FROM PHILADELPHIA 175 



The mountains which border the Wyoming Valley 

 are not without traces of ore and fossils. The high 

 steep water-side a mile above Wyoming contains, be- 

 neath the surface covering of sand and clay, a heavy 

 bed of coarse slate which becomes finer on going down. 

 Along the open wall of the mill-race there, many traces 

 of ferns and perhaps other plants can be seen im- 

 pressed on the slate fragments. But after hours of 

 search in the exposed and mostly half-weathered 

 strata, I could find no fair specimen of any size ; the 

 incomplete specimens which I took back with me to 

 Philadelphia were the first of the sort which they had 

 seen there. Going down, the slate gradually changes to 

 a bed (not deep) of fine, light, lustrous coal which 

 rubbed leaves no smut on the hand and burns without 

 any bad smell. This coal is to be had for the taking, 

 and a smith who has set up his shop hard by praises it 

 much. Although this coal is good, that found on the 

 western branch of the Susquehannah and on the Ohio 

 is regarded as better still. Beneath the coal is a red 

 splintery sand-stone with much mica ; then, a course of 

 rough slate ; and next the water-line a reddish white 

 sand-stone occurs again in layers. The transition from 

 slate, (with plant-impressions), to coal explains the 

 origin of the coal, and is warrant for an antiquity of 

 this part of the world greater than that assigned it by 

 certain investigators. The same alternation of slate 

 and coal is observed at other places in this valley, on 

 both sides the river, and one cannot but suppose that at 

 some time the whole valley was filled with piled layers 

 of plant-earth, from which slate and coal developed, 

 and afterwards the river cut through. 



Higher up the river the banks consist solely of a 



