Viewing page 21 of 28

This transcription has been completed. Contact us with corrections.

[[underline]] 1892 [[/underline]]
December 18, continued
[[line across page]]
the gravels, thick beds of sand, brown, red, &c. that would be regarded as Potomac anywhere else. These as well as the large lenses of pink clay, sometimes occur near the top. In fact there is no generic distinction between this and the Lanier Hights bed. Underneath all the gravel is a continuous bed of coarse Potomac sand which is doubtless normally in place. It only rises a foot above the track.
In the next cut below this sand comes in again, but below this in a cut between two road crossings appears the greensand, rising nearly 15 feet on the west side of the track. The same is true of the next cut in which the greensand rises still higher. This is just above the 15 (20) mile post & the first place where the railroad crosses the Accotink. A ditch through a
[[end page]]
[[start page]]
marsh on the west cuts through pebbles which lie white on the embankment, but an inspection did not prove that they come from the Potomac. The same conditions prevailed in the shallow cuts above Accotink station, and the deeper one next below was described on Dec. 5. The next one presents the peculiarity that over the Chesapeake sand lies a bed of interstratified gravel and brown sand like the gravel bed at Franconia, showing that this is certainly younger than Miocene.
Then comes a long cut in a curve averaging 15 feet above the tracks. The lower 10 feet is Potomac sand, gray, rather fine and nearly uniform. Above this for the whole length is a gravel bed three (1-3) feet thick, the pebbles large & angular, with some quarts and granite boulders. One of the latter is two feet through. Over this for half the length of the cut is a bed of reddish loam 4-5 feet thick in places. The lower