s coal beds,” as seen from the road, a few rods above the works. The Ohio river, flows at the foot of the rail way, but is not seen in the drawing, being hid by the lofty sugar trees, which cluster along the bank. ‘The country about the coal beds is very broken and hilly. I am indebted to Mr. Sala Bosworth, for this, and several other fine views of scenery, connected with the coal strata. It is a curious fact that the coal deposits, are very thin and rare, near the Ohio river, from the mouth of Pipe creek, fifteen miles below Wheeling to Carr’s Run ; at least none have been dis- covered. As the main coal dips under the Ohio, at both these pla- ces, the inference is, that the coal lies below the surface, and could. be readily reached by a shaft, first ascertaining its distance from the surface, by the operation of boring. Topography of the Valley of the Monongahela. This valley occupies a space of about one hundred and eighty miles in length, by sixty or eighty in breadth, and lies between the Allechany mountains and their collateral ranges on the east, and the Ohio river on the west. Its general direction is north and south, with a rapid declination from its southern borders to its northern ex- tremity. The waters of the Monongahela pursue a course directly opposite to that of the Ohio, and some of its southern branches take their rise in the most elevated lands, west and north of the Appala- 52 Topography of the Valley of’ the Monongahela. chian range. The lofty peaks of the Cheat mountains rise to not less than twenty eight hundred feet above the level of the ocean, and more than two thousand above the waters of the Ohio, at the mouth of the Muskingum river. ‘The head branches of the Monon- gahela, rise directly opposite to the outlet of the latter river, in a S. E. direction, at the distance of only about eighty geographical miles, and run a distance of not less than four hundred miles before reaching this spot; and although the descent in the beds of the streams, is very great, yet it occupies about three days for the rains which fall on the head branches, and occasion rapid rises 1m its waters, to arrive in the Ohio, at Marietta; whereas, could they pursue a direct course like many of the streams below, they would reach this point in one third of that time. ‘The sides of the valley are formed on the east by the Laurel and Cheat mountain ranges, and on the west by the high grounds, which lie between it and the Ohio river. Proceeding from the outlet of the valley southerly, the face of the country is composed of broad hills, of an elevation of four or five hundred feet, not placed in regular ranges, but scattered in disorder and apparently taking their direction from the water cour- ses, as they fall imto the main stream in the centre of the valley. The same formation of hills contimues on the westerly side of the valley to the Ohio river, while on the easterly it soon reaches the spurs of the Laurel and Cheat mountains, and rises into lofty emi- nences with more regularity in their arrangement. The whole face of the country becomes elevated, and between the ranges of moun- tains we meet with long but narrow strips of level land, here called “Glades.” They, in some respects, resemble the prairies of the west,.being clothed with a scanty growth of forest trees, and shrubs, . but are composed of a-rich vegetable soil, well suited to the growth of grain, potatoes and grass, but are too much elevated and subject to late frosts for the successful cultivation of Indian corn. ‘They were, without doubt, once the beds of lakes, and have uniformly a stream of water passing through their most depending portions. The ta- _ ble lands of Mexico, are here represented in miniature. The glades, — were once portions of the original bed of the ocean, before the mountain ranges were lifted up, or “brought forth ;”’ but at that period were elevated with the ranges, to their present height. Be- ing surrounded by ridges, they, for a long time, remained covered with water, until by accumulations from the adjacent high lands, the water forced a passage through some less elevated’spot, and drain- Topography of the Valley of the Monongahela. 53 ing off by degrees the accumulated flood, its bed was eventually laid bare, which bed now forms a modern glade. This broken, hilly, or mountainous country, is continued throughout the whole region, watered by the. Monongahela and its tributary streams. Some tracts of level lands are found between the branches of the western fork of the river, as it approaches the waters of the Little and Great Kenawha. ‘To a traveller, passing from the south east- ern to the riorth western side of the Alleghany range, the change in the features and appearance of the country is very striking and > interesting ; and he would at once be led to conclude that they had been formed at different periods, and under different circumstances, or laws of deposition. On the eastern side, he sees well defined con- tinuous ridges of mountains ranging parallel with each other, and composed of graywacke slate, magnesian limestone and other tran- sition rocks, whose tops are sterile and barren, or clothed with na- ked rocks, from which, apparently the soil has ages since, been washed away, thus affording only a meagre support to the forest trees which cling to their sides. ‘The streams of water are pure and limpid, and direct and rapid in their courses. Springs are abund- ant, copious and durable, affording a constant supply to the numer- ous rivulets which rise in the mountains and pour their tributary streams into the ocean. On the western side, the formations are altogether secondary, and abound in argillaceous and arenaceous materials. ‘The streams are turbid and tortuous in their course, and as they descend into the valley, they become slow in their progress. The springs are few and small, and readily affected by the droughts of summer. ‘The hills are irregular in their height, and in their ar- rangement, but they are generally very fertile, covered with a rich argillaceous soil to their very summits, and produce a luxuriant vegetation, such as is usually found only on rich alluvions; they are invariably clothed with forest trees of the most lofty height. ‘This striking difference in the two opposite sides, 1s occasioned altogeth- er by the different rock formations ; so much does the character of a country depend upon the strata on which it is based. ‘The differ- ent species of forest trees are arranged according to the elevation and quality of the soil. On the highest poimts of the Cheat moun- tains we find spruce, hemlock, white pine and birch, and also on the other ridges—as we descend, chesnut, chesnut oak, beech, pop- jar, dogwood, &c. appear; but the chesnut and chesnut oaks, are confined chiefly to the spurs and ridges that put out from the main 54 Tygart’s Valley. ranges. In descending into the valleys, the various oaks, locusts, — hickories, walnuts, sugar trees and buck eyes, clothe the sides of the hills. On the west fork of the Monongahela, the sycamore, pa- paw and spice wood, flourish at an elevation not. common in other parts of the valley, which can arise only from the superior fertility of the soil. Tygart’s Valley. One of the most interesting spots in the topography of this re- gion, is Tygart’s valley. -It lies near the heads of ‘the Valley riv- er,” twenty miles S. E. from Clarksburgh; Beverly, the county seat of Randolph, lies in this valley. It is about seventy miles long, including that portion on Leading creek, and im breadth, it varies from one mile to three. Its boundaries are formed by ranges of the Cheat and Laurel mountains, rising to a great height, and affording many proofs that this valley has once been occupied by a lake. The accumulated waters, rising above the elevation of the Laurel range, have here forced a passage, and the Valley river, and Lead- ing creek have formed for themselves channels in the bed of this - ancient lake. ‘This passage is about three miles in length, and from three to four hundred yards in breadth, cut down to the base of the mountains. The cliffs of rock on each side are of a stupendous height, not less than one thousand feet, affording a most grand and picturesque view, and may not inappropriately be called “the gates of the mountain.” The fissure in the rocks, and strata on each side correspond ; affording sufficient evidence of their former junction. The rock itself is of the coarsest conglomerate sandstone. Addi- tional evidence of this valley having formerly been the bed of a lake, is also found in the fossils brought up in excavating the earth for wells. At the depth of twenty feet below the surface, pitch pine logs have been discovered, and what adds to the interest of the fact, is the circumstance that pines of this species, do not at present grow in this region. -Petrifactions of shells are common in the rocks, and the lower portion of an os femoris, eight inches in diameter, was also found in the earth, detached, no other bones being discovered with it. Salt water is discovered in this valley, but not of sufficient strength to make the manufacture of salt profitable. ‘The base of the valley rises very gradually as it advances towards its head in the Cheat. mountains. The river meanders through its whole length with a calm and placid surface. Environed by ridges of lofty moun- i Tygart’s Valley. 55 Topography of Tygart’s Valley and the adjacent region. Hie. a South. ANN ALAN MANURE gy HAUSE =< SOM Eel aay, Aliegaiy se a Wi => \y a oa mon LANAI TAA OA oe) cen _ : SSS aon i ny Ny) Ni u \\ Ny RIN NaN i TG i A “ AS NONE ante SIE iY TS na mai i | Laurel i tlalls Grea. North. Explanation.—a, North fork of 8. B. of Potomac river—b, Dry fork of Cheat. —c, Glady fork of Cheat—d, Laurel fork of Cheat.—e, Cheat river.—f, Alle- ghany range——g, Rich mountains’, Middle mountains.—2, Shaver’s moun- tains.—j, Leading creek.—k, Roaring creek.—l, Middle fork of Valley river.— m, Buckanan creek.—n, n, Gate of the mountains.—o, Booth’s ferry.—p, Mote’s falls—g, Vickwire’s falls—r, Heads of Gauly.—s, Heads of Elk.—t, Greenbri- er river. 56 _ Tygart’s Valley. tains, and shut out from the strife and tumult of the surrounding | world, this valley affords, at certain seasons of the year, all the nat- ural and picturesque beauties of the fabled valley of Johnson. Here may be found nearly all the rare and curious shrubs, and flowering trees, indigenous to the western country. Enticed by the depth and warmth of the valley, protected from the cold winds by the lofty ridges which surround it, Flora here commences her earliest la- bors. Various species of honeysuckle entwine their branches around the trees in careless festoons ; the broad petaled cornus florida, un- folds its white blossoms in strong contrast with those of the pink colored “ Burning bush,” or ‘ Circis Ohioensis,”’ that stands by its side; the rich fragrance of the crab apple, Chickasaw plum, and innumerable grape vines, all combine to shed over this spot the va- rious beauties of the vale of Tempe, or of the favored recesses on the borders of Italy, to which the lofty peaks of the adjacent moun- tains bear no inapt resemblance. The slopes and sides of the moun- tains, bordering the valley, are clothed with the Liriodendron tuli- pifera, whose towering top and gigantic shaft, justly declare it the monarch of the hills, while its rich orange colored blossoms encircle its head with*a flowery crown. ‘The magnolia acuminata, with its graceful form and richly mottled branches, is often seen to rival the poplar in height and towering grandeur, while its more humble brothers, the tripelata and glauca, yet more beautiful in foliage and in flowers, stand modestly by its side. Still higher on the moun- . tain sides are seen the hickory, the various species of oak, and ma- ny other trees too numerous to name with the prolific chesnut crown- ing the summits of the ridges. Numerous water falls and rapids, below “the gates of the mountain,” give to this sequestered spot, by their noisy contrast, a still greater air of tranquility. In the dis- tance of twenty five miles, the river has a descent of several hun- dred feet, as it passes down the broad plateaux of the mountains in- to the valleys below. Much of this descent is made up of rapids and ripples; but in other places it forms perpendicular cascades, and pitches over the sandstone rocks which generally form its bed. The first of any importance after the river leaves the valley, are called <‘ Mote’s falls.”? At one of these, the water has a fall of fourteen feet, at the other, of sixteen feet. The lower one is also, often called the ‘¢ Well’s falls,’ from the numerous cavities worn in the solid rock to the depth of eight or ten feet, and of the diameter of an ordimary well. These are formed by the unceasing whirl of hard pebbles, Tygart’s Valley. 57 confined in a cavity and kept in perpetual motion by the current of falling waters. A few miles below, is a succession of rapids, called “‘Vickwire’s falls,” and at twenty five or thirty miles below “the valley,” are seated the “‘ Great falls,” where the river has a perpen- dicular pitch of thirty feet, with several smaller cascades, making the whole falls, fifty one feet in the distance of a few rods. These numerous descents and rapids, afford an immense amount of water power, equal to any other in the United States, and which, at some future day, when this region shall be traversed with turnpikes, rail roads and canals, will be occupied with villages and manufactories, teeming with a dense population. ‘The annexed sketch, (fig. 7p. 59,) will assist the reader, to understand this interesting region, es- pecially that of “ Tygart’s valley.” It takes its name from one of its earliest settlers. A branch of Cheat river, called Shaver’s fork, runs for the dis- tance of forty or fifty miles, in a narrow glade, on the top of one of the mountain ranges. On each side of this table land, are cliffs of a height, from one hundred to one hundred and fifty few composed of very coarse conglomerate. Near the river is a thin bed of coal, under the sand rock. ‘The trees in this elevated spot, which is at least twenty eight hundred feet above the ocean, are spruce, hem- lock, birch and laurel. All the head branches of Cheat, rise in these ranges; and taking a north easterly course, through a moun- tamous region of wilderness, covered with thickets of hemlock and dark evergreens, presents one of the most gloomy and deso- late tracts to be found in all the ranges of the Alleghany. The wa- ter, from this elevated district has a descent of at least two thousand feet to the settlements of ‘‘ Dankard’s Bottom,” a few miles above Kingwood, on the route from Clarksburgh to Cumberland. The wa- ters of the Cheat river are noted for their dark, sombre color, sup- posed to arise from the hemlock roots and leaves over which the water passes. It takes it name from the numerous accidents that have happened to travellers in fording it. The current is, at all times rapid, even to near its junction with the Monongahela; add- ed to which the round boulders and pebbles that fill its bed and are in constant motion, render it a very dangerous stream to horsemen, especially, when swollen with rains—many serious accidents have occurred on its waters. ‘These pebbles are doubtless supplied from the decomposing conglomerate, that is found so abundantly in the mountains, and which not only fills its bed, but covers the sides of Vou. XXIX.