356 ANNUAL OP SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERY. 



mistakably establishes the age of the coal strata of Oregon and Vancouver. 

 Of the coal itself, Dr. Evans has given the following description. 



"These coals do not belong to the true coal-measures, but to the tertiary 

 period ; they have, however, been altered by volcailic action. The Belling- 

 hani Bay coal particularly, in consequence, is of a remarkable crystalline 

 structure, and presents under the magnifier a very singular and beautiful 

 appearance. It will produce an excellent coke, and is well suited to manu- 

 facturing and domestic purposes. It burns freely, and, although rather 

 light for long sea voyages, unless the construction of furnaces should be 

 changed, lessening the draft, is suitable for river navigation. The coal crops 

 out at various points from the British line, to near Port Oxford in Oregon, 

 and is accessible to sail and steam navigation, and almost inexhaustible in 

 quantity. These coals, with imperfect machines and facilities for mining, 

 can be delivered, ready for shipment, for at from S2 to S3 per ton." 



If we examine, says M. Lesquereaux, the plants obtained in Oregon and 

 Vancouver, conjointly with those obtained by Prof. Safford from the Plio- 

 cene of Tennessee, by Dr. D. D. Owen from the chalk-banks, or Pleistocene 

 of the Mississippi, and with those figured by Prof. Heer in his Fossil Flora 

 of European Tertiary, " we are at once struck with the remarkable character 

 of the Miocenic flora of Oregon and Vancouver Island, which evidently in- 

 dicates a tropical climate at this period of the geological formations. Palm 

 trees, figs, Cinnamomum, and Protcinea? are now generally distributed at 

 least 30 lower than they were then. But it is still more extraordinary to 

 find just on the same latitude, but on an opposite point of the globe, in 

 Switzerland, a contemporaneous fossil flora, of which the species have so 

 near a relation to those of Oregon, that some of them may be regarded as 

 truly identical. This shows a remarkable uniformity in the direction of the 

 isothermal lines at the epoch of the Miocene formation, and establishes, be- 

 yond a doubt, that the oscillations of temperature have been generally 

 marked around our globe, and have not been the result of local geological dis- 

 turbances. That the oscillations were slow and progressive is shown by the 

 distribution of the species of plants in both the following formations. In 

 the Miocene of Vancouver the Proteinea? are dominant. It has also palm 

 trees and Salisburia, all tropical plants, and most of the species are without 

 relation to the plants now living on this continent. In the Pliocene of Ten- 

 nessee; the Proteincre appear still abundant, and the flora finds its relatives 

 in the southern shores of Florida and on the islands of the Gulf of Mexico. 

 The Post-pliocene of the Mississippi, near the mouth of the Ohio River, and 

 even above it, has the same species of plants as are now found along the 

 shores of the Atlantic, in the Southern States. We have thus, apparently, a 

 steady decrease in the temperature, from the Miocene to the Post-pliocene 

 of the Mississippi. From this it appears to follow that the chalky banks, 

 of which the true geological position is still uncertain, ought to be re- 

 garded as anterior in origin to the Drift. For it is probable that if they had 

 been deposited after or at the time of the ice period, the distribution of the 

 plants would show a colder climate, rather than the climate of our southern 

 shores." 



ERUPTION OF MAUXA LOA, JN THE ISLAND OF HAWAII, SANDWICH 



ISLANDS. 



One of the most terrific volcanic eruptions on record, took place from the 

 volcano of Mauna Loa, Sandwich Islands, during the past year, commenc- 



