306 ANNUAL OF SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERY. 



tensive use of coal ashes for agricultural purposes ; they are very 

 valuable on account of the sulphates of lime and magnesia which they 

 contain, and also from the phosphoric acid and alkalies. Hundreds 

 of tons which are now wasted might thus be brought into use. 



ON THE STRUCTURE OF ANTHRACITE COAL. 



IT has been ascertained by Prof. Bailey, that anthracite coal is sus- 

 ceptible of division into very thin laminae, all of which examined under 

 the microscope give evidence of their vegetable origin. During com- 

 bustion in an ordinary coal fire, the cinders which fly off are very 

 good for these examinations ; they easily split into thin layers, and 

 show vegetable tissues of various kinds. Even completely decar- 

 bonized coal shows this origin. The little white spots are the vessels. 

 It is more difficult to examine soft coal, as the bitumen swells and 

 obscures the vegetable forms. The principal forms observed are thin 

 layers of elongated cells, scalariform ducts, flattened tubes, arranged 

 in spiral lines, large rectangular cells, the charcoal-like masses ; in 

 one case, a scar, as if a bud had been there attached ; also portions of 

 the fronds of ferns. 



ABSENCE OF THE COAL FORMATION IN CALIFORNIA AND OREGON. 



IN a recently printed report of the Secretary of War, communicat- 

 ing information in relation to the geology and topography of Cali- 

 fornia, and containing a memoir on the subject by Mr. T. P. Tyson, 

 of Baltimore, the result of a scientific visit made by him to that region, 

 we find the following statement, which effectually contradicts the 

 many accounts we have had of coal existing there in abundance. 



" There is one drawback to the country," says Mr. Tyson, " and a 

 most serious one, in the absence of that main spring to industrial 

 operations in the present age, coal. I had thought it not impossible 

 that, if the Sacramento valley itself should not be ascertained to repose 

 upon a ' coal formation,' one or more coal basins might exist among 

 the coast range of mountains; but was disappointed in this leading 

 object I had in view in visiting the country, by finding the strata not 

 older than the comparatively recent periods of tertiary formations rest- 

 ing immediately upon the hypogene rocks, thus showing the remark- 

 able fact of the total absence of the entire suit of sedimentary formations 

 (from the tertiary down to the silurian) which form the surface of the 

 greater portion of the known world ; and, as the coal formation has 

 its place in the midst of these, it is of course also wanting. It would 

 be premature to assert positively that it may not exist north or south 

 of the regions covered by my reconnoissance : but, from all the infor- 

 mation I have been able to collect, it seems likely that the same geo- 

 logical features extend from near the Oregon boundary to the southern 

 terminus of Lower California. Not having visited Oregon, I am not 

 in possession of sufficient information to found an opinion upon as to 

 the probability of the carboniferous formation existing in that Terri- 

 tory. Lignites and tertiary coals are known to exist, and it is mosl 