—No. 1. 8 58 ~ Geology of the Mohongahela Valley. the mountains and the roads which traverse these ranges. A large proportion of the pebbles found lining the shores of the Ohio river, for hundreds of miles below, have been in ages past, brought by the currents from these mountains. No other rock, within my knowl- edge is constructed of materials that could possibly furnish these pebbles—many of them being of white and black quartz, green- stone, graywacke and sienite; the relics of former and older rocks, which were broken down and rolled by the waves of the ancient ocean, and in progress of time mingled with the sands on its shores and agglutinated into conglomerate. The Youghiogany river takes its rise in a mountainous region in the N. W. corner of Maryland, and passing through a broken and hilly country, unites its waters with the Monongahela, a few miles above Pittsburgh. The face of the country, does not differ materially from that on the latter river. In its course, it passes both the Chesnut and Laurel ridge of moun- tains. Some of the richest beds of bituminous coal are found on its head branches. Geology of the Valley of the Monongahela. The rock formations through the whole extent of this valley, are recent secondary, consisting generally of sandstone. In the compo- sition of most of them, the argillaceous portion is very abundant, giv- ing an argillaceous character to the soils which form the surface of the earth, and affording nourishment and support to the vast forests which every where clothe its hills. The prevailing color of the sand- stone rocks is light grey, although often tinged with brown or yel- low by the oxide of iron, which material is more or less abundant in nearly all the strata. The dark brown or red variety, known as the “old red sandstone,’ is seldom seen, except in some of the mountain ranges, and is strictly a transition rock. The structure is more close and fine grained, near the base of the hills, and coarser as it approaches their summits. In many places and in particular strata, silver colored mica, in small plates makes a conspicuous fig- ure in its composition. In other strata, although rarely, the mica is yellow. It was originally deposited in horizontal beds, which are changed, more or less, from this position, by their proximity to ran- ges of high hills or mountains. The inclination of the strata, bemg evidently influenced by the rise of the country, as it approaches the Alleghany ranges, indicates that some force from below acting Geology of the Monongahela Valley. 59 on the superincumbent strata, had raised the ranges of mountains to their present elevation, after the rocks which form4hem had been deposited ina horizontal and tranquil state. ‘This general dip of all the strata to the north and west, or towards the Ohio river is prob- ably one cause of a greater fertility of the soil, and a more luxuriant growth of trees and herbage on the north and west sides of hills than on the south and east, a greater quantity of moisture being directed . to that side from the inclination of the strata. | From the tops.to the bottoms of the hills, in many places, in oft- en repeated series, the sandstone strata alternate with beds of coal, shale, recent clay slate, limestone, red, brown and white marl. For instance, two or three beds of coal are found in one hill, alter- nating with as many beds of sandstone, slate and shale. Where the earth has been penetrated to great depths, the same series is found to prevail below the surface, although the coal deposits are separated by a greater amount of intervening strata than those in the adjacent hills. On the western fork of the Monongahela, in the neighborhood of Clarksburgh, a singular arrangement is observed in the outlines of the hills. They have the appearance of being cut into broad terraces, often for several miles in extent, thus Fig. 8. ee This appearance is produced by the immense beds of sand- stone rock retaining their original position, while the softer deposits, have been decomposed and washed away. Slides or avalanches sometimes take place, in very wet seasons, which may also contrib- ute to this remarkable appearance. ! The following section of the rock strata, near Clarksburgh, was furnished by Judge Duncan, to whom I am indebted for much in- testing and valuable matter, illustrating the topography and geology of the Monongahela region. “y 60 Geology of the Monongahela Valley. Section of Rock Strata, on the West Branch of the Monongahela River, near Clarksburgh. Slight dip to N. W.—Order, ascending. Fig. 9 180 On ——_ y 5 ; 10 a ae 1. Limestone—full of cracks, and containing considerable iron. rit stratum reposes on sandstone, in the bed of the creek.—4 feet. . Slate and slaty clay, dark colored and containing imbedded ue —10 feet. 3. Bituminous coal, of a fine quality, Hen in bitumen.—3 feet. 4. Bituminous shale, and slaty shale, with vegetable impressions. —5 feet. 5. Sandstone—fine grained—some part of the deposit lies in thin beds.—180 feet. ; 6. Slaty shale, dark colored and compact.—® feet. | | =| Geology of the Monongahela Valley. 61 7. Bituminous coal—the main deposit—sometimes twelve feet in thickness. This coal is generally of the finest quality, and is found in exhaustless beds, near the Monongahela river, from this place to Pittsburgh. The specific gravity of this coal is 1.22; it contains a little over fifty per cent of charcoal. ‘Twenty four grains, when heated in a crucible, decompose one hundred of nitrate of potash, and it leaves twenty two grains out of forty, in the state of coak.—) 10 feet. 8. Slate, bituminous shale, &c. containing in great numbers, small shells of the family of Pecten.—6 feet. 9. Limestone rock—breaking easily into fragments, and containing fossil shells of the genera Gryphea, Spirifer, Producta and 'Terebra- tula, similar to those found near Zanesville, and figured and descri- bed within the section of ‘ Putnam hill” strata—10 feet. 10. Sandstone—upper part coarse and compact—lower portion in thin beds.—140 feet. 11. Rich argillaceous soil, crowning the tops of the hills, and bearing a heavy growth of forest trees.—20 feet. The thickness of the whole series of strata, is three hundred and ninety three feet, which is nearly the average height of the hills in this part of the valley; they continue of this elevation for the distance of many miles, to the vicinity of Brownsville. As we ascend the Valley river, the deposits of sandstone rock be- come of much greater thickness, and the deposits of coal more thin, and of an inferior quality. At the head of this river we ascend the Cheat mountains, and passing over the Greenbrier range, descend into the valley of the Greenbrier river. The summits of these ridges, especially the peaks of the Cheat, are the most elevated lands of any west of the Alleghany range, as has been already observed when we were speaking of the numerous rivers that rise near this spot, and take many different directions, as may be seen by looking on the map of the coal region. ‘The stratification of these moun- tains, is m the following order. 1. The summit stratum is a coarse conglomerate sandstone, com- posed of water worn silicious pebbles, of various colors, generally white, loosely cemented by an argillaceous, sandy material, of slight cohesive power, easily decomposing. ‘Some of the lower beds are more compact, having a silicious cement, and of a quality suitable for millstones, to which use this species of rock has been largely applied and are known over the valley as the ‘“ Laurel hill stone.” 62 Geology of the Monongahela Valley. It contains some fossil marine shells, chiefly Encrini, and other or- ganic remains. ‘This deposit is very extensive and is found on, or near the tops of the mountains, for nearly the whole length of the ranges.—300 feet. 2. A thin deposit of coal, with shale, about 3 feet. 3. Limestone, in a deposit of great extent, being found under the coarse conglomerate through the whole of this range of moun- tains. Its structure is not so compact as that of the limestone on the Shenandoah river, and generally of that S. E. of the mountains, but it is fragile, and broken into fragments of all sizes, as it lies in its bed. It contains fossil shells, and especially madrepores and corralines. Figure No. 25, (page 14 of the wood cuts,) is from this bed; No. 26, (Id.) is from the vicinity. In the County of Pocahontas, on the heads of Greenbrier and Gauly rivers, the limestone is very full of them, and as its cohesion is slight, it easily crumbles on exposure to the weather, and the madrepores are thus loosened, and falling out, remain on the surface in great numbers. They are generally replaced by silex. This bed is seventy five feet in thickness. 4. A deposit of slate or shale, containing impressions of ferns, and arundinaceous plants. It is only a few feet in thickness. 5. Sandstone, of various qualities, from coarse pebbly conglom- erate to very fine argillaceous, in beds of various thickness, from a , few feet to several hundred. Some beds contain mica. ‘This for- mation continues to the Valley river at the foot of the mountains, — fifteen hundred feet in thickness. In the heads of the valley, which is itself more than twelve hundred feet above tide water, we find limestone and coal. The coal is in thin beds, and of a poor quali- ty. It may be received as a general law applicable to the coal in the valley of the Ohio, that the thicker the deposit, the better the quality of the coal. South of Clarksburgh, the coal diminishes rap- idly, both in quantity and in excellence. In the vicinity of this town, and north of it, down the valley of the Monongahela, we find one of the richest and most abundant deposits of coal, in all the val- ley of the Ohio. ‘The beds seem to have been deposited in a ba- sin, the centre of which is now occupied by the bed of the river. I am led to this conclusion, from the fact of the thickest beds being found near the river, and from their becoming thinner as we travel east or west of this line. Two or three of the surface deposits, are from six to ten feet in thickness, and one near Clarksburgh, one hundred Geology of the Cheat and Greenbrier Mountains. 63 feet below the surface, is eleven feet. These deposits continue to be very abundant at Pittsburgh, the outlet of the valley, and spread _ out laterally in-a western direction, quite to the Ohio river, on whose banks they appear at Steubenville, Wellsburgh and Wheeling, and northerly, quite to the heads of the Susquehannah and Alleghany rivers. Fifteen miles below Wheeling, the main surface deposit dips -under the bed of the river, and is seen no more in any considerable quantity until it appears at Carr’s run, nearly one hundred and fifty miles below. ‘The same deposit extends into Ohio, and is found in great abundance about St. Clairsville, and the adjacent re- gion. ‘This deposit is at least two hundred miles in length and one hundred in breadth, affording one of the most extensive coal fields known in any part of the world. As we proceed northerly up the streams, which rise in the elevated lands on the southern borders of Lake Erie, the deposit of coal becomes thin and finally disap- pears on the surface, but may, without doubt, be found at consider- able depths, as some of the deep beds discovered in boring for salt water, near Pittsourgh must extend a great distance northwestward- ly. We are also strengthened in this opinion by the discharges of petroleum and carburetted hydrogen gas, which are known to issue from the earth im many places, not only near to, but immedi- ately on the borders of the Lake. The following section and de- scriptions of the coal deposits in the valley of the Monongahela, and about Pittsburgh, furnished by the Rev. C. Elliot, who has traversed the coal measures, and examined them minutely, for sev- eral years, will more fully illustrate this imteresting subject. In the following illustration of the coal deposits, the curved line represents the river and the dark, right lines, the coal deposits, which are numbered in the order of their superposition. ‘The figures above the curved lines denote the height of the several beds above the river at different places, while those below denote the depth of the two deposits underneath the river at Pittsburgh. The intervening spaces between the lines are occupied by the different rock strata of sandstone, limestone, slate shale, red and white marl, clays, &c., intermixed with nodules of iron ore: at Morgantown where the illus- tration commences, the hills near the river are from three hundred and fifty to four hundred and fifty feet in height. No less than four distinct deposits of coal are found from the tops of the hills to the bed of the river. No. 1. lies at an elevation of three hundred feet, Coal Deposits on the Monongahela River. 64 *sopiur A]XIS poddxe JOU [[ILM UI] 1991p eB UI Inq ‘saqtut oipuny guo Inoge st ‘I9ATI OY} JO asInoo oy} Aq ‘UIeIseIp 9AOGe OY} Ut patdnov0 soURISIp a "T° poipuny qe st It oUt J {} Aq Ip GUS SE Uy ge ip UL A 'N ‘UMOULSIO|, ‘G—'al[lAsuMoIg ‘Q—uMOeqeZITy ‘Y—woununiday "YSINQSIIT Puy Uno,UD.S.LOTT uaamjag ‘anny ojayn.cuoucpy ay) wo sprsodagy poo ay2 fo mary pouoryoayy Coal Deposits—Mo nongahela River. 