856 PROCEEDINGS OP THE CALIFORNIA 



Professor Whitney read a paper on the geological position of 

 coal. The object of this paper was to show how completely the 

 results of modern geological explorations and discoveries had done 

 away with the old idea that valuable beds of coal are confined to 

 any one member of the series of geological formations. The 

 recent investigations of geologists in India, China, Australia, New 

 Zealand, South America, and on the Pacific coast of North America, 

 were noticed and commented on. It was shown that while the 

 important coal fields of Eastern Europe and the Eastern United 

 States are of palaeozoic age, those of India, China and Australia, 

 on the other hand, belong to the mesozoic series chiefly, although 

 there are important deposits even as recent as the cainozoic or 

 tertiary. Professor Whitney remarked on the distribution of the 

 principal coal fields of the world into two great groups, on opposite 

 sides of the globe : one of these is of palaeozoic, and the other of 

 mesozoic age. He referred particularly to the coal of the Pacific 

 coast of North America, and gave a brief account of its geo- 

 graphical distribution and geological age, noticing particularly the 

 fact that most of the valuable fields of that region belong to the 

 cretaceous series, a geological formation which, in other parts of 

 the world, has been found to be one of the most barren in com- 

 bustible materials. In conclusion, the importance of coal discov- 

 eries in the region between the Rocky Mountains and California 

 to the successful operation of the Pacific Railroad was explained, 

 and the hope expressed that the geological expedition recently set 

 on foot by the General Government, at the head of which is Mr. 

 King, late of the California Survey, might be the means of giving 

 to the world reliable information in regard to the coal resources of 

 that region, of which we now know so little. 



Prof. Whitney presented an elaborate paper " On the Natural 

 System of the Igneous Rocks," by Baron Richthofen ; he advised 

 its reference to the Publication Committee, and that it should be 

 made one of the " Memoirs " which the Academy contemplates 

 publishing. It was so referred, and the committee was instructed 

 to report on the feasibility of commencing the publication of a 

 series of cpiarto Memoirs. 



Prof. Whitney exhibited a canine tooth, obtained from the deep 

 gravel deposits at Douglas Flat, near [Murphy's, in Calaveras 



