512 



Mr. Warington W. Smyth 



[May 23, 



depression of the tract in which these plants grew ; and Goppert has 

 shown that the careful examination of a number of seams proves the 

 existence in the coal itself of every family of plant which has been met 

 with in the coal measures. 



Thus much had referred to the true carboniferous period, in which 

 it is commonly supposed that a vigorous vegetation first arose, but the 

 speaker described his finding, a few months since, in the Laxey lead and 

 copper mine, in the Isle of Man, at 120 fathoms deep, a seam of anthracite 

 coal, three to four inches thick, in the midst of ancient schists, probably 

 Lower Silurian. He then referred to coaly and lignitic beds in newer 

 formations, especially to the tertiary brown-coal, which in continental, 

 and especially in Southern Europe, attains to great importance. The 

 excelleivt preservation of the vegetable remains in the lignite has enabled 

 linger and Heer to make accurate comparison with existing floras, and to 

 show that the tertiary flora had nothing in common with our present flora 

 in Europe, but an extraordinary resemblance to that of modern North 

 America. This was especially to be noticed in closely similar species 

 of the genera Liquidambar, Liriodendron, Pavia, Nyssa, Mobinia, 

 Taxodium, Sequoia, Juglans^ Glycyrrhiza, Cercis, Laurus, JRhodo- 

 dendron, Cissus, and certain oaks and pines. There was hence no re- 

 treating from the conclusion, that at this portion of the tertiary period 

 a land communication must have existed between America and Europe. 

 Fragments of that land, with relics of the same tertiary flora, still 

 exist in Iceland and the Azores, with their surlurbrand and lignites ; 

 and thus', that Atlantis, which is generally set down as a dream of the 

 poets, is brought again into solid existence by the studies of the geolo- 

 gist. A relation of this kind at a comparatively recent period, throws 

 a light on the causes of phenomena belonging to an earlier epoch, and 

 will enable us to form conclusions, if not upon the absolute contempora- 

 neity of certain beds or groups of coal measures, at all events upon the 

 physical connection within a given period of the agencies which were 

 forming coal not only in the various fields of Europe, but also in North 

 America : and the speaker concluded by pointing out that the reason- 

 ing on the continuity among one another of our British coal-fields, or 

 of them with those of Belgium and North France, depends on some- 

 what complex data which scientific investigation can alone afford. 



Specimens of Coal and Shale from Strafford Collieries. 



No. 



Order of Minerals from Surface. 



Black Shale above Joan Coal , 



Joan Coal 



Bottom of Joan^Coal . 

 Spavin — Floor of Joan Coal 



Thickness. 



Yds. 

 5 



Ft. 

 2 

 1 



In. 

 3 

 8 



Depth below Sur- 

 face at Strafford 

 Colliery. 



30i yards. 