65 is six feet in thickness, and affords coal of a moderately g good quality. No. 2. is one hundred and fifty feet above the river, is seven feet im thickness, and the coal of a very excellent quality. No.3. lies near the base of the hills, and only thirty feet above the water in the river. ‘The coal is of rather an inferior quality, and only three feet in thickness. No. 4. is a few feet beneath the surface at this spot, but four miles above, it appears in the bed of the river, and continues so to do for fifteen or twenty miles. It is six feet in thickness. This coal is of a very superior quality, highly bitu- minous and free from sulphur, or sulphuret of iron, and in repute for smith-work. ‘There are in all the beds twenty two feet of coal. At the bottom of the best coal beds, is found a deposit of about eighteen or twenty inches of coal of great purity, and which for the manufacture of iron is fully equal to charcoal; burning © without leaving any cinders, and very little ashes. ‘The second place noted in the illustration is Greensboro’, thirteen miles below Morgantown, and two miles from the Pennsylvania line. At this spot, there are three beds of coal above the surface of the river, and two below. No.1. is at an elevation of about three hundred and fifty feet. No. 2. is seated at the height of one hundred and fifty feet, and is six feet im thickness. No.3. is only about fifty feet above the base of the hills, and is eight feet in thickness. 'The coal in these beds is very compact, of a jet black when first taken from the bed, but after being exposed to the atmosphere, its surface becomes irised, with that beautiful play of colors which are exhibited by the peacock. ‘This rich appearance of the surface is often noticed amongst our best coal, and is considered a mark of excellence. It burns with the greatest readiness and rapidity, exhibiting a bright brilliant fame. A cubic foot of it weighs from eighty to eighty five pounds. No. 4. is found at the depth of sixteen feet below the surface, and No. 5. at the depth of one hundred and forty seven feet: it was discovered in boring for salt water. ‘This bed is stated to be thirty feet in thick- ness, but of a poor quality. The greater proportion of it is proba- bly black bituminous shale, intermixed with thin layers of coal. The deposits at this place are not uniformly horizontal ; some of them are undulating, and others interrupted by faults, or breaks. Below this spot, the beds No. 1. and 2. cannot be traced ; but at some distance N. E. of Pittsburgh, they make their appearance in the hills of Connemaugh. It is probable, that, ata very remote pe- riod, before the rock strata possessed es present density, several Vou. XXIX.—No. 1. 9 66 Coal Deposits—Monongahela River. of the upper deposits were removed by debacles and the gradual washing away of the surface, before the rivers were settled into their present channels. ‘This is evidently the fact in many other places ; beds of very considerable thickness, which now are found in place at the heads of streams, are washed away and gone before they reach the lower portion of the valley at their mouths. No. 3. does not pursue a level line, as is represented for convenience im the illus- tration, but is undulating, in its course; the estimates of its height above the river being only approximations below Greensboro’ ; but above that spot they are actual measurements. Below Brownsville, the deposit No. 3. dips nearly into the bed of the river, but rises again, regularly, as we travel down stream, until at Pittsburgh it is at an elevation of three hundred feet. Mr. Elliot says, “in tracing out No. 3, and following it up the Monongahela, as well as the Youghiogeny, I can be in no doubt, as to the correctness of the statements, as I have many times, while travelling over the coun- try, traced it from hill to hill, up both these rivers. A person sailing up the river can easily perceive as he ascends, that the coal banks are becoming nearer the water’s edge at every hill he passes, until at Greensboro’ and Morgantown, they are within a short distance of the water: as you retire from the river and fol- low out the creeks, you find this stratum on their shelving banks, and sometimes forming the beds of the runs; and when you reach their heads it has sunk beneath the surface too far to be reach- ed at all, except by shafts. Thus about Washington, Pennsylvania, there is but little coal to be found in the face of the hills. This stratum shows itself again west of Pittsburgh on the Steubenville road. It also appears north of the Alleghany river opposite to Pittsburgh, at an elevation fully equal to, if not greater than its height in ‘Coal hill.’ But the stratum north of Pittsburgh is not to be found on that side of the river any farther west, than about two miles north of Alleshany town, where the coal is somewhat in- ferior in quality, bemg stained with streaks of iron rust and it is rather brittle ; yet it burns well, leaving few cinders, but it is not so durable as that found either north, east, orsouth. I doubt whether this stra- tum is the same with that which appears about Wheeling, Wells- burgh and Steubenville, as it probably runs out a few miles west of Pittsburgh, and farther down the river No. 4. makes its appearance. But of this I am uncertain, for 1 have not examined the country with sufficient accuracy. No.3. can also be traced along the Pennsyl- vania canal, dipping nearer to the water as you ascend, until you Coal Deposits—Monongahela River. 67 find it at Blairsville only thirty feet above the surface. Beyond this pomt I cannot trace it. At Johnstown, a few miles above Blairsville, the stratum of coal is at an elevation of two or three hun- dred feet. Besides, the coal at Johnstown is only about four feet thick, and of a quality greatly inferior to that of Blairsville or Pitts- burgh. Stratum No. 2. is certainly that which appears at Johns- town. and Armagh on the Connemaugh. In these places the coal is brittle, and does not contain the same amount of bitumen which No. 3. does. No.2, I think, makes its appearance at Smithfield, about twenty two miles east of Uniontown, Pa., where the coal is better than at Johnstown, but not equal to the coal at Brownsville, Uniontown or Pittsburgh. Deposit No. 2, there is every reason to helieve makes its appearance in Cumberland, Maryland, as the coal is very similar, as nearly as I could judge from rather a hasty examination while travelling through that place. Deposit No. 1. I have been unable to find im any other place except near Mor- gantown and Somerset, Pa. ‘There is no bed west of the moun- tains corresponding to this ; for it is No. 8. alone that makes its ap- pearance at so many points onthe Monongahela and Youghiogeny rivers, and small streams, except near Morgantown and Greens-— boro’. But it must be- recollected that the hills in these neighbor- hoods are prolongations, or spurs of the mountain ranges, which may account for its appearance in these places only.. The stratum at Somerset, Pa., appears to be a continuation of No.1. It is much more elevated than the bed of No. 2. at Smithfield or Johnstown. The coal also is peculiar. It is quite brittle and fissile; has but a small quantity of bitumen ; is hard to ignite ; produces a dull, feeble flame; will not burn at all in a grate, but only ina stove. As to the deposits No. 4 and 5, they are below the surface, but we have evident proofs of their existence, as they have been reached in bor- ing for salt water at Pittsburgh, Greensboro’, Connemaugh, and at various other places. ‘‘'Vheir depth at Pittsburgh, as ascertained from a well just below that place, is as follows: No. 4. at one hun- dred and forty feet, and No. 5. at one hundred and eighty feet below the surface. A short distance from Clarksburgh, on Elk creek, No. 4. was reached at one hundred feet, and at that point is said to be eleven feet in thickness. As to the coal deposits on the Alle- ghany river above the Kiskiminitas, but few facts have been col- lected. At Franklin, and south of that place, coal is abundant. In Mercer and Butler counties, the beds are few, and the coal of a 68 Pittsburgh Coal Strata. poor quality. It would be interesting to know whether stratum No. 3. is the same bed which appears at Beaver, Steubenville and Wheeling. It is more than probable ‘it is so, as the general dip is towards the S. and S. W., and the coal very similar, yet 1 conjec- ture it is a lower stratum, perhaps No. 4.” The specific gravity of the coal from bed No. 8. at Morgantown | and Brownsville, is 1.80. It contains nearly sixty per cent. of charcoal, twenty grains of the coarse powder decomposing 100 grains of nitre, showing it to be a superior coal for coaking. Section of Coal Hill” at Pittsburgh, (Pa.).at the mouth of the Monongahela River. Order descending.—-Slight dip to the S. or S. E. INov tile No. of stratum. ty Co AY) iE : oleslal () bs (ep) = HT | s el el eae 14 : = = zi E = = ! | S—S—=__S_SaaSSP_SS ; => SS SS SS 070 | 11 —— — —— — == SSS ana SSS== SF Z ————$—— SS ————SSSS—_—[—SS= SS== SaaS SSS ———= SSS ————— SSS SS SS SS SS eae Ohio River.= —— = = =| HH) iia, 1. Reddish brown argillaceous earth, intermixed with fragments of limestone ; affording a strong soil for cultivation.—0 feet. . Pittsburgh Coal Strata. 69 2. Sandstone; fine grained; ash colored; the upper portion of the deposit very argillaceous, like marl or ochre; becoming more arenaceous and solid as it descends ; structure, slaty.—30 feet. 3. Dark brown, carbonaceous shale; slaty structure, with im- pressions of leaves of Arundinaceous, Neuropterous, and various other species of plants, detached and scattered through and between the layers. It decomposes into a brown clayey earth, when expo- sed to the influence of the atmosphere.—4 feet. . 4. Dark colored, carbonaceous clay ; plastic and not stratified in lamine ; very heavy and compact; reposing on the coal, and com- mon to this deposit through all this region, being No. 3. of the “ I- lustration.”—6 feet. 5. Bituminous coal; of a fine quality ; burning with great free- dom. ‘This bed has been worked through the hill at this spot, the distance of half a mile, and has a moderate dip to the S. E. suffi- cient to drain the mine. It is found in all the adjacent hills at near- ly the same elevation, and is the main deposit for supplying the city of Pittsburgh with all its numerous manufactures. Its specific grav- ity is 1.28. In defiagration with nitre, twenty four grains will de- compose one hundred of nitrate of potash, which will give it about 50 per cent of charcoal ; there being some variation in different parts of the bed.—6 feet. | i 6. Dark, slaty clay ; splitting into thin lamine near the top of the deposit and becoming thicker and more compact below. This bed contains fewer fossil plants than the one above the coal.—5 feet. 7. Sandstone; ash colored; in thin beds of from a to twelve inches in thickness.—10 feet. 8. Dark colored limestone, in beds of three or four feet in thick- ness ; no fossil shells observed.—10 feet. 9. Sandstone ; light colored and argillaceous, deposited in beds of from three to five feet in thickness. ‘These sandstone deposits, all contain in greater or smaller numbers, casts and impressions of plants. A drawing of one, ‘“ calamites cannceformis,” is given on figure No. 35 page 23 of the wood cuts, and on No. 65 p. 29, probably an Equisetum, furnished by R. Peter, M. D. to whom I am indebted for many valuable facts. In other places, broad flat leaves, in great profusion, are replaced by or changed into carbon. A fossil, fluvia- tile unio, was taken from the sandstone rock, about twenty miles up the Monongahela, where many impressions of coal plants are found in the slaty shale. In excavating the canal tunnel through “ Grant’s 70 Pitisburgh Coal Strata. hill,”’ on the north side of the river, fossil Melania and Lymnea, both fresh water shells, were found in a bed of dark carbonaceous clay, under sandstone rock, ata level many feet below the coal bed. A fossil terrestrial Helix was found in the shale over the coal, changed to sulphuret of iron. ‘Terebratule, and a small thin shell, probably a Pecten, both marine shells, are also found in the sandstone rock, affording incontestable proofs of the wonderful changes that have ta- ken place in this valley, since the period of the first, or lowest coal deposits. —20 feet. 10. Limestone ; light colored, hard and compact ; very few fossil shells are found in the limestone rocks at this place, but at Waynes- burgh and other places farther south they are more abundant.—14 feet. 11. Great sandstone deposit; fine grained and compact ; contains but little mica; color light brown, changing to yellowish; argilla- ceous. It has many vertical seams from the eighth of an inch to several inches in thickness, filled with carbonate of lime, infiltrated from the limestone rocks above. Where blocks are obtained, solid and — free from fissures, it makes a good building stone. ‘This deposit ex- tends to the bed of the river, and is two hundred and seventy feet m thickness. A little below, at the mouth of a small rivulet, several wells have been bored for salt water. At the depth of one hun- dred and thirty feet, after passing through alternations of blue and grey sandstone rock, white, red and blue marl slate, a bed of soft, red marly rock was struck, five feet in thickness, under which was found petroleum, and strong salt water. ‘The bed of red marl reposes on a deposit of coal six feet in thickness. Forty feet below, or at one hundred and eighty feet from the surface, still passing through alternations of sandstone rocks and beds of marly slate, or shale, is a deposit of coal ten feet in thickness, being the two beds noticed in the ‘‘ sectional view” or ‘illustration’ of the Monongahela river: coal deposits. At two hundred and fifteen feet from the surface there is found a tolerable supply of salt water. From all the wells large quantities of carburetted hydrogen gas were discharged, when first sunk, and although several years have since passed away, gas is yet freely afforded. The boring in some of the wells, has been pushed to the depth of more than six hundred feet, and coal found at four hundred and forty, four hundred and eighty, five hundred and eighty and six hundred and sixty two feet, the last only four inches in thick- ness, a proof of the vast depth of the coal measures in the Monon- gahela valley. Coal is abundant im Mercer county, sixty miles north Topography of the Kiskiminitas and Connemaugh region. 