Bedding-orientation contours have been used to estimate the effect of the Parsons structural lineament on exposed Middle Devonian shales in the Middle Mountain syncline of the Valley and Ridge province, Pendleton County, West Virginia. Models are developed which permit the interpretation of bedding-orientation contours in terms of fold geometry and faulting. Patterns in the contours of bedding strike and dip have been related to: (1) the regional structure of the syncline, and (2) internal faulting and folding related to structure in the underlying Devonian Oriskany Sandstone. The analysis shows that the strike line map and contours of standard deviations in bedding dip are most useful as a tool to locate structure. Deformation domains defined as areas of high standard deviation in bedding dip have been used to locate and define the extent of faulting. Deformation domains are found to be larger and more numerous within the Parsons structural lineament where it intersects the exposed Middle Devonian shales of the syncline. These deformation domains contain more intensely jointed shale, and are directly related to faults and folds in the underlying Devonian Oriskany Sandstone. Deformation domains therefore represent a small scale analogue to Shumaker's fracture facies. Thus information on the Oriskany structure can be used to predict the location of intensely fractured reservoirs. Structural shortening in the Parsons structural lineament is taken up by more numerous faults and low amplitude folds, and thus more numerous fractured reservoirs. Future exploration for fractured gas reservoirs can then be optimized by concentrating subsurface studies along cross-strike structural discontinuities (such as the Parsons structural lineament), and determining their westward extent into the Plateau. 11 figures.