71 of Pittsburgh, but is of an inferior quality to the coal of this vicinity. Small traces of coal are also found near to Meadville, within a short distance of Lake Erie; it extends eastward to the Alleghany moun- tains, quite to the waters of the Susquehannah river, rocks apparent- ly of the transition class, being its boundary in that direction. At the mouth of the Beaver, or Walhouding, the main coal deposit is found at fifty feet above the bed of the river, and two miles above Steubenville, it dips into the bed of the Ohio, where it is more than six feet in thickness and of a very superior quality. At Wheel- ing, the main coal bed is found at ninety feet above the river, from which point it dips S. W. until it disappears beneath the water at fifteen miles below, and is seen no more in considerable quantities until we reach Carr’s run one hundred and fifty miles below in Meigs county, Ohio. : Topography of the Kiskiminitas and Connemaugh region. The Kiskiminitas is a tributary stream of the Alleghany river ; taking its rise in the ridges and valley of the Laurel and Chesnut ridges of mountains, and uniting with the Alleghany, at a point thirty miles above Pittsburgh. ‘The Connemaugh is the continuation of the Kiskiminitas, above the month of the Loyalhanna, a large branch putting in from the south side, below the Chesnut ridge. In the valley, between the Alleghany and Laurel mountains, the Con- nemaugh divides into two large branches. ‘The country through which these streams pass is hilly and broken, affording much fine farming lands in the vallies between. ‘The hills are from two hun- dred to five hundred feet in height. ‘The rock strata here departing from their usual, nearly horizontal position, are influenced in their di- rection by the outlines of the country and rise or dip in conformity with the ridges of mountains and hills, in some instances at an angle of nearly twenty degrees. This is the fact more especially at the salines on the Kiskiminitas, eighteen miles from the foot of Chesnut ridge; at this spot, the ridge is two miles broad and five hundred feet high, through which the river has cut a passage to the base of the hills—the river here pursues'‘a N. W. course. Near the upper well at the foot of the ridge, a stratum of coal makes its appearance on the margin of the river, and one mile and a half below, the same bed is seen at an elevation of two hundred feet in the face of the cliffs; a few miles further down, it dips again into the bed of the river, the superincumbent and inferior rock strata pursuing a con- 2 Kiskiminitas and Connemaugh Salines. formable direction. At the salines on the Kenawha river, there is a similar elevation of the rock strata but at a much smaller angle— the base line beg about ten miles and the elevation three hundred feet—apparently designed by the creator to bring this precious de- posit near to the surface, for the benefit and the use of man. ‘The same rich deposits of coal are also found to accompany the saliferous rocks in both places, to supply fuel for the manufacture of salt. At the salines on the river Muskingum, the same arrangement is found to take place. Rock deposits at the depth of several hundred feet at one point on the river, are found on the surface at another place a number of miles above. But all the strata being of secondary “origin and composed of arenaceous, argillaceous, or calcareous ma- terials, the change produced on the. surface is not apparent to eom- mon observers, and is detected only by close inspection, and the ob- servation of those engaged in penetrating the earth in quest of salt water, who, operating at different points on the river, take notice in their downward passage, of some rock, remarkable either for its com- position or extraordinary hardness, and noting its distance from the main salt rock, can trace its progress to the surface with great accu- racy and certainty. ‘The main muriatiferous deposit on the Kiski- minitas and Connemaugh, lies at the depth of from five hundred to seven hundred feet, according to the rise or the dip im the rock, cor- responding in this respect to the strata on and near to the surface ; although salt water is found in strata much nearer the surface, it is but slightly impregnated; the deeper wells have much stronger wa- ter. The strength varies at different wells, some requiring two hun- dred gallons to make fifty pounds of salt, while at others seventy five gallons afford this quantity, evidently depending on the abund- ance of the saline particles contained in the muriatiferous strata be- low, and the facility with which the water can reach those particles ; and this depending on the compact, or porous quality of the rocks, _ through which the water percolates. -'The quantity made at both these places now amounts to about five hundred thousand bushels annually. ‘Phe Pennsylvania canal, passing along up these streams, affords every facility for its transportation to market. At the Connemaugh works, a few miles above, the hills are only about two hundred feet high, but. they observe the same order in their stratification with those at Kiskiminitas, the strata correspond- ing to the curve assumed by the hills, and they evidently owe their elevation, to the same upward force from below, that raised the Al- Rail Road. Tunnel. 2. hm leghany, Laurel and Chesnut ridges of mountains to their present height. At the Connemaugh salines, only one bed of coal is found above the surface of the river, the other two seen at the works be- low, are yet probably beneath, owing to the lesser elevation of the “hills at this spot. At Johnstown, four miles from the foot of the Al- leghany mountain, the canal ceases, and its place is supplied by a rail road across this mountain range, over to the waters of the Ju- niata on the south side of the ridge. A narrow, but lofty spur of the mountain opposes the further progress of the road at this spot, to overcome which a passage has been made by tunneling through its rocky sides. The length of this tunnel is eight hundred and sev- enty seven feet. It is twenty four feet in width and twenty feet in height. ‘The rocks, penetrated by the tunnel are all of the secon- dary class, composed of sandstone of various qualities; some con- taining a large proportion of mica, and others very compact; hard, and sparry, approaching the transition class, which is the prevailing rock in the Juniata hills on the south side. There are slate rocks of different textures, from loose slaty clay to compact ; brown shale or clayey marl, quite hard when first removed from its bed, but de- composing and crumbling into earth after exposure to the air and rains. On the north side, is a thin stratum of coal from six to eight inches in thickness, extending south for two hundred feet. It lies on the floor of the tunnel, and rises five feet in that distance, when it runs out or is exhausted. ‘In the slate, are found numerous im- pressions of leaves; the trunks of large trees, and the scales of very large fishes, as broad as the thumb nail.” ‘This statement I have from Mr. Appleton, one of the contractors for excavating the tun- nel. It is possible that the supposed fish impressions are made by the scaly bark of the palm tree. The trunks and branches of va- rious species of this family, being found in all the western coal strata. The impression being in slate, is in favor of their being Ichthyolites. The greater part of the fossils found in this region are in bituminous slate or in deposits connected with the coal series. A fine collection of these interesting fossils was made by Mr. Appleton, for his friend, the Rev. C. Elliot, and carefully packed in a cask and forwarded for him; but by the carelessness and wanton neglect of the agent of a warehouse on the route, they were all destroyed and lost, so that when Mr. Elliot called for them in the spring, nothing could be found but the staves of the cask. He had kindly promised to share the collection with me; and from these ancient, rare, and authentic re- Wore SOXTX.=—No: I. 10 74 Geology of the Kiskiminitas. cords of the revolutions of nature, | had anticipated the discovery of many interesting and valuable facts, that would have been useful in elucidating the geology of the valley : opportunities for examining the interior strata of our mountains, or of the rocks generally, in this country are so rare, that it will probably be a long time before so fa- vorable a chance again occurs. ‘The roof of the tunnel is two hun- dred feet below the top of the mountain, or spur, as it is called. The time occupied in performing this work was eighteen months ; and eleven thousand pounds of gunpowder were expended in blast ing the rocks. Geology of the Kiskiminitas. The rock strata of this region, like that of the Monongahela, con- sist of alternate beds of sandstone, limestone, slaty marl of different colors, and coal and shale, extending to the depth of many hundred feet. At the salines, twelve hundred feet of these deposits have been explored, seven hundred below the bed of the river, and five hundred above. ‘The upper surface stratum of soil, where it is in a situation to admit of cultivation, produces good crops. The only ores found are those of iron, which is of the argillaceous species, and it is generally found in slaty marl or clay. The deposits of iron in the Laurel and Chesnut ridges, are usually at a greater elevation than the coal; in one place, at the foot of the ridge, a thick bed of coal reposes immediately on the iron ore deposit. The salt wells at Kiskiminitas and Connemaugh, are singular in one respect; they afford no petroleum, but an abundant supply of carburetted hydrogen. When a well is first opened, the gas rushes up with such violence as to force the water, ina column or jet, thirty feet above the mouth of the well, returning at intervals, and contin- uing an hour or more at each period. The absence of petroleum seems to indicate some peculiar state of the coal beds in consequence of which they afford the gaseous and not the fluid products of ve- getable decomposition, the difference consisting chiefly in the differ- ent proportions of the carbon and the hydrogen. The following section of the rock strata at the salt works on the Kiskiminitas, five miles below Saltsburgh, will give a correct view of the geological structure. It was furnished by A. Boges, Esq., who resided several years at this place and superintended the boring of several salt wells, and to whom I am indebted for much valuable in- formation. Geology of the Kiskiminitas. ’ Section of Rock Strata at Kiskiminitas. Order ascending.—Dip E. 8. E. og Fig. 12. Si No. of *% stratum. [Dum cig Ea L I x % ee uy Explanation.—A, Coal, twelve feet.—B, Sandstone rocks, slate, &¢—C. Sand- stone rock.—D, Coal.—E. Sandstone rock.—F', Coal.—G, Sandstone rock.—H, Lime.—I, Sandstone rock.—J, J, Bed of the river. High cliffs near the water.— * Salt wells——K, Large well—L, L, Course of the river at the salines, north of west. 1. Hard argillaceous sandstone rock. This rock forms the bed of the river at this spot. A short distance above, in sinking a bed for a well, this rock was found at the depth of sixty feet below the surface, dipping to the E. S. E. or up the stream.—60 feet. 2. Carboniferous limestone rock, containing many fossil remains of marine shells and joints of the Encrini. In sinking the well noted above, this rock was found at fifty feet below the surface.. A half mile below, this stratum is seen at an elevation of one hundred feet in the face of the river clifis.—4 feet. 3. Sandstone rock, argillaceous and fine gramed. \ The upper por- tion of the deposit more carbonaceous and grey—the lower part ting- ed with pale yellow and not so hard as the upper, both affording good materials for architectural purposes, and containing impressions and casts of fossil plants.—80 feet. 4. Dark carbonaceous slaty clay, under the coal.—10 feet. 5. Bituminous coal, black and compact—structure slaty, burning freely, and is used for fuel in the manufacture of salt. This deposit is a little over 3 feet. 6. Black bituminous shale, contaming a vast many impressions of plants, and it is also said of Ichthyolites.—10 feet. tam." Geology of the Kiskiminitas. 7. Sandstone in beds of various thickness and qualities; some coarse conglomerate, with imbedded pebbles, others grey or yellow- ish and fine grained, containing fossil trees and casts, with the bitu- minized leaves of various species of plants.—160 feet. 8. Dark carbonaceous slaty clay.—10 feet. 9. Coal deposit; black, hard and vitreous fracture—worked eX- tensively for the manufacture of salt.—5 feet. 10. Dark bituminous slaty shale, resting on the coal and forming the roof of the bed. It is filled with the impressions of Neuroptera and Sphenoptera. ‘These ancient families of plants, are very abun- dant in nearly all our coal deposits. Animal remains have been found in this deposit, a fossil Turtle, and several shells ane been. taken from it by Mr. Boggs.—12 feet. 11. Yellowish grey argillaceous sandstone rock, in thick beds con- taining fossil vegetable impressions.—116 feet. 12. Slaty sandstone rock, friable and loose texture.—20 feet. 13. Yellowish argillaceous soil, top of the hill intermixed with slaty fragments.—10 feet. 14. Bituminous coal. This bed of coal first makes its appear- ance at the margin of the river, one mile and a half above the loca- tion of this section, and crops out’on the surface of a hill a short dis- tance above. The angele of elevation is such, that were it continued, it would be at the height of two hundred feet above stratum No. 9 of the series. It is nearly twelve feet in thickness. ‘This bed, with the superincumbent strata, must have been washed away and destroy- ed down to its present outcrop, at the period when the Kiskiminitas forced a passage through this opposing ridge. At the Connemaugh ‘works, a few miles above, but one deposit of coal makes its appear- ance, and it is without doubt the second bed seen at the Kiskimini- tas. Here it is only four feet in thickness and at an elevation of about sixty feet in some places, at others, near the margin, or under the bed of the river, rising or dipping with the surface of the hills— at this place, the hills are only about two hundred feet in height, which accounts for the lower bed not being seen here. Salt was first manufactured at Connemaugh in the year 1814; at Kiskiminitas in 1821. The following extracts from a very full and luminous report of a committee of the Senate of Pennsylvania, made by I. J. Packer, chairman, March 4, 1834, discloses many new and interesting facts, as to the extent and value of ce bituminous coal measnears within that state. Bituminous Coal of Pennsylvania. ei: © The Bituminous Coal Fields of Pennsylvania.” ‘“¢ Nature, in the disposition of her bounties, seems to have bestow- ed upon Pennsylvania, more than a due proportion of the treasures of the mineral kingdom. Great and valuable as are her anthracite deposits, and rich and abundant as are her mines of iron ore and oth- er minerals, her bituminous coal region is still more extensive and in- exhaustible. The great secondary deposit, extending as is gener- ally believed, from the Hudson to the Mississippi, and to the Rocky mountains, is in Pennsylvania limited by the Alleghany mountains, which appear to form the barrier, or dividing line between the anthra- cite and bituminous coal beds, or between the transition and secon- dary formations. ‘The union or junction of these formations is plain- ly and distinctly marked in the end of the mountain, where the west branch of the Susquehanna breaks through it, above Bald Eagle, the latter resting against the former, and forming the basin in which the bituminous coal, im regular and successive strata, is deposited. This coal field is therefore confined to the west side of the Alleghany, and is supposed to extend to the centre of the mountain. Inthe S. E. corner of Somerset county, and in the western parts of Bedford and Huntingdon counties, it would appear to extend to the S. E. of what is there called the Alleghany, and occurs in great abundance on Wills’ creek, Jennings’ creek, &c. emptying into the Potomac. The chain of mountains called the Alleghany above Bedford, is very wide ; and large mountains diverge from it, and although the moun- tain ranging through Somerset and dividing the waters of Youchioga- ny and Connemaugh, from those of the Potomac, may be the largest, it seems most probable that Wells or Evetts, or possibly Sideling mountain, there forms the boundary of these deposits, and upon ex- amination will be found to exhibit a continuation of the same char- acteristic features between the secondary and transition’ formation.” The bituminous coal beds, vary from one foot to twelve feet in thickness, but rarely exceed six feet. They lie in nearly horizontal strata, with about sufficient dip to free the mines from water—some hills contain three and four beds, with alternate layers of earth and slate, and rest between a firm and smooth slate roof and floor. Faults or troubles are seldom met with, and in this they differ from the anthracite, and go far to confirm the opinion, that all this vast _extent of secondary rocks, was once the bottom of the great lake or sea, and that it suffered little if any interruption from the gradual 73 Bituminous Coal of Pennsylvania. discharge of its waters, through its distant and widely extended boun- dary. It has evidently been draimed by the Mississippi, the St. Lawrence, the Susquehanna and the Hudson; and it is a curious and interesting fact, that near the northern termination of this coal field, in Potter county, the head waters of the Alleghany, the Sus- quehanna, and the Genessee rivers, flowing into the gulf of Mexico, the Chesapeake and the St. Lawrence, take their rise in an area or space of about five miles. With the exception of the Susquehanna and its tributaries, and Wills’ creek, emptying into the Potomac, all the streams rising in the coal field, west of the mountains, flow into the lakes, or into the Ohio river, and consequently the ground falls off or recedes in the same direction, and becomes too low, as is generally supposed, to contain the coal measures. Its northern termination or boundary may be traced from the head waters of the Towanda creek, in Brad- ford county, thence across the high lands or dividing waters of Ti- oga, Potter, McKean, Warren, Venango, &c. to the Ohio state line. The Tioga river and its tributaries penetrate the coal field in the vi- cinity of Blossburgh and Wellsborough in Tioga county. A recent and interesting mineralogical report, upon this region, has been made by R. C. Taylor, a practical engineer and geologist, for the Bloss- - burgh rail road company, in which it is satisfactorily shown that the coal runs out as the streams decline to the north. “There would need,’ says the report, ‘‘a total height of mountains of five thou- sand, one hundred and twenty feet, at the state line between New York and Pennsylvania, to contain the coal measures, whereas the hills, there, are probably below six hundred feet in altitude. This calculation is entered into with a view of showing the futility of the expectation, not uncommonly expressed, of tracing these coal fields in a northerly direction beyond the limits at which they.are at pres- ent discoverable.” —‘‘ This field being bounded on the south by the Alleghany mountain, extending into the state of Virginia, and west- ward; coal may be said to be present, to a greater or lesser extent, in all the western counties, with the exception of Erie, in which it has not been discovered. ‘The counties of Bradford, Lycoming, Tioga, Potter, McKean, Warren, Crawford, Bedford, Huntingdon and Centre, lie partly in and partly out of the coal field. The counties of Alleghany, Armstrong, Beaver, Butler, Cambria, Clear- field, Fayette, Greene, Indiana, Jefferson, Mercer, Somerset, Ve- nango, Washington and Westmoreland, are wholly within its range, Bituminous Coal of Pennsylvania. 79 and embrace together an area of twenty one thousand square miles, or thirteen millions four hundred and forty thousand acres.” . Coal has been used for fuel and manufacturing purposes, west of the mountains, from the earliest settlement of the country. It is mined, to a greater or less extent, in all the above counties, at the rate of one cent and two cents per bushel, and is thus brought within the means of all, and literally to every man’s door—abounding through- out all this vast extent of territory, and fitted and used for almost every purpose requiring heat, it is impossible to form any thing like a correct estimate of the quantity consumed yearly, and sent to market. That its great abundance and cheapness have given birth to the vast and widely extended manufacturing establishments of the west, there can be no doubt. Without coal they could not exist. It con- stitutes the life spring of western Pennsylvania, and the pedestal of our great manufacturing emporium. Pittsburgh and its environs contain ninety steam engines for the various manufactures of iron, steel, glass, cotton, salt, brass, white lead, flour, oil, leather, &c. &c. ‘These engines consume two millions sixty five thousand three hun- dred and six bushels a year. ‘The city of Pittsburgh and its sub- urbs, Alleghany town, Birmingham, &c. contain a population of thirty thousand souls. ‘The coal consumed for every purpose, in and about Pittsburgh, is estimated at seven millions six hundred and sixty five thousand bushels, or two hundred and fifty five thousand and five hundred tons—at four cents per bushel, the price now paid in Pittsburgh, it would amount to three hundred and six thousand - five hundred and twelve dollars.”—‘'The coal consumed in the manufacture of salt, im the western counties is very great. ‘There are on the Alleghany, Kiskiminitas, Connemaugh, Crooked creek, Mahoning, Saw mill run, Brush creek, Sewickly, Youghiogany and Monongahela, about ninety salt manufacturing establishments and many others about going into operation. ‘These establishments pro- duce yearly about one million bushels of salt and consume five mil- lions of bushels of coal.””—‘‘'The coaking process is now under- stood, and our bituminous coal is quite as susceptible of this opera- tion, and produces as good coak, as that of Great Britain. It is now used to a considerable extent by our iron manufacturers in Centre county and elsewhere.” . These facts, elucidating the immense mineral wealth of the “ val- ley of the Ohio,” open to the imagination a long vista of power and greatness, which the utmost stretch of the imagination is hardly able to equal. f 80 Coal deposit at Wheeling. Coal deposit at Wheeling, Virginia. The hills in this vicinity are about two hundred and fifty feet in height, varying from that, down to one hundred and fifty. ‘The to- pography of this contiguous portion of Virginia, is much like that of the Monongahela valley. The hills abound in coal, very similar in its character to that of Pittsburgh. In some of the beds it is beautifully iridescent, vying in splendor with some of the richest an- thracites. Vast quantities are annually sent from this neighborhood to the towns below the coal deposits on the Ohio river. Section of the Wheeling Coal Strata. Order, descending.—Dip 1° S. W. Fig. 13. = a! oe 10 \\\\\ Ee 24 i TINNY =e 25 60 — a Bed of the Ohio river. 1. Yellowish clay loam on the top of the hill; growth of oak, beech and hickory ; soil rather poor and thin, formed chiefly of the decomposed argillaceous sandstone rock beneath.—10 feet. 2. Argillaceous, slaty, sandstone rock ; easily decomposing.—12 feet. 3 Wheeling Coal Strata. _ Sl 3. Greenish colored, siliceous rock, breaking into parallelograms or cubes, from one to four inches in thickness. Its composition 1s: much like the common honestone and answers for the same pur- poses.—6 feet. 4. Yellowish, argillaceous deposit, interspersed with nodules of limestone.—14. 5. Fine grained, argillaceous sandstone, in thin strata, with fine plates of mica, in horizontal seams; color, dark brown or grey. It makes good grindstones : lower a of the bed carbonaceous, resting on coal.—12 feet. 6. Coal deposit; slaty and poor; bed not worked.—2 feet. 7. Limestone rock; thick deposit of nearly twenty four feet, in dis- tinct beds, deposited at different periods and with different chemical affinities. ‘The upper part of the bed five feet in thickness, is a dark carbonaceous rock, lying under the coal. ‘The succeeding bed is of | a light dove color, fine grained, and contains much argillaceous mat- ter combined with the calcareous. Thin, fine, ash colored veins pass through it in all directions, but generally horizontally ; on expo- sure to frosts and rain it decomposes into a fine rich marl. This stratum is six feet in thickness. ‘The next five feet is ash colored ; more compact; and when burnt makes a strong lime mortar ; it con- tains some faint indications of fossil shells. The bottom stratum is eight feet in thickness—a dark, compact, carbonaceous rock. It is considerably charged with iron—the surface being covered with rust or brown oxide, when exposed to the air; reposing on the coal bed below.—24 feet. 8. Bituminous coal; slaty structure; fracture glistening; does not burn freely. In mining, or digging out the coal from the deposit below, this bed is left for a roof to the mine.—2 feet. 9. Dark, carbonaceous, slate clay, filled with the impressions of various species of calamites, and the thick leaves of some aquatic plant, like the Nelumbium luteum. In the operation of mining, this bed is removed with the coal, being too fragile and tender, falling upon the workmen.—1 foot. 10. Main coal deposit ; varying from six to seven feet in thick- ness ; structure compact and highly bituminous; between the lam- ine the remains of the vegetable structure, usually called fossil or mineral charcoal, are seen in considerable abundance; it is simply the fibre of the vegetable skeleton, and may be seen in many, prob- ably in most varieties of coal, provided they are split fortunately or Wor. XXX. No. I: 11 82 Wheeling Coal Strata. skilfully in the direction of the natural layers. This bed furnishes coal for the town of Wheeling and its numerous manufactures ;- and stretching along the face of the river hill for fourteen or fifteen miles below, it gradually dips under the bed of the river. It-is dug in vast quantities, passed immediately down rail ways or slides from the mouth of the mine, into large flat bottomed boats, carrying from three to five thousand bushels, and sold at various places on the river below. The price, when delivered in the boats, is only three cents per bushel. The hills have been pierced in many places, for sev- eral hundred yards. The roof is usually supported by pillars of coal, four or five feet square, at intervals of six or eight feet, ac- cording to the strength of the roof. If the roof is very fragile, planks and puncheons are used for support, especially about the mouth of the mine, where the weather has access to the rock. In some parts of the deposit, sonar ales quantities of the brown sul- phuret of iron, or “ copperas stone,” are found: large quantities of copperas are made at Wheeling from the products of this bed. Fossil wood is found in this denneh a fragment ofa branch, or root, nearly three inches in diameter and eighteen inches in length, is now in my collection. It contains a large share of iron and some silicious matter. The surface is striated longitudinally. ‘To what species of tree it belonged it is difficult to determine. From the quality of the coal and the thickness of the deposit, there is every reason to conclude it is a continuation of bed No. 3, found at Mor- gantown and Pittsburgh. Four miles west of Wheeling, in Ohio, the same stratum of coal appears by the side of the ‘national road,” as it leaves Indian Wheeling creek, to ascend the hills. The coal was brought to light in grading the road, while digging away the earth that had slipped down from the sides of the hill and coy- ered the deposit. It is more than six feet in thickness, at an eleva- tion somewhat greater than that on the east side of the river. Thé coal is remarkably fine, and extensively worked for transportation. down the river. When the water is high, boats ascend to the beds and load there ; at other times, they load in the mouth of the creek. It has been worked for several hundred feet under the hill, and is one of the most valuable in this vicmity. The rock strata, here, have a dip of about one degree S. W., and this bed sinks beneath the river, near “‘ Pipe creek,” fourteen miles below. Coal is abund- ant in the hills of Belmont and Jefferson counties, but whether from the same deposit has not been ascertained. Topography of the Little Kenawha. 83 The specific gravity of a specimen of the Wheeling coal in my possession is 1.23. Twenty grains of this coal decomposed one hundred grains of nitrate of potash, which will give it about sixty per cent of charcoal, and make it a valuable coal for coaking.— 6 feet. . 11. Dark blue, carbonaceous, slaty clay, of nearly the same quality as the bed above the main coal. It contains many fossil plants, impressed between the lamine.—8 feet. 12. Limestone rock; sparry and compact; dark colored; free from organic remains; makes a strong cement for mortar.—15 inches. - 13. Sandstone rock; silicious; rather coarse grained, and con- tams many fine plates of silvery mica in its composition. The ce- ment appears tobelime. ‘This deposit contains casts of fossil plants ; a very perfect portion of the extremity of a calamites cannceformis, was found in this rock, a drawing of which is given in figure No. 36, page 8 of the wood cuts.—25 feet. 14. A thick deposit of slaty clay, in alternating beds of different colors, of red shale and ash colored marl, containing, no doubt, many vegetable impressions, as the rock reposing on this deposit is very similar to that described at the “ Grotto of plants,” below Marietta. This bed extends to the surface of the water in the Ohio river where it is at low stages.—60 feet. In boring for salt water a short distance above, at the depth of three hundred feet, a bed of coal was passed, eight feet in thickness ; the usual group of carboniferous rocks being passed in reaching it. The section of the Wheeling coal strata was taken with great accu- racy and care, by a very intelligent friend residing at that place ; specimens from all the different rocks being forwarded at the same time. Topography of the Valley of the Little Kenawha. This stream is about one hundred miles in length, and takes its rise near the most elevated portion of the mountain ranges ; its head branches drinking in the same showers that supply the Gauly, Elk, Cheat and Greenbrier rivers. ‘Towards the heads of the stream, there are tracts of table or flat lands, affording scites for extensive settlements, well suited to the growth of grass and small grains. About eighty miles from the mouth, are falls or cascades of conside- rable elevation, where the river descends from the more elevated ta- ble lands, or mountain districts, into the region at their feet ; afford- 84 opography of the Little Kenawha. ing many fine seats for mills.: The whole course of the stream is rapid and pretty direct ; in time of flood rushing with great violence into the Ohio river, across which stream it often throws its waters with such force as to cast drift wood on the opposite shore; and when laden with ice it has been fatal to boats, as was the fact a few winters since, when it crushed and destroyed a steam boat, which lay moored on the shore of the river. ‘There is a marked difference in the rapidity of the current, in the streams putting in on the north and south sides of the Ohio: on the south the streams are more sud- den in their rise, and rapid in their course, keeping their mouths free from sand bars, and affording deep water for a considerable distance up; on the north side, the streams rise less rapidly, and rush with less violence to their outlet. ‘Their mouths are often obstructed by sand bars; the current, not being sufficiently powerful to overcome the resistance of the Ohio, and to force the sand and debris which collect at their outlets into that majestic and noble stream. - Direct- ly at the foot of the mountains, below the principal falls in the Little Kenawha, salt springs are found, denoting that the saliferous deposit is approaching the surface from under the mountain ranges. ‘This is an interesting fact; and the course of the salt rocks can be traced along the base of the Alleghany range, from the Salines on the Big Kenawha to those of the Connemaugh, east of Pittsburgh, a dis- tance of not less than three hundred miles, and probably still further on to its eastern limit, at the Onondaga works in New York. ‘The vale of the Little Kenawha is hilly and broken, containing however much rich land in the valleys, and along the water courses. ‘he hills are clothed with a most luxuriant growth of large trees; among which are seen large forests of yellow pine, and chesnut. White pine is found on the north sides of moist rich hills and wet valleys, a considerable distance from the mouth, but not of that tow- ering height which is found on the Alleghany river, being rather ‘small, as if recently colonized amongst the hills. On the waters of Hews’s river, a large eastern branch of the Little Kenawha, the magnolia acuminata seems to have found a congenial soil and cli- mate. It here vies in magnitude with the most lofty tenants of the hills, rising to more than a hundred feet in height. A single tree has been known to afford six cuts, three feet in diameter, and six- teen feet in length, without encroaching on the branches. It is so - abundant and so large, as to be often cut down, with other forest trees, especially the towering poplar, and taken to the saw-mills for Topography of the Little Kenawha. | | Be the manufacture of boards. The magnolia tripetala, or “ Jesuit’s tree,” as it is here called, is found in the sheltered hollows, but is much smaller, seldom exceeding forty or fifty feet in height and a foot in diameter. On the southern and western head branches, the holly is very abundant, cheering the lonely winter with its ever green leaves and bright scarlet berries. Many of the hills and ridg- es, as they approach the mountains, are covered with extensive for- ests of chesnut, having in early days, afforded a grateful repast to the wild tenants of the wood. ‘The bear, the deer and the wild turkey, associated in countless numbers at the season of their ripening, and fattened on the nuts which covered the ground. In more recent days, the inhabitants drove their hogs from considerable distances to feed upon the ‘‘ mast’’ in these mountain districts ; and at this time, in favorable seasons, a man, with a rake, can gather a number of bushels in a day. Thirty years since, about the period of my be- coming an inhabitant in the valley of the Ohio, the wild turkey was found in astonishing abundance ; many hundreds being, on favorite feeding grounds, often seen in one flock. ‘They were so little alarmed at the sight of their natural enemy, man, that they often en-_ tered his fields close to the door of his cabin, and partook of the corn he had thrown out to his hogs. ‘They also regaled themselves from that standing in the fields. At this period, a “ backwoodsman” had established himself on or near to, the eastern branches of Hews’s riv- er, between Marietta and Clarksburgh, Va. He had erected a cabin and opened a small “clearing.” In the autumn, he enclosed a lot near his door, in which to feed and fatten his hogs. A flock of about thirty turkies, attracted by the corn, came regularly, morning and evening, to partake with the hogs, which, being themselves in those early days, well fed, when every kind of food was abundant, made no opposition to their visits. ‘The owner of the cabin, stand- ing im the door, however, every day shot one or two of the unsus- pecting birds: seeing no person near, they were but little alarmed by the report of the rifle, nor were they frightened away by the sight of their dead companions. In this manner, without leaving - the door of his hut, the owner, at the time of my information, had killed twenty seven out of the thirty turkies. ‘The same man had also, at that time, in his possession a tame female deer, which he had taken when very young and brought up with the children. They soon become remarkably docile, and much attached to their home. This deer, in the summer and autumn, made daily visits to the sur- ‘ 86 Geology of the Valley of the Little Kenawha. rounding forests for food. At her return, she often brought with her, as a companion, one or more of the wild deer of the wood, which at that day, were far more numerous than the domestic cattle of the present period. On approaching the cabin, the wild animal gene- rally made a halt, to examine the strange appearances around him. Taking advantage of this stop, the hunter, who had notice of their approach from some of his children, discharged his rifle, and seldom failed in securing his new visiter. Without leaving his cabin, he had killed fourteen deer in-one summer and autumn, by the innocent aid of his little pet. Geology of the Valley of the Little Kenawha. In that portion of this region, below the spurs of the mountains, much of the surface soil is red or brown, being formed from the de- composing beds of clayey marl, or shale, which are here found of great thickness and extent. Sandstone is the prevailing rock. - Limestone is rarely found, except in the beds of some of the streams. Huge, mural cliffs are common on some of the branches. Coal is found in many places, but in much thinner beds than in the valley of the Monongahela, about Clarksburgh. Lead ore is said to have been found in detached masses on Hews’s river, but no regular veins have as yet been discovered. Petroleum. About six miles from the mouth of Hews’s river, there is an ex- tensive spring of petroleum. It is found along the margin of the stream in a bed of gravel, for the distance of four or five miles. At low stages of the water, it is seen floating on the surface of the stream. ‘The manner of collecting it is by digging trenches along the margin of the creek, down to this bed of gravel, a few feet below the surface. By opening and loosening with a spade or sharpened stick, the gravel and sand, which is only about a foot thick, the oil rises to the surface of the water, with which the trench is partially filled. It is then skimmed off with a tin cup or some other suitable vessel, and put up in barrels for sale, or domestic uses. In this way from fifty to a hundred barrels are collected in a season ; and much more could be gathered if the demand required. In the adjacent hills is a thin bed of coal; and coal is found in abundance near this place ; but the source whence this petroleum flows must be deep in the earth, and the material which furnishes it, vast in dimensions. Topography of the Valley of the Kenawha River. 87 The process is one of nature’s hidden mysteries, carried on in her secret laboratory, far beyond the reach, and inaccessible to the pry- ing curiosity of man. On the ridge of land which divides the waters of the western branches of the Monongahela from those of Hews’s river, is found a bed of the foliated sulphate of lime or selenite, split- ting into broad transparent plates, of several inches in breadth and length. I have a specimen in my cabinet, but no accurate descrip- tion of the deposit or of the accompanying rocks. Salt is manufac- tured below the falls ; but the water is much weaker than that of the sales in the Big Kenawha. Carburetted hydrogen is discharged in great abundance near these salt wells, and may be considered a sure indication of the presence of salt water below. Topography of the Valley of the Kenawha River. The Kenawha is, on many accounts, one of the most interesting tributaries of the Ohio. In its course from the Iron mountains of North Carolina, where the headmost branches extend, to its mouth, its waters pass over a primitive, a transition and a secondary re- - gion; which cannot be said of any other river, running north and west from the mountains. It crosses three degrees of latitude, and traverses, in its windings, a distance of not less than three hundred miles, passing across numerous mountain-ranges, and rushing through all the rocky barriers that oppose its progress. ts numerous trib- utaries rise in the most mountainous portions of western Virginia. Tts floods are sudden and rapid, and when at full banks, it pours out a volume of water that vies in strength and grandeur with the Ohio itself ; throwing its current across the latter stream, and often strand- ing heavy laden boats on the opposite shore. For seventy miles above its mouth, the average width is, about three hundred yards ; and with the improvements made in its channel, it admits of steam boat navigation to that distance ; after the junction of the Gauly, one hundred miles from the mouth, it takes the name of the “New River,” which was given to it by some of its first discoverers from North Carolina. From the mouth of the Green river, to the mouth of Gauly, a distance of about seventy miles, it has a descent of, more than seven hundred feet. This portion of its course is called “the cliffs of New river.”? From thence to its head, there is a con- tinual succession of falls and rapids, with but few interruptions. Its primitive tributaries, are Coal river, Pocatalico, Elk, Gauly and Greenbrier; the three latter, large and powerful streams, but too 88 Topography of the Kenawha Valley. full of rapids to admit of good navigation; yet affording an almost unlimited number of fine scites for mills. From the mouth of the Kenawha to the mouth of Elk, the face of the country is broken into hills and ridges, of an elevation of one hundred and fifty.to two hundred and fifty feet. From that point to the upper extremity of “the salines’”’ a distance of fifteen miles, they rise to five hundred feet above the bed of the river, and a few miles back in the divi- ding ridges, they are from one hundred to one hundred and fifty feet higher. From the latter position to “the falls’ a distance of twenty five miles, the hills have attained an altitude of from six hundred to seven hundred and fifty feet, and above the junction of Gauly, one hundred miles from the mouth they rise into mountamous ranges, pursuing a N. E. and S. W. direction, at an elevation of twelve hundred feet. The bottom lands on Kenawha, are from a quarter to half a mile in width on each side of the river; varying in this respect, in accordance with the bends in the stream. ‘The valley cut by the current of the Kenawha in the rock strata through which it passes, will average a mile in breadth, and from two to seven hundred feet in depth; the corresponding rocks and beds of coal in the hills, on each side of the valley, affording incontestible proof that they were once united, and at some remote period anterior to the. existence of the present river, formed continuous beds ; at seventy miles above the mouth, this valley becomes much narrower, with a proportionate diminution in the width of the alluvial deposits. The bottom lands are very fertile, producing abundant crops of grain and grass; where the native growth has been undisturbed, the al- luvions are covered with the heaviest forest trees, common to the wood lands of the west. Below the mouth of the Elk, the hills are composed of sandstone, with extensive deposits of red marly clay, which has given an argillaceous character to the soil of this region not seen in the hills above ; embracing a tract from the mouth of the Guyandott, to the mouth of the Cole river, and thence to the waters of the Little Kenawha, and over to the northern and western side of the valley of the Monongahela. ‘Through all this region, the soil is, in many places, deeply tinged with brown or red, probably from the oxide of iron contained in the clay-marl, or red shale. The hill tops and ridges are clothed with yellow pine, which seems to de- light in a soil of this composition; and the sides of the hills with the various species of oak, poplar, hickory, walnut, gum and sassafras ; while the richer hill sides and narrow bottoms afford a soil con- Topography of the Kenawha River. 89 genial to the beech and the sugar tree. A considerable portion of this tract will admit of cultivation and already embraces many fine settlements, especially that portion lying on the west side of the Kenawha, between the mouth of Guyandott and Cole creek, where are some extensive tracts of flat lands. From the mouth of Elk to the mouth of Gauly, the country on both sides of the river, with the exception of the narrow alluvions on the water courses, is too moun- tainous and broken to admit of tillage, but will ultimately afford grazing farms. ‘The streams of water rising in these lofty sand- stone hills, are limpid and pure; free from the turbidness of the waters rising in the clayey hills below the mouth of Elk. It is soft and free from carbonate of lime, so common to most of the streams nearer the Ohio river, where limestone is more abundant. Climate of the Valley. As we proceed up the valley of the Kenawha, in the spring season, after the unfolding of the buds has commenced, we percieve a strik- ing and marked difference in the progress of vegetation; although the course of the river is southerly, the change is much more rapid than that of latitude could produce. The foliage of the forest trees at Charleston, is at least a week more forward, than that on the Chio river near the outlet, although the distance in a direct line, is little more than forty miles north. ‘This great difference cannot be altogether accounted for from latitude; the peculiar situation of the valley, environed by lofty ranges of hills, excluding the cool breeze of the north and admitting the warm rays of the sun, reflected from the sides of the hills, heating and rarefying the air, which is confined to the valley by-the walls of hills, no doubt assists the pro- gress of vegetation, fully as much as the additional southern latitude. I visited the valley between the ninteenth and the wwenty fifth of April. Tbe change, at every turn in the river, bringing some new and beautiful varieties of foliage into view, was like that of magic; at Charleston, the quince and coral honeysuckle were in bloom, and peas in the open ground not only in blossom, but with pods two inches in length ; on the garden gooseberry was fruit as large as a pea. I had left Marietta, at the mouth of the Muskingum, only twenty four hours before, where the foliage was just beginning to unfold ; while here, it was fully expanded on nearly all the forest trees in the valley, and on many of those on the hills ; as we travell- ed up the stream in the vicinity of ‘“‘Great falls” the change was Vou. XXIX.—No. 1. 12 90. Topography ofthe Kenawha Valley. still more striking. ‘The twenty second of April at the foot of the falls, the Fringe tree, or Chionanthus, had not only expanded, but had commenced shedding its numerous delicate, bell shaped flow- ers. This tasteful and rare shrub, or rather small tree, is found only in the vicinity of “the falls’ and near the mouth of Gauly riv- er, for the distance of six or eight miles. This wild and romantic spot, environed by hills of seven or eight hundred feet in height; warmed by the radiated heat of the surrounding rocks protected by them from the cold air and wintry winds; and kept humid by the rising spray of the falls and rapids that fill this portion of the river, affords a shelter and a soil, congenial not only to the Fringe tree, but to many other rare and beautiful plants. ‘The holly, is scatter- ed over all the adjacent hills, from Charleston to the mouth of Gauly ; at which spot, I noticed a Holly tree of nearly forty feet in height, with a trunk eighteen inches in diameter; an evergreen woodbine, and a new species of climbing fumitory, with bell shaped blossoms, are found in this favored spot; on the Gauly, six miles from its mouth, the magnolia tripetala was ready to expand its flowers. The acuminata and mychrophylla are also found, within a few rods of each other. Rhodendron maximum and Kalmia latifolia cover the tops of the cliffs and rocky hill sides. The dark hemlock is seen along the borders of the water courses, while the cone shaped cedar, and lively green yellow pine, are hanging care- lessly amongst the towering rocks that threaten ruin to the valley beneath. In the narrow ravines at the foot of the cliffs on “New river,” ten miles above the falls, the vegetation is still more rare and curious. ‘This spot, inaccessible to the haunts of domestic animals, and almost so to the foot of the deer, Flora seems to have chosen as one of her favorite retreats. It abounds m flowers and shrubs found in no other place in this region ; among numerous other rare plants, are seen the cane and gama grass. ‘The warmth of this nar- row ravine, seated at the base of cliffs, several hundred feet in height, and kept humid by the spray of the flowing water, has given a rich- ness and vividness to the deep green of the foliage, not seen at any other spot. The botanist could not ask a more productive field from which to fill his herbarium with rare and precious specimens. ‘The place it- self is one of intense interest. ‘The mountains here are at least twelve hundred feet high, and the naked perpendicular cliffs of sand- stone rock that confine the river to its narrow and rocky bed, are © Cliffs of New River. 91 more than eight hundred feet in height. At the foot of one of the most elevated, called ‘‘ Marshall’s pillar,’ in honor of the vener- able judge Marshall, who visited the spot and measured its altitude, the river suddenly becomes calm; while all above and below is a sheet of foam, as it struggles and roars amongst the huge fragments of rocks that obstruct its course. ‘The river, at this place, is more than one. hundred feet in depth, a line of that length not reaching its bottom. An immense fall, of many hundred feet, was once seen at this spot, whose ceaseless torrent continued, for ages, to excavate this profound abyss. ‘The river is confined to less than one hundred yards, and by cutting and wearing away the rock strata, from the mouth of Gauly in a manner similar to the Niagara river, it has worn itself a passage, more than one thousand feet in depth, and ,fifty or sixty miles in length, through the solid sandstone rocks. At the pe- riod of its first efforts to work itself a channel through the mountain ranges, the rocks were, without doubt, much more soft than at pres- ent, and easily gave way to the vast collection of waters, whose vol- ume and rapidity nothing could resist. At the foot of the cliffs on New river, a grey, argillaceous, marly deposit, forms a substratum of many feet in thickness, on which the sandstone rock reposes. The feeble resistance of this stratum would hasten the fall of the superin- cumbent beds, in a manner similar to that of the clay slate, under the lime rocks of Niagara. For a view of this interesting spot, taken from the cliff above Marshall’s pillar, see page 32 of the wood cuts. The face of the country in the vicinity of the cliffs of New river rises into broad, lofty ranges of mountains, whose tops afford good farming lands, and are cultivated in many places. The state turnpike passes along, for many miles, near the river, and at occasional turns, we see the foam of the cataracts and hear the roar of the noisy waters. ‘The traveller, in his progress to- wards Lewisburgh, in the valley of the Greenbrier river, passes nu- merous parallel ranges of mountains, trending from the S. W. to the N. E. They bear the names of the “ Big and Little Sewell,” and the ‘‘ Meadow mountains.” From the tops of the Big Sewell, he has a view of the valley of the Greenbrier, stretched at his feet, dotted with cultivated spots, and broken into masses of low hills; while beyond, the towering Alleghany lifts its rocky ranges marking the southern boundary of the secondary deposits. 'The elevated peaks of the Sewell and Meadow mountains are three thousand feet high, and are said to be visible from “the peaks of Otter,” across ie White Sandstone.—* Old Red Sandstone.” the Alleghany range, a proof of their great altitude. They are composed of different varieties of slate, slaty clay, and fine and coarse grained sandstone rocks. On the top of this range, is found a fine grained saccharine, white sandstone, in some parts of the bed nearly crystalline. ‘The general structure, color, and form of the grain, are similar to that of the great white sandstone rock, under- lying all the valley of the Ohio, varying in depth from four hundred and fifty to nine hundred feet ; and in which the principal reservoirs of salt water are uniformly found. At Massillon, on the northern verge of the valley, in Stark county, Ohio, in the table lands on the head of the Muskingum, a similar rock comes to the surface. It is very white, free from mica, and almost crystalline, similar to this on the Sewell mountaims, and there are strong reasons for con- cluding it to be the northern termination of the white sandstone rock deposit ; a few miles below Zanesville, the deep seated rock strata rise rapidly to the surface, although not so abruptly as in the moun- tain ranges. A few miles above Zanesville, the muriatiferous rocks are reached at one hundred and fifty feet, and a white sandstone rock comes to the surface similar in quality to the upper white sand- stone rock, found in boring salt wells near McConnelsville, which affords an additional fact in support of this opinion. This rock is not found on the surface at any intermediate spot across the whole — width of the valley, but lies at a great depth beneath the superin- cumbent strata, which occupy the space between these two points. The white sandstone rock reposes upon a thick deposit of *‘ red sand- stone,” and this is the only place west of the Alleghany range, where it has made its appearance on the surface, at least, no similar fact has come to my knowledge. It may be cailed a fine conglomerate, made up of irregularly shaped grains, from the size of a mustard seed to that of a pea, cemented by quartz; color, dark brown or checolate, and is very similar to specimens in my collection from the valley of the Connecticut.* In the salt wells on the Musk- ingum, a rock of the same character is found at great depths, inter- mixing with the white sandstone rock. Its geological position is far below all our other surface rocks; but here we find it on the top of a mountain pushed up from beneath the superincumbent strata, * Most if not all the red sandstone in the valley of the Connecticut, is now admitted tobe the new and not the old, although it was at first supposed to be the old. —Ed. Sewell Mountains.—Valley of the Greenbrier. 93 while the other rocks are found in order as you ascend or descend the sides of the mountain ridges, which, in these ranges, are very abrupt and narrow. In descending the Sewell mountain into the valley, we pass different colored clay slate, grey, yellowish and ash colored sandstone rocks to the base. Coal is also found in its proper place amidst the other strata in the sides of the mountain, which dip in proportion to the rapidity of the rise of the range. About ten miles south of the foot of the Sewell mountains, a very striking change is observed in the character of the surface strata. ‘The sandstone rocks disappear and a dark calcareous deposit takes its place. The line of demarcation is so well defined that large frag- ments are sometimes seen, one part of which is limestone and the other part sandstone. The valley of the Greenbrier is from thirty to forty miles wide at its S. W. extremity, where it rests on the New river, narrowing gradually to a point, as the ranges of the Al- leghany and the Greenbrier mountains approach each other at the heads of the Greenbrier river, a distance of one hundred miles. A thick deposit of calcareous rock covers the whole of this valley, reposing on sandstone, which appears at many places on the sides and tops of hills, into which the valley is broken, in abrupt clifis, evidently showing the more recent formation of the limestone stra- tum, over and amongst the sandstone deposits. ‘The whole valley abounds in extensive caverns, cut out of the limestone, from the dissolution and wearing away of the rock, by the agency of water, all the caves having streams running in some part of them, or bear- ing evident marks of the course of former currents. Some of these eaverns abound in saltpetre earth, and contain fossil bones. ‘The bones of the megalonyx, described by Mr. Jefferson, were found in a saltpetre cave in this valley. ‘Sink holes’ are numerous, into which the surface water discharges itself and finds its way under ground to the river, or rises again in some other place below: as the whole valley has a rapid descent to the S. W. which is proved by the numerous falls and rapids in the bed of the Greenbrier river. This stream is about one hundred yards wide at its mouth, and has a descent of more than six hundred feet, from its head at the base of the Cheat and Greenbrier mountains, to its junction with the New river; that point, being thirteen hundred and twenty five feet above the ocean, and its heads more than two thousand. 'The calcareous soil of the valley, combined with decomposed vegetable matter, is well suited to cultivation, and many fine wheat and grazing farms 94 White Sulphur Spring. are scattered over its surface. The whole face of the valley is broken into hills, with here and there tolerably smooth intervals, denominated “ levels,’’ sufficiently large for considerable settlements. It is not uncommon for pretty large streams to sink and pass under ground for several miles and then rise again to the surface. Sink- ing creek, a branch of the Greenbrier, passes under a large hill, near the State turnpike. Before its descent, the water is pellucid ; when it emerges, the current is turbid and muddy, changing its name to Muddy creek. In this manner, it is probable, many of the large caverns were formed. ‘The situations of some of the most cele- brated and interesting are marked on the map. They are very ex- tensive, some not less than three or four miles in length. The lime- stone rocks in the upper end of the valley, are filled with madre- pores and corallines ; lower down, the imbedded remains of many species of small Pectens and radiated Encrini are most common. Coal is found on some of the branches of the river, but rarely in the center of the valley. A bed has been opened on Howard’s creek on the south side of the river, near the foot of the Alleghany range, and also on the sides and spurs of the Sewell mountain ; but ceases where the limestone rock prevails, or is buried deep be- neath it in the sandstone, on which the calcareous deposit reposes. In this valley, are many celebrated mineral springs, deriving a large share of their sanitary qualities from the magnesian limestone, through which they pass; the compounds of this mineral being found, in greater or less quantities, in nearly all the medicinal waters of this region. 'The most celebrated of these are the white sulphur, the red sulphur, the blue sulphur and the salt sulphur; the places of each being marked on the map. The sweet and warm springs, lying south of the Alleghany mountain, are without the limit of my remarks. A number of these springs are but just rising into de- served celebrity. White Sulphur Spring. This spring is on Howard’s creek, near the western base of the Alleghany mountains. It is the most celebrated of the springs, and at present has a larger number of visitors than any other. It takes its name from the white sediment, deposited along its margin, after parting with the sulphuretted hydrogen which held it in solution. This sediment, when subjected to heat, burns and emits the strong smell of sulphur. ‘These waters are said to. be more purgative than Analysis of the “ White Sulphur’ Water. 95 any other in Virginia. They are ueful in bilious obstructions, and in a variety of cutaneous diseases. ‘The smell of sulphur is com- municated to those who bathe in, and drink freely of the water; the effluvia changing the color of silver watches in their pockets. I procured a bottle of the water last August, carefully corked at the spring; but exposure to light and the agitation of the water, while on the road, expelled all the sulphuretted hydrogen. The quantity was too small to make any other than a qualitative analysis. The following is the result for which I am indebted to R. Peter, M. D., assistant Professor of Chemistry in the Transylvania Medical Col- lege, Lexington, Ky. “‘ Experiments 1 and 2. Added litmus and turmeric infusions ; no change ; consequently, there was no serine quantity of free acid, or free alkali, present in the water. ««3. Add solution of acetate of lead; copious swiltins precipitate, acquiring, by standing, a slight buff tinge. If any quantity of sul- phuretted hydrogen had been present, it would have been indicated by a black precipitate ; the slight buff tinge was owing to a trace of it. The white precipitate may have been produced by sulphuric, muriatic, or carbonic acid. | “4. Added solution of nitrate of silver; copious curdy white precipitate, which was not dissolved by nitric acid, indicating the presence of muriates. | “5. Solution of muriate of barytes, produced copious white pre- cipitate not dissolved by nitric acid ; indicating the presence of swi- phates. “6. Lime water; slight turbidness; very little carbonic acid present. “7, Oxalate of ammonia produced copious white precipitate, indicating the presence of some salt of lime. ‘¢8. Carbonate of ammonia, do. do. Same inference. . “9, To the filtered liquid of the last experiment, I added phos- phate of soda, which produced a copious white precipitate, indica- ting the presence of magnesia—the carbonate of ammonia having previously precipitated all the lime. “10. Added nitric acid and starch to the water; no change of color; no sensible quantity of iodine: present. 11, 12. Added succinate of ammonia. “© 13, 14. Infusion of galls—prus- ) no change; no ee rcibile siate of potash, sulpho-cyan- quantity of oxide of iron ate of potassium—severally, present. 96 Mineral Springs of the Greenbrier Valley. «©15, Added chloride of platinum; no precipitate; presence of potash not indicated. “The result of the examination is, that the water contains a nota- ble quantity of murtates and sulphates of soda, hme and magnesia ; in what proportion, for reasons already given, I am unable to say. It contains very little carbonic acid, still less sulphuretted hydrogen, and no perceptible amount of iodine or iron. If it is desired to know the proportion and the amounts of the ingredients, ten or twelve pounds of the water should. be boiled down in a clean smooth vessel, and the saline residuum carefully saved for qualitative analysis.” Red Sulphur Spring.—This spring is situated on Indian creek, in the western extremity of the valley, on the south side of the river. It receives its name from the color of the sediment deposited by its waters, which isa deep red. It is probably an oxide of iron. The taste of the water indicates sulphur, but not so decidedly as the white sulphur waters. ‘The Salt Sulphur spring, is in the same neighbor- bood, and takes it name from muriate of soda, being strongly tasted in its water. The Sweet Sulphur is close by, and is considered val- uable in pulmonary complaints, having a sensible effect on the pulse, reducing the frequency by several beats in a mmute. The Blue Sulphur, is seated on Muddy creek, on the north side of the Green- brier river, and near the western extremity of the valley, not far from the foot of the Sewell mountain. It is rising fast into notice. The water contains iron and magnesia, in considerable quantities, and is a valuable tonic and deobstruent; curing many female com- plaints and diseases from debility, and want of tone generally. Itis owned by a company in Charleston, Va. who are making many im- provements for the comfort of the invalid, and that of visitors gener- ally. Ido not know that its waters have been accurately analyzed unless it was done in the course of the last season. A search has been made for salt water, on the Greenbrier river, twelve miles above Lewisburgh, and a well bored to the depth of four hundred feet. An immense discharge of sulphuretted gas issued from the opening, and continued for a number of days. Very little salt water was obtained, and that of a weak quality ; indicating that the main muriatiferous deposits, lie north and west of the Sewell and Gauly mountains, near the base of the ranges. Another attempt for salt water, was made on Lick creek, near the New river, and about fifteen miles west of the Blue Sulphur springs. At the depth Peter Mountains.—Mountain. Lake. : O7 of two hundred feet, a strong sulphur water was struck, which rose copiously to the surface, and is in taste and sanative qualities, similar to the waters of the white sulphur spring; showing an extensive range of the materials used in the elaboration of the water of the nu- merous mineral fountains, found in this region. ‘The water of: all these springs is cold; that of white sulphur, being 63° of Farenheit. With occasional interruptions near the New river, the limestone de- posit continues. on to the heads of the Holstein and Clinch rivers, and down these streams into Tennessee. Salt water is found in abundance on the Holstein. | On the south east side of the Alleghany range, in a transition formation, are seated the celebrated thermal springs. A few miles west, the same range is called the Peter mountain. Where the road crosses this mountain from Montgomery court house to Pack’s ferry on the New river, the top of the mountain exhibits many marks of the action of heat on its rocks. ‘The surface stratum is a chocolate colored, quartzose rock, tinged with iron, in irregular broken masses ; beneath this, lies a bed of coarse sandstone, the surface in many pla- ces vitrified, as if subjected to fire. ‘The same internal heat, which vitrified these rocks, and raised these mountain ranges to their pres- ent height, may also still supply caloric for the warm and hot springs of Jackson river. After the extreme southerly branches of the New river leave the Iron mountains and the primitive rocks of North Car- olina, the river pursues a 8. Easterly direction, amidst the transition ranges, crossing and breaking through several high ridges in its course, and it is filled with numerous rapids and water falls, until it receives the assistance of the Greenbrier river from the east. Aided by these additional waters, it finally forces a passage across the Sewell and the Gauly ranges, leaving “ the perpetual cliffs of New river,” as lasting memorials of the strength and power of these accumulated waters, in their primeval days. The Greenbrier valley was evidently once the scite of a lake, and might have discharged a part of its waters through the gap, at present occupied by Second and Dunlap’s creek, until a deeper channel was cut in the track now pursued by the New river. On the top of the Peter mountain, about sixteen miles south of the Red Sulphur spring, is a lake of fresh water, half a mile wide and three miles long. It is of unknown depth and discharges its super- fluous water down the almost perpendicular side of the mountain, in- a never failing stream, of sufficient volume to work the machinery of Vol. XXIX.—WNo. 1. 13 98 Gauly River. any kind of mill. It abounds with fish, and being placed on the top of one of the highest mountains of the Alleghany, at least eighteen hundred feet above the bed of the river, it is difficult to account for its formation, and for its abundant and continual supply ef water. Topography of the Country on Gauly River. ‘ This stream is about one hundred miles in length, and at its mouth more than one hundred yards in breadth. It takes its rise in the spurs and sides of the Laurel, Greenbrier and Gauly ranges of moun- tains. The country through which it passes is mountainous and broken into lofty precipitous hills of sandstone rock. ‘“ 'The cliffs of Gauly,” are second only in height and grandeur, to those of the ‘«¢ New river,’ extending for many miles, on each side of the stream, at an elevation of five or six hundred feet. The river itself is precip- itated over falls and rapids, for a considerable part of the course, and its bed is so filled with huge blocks of sandstone rock, as to prevent any navigation on its waters. In these secluded spots, nearly imac- cessible to the foot of man, a few remnants of the Beaver tribe still find a safe retreat; and in the adjacent mountains, here and there, a solitary Elk sustams a precarious existence; the last remnant of a numerous race, that a few years since animated the forests with their numbers. ‘Towards the heads, the mountain ranges spread out into table lands, here known by the name of “ glades.” ‘They lie in long narrow patches, at an elevation of seven or eight hundred feet above the water courses, with an elevated ridge, or border, along their sides, through which, at intervals, are found gaps for the water to pass off, down immense precipices to the streams below. ‘They are destitute of. heavy timber. ‘The more elevated and drier portions, produce fine crops of barley, oats and potatoes, while the more wet afford good meadows, and the swampy places, produce cranberries in abundance. The soil is black, based on yellow clay; indicating that these glades were, at some remote period, the beds of lakes or ponds. Near the head waters of the South easterly branches, extensive deposits of limestone rock, take the place of the sandstone ; and continue over to the headwaters of the Greenbrier. Lead ore has been found in several places on the borders of this calcareous rock. Coal is very _ abundant, for sixty or seventy miles above its mouth, and is found at great elevations in the mountains. a Fossil Columnar Madrepore. 99 Geology of the Gauly River. Sandstone isthe prevailing rock in all the region,of the Gauly hills and mountains, until we approach the heads of some of the south- erly branches. Limestone in any considerable quantity, is not seen from the mouth of the Elk, below Charleston, until it appears in the valley of the Greenbrier river, and continues over to the heads of the Gauly. The lime used for building im all this space of one hun- dred miles in length, by thirty or forty in breadth, is either transport- ed in wagons from the Greenbrier river, or in boats upon the Kena- wha from the mouth of Elk river. Fossil Columnar Madrepore. Six miles above the mouth of the Gauly, on a branch called Bell creek, I found a very interesting locality of huge masses of fossil mad- repore, in a bed of bitumimous shale. ‘Whey are found in detached blocks, generally circular, and flattened on the sides, resembling mill- stones in form. ‘They are from one foot to three feet in diameter, across the disc of the mass, anda foot inthickness. The shale or slate bed in which they lie, is about six feet thick; and composed of thin layers, which bend and accommodate themselves to the shape of the block. Reposing on the slate, is a thin bed of limestone conglom- erate, composed of small irrecular fragments, about four inches thick ; above the conglomerate lies a deposit of thin sandstone slate, of a dark carbonaceous color, and forty feet in thickness.